The Inhumans aren't exactly having the best of times right now in the Marvel Universe. This month marks the debut of the five-issue miniseries Death of the Inhumans, which sees Jack Kirby's cosmic characters being hunted for death by their former masters the Kree. The first issue wastes no time in gutting several tertiary characters, such as the Universal Inhumans back from Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four run, but so far the only real casualty of note is Triton, who was killed by a bomb. (The jury's out on whether Maximus and Lockjaw truly are done for.)
With four issues left of the book, there's still plenty of Inhumans for the book to kill off, and worth's examining just who may be left standing when everything is said and done. It's doubtful that Marvel would kill off all Inhumans. Some choices are very obvious--no one would be foolish enough to kill off the lovable Ms. Marvel, for example, Quake seems pretty safe thanks to Agents of SHIELD, and there's no way Marvel would let the adolescent Moon Girl be faced with literal death. At the very least, those three have a fairly strong security blanket, but other characters have fates that are much more questionable.
RELATED: Death of the Inhumans Lives Up to Its Name with a Bloody Opening Act
When it comes to the Royal Family, it seems currently safe to say that Medusa will live through the event. She may be recovering from a seemingly fatal injury, but she's cheated death before and thus far, this seems like a story that will affect Black Bolt most of all. Through his recently concluded series, we saw the Midnight King come to terms with himself and face some hard truths about who he used to be. With the Kree's new Super-Inhuman, a wicked figure named Vox who looks very much like Black Bolt and possesses his deadly vocal powers, it would be easy for the book to end in an all out brawl between the two, the King of the Inhumans giving his life so the remainder of his people can live on and he can die saving them after not really being there for them over the last few years. Medusa, though she's currently injured, could come back from it and proceed to rule the remaining Inhumans in the wake of her husband's death.
As far as Medusa's fellow Royals go, Karnak seems likely to survive the onslaught of the Kree. He literally found the flaw in death the last time he died, and his ability may be the one thing next to Black Bolt that actually stands a chance against Vox. Being dead has never stopped him, and he's more like their ninja. While the remaining Inhumans are fighting against Vox and his men, Karnak may decide to hit the Kree where they live and end the conflict that way rather than joining the others in an all out brawl.
Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='How%20Will%20the%20Inhumans%20with%20MCU%20Counterparts%20Fare%3F']
Though the Royal Family lies at the heart of the Inhumans, Marvel's also spent the last couple of years creating new Inhumans--dubbed NuHumans--who learned of their heritage after Black Bolt released a massive Terrigen cloud over Earth during the 2013 Infinity event. One of the more prominent NuHumans, Naja, was already seen dead during the assault on New Arctilan, but there are other NuHumans on Earth or in space that still have a shot at survival. Dante Pertuz, aka Inferno comes to mind; he was one of the first NuHumans pushed by Marvel and is planned to be part of their Secret Warriors animated enterprises along Squirrel Girl and Quake. He wound up banished from New Attilan (and presumably New Arctilan), so those factors should guarantee his safety.
There's also Frank McGee, the NuHuman detective in New York who serves as head of security for Atillan who recently showed up in Daredevil's book. As long as the Kree's war is kept to space, they're more than likely safe. But if things get to Earth...that's a whole other matter entirely.
RELATED: Death of the Inhumans Takes Inspiration From Marvel’s Failed TV Show
In addition to those two, there's Black Bolt and Medusa's young son, Ahura Boltagon. After being rescued by his parents from the clutches of Kang the Conqueror, who Black Bolt gave Ahura to for safekeeping from the death of the universe before Secret Wars, the Inhuman prince became the CEO of the Inhuman tribe Ennilux Corporation. He and Black Bolt had a pretty strained relationship at first, but mended it when his father came back to Earth after Maximus sent him to prison. While Ahura's currently relegated to the comics, what he does have that should guarantee his survival is a plurality of powers that could turn the tide of the battle. In fact, due to being isolated from the Kree for so long, his powers may be the only thing capable of stopping Vox, in particular his psionic "Evil Eye" that kills anyone he stares at instantly, along with his possible power absorption.
Finally, there's the NuHuman, Flint. Having been part of the Royals team that made an interstellar journey to find Primagen -- an advanced form of the Terrigen that normally kickstarts Inhuman powers -- Flint became partially crystallized from touching an Inhuman Skyspear and opted to stay in space. It's currently unknown what happened to him, but given that thousands of years in the future he was set to became a powerful geomancer known as the Moon King, he could turn the tide of the battle against the Kree in the present day. Like Ahura, he doesn't have the safety net of being in outside media -- all he's got was this previous season of Agents of SHIELD -- but an endless supply of rock and stone should be enough of a guarantee to survive whatever the Kree and Vox throw at him.
Despite the rather grim title, Marvel certainly won't be killing off all the Inhumans; there'll certainly be many who live that encompass the brand's past, present, and future. The line could likely do without the Royal Family, but what it can't do without is the younger generation of NuHumans that it's spent years creating. They may be just what the brand needs to live on and be what Marvel wants it to be.