Ms. Marvel Finale Might Confirm Marvel Gave Up on the Inhumans

The first season of Ms. Marvel aired its finale Wednesday, revealing perhaps the biggest surprise one could make about the character. No, Black Bolt didn’t return from the eternal slumber he put himself in during the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Instead, the series confirmed Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) wasn’t an Inhuman. Instead, it’s said she has a “mutation” in her genes as the classic X-Men animated series theme plays—the same exact tune that movie-goers heard as Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) appeared in Multiverse of Madness.

Given that Khan has found herself as the most popular Inhuman in recent years, turning her into a mutant isn’t just a light plot device. It’s a seismic shift that will likely change the character’s source material roots in the coming months. Not just that, but it also signals the great lengths Marvel Studios is going to dissolve its own intellectual property.

The Inhumans aren’t an unknown group by any stretch of the imagination, especially to those who’ve been keeping up with Marvel’s multimedia efforts since 2013. At one point, Marvel Studios was going to have its own Inhumans film franchise, one of the only things ever announced by the group that’s never come to light. During the outfit’s hefty El Capitan slate reveal in 2014, the film was dated for November 2, 2018.

One thing lead to another, however, and the film was pulled from the schedule. An exact reason for the film cancellation has never been revealed, though it likely has to do with the team’s involvement in the shows being produced by Marvel Television. The race found themselves pivotal to the plot of ABC’s Agents of SHIELD and the Inhuman Royal Family eventually got their own Inhumans show on the same network now that a feature wasn’t in the works.

Right around the same time of the Inhumans use on SHIELD, Marvel Comics thrust them into the spotlight, giving them a handful of different series following all aspects from the race from Black Bolt and the Royal Family to the “NuHumans” created by the Terrigen Bomb in Infinity. The new Inhumans age ended up setting off into the sunset with Death of the Inhumans in 2018.

As it turns out, that may have been the literal death of the group. Since then, Inhuman characters have popped up every now and then, but an Inhumans title has laid dormant.

All Marvel needed was the perfect storm to sweep one of its own superteams under the rug. Marvel Studios didn’t have the film rights to the X-Men or Fantastic Four when the Inhumans were most popular in the comics. The production house now has those rights back and X-Men titles dominate the marketplace. That’s not to forget the Inhumans show still reigns supreme as the worst-reviewed series to ever don a Marvel logo.

It’s an undeniable fact that the success of Marvel Studios has impacted the publishing side of the company. Characters suddenly find themselves redesigned to closer match their live-action counterparts and titles are often announced to release around the same time as a film or Disney+ show in an attempt to piggyback on the publicity of the project. After the studio’s latest efforts, it looks increasingly clear that it has no intention of ever using the group in any shape, way, or form.

Now, the most popular Inhuman is no longer an Inhuman in the world’s biggest entertainment franchise, and that’s something that likely won’t end well for fans hoping to see the characters have a major role in any medium.

The first season of Ms. Marvel is now streaming on Disney+.

What other characters would you like to see Kamala interact with in her MCU debut? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!