It’s on like Donkey Kong folks! The Inhumans and the X-Men are going to duke it out once and for all. “Inhumans vs. X-Men” is the second big heroes versus heroes event Marvel has launched this year and like “Civil War II,” we (Jess and Ken) are here to break it all down for you. In each installment of this column, we’re looking at the main book but along the way we’re sure that we’ll mention the tie-ins as well. When this is all said and done, two new columns will launch with all the new titles. Ken will be looking at the Inhuman side of things and Jess will look at the Mutant side of things. In this edition, we’re looking at “Inhumans vs. X-Men” #3 and it’s a lot more interesting than the throwdown from last issue. As usual, there will be spoilers.
Written by Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Javier Garron, Andres Mossa and Jay David Ramos
New Attilan is conquered. Medusa and her generals are being held prisoner as the X-Men prepare to cleanse the world of the Terrigen Cloud. Could this be the end of Inhuman progeny? Now, the only hope for the Inhuman legacy rests in the hands of an unlikely crew of young Inhumans.
Jess: So Ken, we’re back and sooner than I thought. Or I’ve lost track of time. Or I’ve just gotten to the point where I expect these things to be delayed into infinity.
Ken: No, I am kind of surprised too. We’ve had three issues -halfway through- and none of them have been delayed yet. Of course, now that we’ve said this, this book is going to drag all the way into May or something.
Jess: It is actually kind of nice to have this running so smoothly so far. It is even nicer to get an issue like this that I genuinely enjoyed. What did you think?
Ken: Yeah. Relatively, this is probably the best issue of the series so far. We start the issue with Iso and Inferno having been teleported to Alberta, where Forge has been assembling the machine that will get rid of the cloud and Old Man Logan, who will get rid of anyone trying to get rid of the machine. And I’m glad these two are getting an opportunity to shine, Inferno having gotten relegated to the side throughout “Uncanny Inhumans” and Iso being one of the more interesting Inhumans introduced (making her seeming absence in Post-“IvX” solicits annoying).
Jess: This was something I really enjoyed about this issue. It took advantage of the full cast of characters in the best way. We got a great deal of the younger and older characters. Jean and Karnak continued to be such a fun back and forth while Iso and Inferno did an amazing amount of work for their side. Throw Kamala Khan in there and you’ve got the kind of net I wish these two properties captured more of. The old guard and new guard can coexist and I think this issue did that in a great way.
Ken: It’s certainly not my “young Inhumans and young X-Men (I mean the actual young X-Men, not the original 5) solve this problem and call out the older guards on their shit” idea, but yeah, finally see the response team getting assembled is great, even if…. sigh… okay, I’m going to come out and say: the narrative seems to be bending over backwards to keep Ahura out of this.
For those that aren’t following the Inhumans books: Ahura is Black Bolt and Medusa’s son and a very powerful Inhuman in his own right, both with his “soul splitting” ability and running Ennilux, one of the Inhuman powers introduced in Soule’s run. Considering he had a cameo in the zero issue here, and Medusa even suggested him as someone for Iso to run to last issue. Now, Medusa saying Ahura wouldn’t help now feels so disingenuous since, yeah their relationship is strained but New Attilan is still his home. It’s just one of the many plot holes that feel pushed aside to get to the “And Then They Fight” parts.
Continued belowJess: Yeah it seems like a major disconnect between the bigger plot points Soule has worked on and this event. It does hurt the story being told here. It feels like he’ll end up being the deus ex machina of the entire event.
Ken: Well, there can be an argument that this entire event is a major disconnecting between company and audience, but I digress. What else did you like, Jess?!
Jess: I really enjoyed that this was as far from the last issue as you could get. Unlike “Civil War” II, this didn’t feel like it was laying out a giant explanation throughout the entire issue. What I mean is, that event seemed to have a need to explain why things were happening and why these characters were interacting. It all came across very forced but with this issue in particular, we got a good dose of the relationships between these characters. Nothing felt forced and there was a lot of logic used in the figuring out of what to do next. I feel like Soule and Lemire are using their own work to their advantage to a degree and it helps make this not a chore to read or talk about.
Ken: I agree. This felt like for the first time this series I got a moment or two to care about outside of the obvious. Speaking of “as far from last issue”, we have new art. Javier Garron, with colorists Andres Mossa & Jay David Ramos, have joined us and I think they do a decent job. There are lots of little quirks in the artwork I did enjoy, the standout for me being Kamala’s Super Finger Cracking and sticking the tip of her tongue out when texting, because I do that too.
Jess: Yeah I’m fairly familiar with Garron’s art and he’s much more flexible than Yu. He can provide more moments like Kamala’s texting scene. His work feels a little less posed which definitely gets me more involved as a reader. With that said, it isn’t a big jump from Yu to him, which is good. It can be tough for some readers to stick with something when the art keeps changing. I’m not one of those but I completely get it.
Ken: It’s the same thing that happened with “Death of X”. Garron had to come in because Kuder had to get started on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” relaunch he’s doing and like that, he does a good job as a pitch hitter here. Have to say though, I think the coloring was a bit more of a jarring change than pencil work. I like both Curiel and Mossa (think this is the first time I’ve seen Ramos’ colors here). They are a lot brighter here, not nearly as morose.
Jess: And see, that coloring is what I prefer. I don’t think this should be washed in shadows and dark colors the entire time
Ken: Definitely not. So, I have some closing thoughts: 1. I feel like this fight between Karnak and Fantomex will be relegated to tie-ins, but man-o-man, I hope Karnak just straight up ends him. Not a big fan of Fantomex at all, so if this event has to have a Required Death, I’m so volunteering him. 2. Tip of the nod to “Uncanny Inhumans #18” which was a very good self-contained tie-in with Maximus the Mad assembling his own “Evil Inhuman Ocean’s 11” to create new Terrigen Crystals. One of the highlights of Soule’s time is that he writes a wicked Maximus.
Jess: See, Fantomex is my favorite kind of garbage so I hope he outlives everyone. The highlight for me was definitely the final page with Kamala assembling the younger heroes to help her. I’m always fascinated by her relationship with the Inhumans given her fandom of the Avengers and of course, adopting the Ms. Marvel name. She kind of exists in this middle place but she is someone that the other heroes admire so much, so her taking a role like this and needing to call upon others is something I’m really here for.
Ken: Yeah. The ones that are really going to need to be justified are Moon Girl and Synapse of “Uncanny Avengers” since they’ve had a bit more skeptical look at New Attilan and Inhumanity in general.
Continued belowAll-in-All, this felt like a much better issue than the massive slugfest that was the last issue.
Jess: And I think that’ll be a interesting thing to look at after this is all over. This was a much better issue than the second and so far, this isn’t the mess I expected it to be.
Ken’s Final Verdict: 7.0
Jess’ Final Verdict: 7.0
