NuHumans

• Core Identity: NuHumans are a sub-group of Inhumans consisting of individuals across the globe who possess latent Inhuman DNA and were unknowingly exposed to the mutagenic Terrigen Mist, triggering a transformative process known as Terrigenesis.
• Key Takeaways:
• Role in the Universe: The NuHumans represent a sudden, global awakening of a hidden species, fundamentally shifting the world's power dynamics. Unlike the cloistered Inhumans of Attilan, NuHumans emerge from ordinary human societies, creating widespread panic, political crises, and a new generation of super-powered individuals who must navigate their identities without a guiding culture or tradition. infinity_(event).
• Primary Impact: Their emergence, caused by the detonation of a Terrigen Bomb, created a planetary crisis. The Terrigen cloud proved toxic and eventually lethal to Earth's mutant population, sparking a desperate and brutal war for survival between the Inhumans and the x-men, forever defining the NuHumans' legacy through conflict. Inhumans vs. X-Men.
• Key Incarnations: In the Earth-616 comics, the NuHuman population boom is a direct result of Inhuman King Black Bolt's deliberate act of war against thanos. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), their appearance is an accident, the result of Terrigen leaking into the Earth's water supply and being ingested via contaminated fish oil supplements.

The concept of the NuHumans was architected by writer Jonathan Hickman as a central pillar of his epic 2013 Marvel crossover event, `Infinity`. Their first conceptual appearance can be traced to `Infinity #2` (October 2013), with the full-scale emergence happening in `Infinity #3` (November 2013). The creation of the NuHumans served several strategic purposes for Marvel Comics during this era. Creatively, it injected a fresh wave of unpredictable, street-level super-powered characters into the universe, allowing for the exploration of themes of identity, fear, and societal change from a new angle. It also dramatically expanded the scope of the Inhumans' story, moving them from a reclusive, cosmic monarchy to a global phenomenon. From a business and publishing perspective, the elevation of the Inhumans and the creation of the NuHumans were widely seen as an effort to develop a franchise with conceptual similarities to the X-Men. During the 2010s, Marvel Studios (part of Disney) did not hold the film rights to the X-Men or the concept of mutants, which belonged to 20th Century Fox. By creating a narrative where new super-powered individuals were emerging worldwide due to a “genetic awakening,” Marvel could create new characters and stories for potential adaptation into the Marvel Cinematic Universe without infringing on Fox's intellectual property. This led to a significant publishing push, including new solo series for NuHuman characters like `Ms. Marvel` and event series like `Inhumanity` and `Inhumans vs. X-Men`.

The catalyst for the NuHumans' existence is the same in all continuities: Terrigenesis. However, the specific event that triggered this global phenomenon differs dramatically between the comics and the MCU, reflecting their distinct narrative goals.

The origin of the NuHumans in the main comic universe is an act of war, desperation, and sacrifice. During the 2013 `Infinity` storyline, the cosmic tyrant thanos and his Black Order launched a full-scale invasion of Earth while the avengers were off-world fighting another threat. Thanos's primary goal was to find and kill his last unknown child, an Inhuman living secretly on Earth. He confronted the King of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, in their city of Attilan, which was then located over the Hudson River. Thanos demanded a tribute: the heads of all Inhumans between the ages of 16 and 22. Realizing this was a pretense for Thanos to locate his son, Thane, Black Bolt defied the Mad Titan. After evacuating Attilan, Black Bolt played his final, devastating card. He armed a Terrigen Bomb, a device designed to spread the sacred mutagenic mists across the entire planet. As Thanos prepared to strike him down, Black Bolt unleashed his quasi-sonic voice, a power capable of leveling mountains. The scream tore through Attilan, triggered the Terrigen Bomb, and seemingly killed both Black Bolt and his brother, Maximus. The bomb exploded high in the atmosphere, releasing a massive, churning cloud of Terrigen Mist that began to drift across the globe on wind currents. This event, known as Terrigenesis on a global scale, was the birth of the NuHumans. Thousands of people across the world who were descended from ancient Kree experiments—and thus carried a latent Inhuman gene—were exposed to the mist. They were encased in a transformative chrysalis, a process called a “cocooning.” When they emerged, they possessed extraordinary and often frightening new abilities. A teenager in Illinois, Dante Pertuz, burst into flames and became Inferno. A Pakistani-American girl in New Jersey, Kamala Khan, discovered she had polymorphous shapeshifting powers and would become the new Ms. Marvel. The world changed overnight, flooded with terrified, powerful, and untrained individuals who were now, for all intents and purposes, Inhumans. This single act by Black Bolt defined the Marvel Universe for years to come, leading to new heroes, new villains, and a tragic war.

In the MCU, the origin of the NuHumans (referred to simply as Inhumans within the continuity) is depicted in the television series `Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.` and is rooted in accident and subterfuge rather than an epic act of war. The story begins with the Kree's ancient experiments on Earth, leaving a small population of Inhumans who lived in a hidden community called Afterlife, led by Jiaying, the mother of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson (Quake). Jiaying, embittered by decades of persecution by humans (specifically hydra), planned to unleash Terrigen on the world, believing it would reveal her people and give them the power to defend themselves. Her plan involved a set of manufactured Terrigen Crystals. In the climax of Season 2, Jiaying's plan is foiled by S.H.I.E.L.D. During the battle aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel Iliad, a case of Terrigen Crystals is dropped into the ocean. The dissolving crystals contaminated the marine ecosystem. Fish consumed the Terrigen-laced material, were processed into fish oil supplements, and then distributed globally. This created a slow-burning, “outbreak” scenario. Seemingly random people around the world began undergoing Terrigenesis after consuming the tainted supplements. This was a far more subtle and insidious origin than the comics' Terrigen Bomb. It was treated less like an act of god and more like a public health crisis and a mystery for S.H.I.E.L.D. to solve. The emergence was marked by fear and confusion, leading to the formation of government bodies like the ATCU (Advanced Threat Containment Unit) to handle the “alien” threat, and hate groups like the Watchdogs to persecute the new Inhumans. The MCU's approach grounded the concept in a more realistic, espionage-focused narrative, emphasizing themes of prejudice and government overreach rather than cosmic warfare.

The experience of becoming a NuHuman is defined by the process of Terrigenesis—a violent, unpredictable, and life-altering biological event. The societal structures (or lack thereof) that form around these new beings are central to their story.

Terrigenesis is the process by which an individual with latent Inhuman genetic markers is exposed to Terrigen Mist, unlocking their dormant potential and granting them superhuman abilities. In its traditional form practiced in Attilan, it was a sacred, controlled ritual. For the NuHumans, it was a global, chaotic catastrophe.

• Exposure: An individual breathes in the airborne Terrigen Mist from the roaming cloud.
• Chrysalis Stage: The subject's body is almost instantly encased in a hard, crystalline cocoon. This stage can last for minutes to hours. Inside, their cellular structure is violently and completely rewritten. This process is often described as intensely painful and disorienting.
• Emergence: The NuHuman breaks free from the cocoon, fundamentally changed. Their new form and powers are a genetic lottery. Some, like Ms. Marvel, emerge with useful and controllable powers. Others, like the young Inhuman who transformed into a giant, sentient eyeball, are left with monstrous and debilitating forms. There is no way to predict the outcome, which is a source of immense psychological trauma for many NuHumans.

The Terrigen cloud that created the NuHumans had a horrifying side effect: it was extremely toxic to Earth's mutant population. Exposure caused a degenerative disease known as M-Pox, which led to sterilization, degradation of powers, and eventually a painful death. This biological reality placed the NuHumans and mutants in direct opposition. For one group to be born, the other had to die. This fundamental conflict was the primary driver of Marvel storylines for several years, culminating in the `Inhumans vs. X-Men` war.

• Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel): A Pakistani-American teenager from New Jersey who gained polymorphous abilities, allowing her to stretch, shrink, and shapeshift. She is the most prominent NuHuman and a symbol of the new generation of heroes.
• Dante Pertuz (Inferno): A young man from Chicago who gained intense pyrokinetic abilities, able to engulf his entire body in plasma-like flames. He was one of the first NuHumans to be recruited by the Inhuman Royal Family.
• Lunella Lafayette (Moon Girl): A 9-year-old prodigy certified as the smartest person on Earth. Her Inhuman gene grants her the ability to switch consciousness with her companion, a prehistoric Tyrannosaurus Rex named Devil Dinosaur, whom she brought to the present day.
• Iso (Iso): A young woman from a small town in Ohio who developed the power to control pressure, allowing her to create powerful force fields and manipulate liquids and gases. She became a key student in New Attilan.
• Frank McGee (Nur): A former NYPD detective who, upon his transformation, lost his eyes but gained the ability to generate and manipulate intense, soothing light, as well as see moments of emotional significance. He became the head of security for New Attilan.
• Dinesh Deol (Grid): An engineer from India who gained the ability to see and manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as deconstruct and analyze any form of energy or technology.

In the MCU, the emergence of NuHumans was treated as a pandemic. S.H.I.E.L.D. and the ATCU raced to find a “cure” or at least a way to identify potential Inhumans before they transformed. The public reaction was one of pure terror, fueled by media outlets portraying the transformed as dangerous alien invaders. This fear led to the rise of the Watchdogs, a radical anti-Inhuman hate group that used violence and terrorism to exterminate them. Unlike the grand geopolitical conflict of the comics, the MCU NuHuman struggle was more of a gritty, street-level civil rights allegory. S.H.I.E.L.D. became an underground railroad, trying to find and protect these new Inhumans before the government could capture them or hate groups could kill them.

The MCU later revealed that the Inhumans were originally designed by the Kree to be living weapons. This history became terrifyingly relevant with the return of Hive, the first Inhuman, a parasitic entity that could possess the bodies of the dead and control the minds of other Inhumans. Hive's plan to transform the entire human race into primitive Inhumans under its control became the central conflict of `Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.` Season 3, representing the ultimate perversion of the NuHuman phenomenon.

• Daisy Johnson (Quake): A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and hacktivist who discovers her Inhuman heritage. She develops the ability to manipulate vibrations, allowing her to create earthquakes, shatter objects, and generate powerful concussive waves. She becomes the de facto leader of the MCU's NuHumans.
• Lincoln Campbell: An Inhuman from the community of Afterlife with the power to generate and control electricity. He served as a transitional figure, bridging the gap between the old Inhuman society and the new wave, ultimately sacrificing himself to destroy Hive.
• Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez: A Colombian activist who gains the ability of super-speed, but with a unique twist: she automatically snaps back to her point of origin after a single heartbeat. She became a core member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team.
• lash: The monstrous alternate form of Dr. Andrew Garner, a psychologist working with S.H.I.E.L.D. Lash saw himself as a righteous judge, hunting and killing Inhumans he deemed “unworthy” of their powers, possessing immense strength and the ability to generate destructive energy blasts.
• Joey Gutierrez: A construction worker who gained the ability to melt and reshape metal. His public transformation was one of the first cases S.H.I.E.L.D. had to handle in the wake of the Terrigen outbreak.

As a newly emerged global population, the NuHumans' survival and identity were forged through their alliances and, more pointedly, their conflicts.

• Queen Medusa & The Inhuman Royal Family (Earth-616): Following the Terrigen Bomb, Queen Medusa took it upon herself to lead not just the Inhumans of Attilan, but all Inhumans. She established New Attilan as a sovereign nation and a safe haven for NuHumans to learn about their heritage and control their powers. Her relationship with the NuHumans was often that of a firm but compassionate monarch, though some NuHumans bristled under the authority of a royal family they had never known.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. (MCU): In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, S.H.I.E.L.D. was the NuHumans' primary, and often only, ally. Under the direction of Phil Coulson and with Daisy Johnson as their field leader, the organization dedicated immense resources to locating, protecting, and training emergent Inhumans. They formed the Secret Warriors, a team composed almost entirely of NuHumans, to act as a super-powered response unit.
• The Champions (Earth-616): As Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan co-founded the Champions, a team of young heroes disillusioned with the methods of their older counterparts. Her membership on this high-profile team gave the NuHumans a crucial voice in the mainstream superhero community, showcasing them as heroes and individuals rather than just a monolithic, emergent threat.

• x-men (Earth-616): The most significant and tragic conflict for the NuHumans was with the X-Men. The Terrigen cloud that was giving birth to a new generation of Inhumans was simultaneously poisoning and sterilizing the world's remaining mutants. This created an irreconcilable existential crisis: one species' salvation was the other's extinction. After months of cold war and desperate attempts at a cure, all-out war erupted in the `Inhumans vs. X-Men` event. This conflict defined the NuHumans' place in the world and ended only when Medusa chose to destroy the cloud, sacrificing the future of her people to save the mutant race.
• Lash (Both Universes): A terrifying and zealous Inhuman who believed that Terrigenesis was a sacred process that only the “worthy” should survive. In both the comics and the MCU, Lash took on a monstrous form and hunted down fellow NuHumans, judging them with his lethal energy powers. He represented the internal fanaticism and dogma that could arise from the Inhuman culture, acting as a direct threat to the safety of all newly emerged NuHumans.
• The Watchdogs (MCU): The Watchdogs were a human-supremacist hate group that embodied the public's fear and paranoia. Fueled by anti-alien rhetoric, they used military-grade weapons to hunt and murder Inhumans. They represented the grounded, social-level threat in the MCU, forcing S.H.I.E.L.D. and its NuHuman allies to fight a battle for hearts and minds, not just for physical survival.

• New Attilan (Earth-616): For a time, New Attilan was the global capital for Inhuman culture and a sanctuary for NuHumans. Located in the Hudson River, it served as a school, a fortress, and a diplomatic hub as Medusa attempted to integrate her people with the nations of the world.
• Secret Warriors (MCU): Led by Daisy Johnson, this was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s answer to the growing number of powered threats. The team was comprised of NuHumans like Yo-Yo Rodriguez, Lincoln Campbell, and Joey Gutierrez, operating as a covert unit to protect other Inhumans and neutralize threats like Hydra and Hive.

The story of the NuHumans is defined by the massive events that created them and the conflicts that ensued.

The genesis of the NuHumans. This cosmic-scale event saw thanos invade Earth, leading directly to Black Bolt's decision to detonate the Terrigen Bomb. The primary narrative focused on the avengers fighting in space, but the B-plot on Earth was entirely about the Bomb's detonation and the immediate, chaotic aftermath. The event concluded with the Terrigen cloud beginning its journey across the globe, and the first NuHumans like Dante Pertuz emerging from their cocoons. `Infinity` set the stage for years of subsequent stories by fundamentally altering the planet's super-powered landscape.

Picking up immediately after `Infinity`, `Inhumanity` was a sprawling storyline that explored the worldwide consequences of the Terrigen Bomb. The central plot followed the Inhuman Royal Family, led by a newly-empowered Queen Medusa, as they struggled to deal with the flood of new, untrained NuHumans. The story highlighted the different reactions to this new reality: the fear of human governments, the opportunistic scheming of villains, and the personal crises of those who underwent Terrigenesis. It was here that the foundation of New Attilan was laid and the core mission of the Inhumans shifted from self-preservation to global outreach and the protection of their newfound kin.

This was the brutal climax of the simmering conflict between the Inhumans and the x-men. After discovering that the Terrigen cloud had become saturated with M-Pox and was on the verge of making Earth completely uninhabitable for mutants, the X-Men launched a preemptive strike against the Inhumans to destroy the cloud and save their species. The resulting war was devastating, pitting friend against friend and hero against hero. The NuHumans were caught in the middle, forced to defend their very source of existence against a people fighting for theirs. The event concluded with Medusa making a heartbreaking choice. Realizing the genocide her people's sacred mist was causing, she personally destroyed the remaining Terrigen cloud, ending the threat to mutants but also sterilizing the potential for any new NuHumans to emerge on Earth. This act ended the war and fundamentally altered the future of the Inhuman race.

While a relatively recent concept, the NuHuman idea has been adapted and reinterpreted in various media.

• Marvel's Avengers (Video Game, Earth-TRN814): The 2020 video game by Crystal Dynamics uses the NuHuman origin as its central plot device. The story begins on “A-Day,” where a celebration is interrupted by a terrorist attack that causes the Avengers' experimental Terrigen-powered Helicarrier to explode over San Francisco. The resulting “Terrigen Fog” transforms thousands of citizens into Inhumans. Public opinion turns against superheroes, and the Inhumans are hunted, detained, and experimented on by the villainous corporation A.I.M. The game's protagonist is the NuHuman Kamala Khan, who works to reassemble the Avengers and expose A.I.M.'s crimes.
• Avengers: Ultron Revolution (Animated Series, Earth-12041): This season of the animated series adapted the `Inhumanity` storyline. A wave of Terrigen cocoons appear across the globe, leading to the emergence of NuHumans like Inferno and a new hero named Haechi. The Avengers and the Inhuman Royal Family must work together to protect these new Inhumans from both public fear and the schemes of villains like Ultron, who wishes to exploit them.
• Secret Wars (2015) - Greenland Domain: During the massive `Secret Wars` event, the multiverse was destroyed and reformed into a single planet called Battleworld, composed of different domains from alternate realities. One such domain was Greenland, a twisted version of the American Midwest ruled by a Maestro-like version of the Hulk. In this reality, a Terrigen Bomb had been used to try and stop a gamma bomb, resulting in a population of mutated, Hulk-like Inhumans known as the Gamma-Inhumanoids, showcasing a dark potential outcome of Terrigenesis.

• inhumans
• terrigen_mist
• Black Bolt
• Medusa
• Ms. Marvel
• infinity_(event)
• Inhumans vs. X-Men
• agents_of_shield

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