Inhumans: Once and Future Kings

[michel]

This limited series has the Royals as young adults (Crystal is still a girl, Lockjaw is middle-sized), after Agon and Rynda's death (it's referenced) but still with the Unspoken as king (so before he's overthrown in MA 27-FB).

At first, I would have put this series some years before FF 45. But Spider-Man appears, with a Peter Parker taking photographs for Jonah. The Wizard also appears, with a cameo of the Trapster, not in his first costume. He has his jail detention reduced in A 6, and appears next in his second costume in ST 124, so INHS:OAFK could be put a bit after A 6, circa FF 29 and ASM 14. Medusa becomes involved with the Frightful Four in FF 36.

But this series retcons the Triton story in T 150/2-152/2. In those, Triton is the first Inhuman to leave Attilan and meet humans. He's captured by an undersea film crew, and frees himself as soon as they reach New York. He observe humans, then reports back to his king Black Bolt and advices him to move Attilan away from its island.
In INHS:OAFK, Triton has still been captured by an undersea film crew (an editor note points to T 150), but he's been studied by biologists for months. When he's at least able to communicate with them, they release him. Then he finds Karnak and Black Bolt in New York, and they all leave together for Attilan, at a time when the Unspoken is still king.

So INHS:OAFK could fit with T 150/2 (Triton is captured), but not with T 151/2-152/2, and I don't think we can reconcile them. It could work if we ignore the editor note pointing to Thor 150/2 and suppose that Triton has been abducted twice, one time in INHS:OAFK with the Unspoken as king, and another time in T 150/2 with Black Bolt as king. But that would mean a lot happens between FF 29 and 45 : the Unspoken is overthrown, all Royals and Lockjaw grow up a little bit, Black Bolt sends Triton to the outside world, and after that takes Attilan in the Himalayas.

There's also a FB in INHS2 9 that shows a young Triton saving a child from a liner's sinking, and this child has become an old man in the main story. This goes against having young Royals after FF 1.

So what do you think? Should we hornshoe INHS:OAFK post FF 1 or declare it out of continuity?

[Midnighter]

From the way I see it, we can separate the events of T 150/2-151/2 from those of T 152/2.
In the first two stories, Triton is captured by the film crew and taken to New York. He eventually frees himself before the boat docks, but we can assume that he is recaptured and handed over to the researchers.
In T 152/2 we see him getting on a dock, wreaking havoc in Manhattan and then diving back into the sea on page 4. In 5:1 he says he needs to report to Black Bolt. In 5:2 we see him in conversation with Black Bolt.

We can fit the events like this:
T 150/2-151/2: Triton is captured by the film crew and taken to New York.
BTS: He is recaptured and handed over to researchers
INHS:OAFK 2: studied by researchers for months
INHS:OAFK 3: Karnak finds out where he is
INHS:OAFK 4 (7-8): Triton communicates with the researcher and gets free/is freed
T 152/2 (1-5:1): Triton wreaks havoc in Manhattan
INHS: OAFK 4 (14): he meets with Karnak
INHS: OAFK 5: all the Inhumans return to Attilan
[time passes]
T 152/2 (5:2-5:4): Triton talks to Black Bolt who decides to seek a new refuge for Attilan.

[michel]

You' re smart, Midnighter, this seems to work!

That leaves us with the post FF 1 young Royals. What do you and the others think about that?

[Leoparis]

What to think of young Royals in this series?

Depending on the life spans of Inhumans, Triton might be much older than his cousins.

In INHS2 9 he saves a boy from the sinking of the Lusitania (WW I) and tells Namor he knew his mother Fen. This precludes him being a youth in early Marvel.

Another possibility is a speculation. The Inhumans' shapes were revealed once to be those of Kree-conquered alien races, which makes the Terrigen Mists a repository of alien genes. Possibly they carry a form of racial memory. When a specific form is assumed again by an Inhuman, it carries the memories of the earlier holder. This would mean the Triton in INHS2 9-FB is an earlier one.

My suggestion, just index these appearances in chronological sequence and let Marvel writers or Handbook writers figure it out. So Triton in INHS2 9-FB and then T 150/2, etc.

[michel]

I've read further Inhumans appearances after INHS:OAFK.

In MA 27-FB, the Unspoken is overthrown and Black Bolt becomes king (though Attilan seems to be already in the Himalayas... let's just say Black Bolt decided to exile the Unspoken in the Himalayas).
In T 152/2 (5:2 - 5:4), Triton advices Black Bolt to move Attilan.
In WI? 29/2-30/2, Black Bolt moves Attilan in the Himalayas, helped by the Eternals.
In INHS:US (2:7 - 26)-FB, Maximus overthrows Black Bolt, Medusa has an accident, suffers from amnesia and flees, meets French thief Paul Dumas and joins him for months, "inside of two years".
In INHS:US (27 - 28)-FB, Medusa leaves Dumas, briefly meets Gorgon, then, "months later, she made herself a home on a mediterranean island. Thus, the months passed for Medusa in solitude" until the Wizard finds her, as seen in FF 36-FB.

If we follow the text, there are at least two or three years between INHS:OAFK and FF 36, a time needed for Crystal to become a young woman.

I had put INHS:OAFK around A 6 because of the Trapster : he's only named Peter and he looks like the Trapster, but he could just be a Wizard's assistant named Peter. In this case, when Maximus reads Peter's thoughts in #4, he mentions Jonah (and also Gwen, but that must be a mistake), so we only need to put INHS:OAFK after Peter Parker has begun to take photographs for J. Jonah Jameson, so after ASM 2 and around FF 10. This would allow for a decent amount of time between INHS:OAFK and FF 36.

What do you think?

[StrayLamb]

Just thinking out loud here.. Do we happen to know much about the life-cycle of Inhumans? Crystal looks about 12yo in INHS:OAFK. Is it possible that she could have rapidly physically matured thru adolescence in maybe a year?

[Midnighter]

Just thinking out loud here.. Do we happen to know much about the life-cycle of Inhumans? Crystal looks about 12yo in INHS:OAFK. Is it possible that she could have rapidly physically matured thru adolescence in maybe a year?

I think that she was slightly younger than Johnny when the two met. So I think that she could has matured in about a year (it's not uncommon even for human girls to grown up abroubtly around 13-14).

[StrayLamb]

Hmmm.. In All-New Inhumans 11, Crystal says she's over 30yo. Johnny Storm was 17yo at the start of the FF, and Crystal shouldn't be any older than him. At the most, 15 years have passed since FF 1, making her no less than 15yo when Johnny was 17yo. Unless she lied about her age.

[Col_Fury]

The depicted age of the Inhumans seen in Once and Future Kings can be chalked up to artistic license. It takes place in the past? Let's make them look younger!

[StrayLamb]

The depicted age of the Inhumans seen in Once and Future Kings can be chalked up to artistic license. It takes place in the past? Let's make them look younger!

Oh yeah - absolutely! We're just seeing if we can actually make it work somehow. If it doesn't then yeah, it's artistic license for sure.