Everything Changed Forever! What You Missed If You Didn’t Read ‘Inhumans Versus X-Men’

This week saw the conclusion to the titanic clash between mutants and Inhumans that was Inhumans vs X-Men, and with Resurrxion just around the corner, the events of Jeff Lemire, Charles Soule, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and David Curiel's Inhumans vs X-Men #6 will have massive repercussions for both franchises going forward. But what exactly happened, and what does it mean?

NOTE: This article contains spoilers for Inhumans vs X-Men #6

After a brief fight between both sides that includes some interesting pairings --- including Emma Frost getting mad at Karnak for calling her flawed --- Black Bolt and Medusa's son Ahura saves the day thanks to the work of Moon Girl and Iso, who managed to recreate and miniaturize a device that destroys Terrigen, the element that activates the Inhumans' powers but has been killing mutants. Medusa made the call to use it, thus ridding the earth of Terrigen, which means no new Inhumans can be created, but mutants won't die of M-Pox.

That's not the big turning point of the issue though; that happens when Emma Frost decides that this step isn't good enough, and the Inhumans must be wiped out. She blames them for Cyclops' death, and had framed Black Bolt for it --- when in reality Cyclops died of M-Pox almost a year prior. Her next course of action is something the character may never be able to come back from.

Emma Frost, who saw her students burn when a Sentinel massacred the citizens of Genosha, calls down a fleet of her own Sentinels modified to hunt Inhumans instead of mutants. It's a full-on supervillain heel turn for Emma, as she used the Sentinels to blow the Inhumans' airship out of the sky, killing dozens --- possibly hundreds --- of Ahura's people from the city of Ennilux.

After almost being brought down by Black Bolt and Medusa, Emma is rescued by Havok, Cyclops' brother, who is still inverted to the side of "evil" from Axis all those years ago.

There's a few things to note here for the future of the Marvel Universe. The first is Emma Frost's new supervillain outfit, which comes complete with a helmet that looks like a mash-up of Magneto's iconic headwear and Cyclops' "mutant revolutionary" mask from Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Bachalo's Uncanny X-Men. 

It's also important to note that, all around the world, mutants are now safe from the threat of Terrigen --- but it's not established if they are still sterile, or if mutant births will resume.

On the Inhumans side, Medusa abdicated and left Iso in charge, to lead Attilan towards a more democratic future, with its first elections in two thousand years. As for Medusa herself, she looks to have reunited with her husband Black Bolt ahead of their trip to space in Al Ewing and Jonboy Meyers' Royals.

Overall, Inhumans vs X-Men might be best remembered for some interesting fight scenes and exciting art from Javier Garron and others. At worst, it'll be where Emma Frost was driven so mad by her love for her dead boyfriend that she became a supervillain again. I'm not quite sure the trade-off was worth it.