I mentioned in an earlier post that the rights to the X-Men movie franchise is not owned by Marvel Comics but by 20th Century Fox. Well, to fans of comics, this is a very big deal.
Marvel recently released a time line of movies all the way up to 2020. 1 of those movies comes in 2 parts. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. With the only facts that we have being the titles of the movies, we're left to our assumptions. So, naturally, those of us that are into this sort of thing, assume and speculate the heck out of it! We assume that the story line that the producers will follow will be lifted straight from the comic book it's based on (we always assume this, which is why most super fans get so upset over a movie release). The announcement from Marvel is full of assumption and speculation with the 2 part Infinity War being at the top of the list. We all assume that every character from the recently released movies and the future released movies will be involved, because that's what happened in the comic books. Here is where we run into a problem. Both Spider-Man and the X-Men played major parts in the Infinity War story, and neither franchise is currently owned by Marvel.
Now, here's why I love Marvel so much. Instead of scratching out an entire population of characters that were the X-Men and mutants of the Marvel Universe, Marvel was forced to get creative. Enter The Inhumans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inhumans#History. The Inhumans are a race of crossbred humans and aliens with super powers that cannot be triggered unless these people are exposed to something called the Terrigen Mist. In the comics, the Inhumans began as a small race of people, namely just a royal family. Their King Black Bolt, his wife Medusa, Karnak, Gargan, Triton, Crystal, Lockjaw, and Maximus the Mad are all part of this royal family and represent the old generation of Inhumans who once reigned on earth. They lived quietly in a technologically advanced hidden city called Attilan, until Black Bolt decided to abandon their city and moved the family to the Blue Area of the Moon (an oxygenated section on the dark side of the moon).
I'm sure you're asking, "how does a family of super powered humans fill in for the X-Men and other mutants?" Yes, the mutants of the Marvel Universe made up a very large portion of Earth's population, until recently. Several years ago a story line was published where the climax included the mutant population being lowered from millions to only a few hundred. Well, Marvel's answer came in the form of the Inhumanity storyline, where several Terrigen bombs exploded around the world and triggered the powers of millions of unaware Inhumans. Thus giving birth to a population of super heroes and villains completely owned and controlled by Marvel. Brilliant.
They've also worked out a way to use Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in the Avengers movies without Fox throwing a hissy fit over the fact that both of those characters are also members of the X-Men. Originally Quicksilver and his sister, the Scarlett Witch, were bad guys following Magneto, then in 1965 they switched sides and joined the Avengers, then Quicksilver joined an offset of the X-Men called X-Factor in 1993. In order for Marvel to work around the previously established fact that Quicksilver (most recently seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past played by Evan Peters and soon to be seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his sister, the Scarlet Witch are mutants. Marvel needed to introduce the Inhumans years before their movie was released. If you follow Agents of Shield on ABC, you'll see the first Inhumans in the MCU at the end of their midseason finale.
While comic fans will miss Wolverine and other X-Men's involvement in the Infinity War, we can look forward to some completely new and original film making in the Inhumans movie and the Infinity War.
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Rumor Report time: this is kind of on the topic of the Inhumans. Vin Diesel has been possibly dropping clues about his involvement in yet another Marvel movie. Rumors are flying that he will be playing King Black Bolt in the Inhumans movie. This actually makes a lot of sense because of 2 things:
1. Everyone already knows that Vin Diesel did the voice of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy.
2. Playing Black Bolt would allow Diesel to appear on screen as a major character and not be confused with the voice of another. Simply because Black Bolt doesn't speak! One of Black Bolt's powers is a quasi-sonic scream. A simple whisper could tear you apart.
Oh, and do you know the best part about Black Bolt? His full name is Blackagar Boltagon. HAHAHA I love it!
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