Inhumans

Review #10: Inhumnas

Possible spoilers for parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), particularly Agents of SHIELD.

Hard to believe that the current series of blockbusters coming out of Marvel Studios started with, of all things, Iron Man. It's equally amazing to some newer, younger fans that Iron Man was basically a B-list hero before Robert Downey, Jr. got a hold of him. One reason for this is because Marvel had signed away the rights to some of its franchises, particularly Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men -- which included use of the word mutant. (Side note: this is why DC Comics uses "meta-humans", which are essentially the same thing, even if the mechanics are slightly different.)

That brings us here. To the average non-comic-reading viewer, there would probably be little difference between a mutant and an Inhuman, even if, story-wise, they have totally different origins. At one point, The Inhumans was scheduled for later this decade on the big screen, which was reinforced weekly by new episodes of Agents of SHIELD, which had had Inhumans as a focus almost since its inception.

None of which explains what we actually got.

First of all, if you saw the premiere episode in a movie theater, you were probably (and justifiably) disappointed. It was downgraded to "mini-series", but the studio still wanted its quick buck.

That said, straight to the point: it didn't suck. It wasn't great, and it was problematic, but it didn't suck.

Where to begin? First, despite the build-up of Inhumans on AoS, this mini-series was not a crossover event. In fact, it had no connection to AoS at all. (It might've helped that Coulson and company disappeared in AoS at the time.)

The second point is the characters themselves. Had this show been made 20 or 30 years ago, the technology would've been primitive, and concessions would have to have been made. (Think about The Incredible Hulk on TV.) Powers would have been curtailed, or the characters would've been changed. AoS started doing some of this, with Skye/Daisy embracing who she is, and with the character of Gordon essentially being a "human" version of Lockjaw, who, being a giant teleporting, dog would be an expensive piece of weekly CGI.

The Inhumans miniseries decided to take the comic book's lineup (not that I've read them in many years) and then handicap every one of them.

Spoilers for the first episode follow:

The story starts in the Inhuman city on the Moon, where they've lived for centuries after fleeing Earth. (Obviously some stayed behind.) There's an overthrow attempt, which isn't surprising when you realize that the ruler's younger brother is the guy who played the bastard Ramsey Bolton on Game of Thrones.

Lockjaw then transports a bunch of people to Earth, one at a time, wearing him out -- and if he wasn't useless enough then, add in a car accident.

So among the characters on Earth is Black Bolt, who can't speak without cars flipping over. Medusa, whose power in that her hair can attack like tentacles, has her head shaved. (Seriously?!) Kamak, the man who can see the fault in all things, slips climbing down a mountain, hurting his head and essentially negating his ability. And they and the others are all split up, need to find each other before they can team up again to save the day.

Not the comic team show we were expecting, nor the one we deserved. But it is the one we got.

In the end, it wasn't as bad as some people would make it out to be, and if you choose to binge the first season, you'll probably be satisfied by the conclusion.

However, if there is a second season, it needs to tie in to -- if not crossover with -- Agents of SHIELD.