Inhuman #1

Charles Soule - Writer

Joe Madureira - Artist

Marte Gracia - Color Artist

VC’s Clayton Cowles - Letterer

 

Marvel events are tricky, and if the person leading the fray doesn’t have an explicit vision to guide the large scale story along, the tales are not usually very good. This book has had some strange behind the scenes departures with Matt Fraction leaving earlier than expected, and slapping a multiple year delay on the main issue also did not help. When the final product finally arrived from author Charles Soule, I personally can’t help but feel disappointed for the most part. This book is intent on setting up two different factions getting ready to go to war, however neither side really seems that interesting. As a main continuity issue, it is really hard to see Black Bolt die again so soon after the recent Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning series. It is so painfully obvious that he is not going to die for the long term, and even pretending that he is gone again so soon is a difficult pill to swallow. There are multiple issues that I have with this comic from a variety of different angles, but even if it were removed from the Marvel Universe entirely, it would not be a strong first issue.

 

I think the biggest problem with this issue by and large is the Joe Madureira artwork. The street level story has to look somewhat dark, and also calls for something more grandiose when depicting the royal Inhuman family. It fails on both accounts, and ends up being a dumb look at stereotypical roided out superheroes. The artist only really succeeds when he is drawing ridiculous action scenes or splash pages. While those are fun to look at, there are also a lot of talking heads in this comic book. Even though I personally cannot stand Madureira, and think his artwork does not suit this issue, there are probably dozens more that will find this issue a joy to flip through. If you are okay with muscles bulging out of muscles, then by all means check this story out. Line work is actually quite precise in this tale, even if normal people still look a little strange.

 

The plot is just about everything that you would expect, there is a major theme of death and rebirth due to all of the different cocoons. There are also a couple of new characters given Inhuman powers, the problem is that they do not seem very interesting for the most part. Especially the new adversary, whose religious battle seems far fetched. His motivations are also a little strange, and he is angry just for the sake of being angry. The bottom line is that this book has a lot of problems. I am also concerned that author Charles Soule is not being given enough creative control over this book to tell an interesting story. Is this going to be another Marvel event that is going to fall into the deep pit of mediocrity?

Hopefully in subsequent issues the story Soule is trying to tell will develop further, but as of now I cannot reccomend this issue. Those that are crazy about the artwork of Joe Madureira may be in love here, that is still a limited audience.