New Details on Marvel’s ‘Inhuman’

The seismic event spinning out of Infinity was called Inhumanity, where a Terrigen Bomb detonated by Black Bolt and Maximus of the Inhuman Royal Family has caused new Inhumans to pop up all over the globe – much like mutants, except they can be any age when they get cocooned and transformed into whatever freaky version of themselves they were genetically destined to be.

Now comes Marvel’s Inhuman, focusing on the aftermath of the destruction of the ancestral Inhuman home of Attilan, and what the former queen Medusa has to do to reunite her people. Charles Soule, who’s been tearing it up everywhere from She-Hulk to Swamp Thing to Thunderbolts to Superman/Wonder Woman, will be crafting this tale, and we just had a press conference call with him and his editor, Nick Lowe, and we got you the scoop as we got it, as you can read below.

Let the details commence, which includes a first look preview of Inhuman #1 full of Joe Madureira art and even the cover of Inhuman #3!

Snazzy variant cover image there, no doubt. There’s no one like Humberto Ramos.

Here are the tidbits revealed in the press call, as it happened:

Medusa will be leading her scattered forces and making difficult choices to stay alive and reunite her people.

Soule says the Inhumans have long been some of his favorite characters. Soule says it’s a thrill to add to Marvel’s mythology in any way, and the Inhumans are mythological in nature themselves. They get mixed up with cosmic events and they have a huge scope, but only tend to show up for big things, so this series allows them to do a lot more with the concept. He gets to play with the high level royal family stuff and the street level stuff, which hasn’t often been seen before.

Soule says Joe Mad clearly likes to draw Medusa’s hair, as you can see below, and says he’s one of the best guys in the business. It blows Soule’s mind that he gets to do the stuff he’s doing, especially with Joe Mad.

Lowe says this is one of those special projects that Joe Mad loves to draw. Every year, Marvel likes to focus on a new Marvel property. Putting Bendis on Avengers years ago, putting him on Guardians of the Galaxy, and now this, with Soule as a rising star. The Inhumans are really important for Marvel as a company, they have really big plans for them. (Does that mean a movie?)

Soule jokes about how many comics he writes, as Lowe calls him one of the hardest working men in the business.

Medusa was seen trying to step up and take the reins during Inhumanity, and Soule says she’s fascinating to write – a queen almost in exile without her partner, and much of the Attilan population has vanished. She is trying to hold together the remnants of Attilan, find Black Bolt and find out why he did all this, deal with emerging threats from brand new Inhumans and the factions of them around the globe. It’s not easy. Black Bolt never explained his plan to her. He never explains anything.

Lowe says Medusa is a huge part of the book, a warrior queen. They wanted to amplify the Inhumans as superheroes but make them relatable. She’s dealing with a huge amount of loss and pressure, but she also kicks some ass. The coolest parts of the book will be Joe Mad playing with her power set and doing new things with her crazy prehensile hair. People understimate her, and this book will blow the doors off.

A new character shows up named Lash as a new antagonist. He’s one of those hidden Inhumans who isn’t in the royal family and didn’t live in Attilan, and he’s emerging now that Attilan’s gone. He lives in the place where Thane, son of Thanos, was found, in Orollan. The idea was that city couldn’t do the Terrigenesis ritual because of a lack of mists, so it was a religious sacrament to them where they had to be much more picky about it. He finds the Inhumanity rise of all sorts of new Inhumans to be blasphemous, and he’s out to stop it. He’s got a Native American aesthetic, and he has the power to change energy from one form to another. He’s wily and smart, driven and dedicated, and he believes that he is right, like the best villains. He thinks Black Bolt’s plan ruined Inhumanity. Lowe says he’s “super cool” and Joe Mad does great things with him. Medusa is going to get measured off of Lash, as a hero is measured by his villains.

A new Inhuman named Inferno graces the covers of #1 and #2. What’s the deal with him? He’s a regular dude with a regular life who suddenly changes do to Terrigen. He’s got Johnny Storm powers, basically, but no control over them, and he’s burning the substance of his own body and needs to find out how to control it before he burns himself to a cinder. He has to leave his whole life behind immediately.

Other new characters: Lowe loves Reader – anything he reads, he can make real. If he reads ‘fire,’ everything catches fire. He grew up in a more restricted Inhuman society like Lash’s, and they realized he was too powerful, so they took his eyes out. So he carries around strips with words in braille on them so he can fight that way. He’s like a cool blind samurai from those old movies. He wanders the earth to find new Inhumans. The goal is to make a lot of these guys into new Peter Parkers, new Reed Richardses, new T’Challas. You meet a character from Norway, from Chicago, all sorts of new looks and new things to be about. They’re excited to see how they bounce up against the Avengers and X-Men and the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Lowe insists you won’t be able to see what Soule has coming. Just like Inhumanity, when Karnak died, no one saw that coming.

Soule is bringing back Lineage, who he made up back in Thunderbolts #17. His line of ancestry is all present in his body, and they manifest in little faces all over his body and they talk to him. He has all of the Inhuman knowledge from thousands of years, so he’s a power broker with his information that no one else knows. There’s an old corporate-type entity being run by an Inhuman as well, with a specific set of powers to position them as the head of a corporation. That type of Inhuman hasn’t appeared in the latest Terrigenesis, so they’re looking for someone with that power set to continue their lineage. The new Inhumans themselves are all their own faction as well, with irrevocably altered lives. They outnumber the other Inhumans significantly, and they have the most power.

This is one of the first times Marvel has ADDED this many super-powered characters rather than taking pieces off the board (No More Mutants-style). How will they interact with the established superheroes, since they’re appearing all over the place. They’ve been talking about ramping up the Inhumans for years, and that’s why Jonathan Hickman had them play such a huge role in Infinity. Spider-Man’s going to get into the mix, as will the X-Men. Once we see who the major players are among the Inhumans, that’s how we’ll see how they interact with the rest of the MU. Lowe calls Soule a “supernova of a rising star” and Joe Mad is super excited, saying he’s having even more fun than he thought he was going to have on Inhuman.

Press questions starting now!

Any plans for other characters that have sprung up from tie-ins? Soule says no one is off the board. There are so many new characters, you have to choose who to focus on first. Soule plans to use every single one of these new Inhumans over 600 issues (ha ha)

Medusa will not neglect any of her subjects, and still her responsibility, but things are dire. She has a lot of pieces to put back together, so stuff like the Alpha Primitives and old guard culture will take some time to get to.

Black Bolt’s plans remain mysterious, but they will be addressed in Inhuman, but it’s also fun to speculate, so it’ll be a mystery that unfolds over time in the series.

Where does Inhuman fall in the huge diversity of his workload as far as creative itches? Soule tries not to overlap creatively with other books he’s writing, so he can use different kinds of brain power for each one to keep them all straight. Inhuman is like a chess game, moving many pieces around the board and long-range planning, new character creation, building to things. It won’t be 15-issue arcs or anything, but there are big beats to build to. The scope and world creation elements are fun and refreshing for him.

Any other Marvel people who might show up early on? Captain America shows up early. There are plans for other cool cameos, so you’ll get to see Marvel heroes and villains from places other than the United States, seeing them as maybe a threat or ways to add to their own power base.

What is the public perception of the Inhumans, since it seems so much like mutants popping up all over the world after AvX, too? Soule would be foolish to ignore that element. Mutants are more predictable, appearing at puberty, but Terrigenesis can transform 90-year-olds. Some people are terrified, some people see it as a way to change lives, trying to run to the Terrigen Mist cloud to try and see if they’ll get great super powers. Drastically different opinions throughout the public.

Will Ms. Marvel appear, since she’s an Inhuman? Soule likes everything about that book, and would love to use her, but it’s not his book, so he doesn’t want to impose or step on any toes there.

Who are the focus characters, or will it constantly evolve? It certainly evolves, but the Game of Thrones analogy isn’t accurate. There are Nu-Humans (new Inhumans) who emerge and go into orbit around Medusa, and the antagonists will vary. There’s The Unspoken, the king of the Inhumans before Black Bolt, who will pop up. Medusa is the axis on which the early part of the story turns, but the spokes reaching off of her are big deals.

As a “big part of the company’s future,” does this mean they’re gearing towards a movie? They can’t talk about what will happen down the line, but they’re focused on comics right now and getting people excited about Inhuman. Soule jokes that he can’t believe he’s not writing the movie here.

Who’s the ‘Rocket Raccoon’ of this series, the breakout? Reader is super, super cool, Lash is pretty amazing. There’s a young Chinese girl among the Nu-Humans who is funny and relatable. They will all be Rocket Raccoon.

There you go! Now check out this Joe Mad preview!