Marvel is continuing the elevation of the Inhumans at the expense of Fantastic Four and X-Men by incorporating Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm, as Queen Medusa’s paramour, and X-Men’s Beast, who’s working with Queen Medusa and living in New Attilan, in the new series.
The Fantastic Four property has fallen into disfavor because of Marvel’s unhappiness about the situation on the film front, where Fox is releasing a new Fantastic Four film without the kind of cooperation (and merchandise revenue deal) that Marvel has with Sony on Spider-Man (see “Spider-Man to Join Marvel Cinematic Universe”). On Fantastic Four, Fox is going ahead with its film (see “Dr. Doom in ‘Fantastic Four’ Trailer”), and Marvel is responding by making the team invisible in its comic universe (see “Will ‘Fantastic Four’ End in 2015 with Issue #645?” and “Marvel Confirms the End of ‘Fantastic Four’ Comic”).
X-Men is also licensed to Fox for films, and while the shape of Marvel’s future X-Men publishing plans post-Secret Wars have not yet taken shape, it’s a safe bet that the characters are not going to be a high priority for Marvel. The guiding principle appears to be a statement made by Marvel Senior VP- Executive Editor Tom Brevoort on his Tumblr in response to a question about the lack of X-Men animated shows or merch tied to the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past. “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,” Brevoort wrote.
Brian Singer has begun shooting on X-Men: Apocalypse (see “Filming Begins on ‘X-Men Apocalypse’”) as the characters are starting to disappear from merchandise, including t-shirts, posters, and statuettes, as reported by Forbes.
So until Fox buckles or Marvel adopts a more benevolent approach, it appears that the Inhumans are another relatively minor team from the Marvel pantheon (like Guardians of the Galaxy) that’s going to get a lot more attention, and even some characters from the teams licensed by Fox.
