Marvel has announced a new series from one of its current exclusive writers, Donny Cates (“Doctor Strange,” “Thanos”) illustrated by Ariel Olivetti (“Venom: Space Knight”) called “Death of the Inhumans.” The series will have covers by Kaare Andrews and will begin in July 2018. Whether this is a miniseries or an ongoing, or a one-shot is yet to be revealed, although the wording in the official press release says “with a cover by Kaare Andrews” implies this could be a one-shot. Cates on Twitter called it a full series saying:
Yeah, so I’m not done dropping bodies just yet. 😉
DEATH OF THE INHUMANS!
A BRUTAL new series coming this July from @olivetti_ariel and I, with covers from the amazing Kaare Andrews! https://t.co/FABpKXXbVP
— DONNY CATES (@Doncates) March 28, 2018
Ariel Olivetti also tweeted out some preview pages:
#marvelcomics pic.twitter.com/7fyOlkudIF
— Ariel Olivetti (@olivetti_ariel) March 23, 2018
Back to the inks , back to MARVEL pic.twitter.com/nvsSkC4XFc
— Ariel Olivetti (@olivetti_ariel) March 10, 2018
The fate of the Inhumans franchise has been rather tenuous in the last few years as it seemed the characters were set to gain prominence thanks to their inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Inhumans play a major role in Agents of SHIELD and were set to get their own movie in 2019 that was eventually postponed. The characters then appeared in the much reviled Inhumans show on ABC which seems not to be getting renewed.
Over on the comics side, the characters got more center-billing in the Marvel Universe thanks to events like “War of Kings” in 2009. The Inhumans would then go on to play big parts in Jonathan Hickman’s “Fantastic Four” and “New Avengers” run, including the event ‘Infinity’ in 2013, which led to the Terrigen Mist cloud engulfing the Earth, and the smaller event called ‘Inhumanity.’ These events led to the creation of the Kamala Khan version of Ms. Marvel, arguably the most popular character of the Inhumans revival. The family would go on to get their own title called “Inhuman” written by Charles Soule, which later turned into “Uncanny Inhumans,” and the spin-off “All-New Inhumans.” All of this culminated in tensions with the X-Men and the event “Inhumans vs X-Men” which was the beginning of the ResurrXion relaunch for both lines.
Sadly the relaunched “Inhumans” titles did not catch on well with readers, with “Royals” and “Secret Warriors” being cancelled after twelve and ten issues, respectively, with the former getting a final one-shot “Inhumans: Judgment Day” from series writer Al Ewing and artists Kevin Libranda and Mike del Mundo. The only current Inhhumans books still going are the aforementioned “Ms. Marvel” (now more associated with “Champions” and the “Avengers” books), the critically acclaimed “Black Bolt” from Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward, which wraps up next week after twelve issues, “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” and the “Lockjaw” miniseries.
While the X-Men have continued to regain some of their lost popularity, the Inhumans popularity has continued to wane. In “Death of the Inhumans” it seems that Marvel is letting one of their hottest new writers retire the characters for awhile. Check out the Andrews cover below, and check back here for more details when they become available.
