Inhumans: Once & Future Kings #3 - "Band of Brothers"

[laughing_tree]

I see this series as part of a bigger and more complex overall history. As I see it, we can either bore people to death by trying to be too much, or we can go the “Rogue One” route and tell a fun story which embellishes key points of their origin. I presume if the audience wants to see more of this era of the Inhumans, Marvel will respond. -- Christopher J. Priest

Comments

[thanekos]

The Seeker bumping his headgear on the taxicab's roof is a nicely unemphasized clash of the fantastic and the mundane.

[coldfury]

Okay, I'm not a huge Inhumans lore nerd, but doesn't this retcon the timeline considerably? I thought Black Bolt's beef with the former king happened a considerable amount of time ago. This would put Medusa at around Spider-Man's age.

[obsidianwolf]

It certainly does since one of the perks of being inhuman even if you weren't mutated by the mists was to have a much longer lifespan than normal humans (along with being about twice as strong, fast, agile, etc,) IIRC the whole thing with the former king originally took place in late 1800's or so.

[every_spiegel]

I'd say Marvel Timeline in general is a lost cause but yes, this run has some retcons and inconsistencies. Still a good read, the 4th issue was particularly very nice imho.

[icon_uk]

"As a child she is forbidden fruit, later blossoms into cheese"

What?? Is she performing bad slam poetry or something?

[thanekos]

Yeah, should've been " ripens into cheese ".

[icon_uk]

That would still be a horribly phrased mixed metaphor, you don't transition from fruit to cheese as your comparison mid sentence.

Unless, it's cheesefruit, which apparently stinks to high heaven.

[goattoucher]

That was a rather abrupt tonal shift, and the transition from one metaphor to the other was labored. Better to extend the fruit metaphor by describing men as parasites that seek to devour/corrupt the fruit.

Solid B work. Do some editing and resubmit it by Tuesday.

[icon_uk]

In light of the numerous stories since it was first mentioned in the 1960's I have a bit of an issue with the whole "Karnak was never put through Terrigenisis because of the severity of his big brother Triton's transformation"

Triton became an aquatic being (Which seems a bit of a no-brainer in retrospect given he was named after a sea-god, and unlike Blackagar and Medusalith he hasn't even had his name retroactively amended has he?) and required a special wetsuit to keep him hydrated and oxygenated when he wasn't in a body of water which yes, is severe, but we've seen Inhumans with far more severe transformations, we've got folks with spikes, folks who seems barely humanoid, never mind human and we even got a guy who's a bloody DOOR in a wall! So why would "I'm a water breather" seen as such a big deal?

[laughing_tree]

Other than the door guy, those others are only terrible fates from the perspective of human beauty standards, not in terms of functionality. The Inhumans would obviously have very different beauty standards from us. In Attilan, spikes probably make you look sexy or something.

[icon_uk]

Fair point (aside from some cases probably making procreation... challenging to impossible, so hardly useful genetically speaking)

Though if that IS the case, why would scales and needing a water based environment be seen as enough to put people off putting their kid through Terrigenesis the way Karnak's parents did (and as members of the Royal Family, there would be a LOT of pressure to do so)?

[flint_marko]

Maybe it depends on who the parent is; Gorgon repeatedly exposed his daughter to the mists, and Black Bolt's parents exposed him to it while he was still in the womb as an experiment.

If Triton and Karnak had different parents, maybe they would have still exposed Karnak too.

[obsidianwolf]

IIRC wasn't it more that Triton changed so radically that their parents decided it was too big a risk since while Triton was still useful and could be part of INhuman high society his brother might not come out so well if he had a similar radical mutation.

I mean with inhumans it is more about usefulness to the society then the individual I mean door guy was enslaved or as they probably put it given a job in inhuman society where as someone else stuck in a wall with no useful would probably be forgotten about and ignored.

I can't help but think of that scene in the tsunami imprint inhumans title before the big lets ignore all the fucked up ness of the inhumans push started where a group of elite students went through the mists and one of them was horrible mutated in a way that was useless. Her friends wished she'd have died so they could have remembered her fondly instead of having to offer pretend comfort as she was taken to the lower levels to live with the alpha primatives and other inferiors. With as soon as her being gone they promptly forgot all about her and never mentioned her again.

[icon_uk]

But why would Triton be considered to be a radical mutation by any Inhuman standards given the sheer variety of physical mutations we've seen? If human normal was the standard for a post-Terrigenesis form then I could see it being a concern, but stand Triton in a line up of average Inhumans, you'd be hard pushed for anyone to think he was the most transformed, still less dangerously so.

[obsidianwolf]

Iirc when he was first introduced he was one of the odder ones. I suppose you can fan wank it as genetic testing showed how lucky he was. That his genetic changes went alot more radically than his appearance and powers suggest

[every_spiegel]

I genuinely believe Karnak was such a little brat that their parents said "oh noes, he's borderline bearable now, and what if terrigenesis alleviates his smugness, we must prevent this, it's our duty to society" :D

[icon_uk]

That's the most plausible reason I've heard yet! :)