I have recently re-read the first four volumes of Marvel Essentials: Fantastic Four by Lee and Kirby, and this has inspired me to type the Inhumans. I'll type the rest of the Fantastic Four supporting cast at a future date (for those who are interested, Taylor has typed the Fantastic Four here). In the meantime, I urge every fan to go out and read those volumes or the Marvel Epic collections of Lee and Kirby's work on the Fantastic Four. Just because Marvel hasn't made a decent film adaptation of the FF (and has repudiated the the FF by not using them in any of their merchandise) doesn't mean that we in fandom should ignore them. The Fantastic Four issues - especially when inked by Joe Sinnott - should be regarded as the best work that Lee and Kirby ever did.
The Inhumans - as we can see from the Wiki entry - first appeared as a group in an issue of Fantastic Four in 1966. Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, stumbles across the beautiful, shy and elusive Inhuman Crystal in an abandoned neighbourhood in New York city at nighttime.
She assumes that he, being a super-powered being like herself, belongs to the Inhuman race and invites him home to a secret underground lair to meet her family.
This proves to be a big mistake, as all hell breaks loose and Storm and the rest of the Inhumans begin fighting one another (as superheroes always do when meeting one another for the first time).
Storm summons reinforcements - the rest of the FF -
but we learn that the Inhumans are the good guys, who are being pursued by a bad guy called the Seeker, a fellow Inhuman who wants to return the New York Inhumans to their homeland, the 'Great Refuge' - the city of Attilan (which is somewhere in the Himalayas).
It turns out that, just like Kirby's later creation the Eternals, the Inhumans are mutates who were once humans before being genetically experimented on by an alien race who visited Earth thousands of years ago (in the case of the Inhumans, it's the Kree who are the genetic engineers, not the Celestials).
The Inhumans go on to appear in many Fantastic Four adventures, and in a few backup stories - also by Lee and Kirby - in Thor and Amazing Adventures. (The amazing Neal Adam drew a few stories in the latter). After Lee and Kirby ended their partnership, the Inhumans appeared in their own short-lived titles and even in the TV show Agents of SHIELD, but in my estimate they have never really caught on. Simply put, fans don't like them as much as the other Lee-Kirby creations.
Having said that, the Inhumans - being ubiquitous in the Marvel universe - do deserve their own MBTI profile. So here we go.
BLACK BOLT
Black Bolt - who has one of Kirby's best, and sleekest, costume designs - at first seems to be an Introvert. After all, the character never talks, he wears a mask (which covers nearly all of his face and head) and dark colours - all the common characteristics of an introverted super-character. But Black Bolt, who is described as regal and noble, takes a very public role - he rules the Inhumans as their king - and his very appearance before the assembled multitude in Attilan inspires great confidence.
He often addresses large crowds (not through speaking, of course, but through sign language). This marks him as an Extravert, and like most characters who are natural rulers of men, an extraverted Thinker. His energy manipulation powers - similar to those of Kirby and Lee's Zeus in Thor and The Avengers, and Kirby's Zuras in The Eternals - show him to be an Intuitive.
The secondary function in an MBTI type I call the 'marketing function': it's used to market one's type to the external world, to sell something of use to others. The characters who have introverted Intuition as a secondary function (ENTJs and ENFJs) are usually seen by others as visionaries, and visionary leaders (if they are bad guy characters, they are evil visionaries). Definitely Black Bolt is regarded by other characters as such a leader. My verdict: ENTJ.
MEDUSA
Black Bolt's wife Medusa first appears as a supervillain, 'Madame Medusa', who belongs to the evil counter-part of the FF - the Frightful Four (along with the Wizard, the Sandman and the Trapster); like Sue Storm, she is the one female in the group. From the beginning, she lays down the law and nearly even usurps control of the group from its leader, the feckless Wizard; bullying and domineering, she strikes me as an extraverted Thinker type - just like that other buxom and beautiful Kirby creation, Big Barda. And, like Barda, she leaves the bad guys and joins the good guys in the end.
Clearly, her powers - super-powered hair which works like a set of super-strong tendrils and is capable of grappling, squeezing, constricting and throwing - should be considered as Sensor's, not an Intuitive's. But I would go further and mark her out as an introverted Sensing type. Those with introverted Sensing in the secondary function slot - the 'marketing function' - appear to others as homey and practical, people who live in the present and who are comfortable with it. As a character, Medusa seems far more down to earth, and stable, than her flighty, romantic and unpredictable sister Crystal. My verdict: ESTJ.
GORGON
The taciturn Gorgon, who wears drab and muted colours, shows himself to be an Introvert from the start. His awesome foot-stomping power and physical strength mark him out to be a Sensor:
Is Gorgon a Thinker or a Feeler?
Characters who are Thinkers are calculating types who try and order the world around them - and often the people in it - in a rational way and according to a specified end; characters who are Feelers, in contrast, go with the flow and react - emotionally - to events. Gorgon, being more brawn than brain, belongs in the latter group, like the Thing, the Invisible Girl and the Human Torch. These characters don't want to rule the world (like Doctor Doom) nor are they obsessed by laboratory experiments and scientific discovery (like Mr Fantastic). The rather impersonal preoccupations - which are not people friendly - of the Thinkers do not interest the Feelers in the slightest. All that seems to them to be cold and unfeeling.
I type Gorgon as an ISFJ. When he first appears, he wants to steal back Medusa to her family, where she, in Gorgon's view, rightfully belongs.
He plays the stock ISFJ role of the caring and protective (perhaps overprotective) older brother who will sacrifice himself for the sake of his family. Colossus of the X Men gives us one example of that ISFJ type, the deceased Storm Logan (brother of Brooke, Katy and Donna in Bold and the Beautiful) another.
CRYSTAL
Crystal, another Feeling - and not a Thinking - type has powers over earth, wind, fire and water (other characters call her an 'elemental'). These remind me of the spell-casting powers of the Scarlet Witch.
Most of the time, a character's first appearance will tell us whether he or she is an Extravert or Introvert. When we first see Crystal, she seems a strange, elusive, even ethereal figure - like a ghost - and is certainly not an exhibitionist. An extraverted Intuitive (Ne) dominant type would be all over Johnny from the outset and demand his (and the world's attention): 'Look at me! Look at me!'.
She also acts on impulse and follows her heart by befriending Johnny, even though this goes against the wishes of her family and could endanger them. Unlike Gorgon, she feels in an introverted, and not extraverted, way. Out of all the MBTI types, introverted Feeling types behave in the most individualist manner; they don't pay any attention to the wishes of the collective - what matters to the Fi-dominant is what they feel, they want.
They also possess a strong degree of empathy which gives them the ability to create a rapport and put themselves in the shoes of others. Crystal just 'knows' that Johnny is a good sort, and this gives her permission to break her family's rules.
Like the Scarlet Witch, Crystal is an INFP. Extraverted intuition in INFPs gives them a pronounced 'artistic' character: they appear to others as playful, inventive, creative, and not a little bit zany, whimsical and unpredictable. That sums up Crystal.
KARNAK
Karnak the Shatterer, a superhuman karate expert, can detect the weakness in any physical object and destroy it with one blow.
Intuitive or Sensor? Sensor, to be sure. His enlarged cranium and analytical abilities make him a Thinker, and his rather reserved and dour demeanour, an Introvert. Dominant introverted Thinking (Ti) type characters excel in systems analysis and understanding how things work; they also show a lack of interest in conveying that understanding to others and communicating with them at all (which explains why Daredevil and Wolverine seem to be such surly and aloof characters). My verdict: ISTP.
TRITON
Again, another Introvert. Triton, like Aquaman, can't stay out of water for long and when we first see him, he's a mysterious, hooded figure whose robes conceal a water-bag suit which he must wear to stay alive. His powers and abilities make him more of a Sensor than an Intuitive. Like Aquaman, he's super-strong, swims fast and can live underwater, and that's about it; unlike Aquaman, he doesn't wield the superpowers of an Intuitive (Aquaman can mentally control marine life).
It takes a few issues before we get to know Triton. When we do, we come to see him as a noble, high-minded and ethical man - an introverted Feeler. My verdict: ISFP.
MAXIMUS THE MAD
Black Bolt's evil brother and the only supervillian in the Inhumans. Definitely a Thinking, and not a Feeling, type. In the Kirby-Lee stories, he doesn't seem to possess any superpowers. His sole ability lies in making all sorts of doomsday devices - death rays and the like - and mind control devices. His desire to control, in combination with his megalomania, makes him an extraverted Thinking bad guy.
Maximus strikes me as being more of an Intuitive than a Sensor, and an Extravert more than an Introvert. I make him out to be an ENTJ - a bad ENTJ.
THE SEEKER
An officious, nattily-dressed functionary who carries out the orders - obediently and unquestioningly - of whoever is the ruler of the Inhumans at the time (Black Bolt or Maximus), the Seeker lingers in the background and rarely comes to the forefront. Definitely an Introvert and a Thinker. Like all quiet, obedient and efficient underling characters, the Seeker should be typed as an ISTJ.
ALPHA PRIMITIVES
The clone race bred by the Inhumans to be servitors and slaves. They are definitely Introverts - who live underground for most of the time and who hardly speak - Sensors and Feelers. I argue that they are a race of ISFJs. Characters of this MBTI type often play the role of being the put-down upon doormat. ISFJ characters can appear to be exceedingly nice and self-effacing people, whose kind, gentle and trusting manner lends itself to exploitation by other more unscrupulous types. Eventually, however, the ISFJ doormats hit a wall and turn on their oppressors. The Alpha Primitives have revolted against their Inhuman masters several times.
LOCKJAW
? I can't type this dog.
IN CONCLUSION
You could think that - given the great artwork and characterisation in the Lee and Kirby issues - the Inhumans would have been another hugely successful super-team like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. But that was not to be. While they were well-received as supporting characters in the Fantastic Four, they failed when they were given their own title.
Why was this? One reason is that the Inhumans lacked the expansive and interesting rogue's gallery of the FF. In fact, we find only one supervillain: Maximus.
The second reason lies in the MBTI types of the characters which, when put together in the same team, didn't seem all that compelling. The Inhumans are led by two Extraverts, Black Bolt and Medusa, and aside from those two, the remainder of the team are all Introverts and shy and retiring Introverts at that. In other teams, you find more of a balance and a mixture. In the 1970s-era X-Men we see the Introverts (Professor X, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus) balanced by the Extraverts (Angel, Beast, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Iceman). As for the 1960s and 1970s Fantastic Four, Extraverts (Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing) dominate the team; the sole Introvert (Mr Fantastic) leads. But, over time, Lee and Kirby added some supporting characters who were Introverts (Wyatt Wingfoot, Agatha Harkness, Crystal of the Inhumans (who substituted for Invisible Girl for a time)).
A balance of Extraverted and Introverted types, by itself, doesn't make a great superhero team, but it helps.
Mark Hootsen signing off.
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