Unofficial Handbook of the 1970s Universe

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The following was written back in '09 when the Marvel Lab editors were talking about putting together an online version of the old handbook.

Inhumans

This is a secret race of human-like beings that evolved parallel to mankind. Like Neanderthals, Inhumans share approximately 99.5% of their genetic makeup with humans. Like Neanderthals, Inhumans never achieved the population size necessary to achieve dominance outside their local environment, but unlike Neanderthals, Inhumans were able to compensate for small numbers with greater intelligence and an extremely more rapid development of technology and thus avoided extinction.

“Inhumans” is a name the race is known by, but what they call themselves is the Tilanese, which means “Belonging to Attilan”. Attilan is the Inhumans’ city – their only city. For the last 5,000 years, the Inhumans have only had one city at a time. All purebred Inhumans live in or near Attilan, strict population control keeping their numbers from growing beyond the tens of thousands. The current Attilan is in a remote area of the Himalayas, neighboring Tibet.

Inhuman-human crossbreeds exist, numbering in the thousands, but they have limited rights within the city and are encouraged to live elsewhere. These crossbreeds have spread around the globe, passing for full humans, but most maintain contact with Attilan through the “Whispering Chain”, a secretive web of low-tech communication between the crossbreeds and Attilan.

All purebred Inhumans may be subjected to Terrigen Mist, a substance that causes mutations. Terrigen Mist is such an important part of Tilanese culture that their entire caste system revolves around it. The top caste consists of Inhumans who have been subjected to Terrigen Mist and evolved by it. The second caste consists of Inhumans who have not been subjected to Terrigen Mist. The third caste consists of the crossbreeds. The lowest caste consists of those who have been subjected to the Mist and devolved by it. When not obvious, the Genetics Council rules on whether a new mutation is evolution or devolution.

Attilan is a hereditary monarchy with a large royal family. The entire royal family has been subjected to the Terrigen Mist and evolved from it.

Medusa

Born Medusalith Amaquelin, Medusa was a princess of Attilan and the first of the Inhuman Royal Family to be exiled in the 1956 coup of her cousin Maximus. She was 37 at the time, still a young adult by Inhuman standards. After spurning Maximus’ personal advances, he used his psionic powers to inflict her with amnesia and had his followers remove her far from Attilan. Medusa became a petty thief to survive, wandering from Asia into Europe where she blended in better (the royal family being mostly Caucasian in appearance).

It was in Italy where she first came under the attention of Count Nefaria. Nefaria was seizing control of the Italian Maffia at the time and Medusa, with her “living hair” became his first superhuman operative. Under Nefaria’s tutelage, Medusa became a master thief and worked as such, both for Nefaria and freelance, until she came to the attention of the Wizard, who was organizing a group called the Frightful Four, in 1965. After coming into conflict with the Fantastic Four a few times, Medusa’s memory finally returned on its own when her brother Gorgon found her at last. She then returned home and helped overthrow Maximus and restore his brother, Black Bolt, to the throne.

Though Medusa had been engaged to Black Bolt before her amnesia, she found she was too guilt-stricken by her years as a thief to return to him without some atonement. So, after six unhappy years back in Attilan, she returned to Italy to make amends by bringing Count Nefaria to justice.

Medusa, like all Inhumans, has greater than average intelligence and strength compared to a human. Her particular mutation is telekinetic control over every hair on her body. She can exert up to 10 tons of force with her full head of hair. Her hair is also unnaturally elastic and can stretch up to twice its normal length.

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The Countess, or Contessa, is a widow, retaining the noble title from her first husband, Gian de la Spirosa of Italy. Stephanie’s ancestry is varied, her family tree tracing through the Mediterranean countries of Italy, Greece, and France, but on her mother’s side her family skews strongly Slavic. Her mother was Serbo-Croatian and had the maiden name of Solokevich. It was this last detail that became important when it later came to light that the Solokevich Family was the last known holders of a special box that, in 1472, was somehow used to repel the Ottoman Turks from the City of Srebenica.

First, though, Stephanie dated Tony Stark briefly in 1964. The following year, she met Tony again in Bulgaria as Iron Man was there to duel the Titanium Man for the first time. Stephanie sabotaged the Iron Man armor in spite towards Tony for dumping her. Then, a few months later, she hired the Mad Thinker to learn the identity of the secret Iron Man pilot to hold over Tony. Both ploys (Tales of Suspense #69, 72) failed to win any positive attention from Tony and, in time, she got over him and moved on.

She was next seen in Rome in 1971 when a restaurant Medusa of the Inhumans was coincidentally eating at was attacked by the Titanium Man. Both women assumed the Titanium Man was after them, in Stephanie’s case because she had spurned the Mad Thinker, who she believed had developed a crush on her while she retained his services, years earlier. It turned out, though, that the Titanium Man was after the Solokevich Family’s box and had been employed by the Yugoslavian government, first to capture Stephanie and then to simply provide surveillance on her.

At the Solokevich Family Mausoleum, it was learned that Stephanie’s mother’s family crossbred with an Inhuman as far back as the 15th century. Though only a tiny portion of her heritage is, then, Inhuman, technology at the Mausoleum that only responded to Inhuman physiology still recognized her as such.