a refresher video on the Inhumans. The back half of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2

is gonna be all about explaining who their culture, their society are.

The Inhumans that you see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the TV shows, in the movies,

are gonna be a little bit different from what they are in the comics so I'll try to

explain what the difference is.

But I'm gonna start with their original origin story from the comics. They suffer

from the same problem that a lot of big Marvel characters have.

They belong to a group of people whose origin is tied to

another group that Marvel no longer has the IP for, for

the films and TV shows. So let's get started. The characters were created by Stan Lee

and Jack Kirby, so totally expect a Stan Lee cameo in 2019, whenever the movie comes.

They appeared for the first time in Fantastic Four #45.

In that issue Stan Lee introed most of who would become

the Royal Family, but at the time the Inhumans were just these few characters.

There was Black Bolt, Crystal, Medusa,

Gorgon, Karnak, Lockjaw

and Triton. The plot of some of those early Stan Lee stories was kinda whimsical but

it was the swinging sixties, which I know sounds kinda like a Spider-Man joke, but

you get the idea. You know, the characters were really interesting

but sometimes some of the story beats were a little bit funny.

So the first time we see them Johnny Storm is getting stood up for a date

and as he's grumbling his way walking back to the Baxter Building

he sees a mysterious redhead in an alleyway who turns out to be Crystal.

Mystified, he tries to follow her, shows her his powers in an alleyway

which isn't a euphemism for pulling his pants down. If he did that today he would

totally get arrested.

"Let's go to this dark alleyway and I'll show you something really special."

Crystal reveals that she also has special powers, introduces her special dog, Lockjaw,

he opens a portal and Crystal takes Johnny Storm to her home.

Nowadays this would be a story that parents would show their kids to tell them

why you don't go home with strangers. So Johnny Storm gets to see

Attilan for the first time, that's the Inhuman's secret city that's cloaked from view.

Across their history in the comics it's moved around in terms of its

location relative to Earth but

initially it started on the Moon. Here's where things get a little bit funny.

Johnny Storm meets the rest of the Royal Family and realizes that he's seen

Medusa as part of the Frightful Four, they're like an evil version of the Fantastic Four.

So remember, this is issue number 45 when we're seeing them for the first time.

Medusa appeared in issue number 36 in an evil team up called the Frightful Four.

I think what probably ended up happening is Stan Lee liked her character so much

that he wanted to make her an Inhuman but had to find a way to explain how she

could be in that team

and also be an Inhuman. So the official explanation became that

she had amnesia quote-unquote while she was fighting with

the Frightful Four. Stan Lee has a long history a moving characters around in

terms of, you know, what their stories are, which teams they belong to.

Sometimes it creates some continuity errors. Nowadays what Marvel does

is they just create, like, earth-shattering universe events like

the Battle World stuff that's happening.

So after that first appearance, the Inhumans just kinda bounced around a

couple different titles

until they get their own title in 1975. It only ran for about twelve issues.

That trend continued for a little while. They would just get limited runs from

time to time. So they got another one in 1998,

then a different one in 2000, then again in 2003

and 2007. So as you can see they've been kind of like this weird little group of

characters that Marvel brings out every once in a while

but historically they were never popular enough to sustain their own ongoing

title like the bigger Marvel characters.

That might change whenever the movie comes out though. Movie sales always

boost Marvel's comic sales.

After that first Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man came out, sales of Iron Man comics

shot through the roof. The lore of Inhumans is really cool too

but like a lot of Stan Lee characters he introduces the characters first

and then, like, many issues later he'll flesh out their backstory.

Originally their backstory was tied to the Kree-Skrull war.

The Kree were looking for a weapon to use against the Skrull so they spent

millennia genetically tampering with humans on Earth. Eventually they abandoned the project

after a prophecy predicted that an Inhuman would rise and destroy the

Supreme Intelligence

who failed to appear in the Guardains of the Galaxy movie. I know we're all hoping to see

more Kree in Guardians of the Galaxy Two but it's not confirmed. So while all this Kree-Skrull

war stuff was going on the Inhumans overtime

developed their own internal society. The biggest part of their culture

was based on genetic engineering in this rigid caste structure.

It dictated what jobs you could have,

who you could marry, so naturally by design the most powerful Inhumans were members of the Royal Family

and they are very xenophobic which is why even after the Kree abandoned them they

continued to keep their city hidden.

Black Bolt is a member the Illuminati and appears in the Avengers a lot but

Crystal has historically been their biggest ambassador in terms of crossover characters.

She's been a member of Fantastic Four and she was a member of the Avengers for a long time,

Medusa to a lesser extent too. There was, like, a very Romeo and Juliet thing going on

with Johnny Storm and Crystal for a long time so that was like a way

to bridge their cultures in the comics.

For the most part they are allies with the heroes of Earth but they still have their own agenda

I mean it's like Namor and Black Panther, they both serve with the Illuminati

but their first priority is always to their own people. So let's move into Terrigenesis,

that is the foundation for their society and the process by which they activate their powers.

So taking in the Mists and getting powers isn't what makes someone an Inhuman,

that's something that's passed down through genetics. So there are

Inhumans walking around that have not taken in the Mist, that don't have special powers.

But in order to take advantage of the Mist you do have to have those

Inhuman genetic markers. The TV show kind of explored this

where, like, Skye, Trip, and Raina all took in the Mist but Trip did not have

Inhuman DNA so it killed him

and gave powers to Skye and Raina. The TV show's really simplified the process by which

Terrigenesis happens, you know, and how they find these other Inhuman people.

They've kind of tied it to the Kree but I don't know how much they're gonna

explain that because

the Kree are largely a group that show up in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies

so they might keep them there. Most of what we see on the TV show

is just gonna focus on the Inhumans living on Earth in secret groups.

So I'm not expecting to see Attilan or any of the Royal Family.

What I'm hoping is is that they weave the idea of the Inhumans living on Earth

into Age of Ultron, Civil War,

and the rest the movies, obviously building up to the actual Inhumans movie.

Nothing's been confirmed but I know there are a lot of questions about Scarlet

Witch and Quicksilver's powers.

As far as we know right now their powers flow from the Mind Gem

so they're slightly different from the Inhumans so I'm not gonna call them Inhumans.

They have confirmed a few Inhuman characters that they've cast for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

already, they're minor characters.

There are some people that appear in the comics but I'm just gonna wait for them to

appear in episodes before I talk about them. So like tonight if we meet any new

characters I'll just explain that in my episode video.

There's all kinds of cool stuff that we could talk about like the relationships

within the Royal Family like

Black Bolt's evil brother Maximus the Mad. He has a son with Medusa named

Ahura. Just in general, Marvel, gonna save all the best stuff for the movies.

That's not coming out till July 2019, I know that's a long way off.

The interesting thing is that that movie is coming out after

Infinity War Part 2 which I think is kinda weird. So

Inhumans is, right now, the last movie in Phase 3.

So here's my big question for you guys, which Inhumans from the comics do you wanna see

on the TV show? I know, we're all hoping for the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel but I don't

think that's gonna happen.

Right now they're really pushing Skye and Raina as the two main characters.

They're like two sides of the same coin. Raina, who spent her entire life trying to

become her true self,

learn about her heritage, and Skye who wants absolutely nothing to do with it.

So now, like, you have two characters that are going to be exploring their new powers

and their relationship to their people. That's like the main story for the second half of the season,

exploring the culture of the Inhumans and watching them develop their powers.

The interesting thing about Raina is that she got what she wanted

but because her transformation physically altered her so much

she's gonna wind up in this Mystique type situation, like Mystique from X-Men.

People will probably look down on her appearence as a deformity

so for her it's like an evil genie situation. Your wish was granted

but what you got isn't exactly what you asked for. So don't forget, new epsidoes

start tonight. Be sure to subscribe to get it,

I'll post it after the episode airs. And there is a new Avengers trailer coming

on Thursday so I'll do a new break down video for that.

I'll probably do another bonus Avengers video too. While you guys wait for all that to drop,

you can click here to catch up with all my Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. videos from the

midseason finale last year

and you can click here to learn about a maybe Spider-Man post credits scene in Avengers.

They're just, Danny Elfman is just composing some music for it so we might see, like, a

teaser but I don't think they've cast the actor yet.

Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you guys tonight. Now let's all do thing.