Inhumans

"We're humans. We just have the potential to be more."

- Raina to Skye

The Inhumans are a race of altered human beings that were the result of experiments on ancient humans by the extraterrestrial race, the Kree, embedding into their genetic code the potential to transform and acquire superhuman abilities through a process known as Terrigenesis.

Origin
Centuries ago, an extraterrestrial race known as the Kree waged a long war with high causalities. In need of more soldiers, one vicious faction among the Kree decided to genetically modify the DNA of other intelligent creatures across various planets, intending to create a warrior/slave caste that they could use to help win the prolonged war. The Kree eventually came to Earth, where they created their own installation and began experimenting on groups of humans, changing their genetic make up, which gave them the latent potential to develop superhuman abilities. Before the experiments could be completed, another faction of the Kree came to Earth to shut down the project.

The Kree eventually left Earth, believing their experiments were unsuccessful. However, the altered genes of the human test subjects were passed on through generations of their descendants. The Kree also left behind numerous Terrigen Crystals, contained in devices called the Diviners, which could be used to activate the dormant genetic modifications.

Living in the Shadows
Modern society forced Inhumans to live among the general population, whether it was trying to live normal lives, or living in hiding. Knowing the dangers that could accompany a reveal of their powers, they made sure to hide them and keep them unknown to the outside world. However, occasionally the Inhumans' powers were revealed, with mostly disastrous results. As a result of these incidents, the settlement Afterlife was formed, separated from the outside world. In this settlement were the powered Inhumans, while those not having undergone Terrigenesis could either live in the settlement or stay in normal life.

Also with Inhuman genes but not necessarily realizing it were the descendants of Inhumans married to normal humans. Some of these descendants would never realize their heritage, while others did and eventually underwent Terrigenesis.

Werner Reinhardt's Discovery
Centuries later, villagers of the Hunan Province, passing on stories about the Kree, or "Blue Angels", found one of the Diviners while digging at night. During World War II, HYDRA General Werner Reinhardt captured these villagers and the artifact, where he discovered that one particular woman, Jiaying, could touch the artifact unharmed, while the others became petrified by it. Before he could discover what made her different, he was forced to evacuate his headquarters to elude the Allied forces. By 1983, Jiaying had become a mentor to young Inhumans who had recently experienced Terrigenesis, each scared and confused; Gordon was one such adolescent. Though other Inhumans such as Yat-Sen would prepare adolescents for the process, the results were still unpredictable and frightening for each individual. Eventually, Jiaying became the leader of the Inhumans living in Afterlife, a settlement established to hide them from the rest of the world.

In 1989, Reinhardt was released from an Allied prison by HYDRA forces within S.H.I.E.L.D. and was reunited with Jiaying, whom he noticed had not physically aged since their last encounter. Ambitious to regain the youth that he had lost locked away in prison, Reinhardt vivisected the woman, using part of her biology to revert his aged body to a younger appearance. He then dumped her body in a ditch, where it was discovered by her husband, Calvin Zabo, much to his despair. In desperation, Zabo stitched her body back together, and Jiaying's healing ability brought her back to life.

Rescue in Bahrain
In 2008, an Inhuman changed the life of Melinda May from a happily married wife wanting children to an emotionally detached divorcée who strictly followed rules. The Inhuman Eva Belyakov gave Terrigen Crystals to her daughter Katya Belyakov despite Katya not having the proper mental training for obtaining a power. May was forced to kill both the mother and daughter when Katya went insane. This incident affected May because she watched as Katya's touch killed others and Katya was but a child. This incident also changed the Inhuman community to look unfavorably upon those who received their powers without proper training.

The Rose and the Thorn
"It is the thorn that protects the rose...in this case, the Daisy."

- Raina

Raina's Journey
Elsewhere, stories of the Kree were passed to Raina by her grandmother. In Thailand, Raina was taken in by Calvin Zabo, who told her that the stories were true and that she was one of the special people from those tales. He offered to help her discover her destiny if she reunited him with his daughter.

While working for the Centipede Project, thinking that its director, the Clairvoyant, would tell her of her destiny, Raina learned that a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Skye was actually Zabo's daughter and brought him a picture of her. When Raina obtained a Diviner, she took it to Zabo, who proved to her that she was one of the special people by having her touch it without harm, but told her that he would reveal more upon reunion with his daughter.

Battle for the Kree City
During a protracted conflict between S.H.I.E.L.D. and a HYDRA branch led by Werner Reinhardt (now going by the name Daniel Whitehall), Grant Ward eventually captured both Raina and Skye for HYDRA, allowing Zabo and his daughter to reunite, where he told her that her birth name was Daisy. Whitehall had Skye touch the Diviner, proving that she was one of the descendants of the experimented upon. Uninterested in what the Diviner could really do, Skye chased Raina into the Kree City under San Juan, Puerto Rico, to stop Raina from using it, but they found themselves locked in a chamber. The Diviner that Raina had brought floated to a pedestal where it opened to reveal the Terrigen Crystals inside and released its Terrigen Mist. Both women underwent Terrigenesis, after which Skye emerged with the power to create earthquakes and Raina grew sharp thorns over most of her body.

Afterlife
"Whatever you two were in the past, that's not what you are now."

- Jiaying to Skye

Meanwhile, the Inhuman and right hand of their leader Jiaying, Gordon, who owned another Diviner, contacted one of his associates as the Diviner began to glow, informing them that he would begin searching for the two, newly transformed Inhumans. He found Raina first and volunteered to help guide her through the emotional and physical trauma of her change, just as he was guided years before.

Though he had the opportunity to teleport Skye, Gordon was sent to retrieve Calvin Zabo, telling the doctor that he was drawing too much attention to the Inhumans.

Eventually, Gordon did get Skye and brought her to Afterlife, the Inhuman settlement hidden from the world but accessible through Gordon's teleportation power. There Skye was given a form of acupuncture from Lincoln Campbell that caused her body to adapt to the Terrigenesis. Campbell explained to her that others in Afterlife were jealous of her because she transformed while they still desired for it. Campbell also accidentally revealed that Raina was there also. When Skye attempted to use her power to kill Raina to avenge the death of Antoine Triplett, she was stopped by Jiaying, who offered to be her mentor.

Meanwhile, Calvin Zabo was imprisoned in Afterlife and, though Jiaying was thankful to him for reuniting her with their daughter, Daisy, his request to see her was denied.

The Kree Threat
The transformation also caught the attention of a Kree named Vin-Tak, who believed that Inhumans were abominations that needed to be destroyed in order to prevent others of his own people from restarting their weapons program. He explained to S.H.I.E.L.D. the origin of the Inhumans, while discovering that six Diviners the Kree had hidden on Earth were all missing. Ultimately, Vin-Tak returned to Hala, after being made to forget why he came to Earth, but S.H.I.E.L.D. now had a quest to find the missing Diviners.

HYDRA Targets
The HYDRA scientist, Dr. List, noticed a "quantum entanglement" anytime Gordon used his teleportation power. Creating instruments to record and trace the phenomenon, List found Ethan Johnston soon after he was brought to a campsite by Gordon. When Gordon brought Skye and Calvin Zabo to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, List followed, with an army of HYDRA operatives, in hopes of capturing the superpowered individual. Gordon quickly returned to Wisconsin after consulting Jiaying and retrieved the father and daughter, though he left Lincoln Campbell behind.

Campbell was captured by HYDRA, along with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Deathlok. S.H.I.E.L.D. performed a rescue for their agent; Skye went also to rescue Campbell. The rescue was successfully and Skye brought the comatosed Campbell to the Playground, where he was placed on the Index and humans learned of the existence of the Inhumans.

Ambush in Afterlife
S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to set up a peace treaty between themselves and the newly discovered species, since Skye explained that past encounters between Humans and Inhumans were not good. The organization also decided that it wanted to place the population on its Index to have them documented. Using the "quantum entanglement" theory of Dr. List, Anne Weaver was able to find Afterlife and S.H.I.E.L.D. sent a convoy to meet Jiaying, the Inhuman leader. Robert Gonzales was chosen to be the spokesman since Phil Coulson was deemed too close to Skye and Kree technology to be objective. As a peace offering, Jiaying turned over Calvin Zabo to S.H.I.E.L.D. However, the meeting did not result in a peace treaty as an angered Jiaying used an artificial Terrigen Crystal to petrify Gonzales, then used his gun to shoot herself in the shoulder. Bleeding heavily, she exited the meeting, declaring war.

As Jemma Simmons, Skye, Gordon, and Lincoln Campbell ran to her side, Jiaying claimed Gonzales had threatened to kill all the Inhumans, before shooting her. Jiaying ordered Gordon to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D., and he took another Inhuman and attacked a Quinjet, taking one agent prisoner and killing the other. Gordon's companion flew the Quinjet to the building of Jiaying's and Gonzales' meeting and fired at it, destroying it and covering Jiaying's actions, while seeming as if S.H.I.E.L.D. had fired on Afterlife. With this, the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents returned to the Playground. Inhumans who could fight or defend themselves readied to follow Jiaying into a war; others were taken to their homes by Gordon.

Hijacking and Retaking of the Iliad
Once healed from her wounds, Jiaying met Raina at night. She offered to make Raina an advisor, but Raina refused, saying she had seen Jiaying's real plan and would try to stop it. However, Jiaying killed Raina, only to turn and see Skye had witnessed the murder. When Skye confronted Jiaying over her plan, Jiaying had another Inhuman capture her.

Once back at the Playground, Phil Coulson attempted to question Calvin Zabo, only to have him go into cardiac arrest from the formula he had taken in Afterlife. Jemma Simmons tried to revive him, and gave Zabo an adrenaline shot, which was the missing piece to his formula. The resulting transformation left Zabo with extreme strength and numerous physical changes. Zabo wreaked havoc through the Playground until Coulson was able to pin him against the wall and reason with him, leaving Zabo ready to help Coulson fight his wife to save his daughter. Jiaying sent a team of Inhumans including Gordon, Alisha, and Lincoln Campbell to the Iliad in order to hijack it. The Inhumans quickly took over the ship and welcomed Jiaying onto the ship, along with cases of synthetic Terrigen Crystals. Campbell warned Jiaying that a emergency beacon had been sent out to the Playground. Jiaying ordered Oliver to expand the beacon to all S.H.I.E.L.D. locations; when he would not, she petrified him along with other agents as an incentive for Anne Weaver to expand the beacon.

Alphonso Mackenzie was not captured by the Inhumans, and began an attempt to retake the ship. Mackenzie found and freed Skye, who was being held captive in a cell, and told her to reset the emergency beacon while he searched for the Terrigen Crystals. Skye found the beacon, and changed it, only to be confronted by Campbell. Just as Skye was turning Campbell from Jiaying, Mackenzie knocked him out.

Coulson received the beacon and gathered a team of agents to assist the Iliad. He and May, Zabo, and Fitz flew in the lead Quinjet, which received Skye's signal. Coulson ordered the other Quinjets to fall back while his continued. Arriving at the Iliad, Coulson and Leo Fitz found Mackenzie while Zabo confronted Jiaying. While Zabo failed and was locked up, Coulson and Fitz were able to assist Mackenzie in preventing Gordon from accessing the crystals, fighting him until Gordon teleported onto a pole, impaling himself. However, as he fell, he dropped a crystal he had been holding, and Coulson leaped to catch it. The crystal began petrifying Coulson's arm until Mackenzie chopped it off. Jiaying ordered her men to load the crystals onto a Quinjet, but Skye confronted her again. Jiaying tried to kill her daughter, only to have Skye blast the Quinjet into the ocean. Her plan in ruins, Jiaying tried to kill Skye again, only to be stopped by Calvin Zabo, who broke the two women apart and killed his beloved wife.

Worldwide Distribution
"Welcome to the club; we call ourselves 'Inhumans'."

- Daisy Johnson to Joey Gutierrez

Meanwhile, the Terrigen Crystals from the War against the Inhumans dissolved in the ocean, releasing Terrigen Mist which was absorbed into the ecosystem. Fish near the dissolution were turned into Nature Max Supplements Fish Oil pills that were sold in stores and distributed to the general public. Descendants of Inhumans who took the pills underwent Terrigenesis and emerged from cocoons with extraordinary powers; Joey Gutierrez in Seattle, Washington was one example.

Simultaneously, a new organization called Advanced Threat Containment Unit appeared to contain the newly-enhanced individuals. Believing that the Inhumans were aliens, the organization discovered that someone was killing them; its leader Rosalind Price assumed that S.H.I.E.L.D. was responsible. After meeting with Phil Coulson, it was learned that neither organization committed the crime, but a new being named Lash who sought Inhumans and blasted holes into their chests.

Characteristic Traits
"The changes may not be on the surface, but buried inside. You must understand, these creatures are weapons. Abominations, even if they don't know it."

- Vin-Tak to Phil Coulson, Melinda May and Skye

Before undergoing Terrigenesis, Inhumans resemble normal humans with no apparently abnormal abilities. When exposed to the Terrigen Mist, Inhumans become encased in an earthen-like cocoon. While encased, an Inhuman will go through a myriad of biological changes, emerging from the cocoon with a varying manifestation of superhuman abilities. While some Inhumans who have undergone Terrigenesis maintain the physical likeness of a normal human, some have very clear physical differences, like Raina, who has thorns all over her body, and Gordon, who has no eyes. Known superhuman abilities shown by different Inhumans include a lack of physical aging, life-force absorption, teleportation, force-field generation, premonitions, replication, superhuman strength, superhuman durability, sensory manipulation, electromagnetism manipulation, and vibration manipulation.

Trivia

 * In the comics, the Inhumans were created by the Kree experiments designed to "jump-start" genetic modifications previously made by the Celestials on human beings, as soldiers in their war with the s. The Supreme Intelligence ordered the end of the project when he foresaw they would destroy him. The Inhumans since divided into several tribes who have migrated across the globe and even into space.
 * Vin-Tak and Sif stated Earth was only one of the worlds that the Kree succeeded in creating Inhumans. In the comics, the other four species are the Dire Wraiths, Kymellians, Centaurians and the Badoon. The last two, who exist in the MCU, are considered to be separate, unrelated alien species.
 * According to Raina, Skye will one day lead the Inhumans.

Behind the Scenes

 * Due to having the rights to the X-Men and "mutants" as defined in the Marvel continuity, Inhumans in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are filling a role similar to mutants in the main Marvel Universe.