Inhuman Nature: Infinity

Bred by an alien race to be a warrior caste and possessing alien DNA, the Inhumans exist as humans possessed of incredible and otherworldly powers when exposed to the substance known as Terrigen. Living secretly, for the most part, among their fellow man, the Inhumans forge their own destiny as a separate society. Dig into the history of the Inhumans with these Marvel Unlimited comics in preparation for “Marvel’s Inhumans” heading to IMAX and ABC this fall!

After putting his spin on the Fantastic Four, Jonathan Hickman set his sights on the Avengers and the whole Marvel Universe beyond that. He started weaving an epic story that ultimately ended with SECRET WARS, but began in the pages of NEW AVENGERS and THE AVENGERS. Smack dab in the middle, he threatened the entire planet with one angry god: Thanos!

INFINITY ran through both Avengers books as well as its own six issue, self-titled limited series and dealt with Thanos, his Black Order and their dastardly plans. While many of the Avengers headed into outer space to fight one front, Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Namor, Dr. Strange, Black Panther and others remained on Earth where the Black Order struck on Thanos’ orders.

One of Thanos’ Outriders snuck into Attilan and read Black Bolt’s mind, revealing that he and the other members of the Illuminati once held the Infinity Gems. Meanwhile, Maximus worked on finding a dimension so the king could converse and also a Terrigen Bomb, both at Blackagar’s request.

Thanos then sent Corvus Glaive to request that the Inhumans kill all of their own between the ages of 16 and 22. It didn’t take long for Black Bolt to realize that this covered the Mad Titan’s true intention, to find his long-lost son, Thane!

Black Bolt then sent the Inhumans away and met with Thanos alone on Attilan. Refusing to give quarter, Black Bolt shouted at his opposition and destroyed the city himself, but not his foe. The attack also unleashed the Terrigen Bomb which started changing anyone with Inhuman genes around the world, including Thane who developed some kind of death-granting powers.

Thanos attained the upper hand on Black Bolt, took him to Wakanda’s Necropolis and attached him to a machine to use the king as a weapon. Later, Maximus of all Inhumans actually saved the day with help from Lockjaw to kill the Black Order’s Supergiant.

Having survived the ordeal, Black Bolt and Maximus discussed the future of the Inhumans high in the Himalayas. Well, Maximus did the talking as you can imagine. Anyway, Blackagar’s brother pointed out that the Terrigen Bomb actually marked the creation of a new age for Inhumans. At the very end of the story, they realized that Black Bolt’s power had been greatly reduced and planned on keeping it a secret from everyone else.

THE INHUMAN CONDITION

If you haven’t readINFINITY, you might be wondering why Thanos demanded Thane’s location from Black Bolt when the offspring didn’t actually reside in Attilan. As explained in FANTASTIC FOUR #577 – another Hickman-penned entry – a long ago argument amongst Inhuman royals lead to a split wherein each one left with their own people to populate different areas. Each group developed their own brand of Terrigenesis. The group that wound up in the hidden city of Orollan, but before that encountered Thanos. One of the women returned with the Titan’s spawn growing inside her. Thane turned into an adept healer until his true nature came to the surface when Black Bolt set off the Terrigen Bomb.

Find out what happens after the Terrigent Mist start spreading across the Earth in the INHUMANITY event!