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 Kree, embedding into their genetic code the potential to transform and acquire superhuman abilities after undergoing a process known as Terrigenesis.

History
Centuries ago, an extraterrestrial race known as the Kree 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. The Kree eventually left Earth, leaving behind the humans they had experimented on, whose altered genes were passed on through their descendants.

Centuries later, villagers of the Hunan Province, hearing stories about the Kree, found one of their artifacts, the Diviner, 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 could touch the artifact unharmed, while the others became petrified. Before he could discover what made her different he was forced to evacuate his headquarters to elude the Allied forces.

Forty-four years later, Reinhardt was reunited with the woman, whom he noticed had not physically aged since their last encounter. Ambitious to regain the youth that he had lost locked away in an Allied 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 the woman's husband, Calvin Zabo, much to his despair.

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 the Clairvoyant would tell her her destiny, Raina learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Skye was 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.

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. Whitehall had Skye touch the Diviner, proving to her and himself that she was one of the descendants of the experimented. 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 revealed the Terrigen Crystals inside and released its Terrigen Mist. Both women underwent Terrigenesis, after which Skye emerged with the power to create earthquakes.

Meanwhile, an Eyeless Man, 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 women.

Characteristic Traits
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 and the Eyeless Man. Known superhuman abilities expressed by different inhumans include a lack of physical aging and the ability to generate seismic events.

Appearances

 * Captain America: The Winter Soldier
 * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Season Two
 * The Things We Bury (flashbacks)
 * What They Become
 * Aftershocks
 * Avengers: Age of Ultron Prelude - This Scepter'd Isle
 * Avengers: Age of Ultron (unreleased)
 * Inhumans (unreleased)

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.