Inhumanoids

Inhumanoids was a short-lived toyline released by Hasbro in 1986. Unusual in that it was named for the villains of the piece, Inhumanoids centred on the scientist-cum-superhero team, Earth Corps, as they protected the world from the threat of the titular subterranean monsters with the aid of the elemental beings known as the Mutores. The series was, alas, not particularly successful, coming to an end after only one year.

As a contemporary of Transformers, Inhumanoids received a similar dual-pronged advertising push, consisting of an animated series produced by Marvel Productions and Sunbow, featuring many voice actors who also worked on Transformers and primarily scripted by Flint Dille, and a comic book series released by Marvel Comics under their "Star Comics" imprint which directly adapted the cartoon. The cartoon began as a seven-minute segment on the "Super Sunday" block, running to fifteen installments that were later combined into a movie, which was then in turn split back into five half-hours and coupled with eight brand-new shows to form a complete season of thirteen half-hour episodes. Distinguished by an unusual art style that involved heavy use of shadow, often gory content, and a narrative structure highly unlike any other American cartoon at the time that saw the end of each episode lead directly into the next, the cartoon forged a connection with the larger "Sunbow universe" of Transformers, G.I. Joe and Jem and the Holograms by featuring the omnipresent Hector Ramirez in his largest role, and indicating that one of the heroes was G.I. Joe's Ace. The comic book, meanwhile, was cancelled after only four issues, ending on a cliffhanger, but was nonetheless reprinted as a back-up strip in Marvel UK's Transformers title, running from #103-118.

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II states that the events of Inhumanoids occurred in the same universe as the original Transformers cartoon.

Shattered Glass

At some point, the Inhumanoids attacked. The American government promised this would never happen again. Eye in the Sky

Animated cartoon

In the year 2021, Brandon "Big Boss" Babel freed five Inhumanoids, ancient horrors imprisoned below the surface of the Earth. With the Earth Corps indisposed, only the Ninja Gladiators were able to face these monsters. There are five named Inhumanoids; Tendril, D'Compose, Hojoni, Ssslither, and their ruler Metlar. At least, that was the story of the classic video game Ninja Gladiator, released by Flippy-Floppy Industries in 1987. Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II

Notes

• Shattered Glass is a universe where, for the most part, the usual heroes are villains and vice versa: the Inhumanoids being a menace there too is an oddity.

External links

• Inhumanoids at Wikipedia
• The Hasbro Cartoon Universe theory at TF Archive