Ungoliantschilde

2005's Sentry Vol.2 #2 cover by artist John Romita Jr., inker Mark Morales and colourist Dean White.

All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes, Vol. 1 # 2, by Mico Suayan and June Chung.

Incredible Hulk, Vol. 2 # 25 Pages 26-27, by John Romita, Jr., with Inks by Tom Palmer, Colors by Arsia Rozegar from Avalon Studios, Letters by John Workman, and a Script by Paul Jenkins.

Incredible Hulk, Vol. 2 # 25 Pages 26-27, by John Romita, Jr., with Inks by Tom Palmer, Colors by Arsia Rozegar from Avalon Studios, Letters by John Workman, and a Script by Paul Jenkins.

page 44 from Strange Tales (1998) #1 by Leonardo Manco, Mariana Manco, Paul Jenkins and Jonathan Babcock

the Inhumans, Vol. 2 # 05 by Jae Lee, with Colors by Avalon Studios, Letters by Richard Starkings, and a Script by Paul Jenkins.

the Inhumans, Vol. 2 # 01 by Jae Lee, with Colors by Avalon Studios, Letters by Richard Starkings, and a Script by Paul Jenkins.

Create your destiny. Meet “Marvel’s Inhumans” in IMAX theatres Sept 1, and experience the full series starting Sept 29 on ABC. 

To everyone working to try to bring the Inhumans to the screen, you have my most sincere sympathies. This is the wrong property for the wrong medium.

The Inhumans is a Stan Lee / Jack Kirby creation, with an emphasis on Jack Kirby. They were Kirby’s first stab at imagining a hidden race of fantastic metahumans whose histories stretch back beyond recorded history. Kirby would go on to develop these ideas in The Eternals and, most successfully, in his Fourth World series of books.

Some of the defining characteristics of these kind of Kirby creations are the epic scope of their story, the wonderfully bizarre worlds that are their homes, and the fantastically alien appearance of the characters.

While these qualities were ideally suited to the comic book page, they pose serious challenges to adapt to the screen. Otherworldly environs and fantastical appearances are expensive even for today’s big-budget cinema productions and prohibitive for television budgets. 

But when you remove that Kirby DNA from the mixture, the magic leaves with it. You’re left with production design that fails to convey the the sense of an ancient alien society. You’re limited to a cast of Inhumans that look very unremarkably human. You’re left with an effects budget so strained that you have to skimp on ten effects to adequately bring one to life.

Marvel has been championing the Inhumans for several years both on the page and the screen. That the property was removed from their movie slate after the Marvel Studios fought for more autonomy from longstanding Marvel executives suggests a lack of solidarity for the project. That such an ambitious project was slated for a medium ill-suited to realize the scope of it suggests that business strategies are taking precedent over creative ones. The prominent IMAX branding suggests this production is relying on gimmicks to get attention. The lackluster trailer above suggests that there is a lack of passion from the cast and crew.

In some ways, it appears that Scott Buck is becoming Marvel’s resident Roger Corman, brought in to produce a project that “has to exist” even if the product doesn’t meet the quality standards the property deserves. 

I firmly believe that there are no inherently bad properties, just ones that have a set of qualities that requires a corresponding set of sensibilities to make them sing. Without a doubt, the Inhumans is one of those properties. For anyone else who loves the property and wishes to erase the disappointment of the trailer (or the impending television series, I suggest a re-read of the Paul Jenkins / Jae Lee miniseries…

There’s simply no way a live action tv show could get this right. The Jenkins/Lee series was *great*, though (even if Avalon Studios’ coloring job was completely wrong for Jae Lee’s line art).

I really want the Inhumans show to be good, but I frankly think that you guys are correct.

The Inhumans have not been able to sustain a comic book series of their own. Why Marvel thinks a TV Show will do better is beyond me. And everything ComicArtistEvolution said is true: the effects budget is going to make the show look like a bad version of another X-Men show. Yes, they will. Inhumans and Mutants are basically the same concept, with the only major change being the different origins of their powers.

The casual public will see Marvel making another X-Men show, and the amount of money going into the production is going to require it to be a massive hit, and it will not be able to produce those kinds of ratings. I want this show to succeed, and I actually don’t mind a lot of the production designs I have seen, but it looks expensive and the trailer is pretty dull.

After the IMAX thing happens, watch the quality of the show slip. Pretty soon, it’s gonna be a bunch of people talking in large white rooms, wearing knee-length sport coats. Blurg.

(Mythos: X-Men, words by Paul Jenkins, art by Paolo Rivera)

the cover art for Origin: the True Story of Wolverine, Vol. 1 #s 1-6 was penciled by JoeQuesada.Tumblr.com