The Inhumans Marvel/IMAX
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
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Comic book characters wear masks. Might as well ask why Captain Marvel had a mask in both versions of his costume.
In universe I'd say it was fashionable in Inhuman culture.
Just pointing out the silliness of it. Masks and goofy code names make sense when you're a crime fighter trying to keep his personal identity a secret, but neither make as much sense when everyone knows who you are because you're royalty and you're just dealing with issues related to your own people.
It's Jack Kirby art. If a character doesn't have a mask, they probably have some kind of bizarre headdress or wild hairstyle. Kirby learned his craft in an era when comic panels were small and the quality of the reproduction wasn't great, so he probably learned to give his characters very distinctive designs so they were easy to tell apart.
Also, Medusa was introduced before the others as a member of a team of supervillains, the Frightful Four. It was only later that her origins were established. In her first appearance, she had a full-head cowl with her hair sticking out the back like a ponytail. So maybe the other Inhumans were given masks to provide some sort of continuity with Medusa's look. Though it's probably just that it was the '60s and that's how superpowered characters were drawn.
Also, Medusa was introduced before the others as a member of a team of supervillains, the Frightful Four. It was only later that her origins were established. In her first appearance, she had a full-head cowl with her hair sticking out the back like a ponytail. So maybe the other Inhumans were given masks to provide some sort of continuity with Medusa's look. Though it's probably just that it was the '60s and that's how superpowered characters were drawn.
You have to expect some "silliness" when its comics superheroes. It's not a bad thing.
I remember one bored day trying to figure out just how Inhuman naming convention is supposed to work. Blackagar Boltagon's dad is Agon and Medusalith Amaquelin's is Quelin. Based on that, you'd think the surnames just mean "son/daughter of [Dad's name]" or whatever. But then Gorgon's last name is Petragon, and his folks are Korath and Milena. And then we have Karnak Mander-Azur, which is just pulling together the names of *both* parents, Mander and Azur, in the most straightforward way. As you point out, no writer's ever bothered to give Triton a last name yet.
Of course, the real explanation is that the various names were established by different writers over a number of years, but it's still fun to try to make sense of it.
Any culture's fashions will look silly to people outside the culture. I mean, imagine an alien looking at our society and trying to figure out our fashions. Men in formal situations wear thin strips of colored fabric tied around their necks and dangling in front of their chests. What possible purpose does that serve except as a choking hazard? And why do men wear pants, a garment that was invented to facilitate horseback riding, when they're not riding horses? Why do women, and only women, walk around on precariously pointed heel extensions? Is it because they're shorter than men and want to see better? And why do the women dress in a variety of garment shapes and bright colors while all the men are dressed nearly identically in much more drab and restrictive outfits? Those poor men must think it's so unfair that they're not allowed to wear pretty dresses.
Of course, there are historical and cultural reasons why fashions came to be, but often they're due to factors that no longer apply and are just kept around due to tradition, like the wearing of pants vs. skirts. So those fashions would seem arbitrary or inexplicable to someone unfamiliar with the historical context.
Hey, come to think of it, Attilan was located in the Himalayas before it was relocated to the Moon. So maybe the masks were originally face shields against the cold and wind, and the tradition of wearing them lasted long after the need for it had passed.
I imagine Triton would also be Triton Mander-Azur since he's Karnak's brother. I'm a little hesitant to call them "superhero names." They're just nicknames.
The correct answer is "it's Jack Kirby." That being said, I remember a theory that it's out of respect for Inhumans whose faces were changed by Terrigenesis. I have no idea if there's anything official to suggest that, though.
This is one of the few time I've actually agreed with you. I will admit that the names are silly sounding, but they at least sound more like real names than their superhero names.
Yeah. A superhero name is generally something that relates to the character's power or costume or the like. The only ones like that among the Royal Family are Medusa (snakelike hair) and Triton (aquatic attributes). Heck, Crystal's just an ordinary name.
It always struck me that Crystal's hairband (such as it was originally depicted in the comics) looked like a mask, but worn on the wrong side of her head.
Is Crystal wearing a Fantastic Four uniform in that splash page? I know she was part of the FF for awhile. Also it looks like Gorgon has normal feet there.
Looks that way.
There's a bit of a "hoof" visible beneath the sole of his boot.It looks like the shape of his hooves in the show is close to how Kirby drew them, sort of a slightly modified foot shape rather than the more satyr-like thing I was expecting.
She is. You can see the 4 in her belt buckle if you zoom the image.
In Alan Davis' FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END, he establishes that human-looking Inhumans wear masks because they don't like the fact that they look so much like the Kree, given the two peoples' history. Though that series was out of continuity.
And Black Bolt, surely? And I wonder if the only reason Gorgon is Gorgon is because someone at Marvel got their mythology mixed up.
What's "Black Bolt" got to do with sound powers? "Bolt" suggests something more like lightning. Okay, he's dressed in black, I guess, but comics costumes (or fur, in the case of the Beast) that were originally conceived as black tend to end up being interpreted as blue due to the way older comics were colored.
Yeah, it's weird, because Medusa was a Gorgon. At least those two should be siblings.
Yes - the FF found her first and made her a member of the team after the Human Torch encountered her (The storyline ultimately was Maximus forced he Royal Family to flee Atilan - (in the Himalyas BTW, not the moon - the moon DID have a 'blue area' that was in fact habitable in FF continuity, but that was where Uatu the Watcher viewed Eartjh from); and OF COURSE they came to hide out in New York.
^^^
(Personally I'll still take this over what we got in tjhis TV series, YMMV.
)
He has other powers in the comics...I don't recall all the details offhand, but they included manipulating electrons with that tuning fork thingie on his mask.
They moved Attilan to the Blue Area of the Moon in an '80s FF story.