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Review: Inhumanity #2

By | January 30th, 2014
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Attilan has fallen. The Inhumans are scattered and scared and the humans have fallen to terrigenesis. “Inhumanity” is upon us. And yet there are still plot points to set up.

Written by Matt Fraction
Illustrated by Nick Bradshaw & Todd Nauck
INHUMANITY TIE-IN!
Nick Bradshaw (WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN) joins the master of Inhumanity Matt Fraction for a tale of the Inhuman Queen!
Medusa’s kingdom is destroyed, her king is dead and her people’s population just increased exponentially.
Everything is different-how can she possibly deal with it all?

For those of you wondering whatever happened to “Inhumanity: Medusa” #1, this is (presumably) the exact same comic as that with just a different title and numbering. This was (probably) a move to tie the issue in closer to Matt Fraction’s previous “Inhumanity” issue, turning a one-shot into a two part introduction to the new stasus quo of the Marvel Universe. Fraction is joined here by Nick Bradshaw, and even Todd Nauck for a couple of pages, to explore the life of the Inhuman queen, Medusa (or Medusalith Amaquelin, if you’re nasty), in the aftermath of the fall of Attilan. Setting up the upcoming “Inhuman” series, this issue deals with Medusa’s continuing search for Black Bolt and the other missing Inhumans as well as dealing with the global terrigenesis crisis. It ain’t easy being queen.

It’s still a shame to have to talk about “Inhumanity” in terms of Matt Fraction building towards the “Inhuman” series now that he won’t be writing it, but that’s how these things go. It’s mostly a shame because these two issues have been the closest we’ve been to seeing how he would have written the series and the results are promising. As noted in the first issue of “Inhumanity”, Fraction went to great lengths to make Medusa the character that centres the story and seeing as this issue was once a Medusa-focused spin-off much the same happens here. Medusa’s mourning of her kingdom’s fall and her husband and son’s disappearance in it’s wake as proved to be an excellent insight to the character, allowing Fraction to introduce readers to the character as well as explore her mindset through her actions. Not only that, but positing her at the head of the Inhumans has now allowed an easy introduction for readers to the Inhumans, their culture and the many characters that make up the society. It’s a frankly genius move on Fraction’s part to build the story around her.

However, the fact that this issue is another set-up for “Inhuman” is perhaps its worst enemy. The exploration of Medusa is an excellent character piece and some of Fraction’s best writing in terms of showing character through action, but there’s not a lot going on in this issue outside of that. The main crux of the issue is a sequence in which an Inhuman character, who most likely will only be recognised by fans of the Inhuamns will recognise, steals a bunch of terrigenesis pods and effectively says ‘See you in “Inhuman”!’ to the reader. It’s another victim of circumstance, but between that and the extremely cliff-hanger ending this issue comes off as frustrating more than anything story-wise. It’s frustrating simply because as the story gets going, it just ends having set so much up and tells you to come back for “Inhuman” for the resolutions. As a prelude to “Inhuman” the issue works in some ways, but as an issue in and of itself (especially when thinking of “Inhumanity” as a miniseries now) it leaves you feeling just a little unsatisfied.

It’s even more unfortunate that that feeling of dissatisfaction carries over to the art. Now, don’t get me wrong, Nick Bradshaw’s art is actually incredible in this issue, creating a gorgeous yet haunting vista from the very first page. Yet it’s only for the start of the issue, unfortunately. Around the halfway way point of the issue, there is a change of inker which brings the quality of Bradshaw’s art down immensely. Bradshaw’s art has often been praised for how incredibly intricate his line work in creating gorgeous panels full of world-building detail. However, the change in inker simply doesn’t have that level of detail and is a complete disservice to his work. To put it harshly, it feels almost unfinished and I almost wondered if there was an artist switch. It’s a jarring switch which actually brings down the scene it’s trying to show, an important set-up for later stories, because you’re left wondering what happened. And speaking of artist switches, the very next scene does feature one as Todd Nauck fills in for two pages. Nauck’s pages aren’t bad, but again, the harsh inking of his lines makes it noticeable that this isn’t the artist the issues was advertised on which is a disappointment more than anything. None of the art here is especially bad, it’s just a shame the whole book couldn’t showcase Bradshaw’s art as well as the first twelve pages did. Yet that’s just how it happened and your review the comic you have and not the comic you want, but the comic I have is unfortunately uneven.

Overall, the key word to describe this issue is frustrating. It’s clearly a victim of circumstance and there’s a story just underneath the surface bubbling to get out, but between the change in style to link it even closer to “Inhumanity” and the change in writer of “Inhuman” this has left this issue in a weird place. However, Fraction and Bradshaw do still clearly try their best to bring us a good issue with Fraction’s writing being stellar even if there is very little resolution and Bradshaw’s art being simply gorgeous for the first half of the issue. It’s hard to fault an issue for being disappointing when it clearly wasn’t the fault of bad writing or bad, but simply unfortunate changes in circumstance. However, that still leaves us with a disappointing issue.

Final Verdict: 4.5 – Browse. There’s a lot of potential here, but it’s undermined by outside forces. Still, there is some enjoyment to be had from it.


Alice W. Castle

Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears her, Alice W. Castle is a trans femme writing about comics. All things considered, it’s going surprisingly well. Ask her about the unproduced Superman films of 1990 - 2006. She can be found on various corners of the internet, but most frequently on Twitter: @alicewcastle

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