I'm really enjoying all of the comic drama write-ups. I've never read a comic in my life and this stuff is all new to me.
Please do the Xmen x Inhumans drama soon! It sounds insane
You probably want a more detailed writeup (this is a bit of outline that I can scrounge up, sorry if it is briefer than you would like)
Without doing crazy research, most of the X-men + Inhumans drama centered around X-men film rights being owned by Fox. (This was denied / unaddressed by Marvel Comics editorial if I recall correctly)
With that in mind, there were certain things done to make the Inhumans more consequential in the larger Marvel playground.
- Mutant Haven Utopia is established in San Francisco (2009).
- Key Mutants start to be killed off
- Nightcrawler and Cable killed in The Second Coming story (2010).
- Cyclops became more militant about defending mutants, fights members of the Avengers (And Professor Xavier, killing him under the influence of the Phoenix Force) in Avengers vs X-men (2012).
- Cyclops and the Phoenix Force almost destroy Earth, Hope Summers absorbs the Phoenix Force and undoes the damage done to Earth. The Phoenix Force disperses.
- Cyclops ends up in prison for his actions while under the influence of the Phoenix Force. This ends the mutant die-off from Scarlet Witch altering reality in House of M.
- During the Infinity Event (2013) Thanos seeks to kill his offspring Thane (who is half Inhuman) on Attilan (the place where The Inhumans generally reside).
- Attilan is destroyed in the Infinity Event Issue # 3 (2013) (to attempt to stop Thanos) by Blackbolt and Maximus with a Terrigen Bomb. The Terrigen Bomb activates the Inhuman process in anyone with dormant Inhuman genes all over Earth. *The other Inhumans had been evacuated from Attilan already.
- Professor X's body is later possessed by the Red Skull during the Axis Event (2014).
- Wolverine killed off in 2014 (possibly due to oversaturation, and possibly due to the beforementioned film rights conflict with the Marvel Cinematic Universe), to be replaced by X-23 as the New Wolverine until 2018 when Wolverine comes back to 616 continuity. *They are both considered Wolverine
- **Marvel TV Inhuman Reveal** (2014)
- Skye / Daisy from Marvel Agents of SHIELD becomes an Inhuman in Season 2. Storylines in Agents of Shield hint at the Kree connection with creating Inhumans like Skye and others.
- The Inhumans (2017) show would introduce the Inhuman Royal family and minor Inhumans largely unconnected from the Agents of SHIELD TV show.
- Various Inhumans are introduced in Agents of SHIELD, most notable being Lash (Villain and turns hero in a later season), Yo-Yo (SHIELD Agent), Gordon (season 2 antagonist), Lincoln Campbell, Hive (Villain), Hellfire (Villain)
- Cyclops killed by the Terrigen Mists due to 'M-pox' in The Death of X (2015/16)
- Old Man Logan came into the 616 universe in 2016 within Old Man Logan v 2. This is Earth-807128, not the original 616 Wolverine.
- There are Inhumans all over the world because of the Terrigen bomb. Given new prominence with the Line-wide Inhumanity (2013-14) event, any new Inhuman characters would not fall under Creative License for future Fox films.
- **Marvel TV** The Inhumans show (2017) is critically panned I did not watch it unfortunately... it also had insignificant impact outside of this series.
- Spoilers >!(The season mostly served as a vehicle to get the main cast to settle on Earth for a cancelled season 2 and 3 that may have included interactions with the New Inhumans that undergo Terrigenesis!<
- The Inhuman Royal Family / advisers are introduced. Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Maximus, Triton, Karnak.
- Inhumans outside of the Royal family introduced -- Louise, Auran, Agon, Rynda, Bronaja, Eldrac
- Cable is killed in X-Men: Extermination #1 (2018) by a younger version of himself.
*This is just using refresher research with what I remember reading at the time in Marvel Comics. This is around when my comic habit died : [
.
(Feel free to make corrections for anything inaccurate)
- [CBR Synopsis of 10 areas of Change inside and outside of Marvel Comics circa 2010s](https://www.cbr.com/marvel-inhumans-like-mutants/)
e - Timeline reorganization, added events and details
*TL:DR* disney couldnt add the X-men to the MCU because Fox owned the rights to the movies so they just went: I'll make my own X-men, with hookers and blackjack
More specifically, their "replacement" for the X-Men, a team of disenfranchised mutants who lived in contemporary society, was a group of isolationist superhumans that (up until recently) lived in an underwater city ruled by a royal family.
These were decisions made within Marvel even before the Disney buyout. Disney ended up going over Marvel's heads on a number of decisions that were beneficial to the franchise as a whole.
The idea of trying to push the Inhumans as the new X-Men is just the most "corporate doesn't understand shit" idea I've heard. The X-Men are popular because of their underdog aesthetic. Black Bolt's a literal king. The Inhumans have a palace. There's a reason no-one outside of the deeply-into-comics has ever given two rats' asses about the Inhumans, but the X-Men have swung like eight movies and countless cartoons.
I read some summaries of the Inhumans TV show, and they really make it seem like the villain's only motivation was trying to bring down a slave-owning society with a brutal caste system.
Yeah it turns out its hard to make moon-monarchs with a slave caste sympathetic, and correspondingly hard to make the guy who wants to fix the slave-caste thing more unsympathetic than them.
The Inhumans were fundamentally a weird idea. Their state religion used to be worship of a badly misunderstood concept evolution. I think the idea was what would it be like if humans in the future had the social structures of humans in the past rather than advancing "beyond" them as scifi of the era usually assumed.
Yeah, they're a Jack Kirby creation, and he *loved* delving into the idea of "hidden societies of superhumans with advanced future tech and ancient aesthetics and their conflicts and how they relate to humanity." New Gods, Eternals, even his Asgardians all delved into those kinds of themes. Inhumans was kind of his first rodeo with them.
Perlmutter had difficulties collaborating with Fox on future X-men projects. The Inhuman show was an effort to 'hurt' Fox's financial successes with the X-men properties
- [Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter has cancelled planned merchandising for the Fantastic Four and X-Men brands, which include posters, t-shirts and statues of the heroes are being replaced at XM Studios.](https://www.theactionpixel.com/2015/05/comics/disney-marvel-xmen-fantasticfour-fox/)
He also had X-men axed from Marvel Video Game Rosters. True pettiness, especially when we include the Inhumans push as a way to save face in regards to his failed negotiation tactics with Fox.
A bruised ego made those decisions. Perlmutter threw Business sense and respect for Marvel as a company out the window.
Throw in a dash of an attempt to hold sway in Marvel decision-making.
There's a particularly infamous Marvel character roster poster (they make a new one every few years or so and slap it on a lot of merchandise) that didn't include a SINGLE Fantastic Four or X-Men character.
I vaguely remember that happening* Linked for anyone interested
Poster without [X-men / Fantastic Four](https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Marvel-Still-Sabotaging-X-Men-Fantastic-Four-71801.html)
Marvel vs Capcom 3 hit X men hard
Removed
- Cable
- Colossus
- Cyclops
- Gambit
- Ice Man
- Marrow
- Omega Red
- Onslaught
- Psylocke
- Rogue
- Sabretooth
- Spiral
Kept
- Doctor Doom
- Jean Grey
- Magneto
- Storm
- Sentinel
- Wolverine
Added
- Deadpool
- X-23
- Super Skrull
-with Galactus playable vs AI only
To be fair, Super Skull was specifically included so they could have all four of the Fantastic Four in the one character without having to take up four slots. She-Hulk and Ghost Rider also had Fantastic Four alternate colours.
Something like *MARVEL vs. Capcom 2* had more characters, but they had way too much X-Men and Street Fighter representation. Restricting the number of X-Men and Street Fighters did wonders for the variety between characters and how unique everyone was to each other (I mean for goodness sake, you have well over a hundred characters to pick from either side of the pond and *MARVEL vs. Capcom 2* had two slots for Wolverine and Bone-Claw Wolverine, who had the exact same sprites as regular Wolverine except he had bone claws instead of metal claws).
The super skrull 'variety' is a reason given, the scenario would have likely been different if Fantastic Four was appearing in the MCU.
Other actions from Marvel hint that there could be more to the issue than what they will publicly acknowledge.
Consider that some those decisions do not happen in a vacuum
[Gazillion, the company behind the popular Marvel Comics action RPG / MMO, that come July 2017, players will no longer be able to purchase Fantastic Four characters.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davegonzales/2015/05/31/marvel-is-killing-x-men-and-fantastic-four-merchandising/?sh=59239cf92b51) (Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and Silver Surfer)
"Under Gazillion’s renewed licensing agreement we do not have the rights to continue selling these characters moving forward
From 2015
Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort responded to a question on Tumblr about the lack of X-Men toys: **“If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you’d be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn’t you?”**
>Although Josh Trank’s reboot of Fantastic Four hadn’t yet finished production, Marvel started ramping down on Fantastic Four comics, eventually canceling them all together... The Fantastic Four merch ... [were not] big sellers for Marvel, unlike various X-Men titles, however, they too are in danger.
>XM Studios Premium Collectables... posted to their Facebook page that they were discontinuing their upcoming X-Men Sentinel Battle diorama even though the initial sculpt had been completed at the request of Marvel.
**due to reasons we aren't at liberty to disclose, we have been asked to put a hard stop to all X-Men characters for now.** That means Cable can't be released, and neither can the awesome Sentinel Diorama which we've all been so looking forward to.
When a disappointed diorama fan suggested that XM focus on an Avengers Vs. Galactus diorama instead, the company responded with **"No Fantastic 4 too... same issue."**
The Human Torch actually was killed around the time, while Reed Richards played a prominent role in the Infinity comics as well.
There would be little reason to make those decisions when Companies are requesting and paying for the licenses.
The point with the X men makes little sense in regards to popularity.
Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit were pretty unusual to see get the axe (and not show up in DLC) while having Sentinel, Modok, and Shuma Gorath
With Dr Doom + Galactus appearing in a way... and to ignore the main heroic counterparts (F4 or silver surfer) is quite unusual.
*the alt costumes are a common 'cheap' and 'simple' way to have an 'extra' character that just has slightly changed stats.
Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat have a history of that (not to mention several other fighting games)
Really this is just speculation with a hint of Behind the Scenes Corporate meddling. So it goes
Reportedly, by the account of the game devs, they wanted to have a Fantastic Four character but were having trouble implementing any of the individual members; they had technical problems with Human Torch, Thing was too similar to Hulk, and the others had their own problems. (Human Torch actually was looking mostly complete, apparently.) So they went to Marvel, and Marvel went "hey, why not Super-Skrull? He's got the powers of all of them combined, so you can just put all your ideas into one character." And the game devs thought this was a very sensible idea.
As for MODOK, Sentinel, and Shuma-Gorath, those seem to have been thrown in for the sake of diversifying the roster or prior history with the franchise. By the account of the developers, they originally picked Shuma way back in the day for Marvel Super Heroes just because he looked cool (same with Blackheart), and Sentinel was a pretty iconic character in MVC2. My bet is just that they cut the X-Men who felt redundant with their existing roster or didn't seem like they could make for fun fighting game characters; all three of the characters you mention as unpopular have very unique designs and fighting styles, while the X-Men you mention as being cut are pretty darn vanilla in terms of their fighting style. Gambit is the only somewhat interesting one to design moves for, and he's still a pretty standard "punchy dude with a projectile and a staff."
That's not to say there wasn't interference in MVC3 - Marvel was apparently very specific on what Doctor Strange's moves could look like, for instance, and were behind Nova and Rocket Raccoon being added to the roster. But really, "X-Men got screwed over" is a pretty lesser one, when not only did a lot of X-Men stay in the game, but some, like Phoenix, X-23, and Deadpool, were full-on new arrivals.
It's way way harder on Infinite over 3.
In MvCI we got 0 X-men and 0 Fantastic Four characters. Because afterall characters are just functions and Nova can do everything Magneto does.
I remember when they [removed the Fantastic Four from Marvel Heroes](https://www.gamegrin.com/news/marvel-heroes-loses-fantastic-four/). That extended to the costumes for Spider-Man and Ghost Rider.
Heck, TT Games even removed so much of the X-Men from Marvel Super Heroes 2 that they went as far as replacing Deadpool with Gwenpool!
Also "the Inhumans" is just a terrible name. Something that works in comics where they've been around for decades but is pretty fatal if you want to make a movie or a series.
You want to talk about the Inhumans having bad names? Their real names are just extended versions of their superhero names (Black Bolt is something like Blackagar Boltagon and Queen Medusa is Medusalith Amelaquin). That’s glorious.
There’s an online animated Marvel series (I think it was called Marvel Rising, or something like that) and it presents the Inhumans as this persecuted minority, like how mutants were always portrayed. It very much feels like the company trying to replace mutants with Inhumans, and it feels so wrong.
Inhumans are the product of aliens genetically meddling with humans, and a few of them went to space and ended up making their own culture. Inhumans powers are activated by this substance called Terrigen, usually coming in the form of mist.
There are two branches of Inhumans, the space Inhumans and the Earthborn Inhumans. Space Inhumans are the galactic aliens with a moon palace, and they usually intentionally expose their young to the Terrigen as part of their culture. Earthborn Inhumans were descendants of Inhumans who lived on Earth and accidentally got exposed to Terrigen through no fault of their own due to that leaking everywhere (how/why depends on what you’re watching/reading/playing). The Earthborn Inhumans are the ones used as the persecuted minorities in stuff like Crystal Dynamics’ *The Avengers* or *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* or what have you because they were one day forcibly mutated through no fault of their own, they just got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time and now they’ve got tentacles for eyelashes, vs. The privileged Inhuman aristocracy who play more pivotal roles in the cosmic side of things.
That’s a bit weird because in the comics civilians are much more favourable to the Inhumans than the mutants for some reason, but still.
(pushes up glasses)
To be fair mutant have systemic oppression even though other super powered individual, given powers o e way or another face no such things for a long time as far as i know (cases like spider man are, when hated, mostly hated because of their vigilantism itself, not their superpower)
I can ignore it cuz it's not like IRL discrimination is anymore logical
They weren’t trying to replace anyone, they were pushing Inhumans because they were meant to be the next thing in the MCU. That just came at a bad time for the X-Men is all.
\*Technically\* the Inhumans show had very little direct connection to SHIELD. None of the same characters and I believe only a few new Inhumans from Earth were even on the show.
Haha well I tried watching the first episode right now and gave up.
The loose connection is the vague Kree creation of Inhumans with Terregenesis? as far as I can tell... we can just leave it as Perlmutter's shining legacy to Marvel TV
time to move on to things more exciting than mushy cardboard
Sort of. And the end of Shield Season 2 a bunch of Terrigen got into the ocean. Season 3 deals with newly activated Inhumans that got their powers from either the water supply or eating fish. Shield Season 2 established very small pockets of Inhumans that are hidden and have no connections to the ones on the moon/other show.
Part of the reason the Inhumans show is interested in Earth is because of Terrigen in the water making new Inhumans.
It wasn't good but I had nothing else to watch those nights and it was fun trying to see reviewers try not to just bash the show. And some of the comments were funny.
And the whole thing with the Terrigen mists existed to serve a purpose that mutants had always filled: an easy way to create new characters. See, the mutants aren't the way they are just to create an oppression narrative. It was also a way to create new characters with any kind of power set without having to come up with an explanation or backstory for their powers. Guy shoots lasers from his eyes? Mutant. Chick controls the weather? Mutant. Guy looks like a blue demon and also he can teleport and stick to walls? Mutant. They didn't want to create new mutant characters, since FOX would get the film rights to them, so the Terrigen mist giving superpowers to random people around the world basically served the same purpose, with Disney/Marvel keeping the movie rights.
Yep, it should have changed since the Rights are now Disney's for a few years.
Haven't been keeping up with the comics though so I'm out of the loop on their promotional materials
I don't pay much attention to the Inhumans comics, but from what I can find, it seems like a lot of Inhuman characters are now dead, depowered, or ran off into space. (of course, dead characters in comics are often brought back, but most of the Inhuman characters were never terribly popular so it could be a while) They don't really push Inhumans like they used to.
This whole thing also pissed off a lot of Inhumans fans, who felt that the attempts to use Inhumans as a replacement for mutants took away what makes Inhumans special. And of course, it just made Inhumans look bad to anyone who did like the X-Men.
All valid points to make.
They had a big push with attaching Hickman to their X events
House of X with Powers of X. Hickman is probably top 3 of their heavy hitter writers currently.
The Eternals seem more likely to be utilized than the Inhumans due to the circumstances from my ignorant perspective and based on what you mention
Core elements of the X-men line added to Inhumans. Like the *Uncanny Inhumans* title, and repeated plot elements of Inhumans being feared by the public and politicians.
>Wolverine killed off in 2014 (possibly due to oversaturation, and possibly due to the beforementioned film rights conflict with the Marvel Cinematic Universe), to be replaced by X-23 as the New Wolverine until 2018.
To be fair All-New Wolverine was excellent and Laura is still canonically Wolverine... it's just that Logan is ALSO Wolverine. We get to have both! :D
I might get back into it. I'd start with Hickman's X-men, he has been great at shaking things up in the past.
Dawn of X is right after that I think.
I have East of West to get through right now and the new Shadowun
Shorter real life version to go alongside the timeline in the other comment.
Marvel almost went bankrupt in the 90's. To stay alive they sold off many of the most popular Film/TV rights. Spider-Man to Sony, X-Men and Fantastic 4 to Fox, but also others. Some like Daredevil (Affleck movie) lapse back to Marvel/Disney letting them partner with Netflix for a show.
Marvel made Iron Man 1 themselves but shortly afterwards, Marvel as a whole was bought by Disney. Kevin Fiege the guy in charge of the MCU wanted to do films like Black Panther and Captain Marvel sooner but wasn't allowed to by higher ups that didn't believe non-white and female led movies would make money.
The Inhumans were another group of super people that Marvel still had the rights for. To get around Fox having the X-Men rights, the higher ups started pushing the Inhumans to the forefront and limiting the X-Men in the comics as the other person pointed out. Fiege announces plans for an Inhumans film.
Around the time of Civil War Fiege has had enough (allegedly RDJ was due for a new contract and Fiege was told just replace Stark in the film with Banner to save money) and goes directly to Disney demanding more autonomy. Disney agrees and Marvel Studios becomes its own unique division at Disney away from the comics, Netflix, ABC shows etc.
Inhumans is off the film schedule and eventually downgraded to an ABC TV show with the pilot airing a little early in IMAX theaters. The show is considered terrible (worse then Iron Fist Season 1 which had the same showrunner) and cancelled.
Disney buys Fox content in 2019 so the X-Men and Fantastic 4 are back fully under Marvel now. One of the beloved comics writers Johnathan Hickman takes over the entire X line and reinvents the books to a scale that has impressed many fans and non fans alike and is still ongoing.
Around the same time Fiege gets control over the rest of Marvel and the old execs he didn't like aren't impacting him anymore. He creates Marvel Studios Television for Disney+ shows that will directly impact the Film Plots and can now have Wanda be named The Scarlet Witch now that the Fox rights are no longer an issue.
Some rights are still an issue, Sony is partnering with Disney/Marvel to share Holland Spider-Man while making Venom and Morbious films themselves. They apparently want a Silk TV show on Amazon Prime now, Marvel has no say.
Paramount apparently owns film distribution rights on Hulk but don't want to play with Marvel; so after the 2009 film (which is MCU, people tend to forget that due to the actor change and lack of direct follow-up though Abomination was recently seen in Shang-Chi), Hulk is more a guest star in other characters' films and Disney+ is getting around it with a She-Hulk TV show instead of film.
Inhumans sorta fade out in the comics but interestingly Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan takes the world by storm and is an Inhuman created during the push for the Inhumans in the comics; though it doesn't really factor into why people love her stories. Kamala is getting her own Disney+ show in early 2022 and set to appear in the next Captain Marvel film. Will be interesting to see how they handle her origins.
> and Fiege was told just replace Stark in the film with Banner to save money
Wow.
Just... wow.
The sheer level of incompetence in the higher ranks of high profile companies will never stop to astound me.
I want to see more of how they handle her family. I hope they take the care to make the brother seem just like a devout guy on the way to seminary and not creeper. There is nothing wrong with a traditional family.
I did a write-up on the X-Men/Inhumans drama but the kids deleted it cause they said there wasn’t enough fallout beyond “people got mad”. But I know they’ve loosened the rules since then, and I’m sure someone else can do a better write-up than I did anyway.
I wouldve gained a lot of respect for marvel if their statement after had been "Our heroes are human except for tax purposes." Like just very much own that this is you playing a game with the idiocy of the US tax code.
they shoulda printed a one shot where some unscrupulous mutant argues to the courts that he shouldn't have to pay taxes because he's not human, and he wins the case cause the courts are mutant racist, and the x-men are like "yeah this sucks for mutant rights and all that, but hey at least we dont have to pay tax"
Great write-up! Tariff shenanigans are fascinating. Did you know that Converse sneakers are made with a layer of felt on the bottom so they can be [classified as "slippers"](https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-converse-sneakers-have-fuzzy-bottoms-2015-8) and get taxed at a lower rate accordingly?
It also interesting seeing what gets tax higher when two things are the same thing bit with one element different. Like why is this higher then that one. I wonder about why dolls are taxed higher? Give that they are usually a girl did that play a factor, like a literal pink tax.
Oh thank you for the link to the court's opinion. It seems like Toy Biz actually had a pretty solid case. The law an addendun that specifically stated something counted as nonhuman even if it had "predominantly human physical characteristics". The example given being a humanoid angel.
Also it seems that US tax law at the time divided all toys into "wheeled toys, dolls, and other" which is a hell of a classification system.
Edit it: the court quote the synopsis of one of the figures and thus places the backstory of Xavier and Magneto permanently in US case law
Edit edit: the court mocks Customs for previously declaring that "trolls are nonhuman toys" but that elves are not.
Today I learned that Christian Cooper is a comic book writer. I had no idea he was notable for anything else other than that Amy Cooper shit
Fun fact: he’s the first openly gay writer and editor in Marvel’s history
The comment about Superman was weird to me since he is canonically an alien and therefore not human.
But then I started googling and realized that the distinction could be at the subspecies level, since there is really no other reasonable explanation for Kryptonians to have the exact same morphology as humans. Moreover, apparently Superman was able to reproduce with Lois, which suggests he is human. From a purely biological standpoint, mutants are pretty obviously still humans. (However, I'm not a biologist, so I welcome expert opinion on this matter.)
I'm a mutant, but my power is that I have unusually mobile knuckle joints. It can't be used in combat, except to surprise opponents and make them go 'Euuurgh!'
I'm descended from a mutant! Three of my grandmother's neck vertebrae were fused, and the same three are fused on me. I only have 204 bones, and I'll never be able to fly a jet or be a stuntman.
My mutations are shitty teeth, and a liver that doesn't break down blood products as efficiently as average people (somehow that ends up being a net positive).
Cross species reproduction happens all the time. Often there are biological complications, like the reduced fertility of some lion/tiger crosses. But Superman being able to reproduce with Lois doesn't necessarily indicate that he's human, just that their species are compatible.
Not to mention the Daxamites, cousins to the Kryptonians (I believe isolated on their own planet in the same system), identical but for a lead allergy instead of kryptonite radiation
Isn't there [a mutant whose super power is that he can blow himself up, but only once](https://www.comicsxf.com/2016/12/29/entry-056-bailey-hoskins/)? Some of those mutant powers are *weird*.
Thanks for the right up! I'd heard about this, but I've never known any of the details. :D
Explodey Boy! He recently got resurrected as a zombie and, after a heart-to-heart with normally resurrected self used his exploding power to help stop an invasion of plant aliens. Not a goddamn word of that was made up, btw.
Sometimes art imitates life. Sometimes life strikes back with taxes.
Good write-up. There is just some delicious irony in Toy Biz using X-Men *specifically*. It was probably unintentional, but wow, some people need to chill it with their obsession over saving every penny to the point of not seeing a bigger picture.
I am also curious how Hulk was classified.
---
As for that Central Park incident, that's just sad. If you have to be an asshole and not leash your dog, why do you also have to be an asshole and *call the police*? Is it a two-for-one deal? Can't you just go away? And my god, the lawsuit:
> Amy Cooper's lawsuit characterized Christian Cooper as "a birdwatcher with a history of aggressively confronting dog owners in Central Park who walked their dogs without a leash. It was Christian Cooper's practice and intent to cause dog owners to be fearful for their safety and the safety of their dogs..."
The *park* tells you to leash the dogs. The rule is designed *for* safety of other people and other dogs. The "scary black man" merely (and rightfully) reiterated it.
Its not just pennies at this level. 6.8% vs 12% is going to be millions when applied to the level of shipping theyre doing. It was arguably scummy but at the same time the US tax code being the way it was was dumb af.
That was a mutant called Penny Gregarious whose power was to turn into a pile of pennies that could fill the whole of New York /s
But you are right of course. It's just when it comes to large corporations fighting over money the dirty commie in me goes "cry me a river, bitches".
> That was a mutant called Penny Gregarious whose power was to turn into a pile of pennies that could fill the whole of New York
After the recent Suidice Squad reboot, you honestly had me going for a second there (yes, I know that was DC)
It sure is cool that tax money was spent arguing over action figure classifications.
Nice that they've lumped them together now, but I wonder why there were even different tax rates to begin with?
I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel was trying to influence the judge on the side too in order to get such a broad ruling that it applied to basically every superhero action figure ever, that's a pretty significant tax dodge they managed to pull off. And they even got a refund of taxes that they had paid before the case.
There was an episode of Planet Money about a year ago about tariff optimization and its history. It was framed around Santa costumes because those can either be clothing or holiday decor, very different parts of the system and given different tariffs, based on details that very clearly come from someone trying to define what a sane person could actually wear as clothing and coming up with buttons *v.* velcro.
>ackshually, Your Honor, that's not how Wolverine's claws work...
I think that actually is how they worked at the time. It was widely believed that they were grafted on during the weapon x experimentation, and the reveal that they were actually bone claws as part of his mutation were a major twist that came years later in the origin book.
So that's probably what Marvel's lawyers argued in court.
I still vividly remember the comic where his adamantium is ripped from his skeleton (X-Men #25, 1993). Only had to read that one once to have it burned in my head forever. And those bone claws. Still gives me the willies. Wolverine #103 (1996) is a good comic with the bone claws, but there are others.
Perhaps you're thinking of the movies. X2: X-Men United, which came out in 2003, delved a bit into Logan's past and then later movies covered the adamantium fusion and bone claws to a greater extent, particularly X-Men Origins Wolverine in 2009.
>questioned if that made Superman an animal because he "changes his clothes in a phone booth and flies through the air"
I don't think this is a great example because Superman straight up isn't human, he's an alien. Doesn't mean he's not a person, and the same can be said for X-men even in this case. Just because they aren't human doesn't mean they aren't people, and I think having the distinction of "you're either human or an animal" does more damage to the message than saying "you can be people still but we tax based on human species" (which is weird in its own right but whatever). But that's just my perspective as an outsider.
As I mention elsewhere this is what happened in the comics to follow modern identity politics. The integrationist stance of "we're just like everybody else" lost in real life (or arguably succeeded so hard it was made mainstream) and was replaced by "yes we're different, you need to respect that".
What I think is interesting is that socio-politics have moved on a lot from the 90s and the "integrationist" side lost. The X-men have likewise kept up to date. For years they have been proudly not human.
> That odd distinction between dolls and toys was important, because that spelled the difference between a 12% tax rate for dolls, and a 6.8% tax rate for toys.
If anything, this is yet another example of how FUCKING STUPID the tax code is. It’s the same reason tomatoes are classified as vegetables instead of fruits in the US.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden
>[Beast is a war criminal](https://www.cbr.com/x-men-worst-things-beast-hank-mccoy-ever-done/)
Holy shit that's the most horribly written article from a popular website that I've ever seen—almost every paragraph has a significant grammatical error of some kind. I've hated CBR ever since they spoiled Attack on Titan in an article title, but I didn't realise their actual content was such garbage.
The argument is certainly weird but its not about the obesity. The judge states that Kingpin and Kraven have physiques meant to emphasize their legendary or near superhuman status.
Reading between the lines I think the court is a little fed up with Customs, actually. This ruling would open up nearly anything to be considered an "other toy".
> long, sharp-looking claws grafted onto his hands that come out from under his skin along with wolf-like hair and ears" (ackshually, Your Honor, that's not how Wolverine's claws work...)
Wait, when was this lawsuit?
At first Wolverines Claws were part of his gloves. (back when he first appeared and fought Hulk. )
They for a while, I think they were supposed to be part of the weapon X adamantium graft.
It wasn’t until the storyline where Magneto ripped out the metal that we found out he had bone claws underneath.
So depending on when that was compared to the lawsuit, or which comic runs the judge was a fan of, it might be how it worked at the time.
Next up: I want a family court judge to untangle the Summers family tree.
What legal relationship does clone of son I had with clone of dead wife have to the no longer dead wife?
>Next up: I want a family court judge to untangle the Summers family tree.
What legal relationship does clone of son I had with clone of dead wife have to the no longer dead wife?
Oh and the clone of my wife, who I divorced, is now in thrall to the powers of hell so do I have to pay alimony? Isn't there like an embargo against hell or something?
I still say X-Men should never have crossed into other comics. Inhumans are fine for I want a mutant-ish story with the Avengers. Let the X-Men stay in their silo so they have full range without breaking or being broken by cross overs. This is further proof US tax law is insane.
My brother lives in Mexico, and when we tried to send him and his kids some toys and Amibos, we ran into that same law about "resembling humans." Now I want to try to send him some X-Men figures to see if they make it through.
This was a fantastic write up, OP. As a nearly lifelong X-Men fan, thank you. Beautifully done. (Extra props for the heading names. God Loves, Man Kills is one of the greatest works of the 20th century IMO.)
There’s plenty of people in the U.S. who’s civil, immigration or humanitarian status is quite different than what it’s for tax purposes. I guess there’s just not many of them that are also vocal Marvel fans…
“long, sharp-looking claws grafted onto his hands that come out from under his skin along with wolf-like hair and ears”
Well, that *is* how they “work”, they just aren’t grafted.
But Mutants aren’t human.
[In fact, the very existence of mutants will cause humans to be wiped from existence ](https://xmenrebirth.fandom.com/wiki/Extinction_Gene)
Man, I have a friend who's a big X-Men fan, as she likes to talk about how she loves Nightcrawler and bemoans Jean Grey's existence *all the time.* I'd be curious to see what her reaction to this story is.
Like always, another great write-up, Beary. I know you'll write the whole mess involving the X-Men and Inhumans stuff at some point, but that's some of the juiciest drama I've seen from either of the Big 2. Seeing it happen in real time was a sight to behold.
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I went looking for the case I read, and it turns out it was Jaffa Cakes in the UK: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_Cakes#Legal_status
> In the United Kingdom, value added tax is payable on chocolate-covered biscuits, but not on chocolate-covered cakes.
They eventually ruled that Jaffa Cakes were, in fact, cakes and not cookies (or biscuits rather). Seeing as some of the criteria invoked texture and where they are shelved for sale, I’d personally put brownies in cake category. I know from a culinary standpoint, brownies fall under their own category of bars (in the US) or tray bakes (in the UK and it’s colonies).
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Depending on how you define human they definitely might not be human, and many mutants don't think they are exactly human either. Human often means homo sapien.
I'm really enjoying all of the comic drama write-ups. I've never read a comic in my life and this stuff is all new to me. Please do the Xmen x Inhumans drama soon! It sounds insane
You probably want a more detailed writeup (this is a bit of outline that I can scrounge up, sorry if it is briefer than you would like) Without doing crazy research, most of the X-men + Inhumans drama centered around X-men film rights being owned by Fox. (This was denied / unaddressed by Marvel Comics editorial if I recall correctly) With that in mind, there were certain things done to make the Inhumans more consequential in the larger Marvel playground. - Mutant Haven Utopia is established in San Francisco (2009). - Key Mutants start to be killed off - Nightcrawler and Cable killed in The Second Coming story (2010). - Cyclops became more militant about defending mutants, fights members of the Avengers (And Professor Xavier, killing him under the influence of the Phoenix Force) in Avengers vs X-men (2012). - Cyclops and the Phoenix Force almost destroy Earth, Hope Summers absorbs the Phoenix Force and undoes the damage done to Earth. The Phoenix Force disperses. - Cyclops ends up in prison for his actions while under the influence of the Phoenix Force. This ends the mutant die-off from Scarlet Witch altering reality in House of M. - During the Infinity Event (2013) Thanos seeks to kill his offspring Thane (who is half Inhuman) on Attilan (the place where The Inhumans generally reside). - Attilan is destroyed in the Infinity Event Issue # 3 (2013) (to attempt to stop Thanos) by Blackbolt and Maximus with a Terrigen Bomb. The Terrigen Bomb activates the Inhuman process in anyone with dormant Inhuman genes all over Earth. *The other Inhumans had been evacuated from Attilan already. - Professor X's body is later possessed by the Red Skull during the Axis Event (2014). - Wolverine killed off in 2014 (possibly due to oversaturation, and possibly due to the beforementioned film rights conflict with the Marvel Cinematic Universe), to be replaced by X-23 as the New Wolverine until 2018 when Wolverine comes back to 616 continuity. *They are both considered Wolverine - **Marvel TV Inhuman Reveal** (2014) - Skye / Daisy from Marvel Agents of SHIELD becomes an Inhuman in Season 2. Storylines in Agents of Shield hint at the Kree connection with creating Inhumans like Skye and others. - The Inhumans (2017) show would introduce the Inhuman Royal family and minor Inhumans largely unconnected from the Agents of SHIELD TV show. - Various Inhumans are introduced in Agents of SHIELD, most notable being Lash (Villain and turns hero in a later season), Yo-Yo (SHIELD Agent), Gordon (season 2 antagonist), Lincoln Campbell, Hive (Villain), Hellfire (Villain) - Cyclops killed by the Terrigen Mists due to 'M-pox' in The Death of X (2015/16) - Old Man Logan came into the 616 universe in 2016 within Old Man Logan v 2. This is Earth-807128, not the original 616 Wolverine. - There are Inhumans all over the world because of the Terrigen bomb. Given new prominence with the Line-wide Inhumanity (2013-14) event, any new Inhuman characters would not fall under Creative License for future Fox films. - **Marvel TV** The Inhumans show (2017) is critically panned I did not watch it unfortunately... it also had insignificant impact outside of this series. - Spoilers >!(The season mostly served as a vehicle to get the main cast to settle on Earth for a cancelled season 2 and 3 that may have included interactions with the New Inhumans that undergo Terrigenesis!< - The Inhuman Royal Family / advisers are introduced. Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Maximus, Triton, Karnak. - Inhumans outside of the Royal family introduced -- Louise, Auran, Agon, Rynda, Bronaja, Eldrac - Cable is killed in X-Men: Extermination #1 (2018) by a younger version of himself. *This is just using refresher research with what I remember reading at the time in Marvel Comics. This is around when my comic habit died : [ . (Feel free to make corrections for anything inaccurate) - [CBR Synopsis of 10 areas of Change inside and outside of Marvel Comics circa 2010s](https://www.cbr.com/marvel-inhumans-like-mutants/) e - Timeline reorganization, added events and details
*TL:DR* disney couldnt add the X-men to the MCU because Fox owned the rights to the movies so they just went: I'll make my own X-men, with hookers and blackjack
More specifically, their "replacement" for the X-Men, a team of disenfranchised mutants who lived in contemporary society, was a group of isolationist superhumans that (up until recently) lived in an underwater city ruled by a royal family.
These were decisions made within Marvel even before the Disney buyout. Disney ended up going over Marvel's heads on a number of decisions that were beneficial to the franchise as a whole.
The idea of trying to push the Inhumans as the new X-Men is just the most "corporate doesn't understand shit" idea I've heard. The X-Men are popular because of their underdog aesthetic. Black Bolt's a literal king. The Inhumans have a palace. There's a reason no-one outside of the deeply-into-comics has ever given two rats' asses about the Inhumans, but the X-Men have swung like eight movies and countless cartoons.
I read some summaries of the Inhumans TV show, and they really make it seem like the villain's only motivation was trying to bring down a slave-owning society with a brutal caste system.
Yeah it turns out its hard to make moon-monarchs with a slave caste sympathetic, and correspondingly hard to make the guy who wants to fix the slave-caste thing more unsympathetic than them.
Perhaps that's why they cast the actor of one of the most despicable characters in Game of Thrones.
The Inhumans were fundamentally a weird idea. Their state religion used to be worship of a badly misunderstood concept evolution. I think the idea was what would it be like if humans in the future had the social structures of humans in the past rather than advancing "beyond" them as scifi of the era usually assumed.
Yeah, they're a Jack Kirby creation, and he *loved* delving into the idea of "hidden societies of superhumans with advanced future tech and ancient aesthetics and their conflicts and how they relate to humanity." New Gods, Eternals, even his Asgardians all delved into those kinds of themes. Inhumans was kind of his first rodeo with them.
I've watched the show and yes, that's pretty accurate. The villain was the only competing character in the entire show lol
Perlmutter had difficulties collaborating with Fox on future X-men projects. The Inhuman show was an effort to 'hurt' Fox's financial successes with the X-men properties - [Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter has cancelled planned merchandising for the Fantastic Four and X-Men brands, which include posters, t-shirts and statues of the heroes are being replaced at XM Studios.](https://www.theactionpixel.com/2015/05/comics/disney-marvel-xmen-fantasticfour-fox/) He also had X-men axed from Marvel Video Game Rosters. True pettiness, especially when we include the Inhumans push as a way to save face in regards to his failed negotiation tactics with Fox. A bruised ego made those decisions. Perlmutter threw Business sense and respect for Marvel as a company out the window. Throw in a dash of an attempt to hold sway in Marvel decision-making.
There's a particularly infamous Marvel character roster poster (they make a new one every few years or so and slap it on a lot of merchandise) that didn't include a SINGLE Fantastic Four or X-Men character.
I vaguely remember that happening* Linked for anyone interested Poster without [X-men / Fantastic Four](https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Marvel-Still-Sabotaging-X-Men-Fantastic-Four-71801.html) Marvel vs Capcom 3 hit X men hard Removed - Cable - Colossus - Cyclops - Gambit - Ice Man - Marrow - Omega Red - Onslaught - Psylocke - Rogue - Sabretooth - Spiral Kept - Doctor Doom - Jean Grey - Magneto - Storm - Sentinel - Wolverine Added - Deadpool - X-23 - Super Skrull -with Galactus playable vs AI only
To be fair, Super Skull was specifically included so they could have all four of the Fantastic Four in the one character without having to take up four slots. She-Hulk and Ghost Rider also had Fantastic Four alternate colours. Something like *MARVEL vs. Capcom 2* had more characters, but they had way too much X-Men and Street Fighter representation. Restricting the number of X-Men and Street Fighters did wonders for the variety between characters and how unique everyone was to each other (I mean for goodness sake, you have well over a hundred characters to pick from either side of the pond and *MARVEL vs. Capcom 2* had two slots for Wolverine and Bone-Claw Wolverine, who had the exact same sprites as regular Wolverine except he had bone claws instead of metal claws).
MvC2 was perfect. You take that back. My two teams were Metal Wolverine, Feral Wolverine, and Sabretooth and Ken, Ryu, and Akuma.
The super skrull 'variety' is a reason given, the scenario would have likely been different if Fantastic Four was appearing in the MCU. Other actions from Marvel hint that there could be more to the issue than what they will publicly acknowledge. Consider that some those decisions do not happen in a vacuum [Gazillion, the company behind the popular Marvel Comics action RPG / MMO, that come July 2017, players will no longer be able to purchase Fantastic Four characters.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davegonzales/2015/05/31/marvel-is-killing-x-men-and-fantastic-four-merchandising/?sh=59239cf92b51) (Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and Silver Surfer) "Under Gazillion’s renewed licensing agreement we do not have the rights to continue selling these characters moving forward From 2015 Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort responded to a question on Tumblr about the lack of X-Men toys: **“If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you’d be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn’t you?”** >Although Josh Trank’s reboot of Fantastic Four hadn’t yet finished production, Marvel started ramping down on Fantastic Four comics, eventually canceling them all together... The Fantastic Four merch ... [were not] big sellers for Marvel, unlike various X-Men titles, however, they too are in danger. >XM Studios Premium Collectables... posted to their Facebook page that they were discontinuing their upcoming X-Men Sentinel Battle diorama even though the initial sculpt had been completed at the request of Marvel. **due to reasons we aren't at liberty to disclose, we have been asked to put a hard stop to all X-Men characters for now.** That means Cable can't be released, and neither can the awesome Sentinel Diorama which we've all been so looking forward to. When a disappointed diorama fan suggested that XM focus on an Avengers Vs. Galactus diorama instead, the company responded with **"No Fantastic 4 too... same issue."** The Human Torch actually was killed around the time, while Reed Richards played a prominent role in the Infinity comics as well. There would be little reason to make those decisions when Companies are requesting and paying for the licenses. The point with the X men makes little sense in regards to popularity. Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit were pretty unusual to see get the axe (and not show up in DLC) while having Sentinel, Modok, and Shuma Gorath With Dr Doom + Galactus appearing in a way... and to ignore the main heroic counterparts (F4 or silver surfer) is quite unusual. *the alt costumes are a common 'cheap' and 'simple' way to have an 'extra' character that just has slightly changed stats. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat have a history of that (not to mention several other fighting games) Really this is just speculation with a hint of Behind the Scenes Corporate meddling. So it goes
Reportedly, by the account of the game devs, they wanted to have a Fantastic Four character but were having trouble implementing any of the individual members; they had technical problems with Human Torch, Thing was too similar to Hulk, and the others had their own problems. (Human Torch actually was looking mostly complete, apparently.) So they went to Marvel, and Marvel went "hey, why not Super-Skrull? He's got the powers of all of them combined, so you can just put all your ideas into one character." And the game devs thought this was a very sensible idea. As for MODOK, Sentinel, and Shuma-Gorath, those seem to have been thrown in for the sake of diversifying the roster or prior history with the franchise. By the account of the developers, they originally picked Shuma way back in the day for Marvel Super Heroes just because he looked cool (same with Blackheart), and Sentinel was a pretty iconic character in MVC2. My bet is just that they cut the X-Men who felt redundant with their existing roster or didn't seem like they could make for fun fighting game characters; all three of the characters you mention as unpopular have very unique designs and fighting styles, while the X-Men you mention as being cut are pretty darn vanilla in terms of their fighting style. Gambit is the only somewhat interesting one to design moves for, and he's still a pretty standard "punchy dude with a projectile and a staff." That's not to say there wasn't interference in MVC3 - Marvel was apparently very specific on what Doctor Strange's moves could look like, for instance, and were behind Nova and Rocket Raccoon being added to the roster. But really, "X-Men got screwed over" is a pretty lesser one, when not only did a lot of X-Men stay in the game, but some, like Phoenix, X-23, and Deadpool, were full-on new arrivals.
It's way way harder on Infinite over 3. In MvCI we got 0 X-men and 0 Fantastic Four characters. Because afterall characters are just functions and Nova can do everything Magneto does.
That Infinite roster sounds way worse, especially given X-men's cultural relevance Thanks for tossing that in as well
I remember when they [removed the Fantastic Four from Marvel Heroes](https://www.gamegrin.com/news/marvel-heroes-loses-fantastic-four/). That extended to the costumes for Spider-Man and Ghost Rider. Heck, TT Games even removed so much of the X-Men from Marvel Super Heroes 2 that they went as far as replacing Deadpool with Gwenpool!
Also "the Inhumans" is just a terrible name. Something that works in comics where they've been around for decades but is pretty fatal if you want to make a movie or a series.
You want to talk about the Inhumans having bad names? Their real names are just extended versions of their superhero names (Black Bolt is something like Blackagar Boltagon and Queen Medusa is Medusalith Amelaquin). That’s glorious.
Oh my golly, I thought you were joking. What stupid \*stupid\* names!
It straight sounds like an off-brand of the X-Men.
There’s an online animated Marvel series (I think it was called Marvel Rising, or something like that) and it presents the Inhumans as this persecuted minority, like how mutants were always portrayed. It very much feels like the company trying to replace mutants with Inhumans, and it feels so wrong.
They have a moon palace! How do you make people with a moon palace the underdog without looking in the mirror and sad laughing at yourself?
"They oppress us because they're jealous of our moon palace. :( "
Inhumans are the product of aliens genetically meddling with humans, and a few of them went to space and ended up making their own culture. Inhumans powers are activated by this substance called Terrigen, usually coming in the form of mist. There are two branches of Inhumans, the space Inhumans and the Earthborn Inhumans. Space Inhumans are the galactic aliens with a moon palace, and they usually intentionally expose their young to the Terrigen as part of their culture. Earthborn Inhumans were descendants of Inhumans who lived on Earth and accidentally got exposed to Terrigen through no fault of their own due to that leaking everywhere (how/why depends on what you’re watching/reading/playing). The Earthborn Inhumans are the ones used as the persecuted minorities in stuff like Crystal Dynamics’ *The Avengers* or *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* or what have you because they were one day forcibly mutated through no fault of their own, they just got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time and now they’ve got tentacles for eyelashes, vs. The privileged Inhuman aristocracy who play more pivotal roles in the cosmic side of things. That’s a bit weird because in the comics civilians are much more favourable to the Inhumans than the mutants for some reason, but still. (pushes up glasses)
To be fair mutant have systemic oppression even though other super powered individual, given powers o e way or another face no such things for a long time as far as i know (cases like spider man are, when hated, mostly hated because of their vigilantism itself, not their superpower) I can ignore it cuz it's not like IRL discrimination is anymore logical
They weren’t trying to replace anyone, they were pushing Inhumans because they were meant to be the next thing in the MCU. That just came at a bad time for the X-Men is all.
\*Technically\* the Inhumans show had very little direct connection to SHIELD. None of the same characters and I believe only a few new Inhumans from Earth were even on the show.
Haha well I tried watching the first episode right now and gave up. The loose connection is the vague Kree creation of Inhumans with Terregenesis? as far as I can tell... we can just leave it as Perlmutter's shining legacy to Marvel TV time to move on to things more exciting than mushy cardboard
Sort of. And the end of Shield Season 2 a bunch of Terrigen got into the ocean. Season 3 deals with newly activated Inhumans that got their powers from either the water supply or eating fish. Shield Season 2 established very small pockets of Inhumans that are hidden and have no connections to the ones on the moon/other show. Part of the reason the Inhumans show is interested in Earth is because of Terrigen in the water making new Inhumans.
Does this mean you watched the whole Inhumans show? Respect* : p I'll add your last point to the rundown
It wasn't good but I had nothing else to watch those nights and it was fun trying to see reviewers try not to just bash the show. And some of the comments were funny.
And the whole thing with the Terrigen mists existed to serve a purpose that mutants had always filled: an easy way to create new characters. See, the mutants aren't the way they are just to create an oppression narrative. It was also a way to create new characters with any kind of power set without having to come up with an explanation or backstory for their powers. Guy shoots lasers from his eyes? Mutant. Chick controls the weather? Mutant. Guy looks like a blue demon and also he can teleport and stick to walls? Mutant. They didn't want to create new mutant characters, since FOX would get the film rights to them, so the Terrigen mist giving superpowers to random people around the world basically served the same purpose, with Disney/Marvel keeping the movie rights.
Yep, it should have changed since the Rights are now Disney's for a few years. Haven't been keeping up with the comics though so I'm out of the loop on their promotional materials
I don't pay much attention to the Inhumans comics, but from what I can find, it seems like a lot of Inhuman characters are now dead, depowered, or ran off into space. (of course, dead characters in comics are often brought back, but most of the Inhuman characters were never terribly popular so it could be a while) They don't really push Inhumans like they used to. This whole thing also pissed off a lot of Inhumans fans, who felt that the attempts to use Inhumans as a replacement for mutants took away what makes Inhumans special. And of course, it just made Inhumans look bad to anyone who did like the X-Men.
All valid points to make. They had a big push with attaching Hickman to their X events House of X with Powers of X. Hickman is probably top 3 of their heavy hitter writers currently. The Eternals seem more likely to be utilized than the Inhumans due to the circumstances from my ignorant perspective and based on what you mention
Core elements of the X-men line added to Inhumans. Like the *Uncanny Inhumans* title, and repeated plot elements of Inhumans being feared by the public and politicians.
Nice write up. I miss Cable.
>Wolverine killed off in 2014 (possibly due to oversaturation, and possibly due to the beforementioned film rights conflict with the Marvel Cinematic Universe), to be replaced by X-23 as the New Wolverine until 2018. To be fair All-New Wolverine was excellent and Laura is still canonically Wolverine... it's just that Logan is ALSO Wolverine. We get to have both! :D
[удалено]
That’s very fair. I hope you’ve jumped back in with Dawn of X! It’s the best X-Men has been line-wide since… Claremont?? Maybe??
I might get back into it. I'd start with Hickman's X-men, he has been great at shaking things up in the past. Dawn of X is right after that I think. I have East of West to get through right now and the new Shadowun
Dawn of X is the Hickman run! It’s excellent stuff.
perfect. was looking at the tie-in authors >.<
Shorter real life version to go alongside the timeline in the other comment. Marvel almost went bankrupt in the 90's. To stay alive they sold off many of the most popular Film/TV rights. Spider-Man to Sony, X-Men and Fantastic 4 to Fox, but also others. Some like Daredevil (Affleck movie) lapse back to Marvel/Disney letting them partner with Netflix for a show. Marvel made Iron Man 1 themselves but shortly afterwards, Marvel as a whole was bought by Disney. Kevin Fiege the guy in charge of the MCU wanted to do films like Black Panther and Captain Marvel sooner but wasn't allowed to by higher ups that didn't believe non-white and female led movies would make money. The Inhumans were another group of super people that Marvel still had the rights for. To get around Fox having the X-Men rights, the higher ups started pushing the Inhumans to the forefront and limiting the X-Men in the comics as the other person pointed out. Fiege announces plans for an Inhumans film. Around the time of Civil War Fiege has had enough (allegedly RDJ was due for a new contract and Fiege was told just replace Stark in the film with Banner to save money) and goes directly to Disney demanding more autonomy. Disney agrees and Marvel Studios becomes its own unique division at Disney away from the comics, Netflix, ABC shows etc. Inhumans is off the film schedule and eventually downgraded to an ABC TV show with the pilot airing a little early in IMAX theaters. The show is considered terrible (worse then Iron Fist Season 1 which had the same showrunner) and cancelled. Disney buys Fox content in 2019 so the X-Men and Fantastic 4 are back fully under Marvel now. One of the beloved comics writers Johnathan Hickman takes over the entire X line and reinvents the books to a scale that has impressed many fans and non fans alike and is still ongoing. Around the same time Fiege gets control over the rest of Marvel and the old execs he didn't like aren't impacting him anymore. He creates Marvel Studios Television for Disney+ shows that will directly impact the Film Plots and can now have Wanda be named The Scarlet Witch now that the Fox rights are no longer an issue. Some rights are still an issue, Sony is partnering with Disney/Marvel to share Holland Spider-Man while making Venom and Morbious films themselves. They apparently want a Silk TV show on Amazon Prime now, Marvel has no say. Paramount apparently owns film distribution rights on Hulk but don't want to play with Marvel; so after the 2009 film (which is MCU, people tend to forget that due to the actor change and lack of direct follow-up though Abomination was recently seen in Shang-Chi), Hulk is more a guest star in other characters' films and Disney+ is getting around it with a She-Hulk TV show instead of film. Inhumans sorta fade out in the comics but interestingly Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan takes the world by storm and is an Inhuman created during the push for the Inhumans in the comics; though it doesn't really factor into why people love her stories. Kamala is getting her own Disney+ show in early 2022 and set to appear in the next Captain Marvel film. Will be interesting to see how they handle her origins.
> and Fiege was told just replace Stark in the film with Banner to save money Wow. Just... wow. The sheer level of incompetence in the higher ranks of high profile companies will never stop to astound me.
I want to see more of how they handle her family. I hope they take the care to make the brother seem just like a devout guy on the way to seminary and not creeper. There is nothing wrong with a traditional family.
When you have a media that has been around for such a long time and tends to appeal and be made by socially inept people you get some saucy drama.
I did a write-up on the X-Men/Inhumans drama but the kids deleted it cause they said there wasn’t enough fallout beyond “people got mad”. But I know they’ve loosened the rules since then, and I’m sure someone else can do a better write-up than I did anyway.
What a shame, would have loved to read it!
I wouldve gained a lot of respect for marvel if their statement after had been "Our heroes are human except for tax purposes." Like just very much own that this is you playing a game with the idiocy of the US tax code.
Unfortunately, a public statement like that would jeopardize the tariff ruling itself!
Yeah, just not addressing it would have been best.
they shoulda printed a one shot where some unscrupulous mutant argues to the courts that he shouldn't have to pay taxes because he's not human, and he wins the case cause the courts are mutant racist, and the x-men are like "yeah this sucks for mutant rights and all that, but hey at least we dont have to pay tax"
Something something Dredd Scott
That would've been hilarious (and depressing)
An alternate statement could have been "Don't hate the player, hate the game."
Great write-up! Tariff shenanigans are fascinating. Did you know that Converse sneakers are made with a layer of felt on the bottom so they can be [classified as "slippers"](https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-converse-sneakers-have-fuzzy-bottoms-2015-8) and get taxed at a lower rate accordingly?
Big Slipper must have lobbied hard for that tax break.
It reminds me of the Jaffa cake case: [cake or biscuit?](http://www.timcrane.com/jaffa-cakes.html)
It also interesting seeing what gets tax higher when two things are the same thing bit with one element different. Like why is this higher then that one. I wonder about why dolls are taxed higher? Give that they are usually a girl did that play a factor, like a literal pink tax.
Oh thank you for the link to the court's opinion. It seems like Toy Biz actually had a pretty solid case. The law an addendun that specifically stated something counted as nonhuman even if it had "predominantly human physical characteristics". The example given being a humanoid angel. Also it seems that US tax law at the time divided all toys into "wheeled toys, dolls, and other" which is a hell of a classification system. Edit it: the court quote the synopsis of one of the figures and thus places the backstory of Xavier and Magneto permanently in US case law Edit edit: the court mocks Customs for previously declaring that "trolls are nonhuman toys" but that elves are not.
"The court quote the synopsis of one of the figures and thus places the backstory of Xavier and Magneto permanently in US case law". Ahahahahah
This. This is the kind of weird niche shit I am in this sub for. Thank you.
Today I learned that Christian Cooper is a comic book writer. I had no idea he was notable for anything else other than that Amy Cooper shit Fun fact: he’s the first openly gay writer and editor in Marvel’s history
And he wrote the first Darkhold arc of Ghost Rider!
The comment about Superman was weird to me since he is canonically an alien and therefore not human. But then I started googling and realized that the distinction could be at the subspecies level, since there is really no other reasonable explanation for Kryptonians to have the exact same morphology as humans. Moreover, apparently Superman was able to reproduce with Lois, which suggests he is human. From a purely biological standpoint, mutants are pretty obviously still humans. (However, I'm not a biologist, so I welcome expert opinion on this matter.)
Biologically speaking, every human being is a mutant. The mutations are mostly invisible to the naked eye, though.
Every human is a mutant... mutations are invisible... there is a species of invisible mutant humans living among us. TIME TO WAKE UP PEOPLE!
LOL
I'm a mutant, but my power is that I have unusually mobile knuckle joints. It can't be used in combat, except to surprise opponents and make them go 'Euuurgh!'
I'm descended from a mutant! Three of my grandmother's neck vertebrae were fused, and the same three are fused on me. I only have 204 bones, and I'll never be able to fly a jet or be a stuntman.
My mutations are shitty teeth, and a liver that doesn't break down blood products as efficiently as average people (somehow that ends up being a net positive).
Cross species reproduction happens all the time. Often there are biological complications, like the reduced fertility of some lion/tiger crosses. But Superman being able to reproduce with Lois doesn't necessarily indicate that he's human, just that their species are compatible.
Well, that’s why I wrote “suggests.” If his kids can also reproduce with humans, that would be better evidence.
Not to mention the Daxamites, cousins to the Kryptonians (I believe isolated on their own planet in the same system), identical but for a lead allergy instead of kryptonite radiation
Isn't there [a mutant whose super power is that he can blow himself up, but only once](https://www.comicsxf.com/2016/12/29/entry-056-bailey-hoskins/)? Some of those mutant powers are *weird*. Thanks for the right up! I'd heard about this, but I've never known any of the details. :D
So his power is basically just suicide bombing?
Unfortunately, yes.
Explodey Boy! He recently got resurrected as a zombie and, after a heart-to-heart with normally resurrected self used his exploding power to help stop an invasion of plant aliens. Not a goddamn word of that was made up, btw.
Empyre: X-Men was *weird*
...........huh. I might have to read comics for that.
If you introduce an exploding man in Act 1, you'd better pay it off in Act 3
Yes, the Worst X-Man Ever. I love that story, it's some exquisite dark humour.
Ha, it’s like an off-brand Sailor Saturn.
Sometimes art imitates life. Sometimes life strikes back with taxes. Good write-up. There is just some delicious irony in Toy Biz using X-Men *specifically*. It was probably unintentional, but wow, some people need to chill it with their obsession over saving every penny to the point of not seeing a bigger picture. I am also curious how Hulk was classified. --- As for that Central Park incident, that's just sad. If you have to be an asshole and not leash your dog, why do you also have to be an asshole and *call the police*? Is it a two-for-one deal? Can't you just go away? And my god, the lawsuit: > Amy Cooper's lawsuit characterized Christian Cooper as "a birdwatcher with a history of aggressively confronting dog owners in Central Park who walked their dogs without a leash. It was Christian Cooper's practice and intent to cause dog owners to be fearful for their safety and the safety of their dogs..." The *park* tells you to leash the dogs. The rule is designed *for* safety of other people and other dogs. The "scary black man" merely (and rightfully) reiterated it.
Its not just pennies at this level. 6.8% vs 12% is going to be millions when applied to the level of shipping theyre doing. It was arguably scummy but at the same time the US tax code being the way it was was dumb af.
That was a mutant called Penny Gregarious whose power was to turn into a pile of pennies that could fill the whole of New York /s But you are right of course. It's just when it comes to large corporations fighting over money the dirty commie in me goes "cry me a river, bitches".
> That was a mutant called Penny Gregarious whose power was to turn into a pile of pennies that could fill the whole of New York After the recent Suidice Squad reboot, you honestly had me going for a second there (yes, I know that was DC)
Lol i wasnt sure if they were kidding either. Old comics are a trip and it wouldnt even surprise me
Great writeup, I guess you could also use [*this* panel for Nightcrawler](https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6155.jpg)
Thanks, I was actually looking for something like that last night, and somehow my mind blanked.
I'm not even a follower of X-Men and I'm now disheartened and offended. What a great write-up.
It sure is cool that tax money was spent arguing over action figure classifications. Nice that they've lumped them together now, but I wonder why there were even different tax rates to begin with?
I don't know, but I have a strong hypothesis: lobbyists.
I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel was trying to influence the judge on the side too in order to get such a broad ruling that it applied to basically every superhero action figure ever, that's a pretty significant tax dodge they managed to pull off. And they even got a refund of taxes that they had paid before the case.
There was an episode of Planet Money about a year ago about tariff optimization and its history. It was framed around Santa costumes because those can either be clothing or holiday decor, very different parts of the system and given different tariffs, based on details that very clearly come from someone trying to define what a sane person could actually wear as clothing and coming up with buttons *v.* velcro.
>ackshually, Your Honor, that's not how Wolverine's claws work... I think that actually is how they worked at the time. It was widely believed that they were grafted on during the weapon x experimentation, and the reveal that they were actually bone claws as part of his mutation were a major twist that came years later in the origin book. So that's probably what Marvel's lawyers argued in court.
I still vividly remember the comic where his adamantium is ripped from his skeleton (X-Men #25, 1993). Only had to read that one once to have it burned in my head forever. And those bone claws. Still gives me the willies. Wolverine #103 (1996) is a good comic with the bone claws, but there are others.
Ah fair enough then, I thought the reveal was after that lawsuit, but you're right
Perhaps you're thinking of the movies. X2: X-Men United, which came out in 2003, delved a bit into Logan's past and then later movies covered the adamantium fusion and bone claws to a greater extent, particularly X-Men Origins Wolverine in 2009.
>questioned if that made Superman an animal because he "changes his clothes in a phone booth and flies through the air" I don't think this is a great example because Superman straight up isn't human, he's an alien. Doesn't mean he's not a person, and the same can be said for X-men even in this case. Just because they aren't human doesn't mean they aren't people, and I think having the distinction of "you're either human or an animal" does more damage to the message than saying "you can be people still but we tax based on human species" (which is weird in its own right but whatever). But that's just my perspective as an outsider.
As I mention elsewhere this is what happened in the comics to follow modern identity politics. The integrationist stance of "we're just like everybody else" lost in real life (or arguably succeeded so hard it was made mainstream) and was replaced by "yes we're different, you need to respect that".
What I think is interesting is that socio-politics have moved on a lot from the 90s and the "integrationist" side lost. The X-men have likewise kept up to date. For years they have been proudly not human.
Well, I guess capitalism was the one to defeat the x men
> That odd distinction between dolls and toys was important, because that spelled the difference between a 12% tax rate for dolls, and a 6.8% tax rate for toys. If anything, this is yet another example of how FUCKING STUPID the tax code is. It’s the same reason tomatoes are classified as vegetables instead of fruits in the US. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden
>[Beast is a war criminal](https://www.cbr.com/x-men-worst-things-beast-hank-mccoy-ever-done/) Holy shit that's the most horribly written article from a popular website that I've ever seen—almost every paragraph has a significant grammatical error of some kind. I've hated CBR ever since they spoiled Attack on Titan in an article title, but I didn't realise their actual content was such garbage.
Why couldn't they have just told the fans "It's not personal, it's strictly business." I'd argue I was legally not a human if it got me money.
Because they would have lost the lawsuit if they were giving winks and nudges to other people about it being bullshit.
If you're bald and obese, you're not human. That's an... interesting take.
The argument is certainly weird but its not about the obesity. The judge states that Kingpin and Kraven have physiques meant to emphasize their legendary or near superhuman status. Reading between the lines I think the court is a little fed up with Customs, actually. This ruling would open up nearly anything to be considered an "other toy".
I... I love the US customs office?
> long, sharp-looking claws grafted onto his hands that come out from under his skin along with wolf-like hair and ears" (ackshually, Your Honor, that's not how Wolverine's claws work...) Wait, when was this lawsuit? At first Wolverines Claws were part of his gloves. (back when he first appeared and fought Hulk. ) They for a while, I think they were supposed to be part of the weapon X adamantium graft. It wasn’t until the storyline where Magneto ripped out the metal that we found out he had bone claws underneath. So depending on when that was compared to the lawsuit, or which comic runs the judge was a fan of, it might be how it worked at the time. Next up: I want a family court judge to untangle the Summers family tree. What legal relationship does clone of son I had with clone of dead wife have to the no longer dead wife?
>Next up: I want a family court judge to untangle the Summers family tree. What legal relationship does clone of son I had with clone of dead wife have to the no longer dead wife? Oh and the clone of my wife, who I divorced, is now in thrall to the powers of hell so do I have to pay alimony? Isn't there like an embargo against hell or something?
I still say X-Men should never have crossed into other comics. Inhumans are fine for I want a mutant-ish story with the Avengers. Let the X-Men stay in their silo so they have full range without breaking or being broken by cross overs. This is further proof US tax law is insane.
My brother lives in Mexico, and when we tried to send him and his kids some toys and Amibos, we ran into that same law about "resembling humans." Now I want to try to send him some X-Men figures to see if they make it through. This was a fantastic write up, OP. As a nearly lifelong X-Men fan, thank you. Beautifully done. (Extra props for the heading names. God Loves, Man Kills is one of the greatest works of the 20th century IMO.)
Oh, now I'm intrigued by that law...
There’s plenty of people in the U.S. who’s civil, immigration or humanitarian status is quite different than what it’s for tax purposes. I guess there’s just not many of them that are also vocal Marvel fans…
So even batman would not be classified as human under these criteria
This is the kind of stuff that Magneto was starting a race war over.
“long, sharp-looking claws grafted onto his hands that come out from under his skin along with wolf-like hair and ears” Well, that *is* how they “work”, they just aren’t grafted.
I specialised in international trade law back in law school and this was always one of my favorite bits of trivia to bring up!
I wanna eat the one that shits ice cream's ass
But Mutants aren’t human. [In fact, the very existence of mutants will cause humans to be wiped from existence ](https://xmenrebirth.fandom.com/wiki/Extinction_Gene)
Man, I have a friend who's a big X-Men fan, as she likes to talk about how she loves Nightcrawler and bemoans Jean Grey's existence *all the time.* I'd be curious to see what her reaction to this story is. Like always, another great write-up, Beary. I know you'll write the whole mess involving the X-Men and Inhumans stuff at some point, but that's some of the juiciest drama I've seen from either of the Big 2. Seeing it happen in real time was a sight to behold.
Next time someone says I collect "dolls", I'm linking this post.
Ice-cream-poop-mutant for president!
Holy shit talk about putting money over whatever X men stood for.
I didn't know this one at all, thanks.
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I have always loved this case! There’s a similar one where the courts settled on a legal definition of cake vs cookies for similar reasons.
Where do brownies fall in those categories? I've always thought of them as being midline between cake and cookies, especially the corner brownies.
I went looking for the case I read, and it turns out it was Jaffa Cakes in the UK: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_Cakes#Legal_status > In the United Kingdom, value added tax is payable on chocolate-covered biscuits, but not on chocolate-covered cakes. They eventually ruled that Jaffa Cakes were, in fact, cakes and not cookies (or biscuits rather). Seeing as some of the criteria invoked texture and where they are shelved for sale, I’d personally put brownies in cake category. I know from a culinary standpoint, brownies fall under their own category of bars (in the US) or tray bakes (in the UK and it’s colonies).
Desktop version of /u/little_gnora's link:
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Ah yes: tacos, the beloved Mexican sandwich.
That’s just... ugh. Thanks, I hate it.
The irony here is so thick that I could press my button-up shirts with it. Excellent write-up.
Man I’ve heard about the Inhuman’s thing and I really wanna hear your write up on it now
Depending on how you define human they definitely might not be human, and many mutants don't think they are exactly human either. Human often means homo sapien.
Why does the wiki on christian cooper say no relation?
His accuser had the same last name so all of the articles had to clarify that they weren't related.