For the most part, every project in the MCU’s history has been a success. You can argue personal tastes and even I can admit that there have been some Marvel shows on Disney+ that has not been my favorite. To me, if we’re talking about Marvel shows; nothing tops Netflix’s Defenders saga. Shows like Daredevil, The Punisher, and more were just peak comic book television for me. Hell, I even loved Helstrom, despite it getting virtually no promotion from Marvel due to it being the last of the Jeph Loeb era of Marvel TV.
Remember, before Marvel shows on Disney+, there were a lot of Marvel shows across cable television and streaming platforms. To put it in perspective, we had Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Defenders, The Runaways, Cloak & Dagger, Legion, Agent Carter, and Helstrom. All of these are strong shows in their own personal ways and I think they had a lot more wins than losses, even in comparison to the Disney+ era of Marvel shows. Which, in my opinion, only WandaVision, Moon Knight, and Hawkeye have won so far. I know, me – a massive Loki fan – disliking the Loki show. Hopefully, season two is better!
The Inhumans…What Else Can I Say?
I spewed on for that long to really set up how much of a failure I think the Inhumans is. How much I think that this ABC show shouldn’t even bother being remembered when we remember the era of Marvel shows prior to Marvel Television folding. I can find redeemable qualities in everything else and yes, that includes Iron Fist. As disappointing as that show was, I’d watch it a hundred times over Inhumans – especially Iron Fist’s second season. And plus, I still stand by Tom Pelphrey being absolutely amazing as Ward Meachum. Rewatching Iron Fist for him alone is worth it.
Inhumans, though? Throw it in the trash. If you didn’t know, Inhumans is essentially the only planned Marvel movie to be taken off the board and converted into a TV series. It was eight episodes of pure trash that they had the audacity to think people wanted to see on the big screen. The first two episodes of Inhumans premiered in IMAX and the rest of the shitty episodes went on ABC. Honestly, what a load of crap this was.
What Made It Bad
From the horrible CGI, terrible costumes, awful wigs (I’m looking at you, Medusa), and terrible writing, it’s no wonder it was canceled. And this was during a time when Marvel shows really weren’t being canceled. This was 2017, a couple of years before Marvel Television started folding and the Netflix Marvel shows were canceled one by one. Back then, we assumed every Marvel show would continue as Marvel had a successful formula. And no matter how much they want to walk back on this, all of these shows connected (to a degree) to the movie MCU’s timeline. If you go back and watch the Netflix Marvel shows, they mention the Hulk, Captain America, and “the incident” which was Loki’s invasion of New York City. So, even though now it seems Kevin Feige wants to establish a new continuity with the shows that he’s bringing to the table, we all assumed that all the shows mentioned beforehand were indeed part of the MCU. For a show to be canceled around that time meant it had to be horrible.
So Cheap
And it was. God, it was awful. You can tell the show was produced on a shoestring budget because not only were the looks of everyone cheap, but there was none of what you came for. And that’s the fighting. You have characters with some of the strongest power moves in the comics – such as Black Bolt – and you barely have him use his power or fight. Why? Probably because there’s no budget. It’s odd to think that this could have been a movie with an awesome appreciation for the characters and instead, we got a bootleg version of the Inhumans. Seriously, in the comics, the Inhuman Crystal is married to Ronan The Accuser. There’s no way in hell I could ever see the TV version of Crystal married to the movie version of Ronan. It was laughable to think these characters were Marvel superheroes. At the time, The CW was putting out better stuff than this.
Inhumans Were Our Version of the X-Men?
At the time, Fox was still a thing and they owned the X-Men. Fans and Kevin Feige didn’t think we’d get the X-Men, which meant that he had a cinematic universe without mutants. The Inhumans were meant to fill that void. But, now Marvel has the mutants back and though we’ve yet to see any mutants, we’re going to get them. So, should we have the Inhumans at all in the MCU? I mean that rhetorically, I think there’s room for everyone in the MCU if it’s done right.
Okay, Anson Mount Was a Pretty Okay Black Bolt
Now, I said earlier (and in the title) that there are no redeemable aspects to this show. That was a slight lie. I think Anson Mount is probably right for Black Bolt, but the show and writing did him no favors. I mean, should we have been surprised considering Inhumans came from the same guy who did Iron Fist season one? Anyway, clearly Marvel Studios thought he was good enough to bring back for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In a movie where we were treated to the likes of Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Professor X and John Krasinski playing Mr. Fantastic (a fan favorite choice for the role), Sam Raimi (the director of Doctor Strange 2) and Kevin Feige must have felt Anson Mount would be appreciated as a callback; playing Black Bolt in the film a comic accurate costume and actually showing his powers off. Granted, he was killed in a pretty gruesome way, but so was everyone else – this was a different universe, so I really didn’t mind.
I’m Not Bothering to Rate This
Anyway, Inhumans was bad. If you want to see how bad, you can find it on Disney+. I appreciate Disney putting as much as they can of the Marvel properties together, though; I don’t believe Helstrom is on it. But, you can now find all of the Defenders shows there, as well as Legion, and other previously Fox-owned Marvel shows. Seriously, just watch something else. Anything other than the Inhumans.