It seems like the Illuminati is coming, with a report that Anson Mount (a.k.a. Captain Pike from Star Trek: Discovery) will reprise his role as Black Bolt, from Marvel’s The Inhumans television series, in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The Inhumans aired for eight episodes before being canceled by ABC less than a full year after the series premiered, due to terrible reviews and viewership. Without the rights to the more popular X-Men, Inhumans was Disney/Marvel’s attempt to bring in a similar vibe to the smaller screen. Sadly, with a few exceptions, the Inhumans have never been super popular, but they have been brought more and more into the mainstream Marvel fold over the past decade and a half.
The Inhumans, but more specifically the Inhuman Royal Family, first appeared in 1965, with Medusa making an appearance in The Fantastic Four. Since then, they have made some occasional appearances in comics, almost being nonexistent in the ’80s.
Who are the Inhumans?
Millions of years ago, during the start of the Kree-Skrull War, the Kree decided to do experiments on humans as an attempt to create a super mutant race of soldiers to fight against the Skrull. The project was abandoned after a prophecy claimed that the experiments would eventually lead to an “anomaly” who would destroy the Kree Supreme Intelligence.
Of those abandoned human experiments came the Inhumans, who formed their own society on Uranus. Much like mutants, they have special abilities due to mutations—in the Inhumans’ case, due to exposure to Terrigen Mist. Inhuman society has a rigid caste system and a lot of messed up caste dynamics.
The two most important members are Black Bolt and Medusa. Black Bolt is the king and has the ability to release highly destructive shockwaves with his voice. Hence, he has trained himself never to utter a sound, even when he sleeps. Medusa is his wife and cooler than him, with the power of psychokinetic control over her hair and the ability to lift, throw, and grow her hair will. Together, they are Sindel from Mortal Kombat.
Black Bolt joined the Illuminati in order to represent the Inhumans and also because, at the time the group was invented, Marvel Comics was invested in making the Inhumans important.
The most important thing to come from all this is that if the Inhumans are introduced, it sets up the most important person of Inhuman heritage—Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel. Kamala develops powers after being one of the many humans exposed to Terrigen Mist on Earth, and it activates her “Inhuman genes,” giving her shapeshifting abilities.
We know Kamala is on her way to her own Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (2022), as well as the movie The Marvels, to be played by Iman Vellani, so we’d better start reminding people of her origins.
(via ScreenGeek, image: Disney/ABC)
Published: Feb 15, 2022 04:50 pm