An intriguing tale involving my OTHER favourite swashbuckling acrobatic hero

[icon_uk]

It's not often I deliberately buy a comic to showcase it here, normally my recent purchases and longboxes are adequate, but this one appealed to me a lot, as it raises some interesting questions (notably about one of the oldest groups in the Marvel universe which I don't think have ever been asked before) but doesn't provide pat answers.

One of my earliest comic reading memories was of a subplot in an old Inhumans issue (With early George Perez art), where a woman, her hair withered and grey and her face and skin covered in all manner of boils, blotches and wrinkles, pleads with Black Bolt to be allowed to use the Mists. Despite some (Gorgon for one) objecting to such a request being made out of vanity, Black Bolt permitted it, perhaps out of sympathy with her plight. And she later emerged from the mists looking like this;



Now as a kid, I don't think I was vain, but I was aware that I was perhaps never going to be amongst the greatest looking people on Earth, so there was a certain element of wish fulfilment that there might be a magical process which would make me special somehow (but handsome to boot), but in retrospect, is it a "Looks ARE everything" message here? I don't know, but one likes to think it's a story of compassion leading to lessening the pain of an individual.

Now, taking that story in a slightly different direction, from: Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1 and #2(and republished in the UK as this years X-Men First Class Annual) I present approximately 14 pages from a 44 page story) where the X-Men discover....



I should mention I've cut a LOT of fight scenes from these issues. They are perfectly decent fight scenes (I have nothing against such things) and some of them are enormous fun, but slugfests you can get anywhere. Awkward questions less so.

We start, however, with a dose of the pretty, and a glorious splash page which I make no apologies for sacrificing a whole page for.



Damn, but I miss this Kurt... and having him in an outfit which appears to gleam like it's liquid latex is just FINE with me! :)



This ends about as well as you might expect in the MU, in the sort of fashion that makes me want to take a 2x4 to the general Marvel population.



See what I mean... sigh...

We cut to a Danger Room workout, where the team are engaging in the usual trashing the giant robots, but Kurt's absence is noted by a rather annoyed Cyclops...

And I'm sorry, just looking at that first panel, I'm having naughty thoughts about Kurt and that tail of his...



Aaaawww.... don't you just want to hug him... at least. (and it's not like he doesn't have a valid point)

Events at the school are interrupted by a state visit by the Royal Family of the Inhumans; Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Karnak, Gorgon, and our favourite teleporting puppy; Lockjaw. They have stopped by their old friend Professor Xavier's after a long and gruelling session at the UN as the Inhumans seek official recognition on Earth.

Pleasantries are exchanged (and there's a nice little running gag about Wolverine and Gorgon I won't spoil) and Triton explains to Kurt about "the Great Refuge" the Inhuman's hidden city in the Himalayas. Kurt is fascinated at the concept (since he's slightly PO'd at the human world) and asks if he can visit it as sort of a cultural exchange. The Inhumans and X-Men agree, and Piotr, suspecting something perhaps, asks to go too.

There's a lovely rather Kirby-ish splash page of the Inhuman city which I could scan, but won't, as if, as a result of this posting, you go out and buy these issues, you deserve the treat! It does also highlight how physically disparate the Inhumans are. They meet other Inhumans, including a suitably snarky and short tempered Quicksilver and his wife, Crystal.

Kurt is, to say the least, impressed (by the city, not Crystal... well, no more than he usually is by a beautiful woman)



As always, it's nice to see an artists who can draw different body types (Though all gorgeous, and not a spare ounce of fat on any of them, Triton, Kurt and Piotr are different builds and shapes).



You have to feel for the blue fella here. But someone else can see where this is leading.



Ooh, that's cruel Kurt.... though Piotr does have the advantage of being able to look human any time he wants without needing an image inducer.

A new sound interrupts proceedings.





And this is where it gets interesting IMHO.



This does not end well. amid cries of "Blasphemy!" and "Desecration!" from the crowd (and especially Gorgon), Kurt manages to damage the chamber of the Terrigen mists, but is blasted by the High Priest, and Piotr is prevented from intervening only by Triton's appeal to him for calm backed up by Medusa and Black Bolt, who intervenes, upsetting the High Priest by over-ruling him and insisting there be a trial rather than a summary execution.

However, even Triton feels this will be more or less a formality, as the only punishment for such a crime under Inhuman law is death.

Piotr wants to bring the X-Men to, at the very least, be with Kurt as his friends. Triton is less struck on this. (Oh, and Triton's reply here refers to his very early adventures in the MU back in the Lee/Kirby FF era, when he was one of the Inhumans sent out as a scout for his people.



I ADORE that Lockjaw has dog toys in his basket, including what appears to be a Godzilla toy... or possibly Crocky the Crocodile (picked up in a jaunt to the DCU)

The X-Men are contacted though and set out at once (There's also a lovely scene between Scott and Professor X, where Scott is seen to over-rule the Professor's decision to join them, which is the sort of thing one might imagine happening between Picard and Riker, if Riker hadn't so often been such a complete personality void)

And now Kurt proves he's not just a pretty face (and posterior, though he's that as well), asking some rather intriguing questions of the Royal Family and the Inhumans as a whole.





Some food for thought there.



Yeah, they might, but when there's a telepath like Jean Grey (in her Phoenix phase) on board, you'd be amazed at what sentries won't see.

A fight breaks out, not helped by Jean being so overwhelmed by the anger the Inhuman crowd feels for Kurt and the other "outsiders" that she starts acting a little irrationally.

A REALLY BIG fight breaks out. Storm finds that she's not the only elemental in town thanks to Crystal, Medusa gags Banshee with a LOT of hair, and Gorgon and Colossus duke it out.

There's also this little encounter which alters things a little...



Now that's also an interesting question.

It's perhaps worth noting that Karnak does indeed have no terrigen granted power. His ability to detect weakspots is apparently naturally trained ESP. it is also worth noting perhaps that A) Karnak IS a member of the Royal Family, and B) The reason he was not subjected to the Mists in the first place was that his parents were concerned about how they might effect him, since his older brother had one of the most extreme transformations in Inhuman history, and his older brother is none other than Triton (Who needs a special "wet suit" to be able to even walk amongst the Inhumans, instead of having to live underwater all the time.)

Gorgon accidentally triggers an avalanche in the course of his combat, a very, VERY LARGE avalanche which can only be defetaed by Jeans newly amped up telekinesis and Balck Bolt having to speak aloud (For those not familiar with Black Bolt, the reason he never speaks is that his voice, even at a whisper, unleashes destructive power that makes an atom bomb look like a water balloon)



And so they leave, with bridges, if not completely rebuilt, then at least under construction.

So s_d, does Kurt have a point, or was he operating arrogantly? What does happen to Inhumans who don't undergo the Terrigen process, and who aren't Royalty?

Comments

[icon_uk]

To me, Terrigenesis was never about "correcting imperfections, but rather embracing change in all it's forms and unlocking one's true potential, being who you truly are and being all who you can be. Surely no mutant could object to that..?

That's not what he seems to be objecting to though. It's the notion that young children are being indoctorinated with an ideal that ONLY by rewriting their DNA can they truly be accepted or be considered "whole", and I can well imagine a mutant objecting to that.

As I said, what happens if someone doesn't want to be Terragenised (Karnak's parents made that choice for him, it wasn't his decision) If we'd seen the candidates being asked with a no-shame drop out option, (maybe a private ceremony, rather than the ultimate peer pressure moment of everything happening in front of all the already mutated Inhuman crowds AND the Royal Family) (and that may have happened elsewhere) I think it would come across better.

The religious indoctrination comparison is an interesting one, though the choice being made is so... extreme and one way, that I don't think there are many comparable situations.

And someone who has hit puberty is still not legally recognised as being anything other than a child.

Yes, I think that Kurt reacted through anger, and a few questions would have made things smoother (though the same could be said about 98% of superhero bust ups) but he thought he saw children being put through something he found unthinkable, I'll give him a pass for that.

[ian_karkull]

Who's to say that there isn't a private ceremony or even a longer period of teaching, guidance and introspection beforehand? The comparison to religious indoctrination presented itself because the way the ritual is depicted strongly reminded me of Confirmation, which has a very big, public ceremony at the end, but is preceded by a year long phase of preparation from which one could opt out at any point if you reach the conclusion that it's not for you. With the huge, quasi-religious role Terrigenesis plays in Inhuman culture, I can't see it being forced upon anyone who is not ready, not willing or does not fully understand what it could do to you.
Kurt -and by extension we, the readers- only sees a tiny facet of something that utterly defines Inhuman culture and makes a snap decision that is at best ill-informed and at worst completely ignorant. He's judging an entire culture after all but five minutes exposure to said culture, based on his personal experience with a completely different environment.


And while a teenager may not legally be considered an adult -which in itself is a fairly recent development- I think it is unfair to deny them any sort of decision making capabilities. The X-Men themselves had (until recently) no problem with throwing children of the same age onto the battlefield, regardless of whether they wanted it or not, so this comes across as a teensy bit hypocritical. And even in our world children of this age are groomed towards their adult life, many major decisions on their path to adulthood have already been set in motion. Go a little further back in time or even just space, really, and a child of the same age would be expected to behave like an adult. Applying our contemporary western standards to a society we don't even fully understand is ludicrous.
Terrigenesis isn't a Baptism where a crying babe does not comprehend what is being done to him, but rather a rite de passage where an individual chooses his life's path. None of the participants even seem all that unwilling. Kurt is simply projecting.

[icon_uk]

The comparison to religious indoctrination presented itself because the way the ritual is depicted strongly reminded me of Confirmation, which has a very big, public ceremony at the end, but is preceded by a year long phase of preparation from which one could opt out at any point if you reach the conclusion that it's not for you.

Speaking as someone who has been through Confirmation, it's not that cut and dried, again largely because of family and social expectations to BE Confirmed (We didn't have a years worth of preparation, but there was some).

I am Confirmed, and still take my faith seriously, but looking back on it now, I don't think I can view it as an entirely free choice. Perhaps I should have spoken up more on the matter, but disappointing one's family is never easy.

Plus being confirmed makes no actual social or physical difference to an individual. In the context of terrigensis, it would be equivalent if being Confirmed meant I had my face tattooed blue permanently as a result of the ceremony and the entire world was Catholic. Something irreversible and distinguishing, which would make me stand out for NOT having been Confirmed.

[ian_karkull]

I have been confirmed as well, and in my case there had been a year long phase of preparation and formally asking the Confirmees (is that a word?) whether they want to join the faith or not was even part of the ceremony. Of course there are certain non-quantifiable factors of pressure like family expectations that apply in both situation, but the option to simply refuse has always been there through every step of the process. It's possible that this is also the case for something that is so higly ritualized and has such defining implications with regards to the community as Terrigenesis.
Strictly objectively speaking, we can't rule out that this is not also the case here, as we only experience a tiny snippet of a more complex, larger process. And again, I think it's entirely unfair to judge a different culture based on contemporary, western standards. Confirmation may have that much of an impact on your social life today, but only a few generations ago, when faith played a much more defining role in everyday life, it would have been a very important part of life within the community.
As it stands, there is simply no reason to assume that Terrigenesis is not a choice for everyone involved and an informed one at that. Since it is the defining part of Inhuman culture, there may arguably some familial expectations connected to it, btu that is not reason enough to decry it as a compulsory and mandatory institution. Such is a snap decision based on false and incomplete data, the very essence of bigotry, imho.

[arilou_skiff]

Terrigenesis is clearly an initiation rite. So yes, it's a definite sense of "you're not a full member of society until you've gone through it"

Which is rather the point of initiation rites.

[ian_karkull]

That's the other thing, metatextually speaking, it's clearly a metaphor for adolescence and the strangeness of growing up, just like being a Mutant is, really.