Put your excitement for “Infinity” and “Battle for the Atom” aside, true believer — there’s a NEW Event/Crossover to get excited about and throw all your hard earned money at.
Announced via Entertainment Weekly, it has been revealed that everyone’s favorite Matt Fraction will be writing a new event entitled “Inhumanity” and launching in December. Picking up the pieces from “Infinity” (which seems appropriate, titling and all that), the Terrigen Mists that created the Inhumans are released on an unsuspecting world and millions of people across the globe with dormant Inhuman genes suddenly become Inhumans — Inhumans are the new Mutants, you know.
This will all be found in a book titled “Inhuman” (“Inhumanity” is just the name of the event and its far-reaching endeavors, I suppose) and will play out like Game of Thrones (which sounds like an ostensible April Fool’s gag at Bleeding Cool that’s no longer really an April Fool’s gag) as factions develop based on the new Inhumans on Super Power Planet (aka Earth) in Super Power Kingdom (aka Attilan). I would assume that if you like what Fraction is doign in “FF,” you’ll probably like this.
No artist is mentioned in the article, which is odd, but the above image is provided by Steve McNiven. Should McNiven handle full interiors, it would a) explain why he’s not on “Guardians of the Galaxy” or doing “Nemesis 2” and b) be perfectly acceptable because I remember how good “Civil War” looked.
Of course, what is notable about the image is … hmm, lets see — Wolverine and Medusa have a new costume, Spider-Man is in his old costume, and who is the blue elf with the tail and the BAMF in the background? I could’ve sworn Marvel had a dead character who BAMF’d and was blue and had a tail? Didn’t they? Anyone know?
Now — all of this said, there is one REALLY odd comment in there:
Fraction stresses that the event will appeal to casual readers who might not know their Karnak from their Lockjaw. “It’s giving us a chance to get back to a classic Marvel metaphor of alienation,” he explains. “We’re telling science-fiction stories, but really it’s about race, gender, sexual equality. It’s a very relevant, pertinent metaphor.” (It’s also a metaphor with an intriguing political subtext; says, Alonso, “I look at Attilan, the Inhuman kingdom, as something akin to Israel. Only it moves, constantly uprooting and moving to new places. They’re a nomadic people.”)
Wait. What?
Fraction’s metaphor makes sense, sure; it’s something that he is working with regularly in his current Marvel output. Alonso’s comment, on the other hand, seems strange, out of place and perhaps borderline offensive — if only because the meaning of it is so completely unclear. I understand comparing modern fiction to modern non-fiction, because that comment has some really strange implications there — and based on what exactly happens in “Inhuman”/”Inhumanity,” this seems like a comment that could come back to haunt Alonso and Marvel later down the road. I’m already raising an eyebrow.
Still, Fraction on another event-type thing is pretty exciting, more Inhumans is pretty exciting, and while Marvel could probably stand to take a breath between Universe Shattering/Changing Event and the next Universe Shattering/Changing Event, at least what they’re talking about sounds conceptually fun.
Minus, you know, that one odd bit.
