Inhumans vs. X-Men

Inhumans vs. X-Men is a 2016 comic book storyline by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Inhumans vs. X-Men was announced in the summer of 2016.^[1] This story closes the story arcs established at the end of 2015's Secret Wars event. Prior to releasing Inhumans vs. X-Men, Marvel released the four-part bimonthly series Death of X to serve as a prequel that would lead into the events of Inhumans vs. X-Men.^[2] Issue #0 was released in November 2016, acting as a prologue for the main series and setting the stage with key characters preparing for the upcoming inevitable war. The main series with issues #1–6 began in December 2016 and ended in March 2017.

Premise

The story-line depicts the Terrigen Mist that is loose on Earth reaching its saturation point. While people across the planet have manifested powers and therefore learned of their Inhuman heritage due to the mist cloud, it's also having a bad effect on the Mutants, resulting in many mutants getting sick and dying. The X-Men are determined to stop the Terrigen Mist at its source in order to avoid extinction while the Inhumans need the Terrigen to ensure the population of their species thrives.^[3]

Plot

Beast works with Inhuman Iso to discover any potential cures to the Terrigen cloud that has been toxic to Mutants. At the same time, Emma Frost begins violently training herself to fight Black Bolt in order to avenge Cyclops. She then has meetings with Magneto, the All-New X-Men, and Storm to discuss a plan that she has. Beast soon overhears Medusa telling the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family to be prepared just in case the X-Men lose patience in their truce and attack them. He then discovers that the Terrigen cloud is becoming more saturated.^[4]

Beast calls a meeting with representatives from each major mutant team consisting of Emma Frost, Storm, Magneto, Forge, Rogue, and the time-displaced Beast. He informs them that once the Terrigen Cloud shrinks, it will dissipate into the atmosphere, making the world uninhabitable for Mutants. While Beast suggests that all Mutants leave the planet and find somewhere else to start fresh, Emma and Magneto hint at the possibility of war to destroy the Terrigen Cloud. Storm initiates a vote that ends in favor of destroying the Terrigen Cloud instead of leaving the planet. Wanting to avoid any conflict, Beast attempts to return to New Attilan, but Storm reluctantly attacks him from behind, revealing that she supported Emma and Magneto's plans from the beginning.^[5]

Emma's plan goes underway as the X-Men work to get all of the heavy-hitters from the Inhuman Royal Family out of the way. Emma and Dazzler ambush Black Bolt in the Quiet Room, Magneto ambushes Gorgon and Crystal while disguised as a mutant refugee, and Fantomex neutralizes Lockjaw in his sleep. Meanwhile, the time-displaced Jean telepathically traps Karnak in his own mind. The rest of the X-Men attack New Attilan and Storm makes it clear that their only objective is to get the Inhuman Royal Family out of the way so the X-Men can work on destroying the cloud uninterrupted and that civilians are not to be harmed. Medusa sends Iso and Inferno to find out what happened to Black Bolt and Crystal as she prepares for battle. Medusa then fights the time-displaced Beast in the Present Beast's lab as she effectively calls off the truce. As she gets the upper hand, Nightcrawler teleports in and takes her away. Magik does the same with the Inhumans battling the X-Men outside and it is revealed that all of the captured Inhumans along with Human Torch are sent to Limbo. Iso and Inferno are pursued by Wolverine and the time-displaced Angel. They manage to find Eldrac and he sends them away through a portal just before Wolverine can harm them. On the other side of the portal, they find Old Man Logan waiting for them.^[6]

While Inferno distracts Logan, Iso discovers Forge nearby with a device that the X-Men are planning to use to alter the structure of the Terrigen Cloud so they can incinerate it. Iso and Inferno manage to defeat Logan and Forge and destroy the device then flee as they take Forge prisoner. Iso contacts Ms. Marvel and has her form a team of Inhumans that the X-Men didn't account for. Elsewhere, Karnak finally manages to break through Jean's telepathic illusions and realizes that he's in The World where he encounters Fantomex. In Limbo, Medusa and the rest of the Royal Family start planning their escape. While the X-Men meet to discuss their new plans now that their device is destroyed, it is revealed that they have Black Bolt hidden away in a specially-made prison.^[7]

Medusa and the rest of the Royal Family finally break free from Limbo and attack X-Haven, where Colossus is the only available X-Man to defend their home. Meanwhile on Earth, Mosaic arrives at Muir Island to find out any information that he can about what the X-Men are planning. He manages to enter Magneto's mind while his helmet is off and sees everything that took place from the X-Men's point of view leading up to the war. Magneto discovers Mosaic and begins to fight back until Mosaic leaves and escapes. Mosaic possesses the time-displaced Cyclops and manages to escape to find the rest of the young Inhumans who Ms. Marvel called to help including Moon Girl and her partner Devil Dinosaur, Daisy Johnson, Synapse, Grid, and Reader. Mosaic reveals that he learned that the Inhuman Royal Family is trapped in Limbo as well as the reason why the X-Men attacked the Inhumans was due to the fact that they are facing certain death and their only options were to fight or leave the planet. This leaves Ms. Marvel wondering who the "good guys" in this war really are.^[8]

Karnak fights Fantomex and Jean inside of The World and quickly manages to defeat them. He then manages to escape when Lockjaw appears to him. Back at X-Haven, Gorgon holds back Colossus to give the rest of the Royal Family a chance to find Black Bolt. Inside Forge's lab, they find Havok guarding Black Bolt's cell. Instead of choosing to fight the Inhumans, Havok relents and lets them take Black Bolt claiming that this is all about Emma and Scott. Karnak arrives with Lockjaw and helps the Royal Family escape Limbo. The young Inhumans with Forge and young Cyclops decide to help the mutants and Moon Girl helps Forge to create a smaller version of Forge's device so that they can go to the Terrigen Cloud instead of waiting for it to come to them. They track the cloud to Iceland where the rest of the X-Men ambush them, assuming that the Inhumans kidnapped Cyclops and Forge.^[9] When Cyclops sees Emma, he immediately attacks her having learned that she faked his future self's death and his attack on the first Terrigen Cloud after Mosaic possessed him.^[10] During the battle, Magneto sees the cloud approaching and decides to take matters into his own hands.^[9]

The Royal Family finally arrives in Iceland and joins the battle, making Emma determined to kill all of the Inhumans. Rogue and the rest of the X-Men begin to notice Emma's increased bloodlust. Emma and the Stepford Cuckoos begin mind-controlling several of the Inhumans in order to turn them against each other. Forge arrives with Moon Girl, Ahura, and the Ennilux with their new device to destroy the Terrigen Cloud. Iso explains to Medusa about the X-Men's reasons for declaring war, with Moon Girl supporting her claim. Now fully understanding the gravity of the situation, Medusa destroys the cloud herself, voluntarily ending the war. Still craving vengeance, Emma releases an army of hidden Sentinels programmed to kill Inhumans and begins massacring the Ennilux. Cyclops exposes Emma's lies and reveals that she faked the older Cyclops' death in order to trigger this war, prompting the X-Men and Inhumans to unite against her and her Sentinels. Forge realizes that Emma took over his mind and made him create the Sentinels and watches in horror as Cerebra is destroyed in the onslaught. Magneto also realizes that Emma's been controlling him as well and attempts to attack her until Medusa steps in. Medusa battles Emma personally and attempts to calm her down and reason with her unsuccessfully until Havok intervenes and captures Emma, claiming that sparing Emma's life was the final favor he owed to his dead brother and to her. With the war now over, the X-Men reconcile with Beast and come to terms with the fact that they must now live with the consequences of their actions due to Emma's deceptions. Now wanted by both the Inhumans and the X-Men, Emma goes deep into hiding. Medusa acknowledges that Emma only did all of this out of grief; losing Cyclops to the Terrigen drove Emma insane so she craved vengeance for losing the only man who ever truly loved her. Medusa abdicates the throne and gives all leadership duties to Iso, knowing that her people won't understand why she destroyed the remaining Terrigen Cloud. Now free of the burdens of being a queen, Medusa happily reunites with Black Bolt in the Quiet Room.^[11]

Aftermath

The ending of Inhumans vs. X-Men served as a lead-in for the announced RessurXion event, which would feature brand new titles for Inhumans and X-Men. New titles and new volumes of past titles include Inhumans Prime, Royals, Black Bolt, Secret Warriors, X-Men Prime, X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue, Generation X, Weapon X, Jean Grey, Cable, and Iceman.

Maximus tries to enact a failed attempt to turn the remaining Inhumans against each other, leading to his arrest and Medusa using her final act as queen to sentence him to solitude. Before his sentence, Maximus reveals a disturbing secret to Black Bolt. The Inhumans try to cope with the fact that they might be the final generation of Inhumans due to Medusa sacrificing the Terrigen cloud so the mutants could survive on Earth. Iso's first act as queen is to make the Inhuman government a democracy of elected officials so everyone has a voice instead of relying upon only royal blood to rule, and decrees that Inhumans work more closely alongside the humans and their governments now that there are to be no more new Inhumans.^[12] Marvel Boy approaches Crystal and informs her about a potential way to create new Terrigen, prompting the Royal Family to travel to space to learn new information on Terrigenesis that they never knew before.^[13]

The X-Men try to move forward with their lives and come out of hiding now that the threat of extinction is finally gone. Magneto's team of X-Men disbands and Psylocke kills him for taking part in Emma's deceptions that led to the war. Unbeknownst to her, Magneto was prepared for her to kill him so he had Exodus and Elixir find him and revive him so they could continue with their agenda.^[14] Storm's team of X-Men vacates Limbo and the mutant refugees return home now that the Terrigen is no longer a threat to them. No-Girl manages to track Cerebra's whereabouts and they're able to upload her consciousness from her damaged-beyond-repair body into a new mechanism.^[15] Feeling guilty for having led the X-Men to war instead of looking for a diplomatic solution, Storm steps down as leader of the X-Men and recruits Kitty Pryde to take over leadership duties and attempts to quit the X-Men.^[16] Kitty has Storm stay, however Storm spends a lot of time questioning her own morality. Kitty relocates the X-Men from Limbo to Central Park in hopes of helping the X-Men reestablish themselves as heroes instead of hiding in fear all the time even though the general populace fears mutants even more due to their war against the Inhumans. ^[17]

Titles involved

Main series

• IVX #0–6

Tie-ins

• All-New X-Men Vol. 2 #17–18
• Deadpool & the Mercs for Money Vol. 2 #7–8
• Extraordinary X-Men #17–19
• Uncanny Inhumans #18–20
• Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 #16–18

References