#Jordie Belleaire

[inhumansforever]

Death of The Inhumans #1 Review

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It’s the beginning of the end.  Co-conspirers Donny Cates, Ariel Olivetti and Jordie Bellaire begin their tale of the fall of House Boltigon and this first issue very much lives up to its ominous title.  Recap and review following the jump.  Beware, major spoilers and some significant characters deaths are entailed!

The story begins with a quick brush-up on the history of the Inhumans.  A refresher for those readers well aware of this history as well as necessary backstory for those relatively new to the mythos of The Inhumans.  

Centuries ago, The Kree Empire was still very much in the midst of their millennia-long war with The Skrulls.  Desperate to devise new weapons to use against their enemies, Kree scientists traverse the galaxy in search of planets with life in their more nascent stages.  They gathered samples of these lifeforms and conducted genetic alterations, combining the DNA of the beings with genetic material derived from the cosmic deities known as The Celestials.  The byproduct was a group of powerful hybrid races that came to be called Inhumans.  

Before the Kree could unleash these new weapons on their Skrull adversaries, however, an ancient prophecy was discovered… a prophecy that foretold that the Empire would be torn asunder and brought down by a being of their own making.   In light of of this prophecy, the Kree decided to end their experiments and destroy the progeny that their meddling had created.  All but five such Inhuman races were culled.  Those that managed to avoid destruction included the Inhumans of the Centauri system, those of the Badoon home-world, those among the equine Kymellians, those of Wraithworld, and finally The Inhumans of Earth.

That was then...  Much has changed for The Empire in the ensuring centuries.  Their war with Skrulls had ended, a new war against the Shi’Ar was waged, and then their home planet was ravaged to point of utter destruction by creatures empowered by The Black Vortex.   The Kree were scattered to different refugee settlements across the cosmos… the empire was but a sliver of what it once was.  The time for fearing ancient prophecies has long since past and a new power has risen among the ranks of the scattered Kree, a power that will stop at nothing to return the empire to its former glory.  And to achieve this end, a force has been dispatched to gather what is viewed as their property.  

The Inhumans were bred to be dutiful slaves and deadly weapons of The Kree.  And the forces sent to recruit the Inhumans have gone about their duty with brutal, vicious alacrity.  The choice forced unto these Inhumans has been simple and deadly succinct: fall in line with the Empire or perish... join or die!  

Those Inhumans unaffiliated with the five tribes were the first to fall in this bloody campaign, their bodies cast off into the void of space with command to join or die carved into the dead bodies.   Having become aware of this, the five tribes of Inhumans have come together to discuss this matter, to formulate a plan to address this dire threat that faces them all.  A conference was arranged on an undocumented alien planet so remote that not event the teleporting Lockjaw could find it.  

Traveling to this planet, King Black Bolt takes note of the dozens of Inhumans who have already perished in the initial salvo of the Kree’s campaign.  It is not clear how Black Bolt had once again assumed the mantle of king.   Last seen Black Bolt had lost his throne to former wife, Medusa.  Likewise, his lieutenant, Gorgon was lost on the World Farm of The Progenitors.  These matters are left unaddressed and readers will just have to imagine that the story-points were somehow figured out between now and the last time we saw The Royals.  As it stands, Gorgon is back and Black Bolt is once more king.  

Viewing footage of the murdered Inhumans, Black Bolt makes entry in a ledger.  He will not let these souls be forgotten.  He will transcribe their names in his ledger and honor their sacrifice.  His mournful meditation is disturbed by his wife, Medusa who has announced that they have arrived at the secretive confab where they will discuss strategy with the Universal Queens.  

There was a time that these queens considered Black Bolt their liege, their Midnight King destined to lead them on a conquest of the galaxy.  And Black Bolt appears confident that they will follow him once more.  The Kree has issued their ultimatum of joining the Empire or perish.  Black Bolt will choose neither… he will opt for a third option: fight back.   But he is too late.  

The Kree Forces had somehow learned of this conference and arrived their first.  The four queens and their procession have all been slaughtered.  The queens themselves butchered and strung up in a gruesome display.  It is a gristly and horrifying site.  

Triton notices that at least one of the victims still clings to life.  She appear to be a Badoon Inhuman who possess psychic powers and she uses this skill to show Triton what had transpired.   Triton relays what he sees in this psychic vision.  The Universal Queens had appraised the threat facing their people and ultimately chose to join The Kree.  The threat of their people being slaughtered was too great and they opted to pledge fealty to the Empire.      

And yet it did not matter.  A monstrous lieutenant was leading The Kree forces.  He wasn’t interested in these queens nor their people.  It was Black Bolt, whom he was truly interested in; and he slaughtered the queens and their persecution merely as a means to send and a cruel and daunting message to the Midnight King.

As Triton tries to ease the pain of this sole survivor, he noticed that a device had been attached to her side.  He quickly detects that it is a trap, an incendiary bomb.  It is too late for Triton and he uses his last breaths to warn the others to stay back.  

The bomb detonates and poor Triton is obliterated.  Medusa is also gravely wounded by the shrapnel.  

There is no time to mourn their fallen cousin.  If the Kree had known of this secretive conference, then their next move is clearly to lay siege to Inhuman citadel of New Artctillan.  They rush back to the craft and fire off in a desperate effort to make it to the earth’s moon… knowing that they are likely to be too late.  

The narrative switches back the lunar settlement of Arctillan where it is revealed that the Roaylas are indeed too late.  Kree forces have laid siege to the city, led by a patchwork monster known as Vox.  Kree science has created this being, sewing together the various attributes of the some of the more powerful Inhumans.  He is as deadly as he is merciless, cutting through the Inhuman forces with his scythe.  With Kree soldiers blasting away with their laser rifles any who manage to evade Vox’s path of carnage.  The Inhumans known as Naja, Sterlion and Glass Lass lay lifelessly on the ground.  Their fellow Inhuman, Flagman, makes valiant stand against Vox, but he too falls quickly to Vox’s scythe.  

Finally, Vox finds an adversary more on par with his deadly skill as a massive laser blast fires off and sends him careening.  Maximus introduces himself, sitting atop the royal throne holding a ridiculously large energy rifle.   Vox is none too pleased with Max’s prattling.  

The villain had cut through the less powerful Inhumans wit his scythe, but now it is time that he use his true power.  His mouth plate lows, revealing a skinless jaw, and he mutters the words ‘that is enough.’  And in so doing unleashes a sonic wave potentially on par with that possessed by Black Bolt.   A wave of energy fires forward from Vox’s mouth, dissolving Maximus’ rifle as well as a good portion of the mad prince’s arm.      

Back aboard the Royal Family’s vessel, Black Bolt attends to Medusa’s injuries.  She is in a healing pod and pleads with her husband that he do whatever he can to save their people.  He knows what he must do.  Venturing to the aft region of the ship, Black Bolt fastens himself into a harness and releases his sonic powers… creating a detonation that fires the ship forward at an incredible speed.  

It is not long before they are close enough That Lockjaw can teleport ahead.  He does so, and appears in time to save a wounded Maximus from certain death.  Lockjaw fights valiantly, but even he is no match for Vox’s awesome power.  Once more the villain unleashes his sonic powers and both Maximus and Lockjaw are apparently killed.  

Black Bolt will list and mourn for all of his fellow Inhumans who have perished, yet there are two in particular whose deaths will surely affect him the most… his brother Maximus and his loyal, lifelong companion, Lockjaw…

The battle is over by the time the Royals’ vessel finally makes it to Arctillan.  The city is in ruins, its subjects are dead.  Black Bolt and the others can only take in the destruction and mourn.   Overwhelmed by the destruction and carnage, Back Bolt cannot help but be reminded of the human tale of The Roman Empire… about a great and powerful nation that was built over the course of generations, and then burned in but a day.  

And it is on this somber note that this first, bloody issue comes to a conclusion; to be continued in the next installment.

As an Inhuman superfan, it isn’t really possible for me to offer up an unbiased appraisal of this issue.  The art by Arile Olivetti is pretty terrific, with cool action and a fluid movement that propels the narrative forward at an appropriately accelerated speed.  And Jordie Bellaire’s coloring is, as always, flawless.  Her decision to utilize a drastically different color scheme for the scenes on New Arctillan works quite well, offering up Vox’s killing spree a distinctively nightmarish quality with bloody shades of crimson.  

There’s a good economy to how Cates arranges this first issue.  He moves things forward quickly, but in a fashion that doesn’t cut corners.  Offering up a very succinct summery of the origin of The Kree and Inhumans, but not lingering there before jumping into the action.  

And I’m glad that Cates has taken note of the character development Black Bolt went through in course of his solo series by Ahmed and Ward.  Blkackgarr is no longer a stoic, withholding sort.  He allows himself to feel the pain and sorrow for the fellow Inhumans who have perished, listing their names lest they be forgotten and very much acknowledging that his brother and dog’s deaths will be the matters that pain him the most.  

The sense of parallel between The Inhumans of Attilan and the ancient Roman Empire is something had had been evident right from the beginning, with the Inhumans’ first introduction in the pages of Lee and Kirby’s run on Fantastic Four.  It makes for an interesting sense of bookending... that the end should along with the beginning.      

And I’m quite pleased that Black Bolt is using sign language.  His not using sign in many previous tales has been something that’s irked me for a long while.  

BB, Crystal and, to a lessor extent, Maximus are really the only characters who are given significant dialogue.  This dialogue is pretty good, with each character give a distinctive voice that gels with the characters and their pre-existing sense of character.     Karnak and Gorgon are left a bit perfunctory and not given much to do.  Hopefully the pair will be a bit more involved in subsequent chapters.  And Triton is there just to die  (alas poor Fishstick, I’ll miss you).

Speaking of deaths, killing Maximus is a bold (and I think foolish) choice.  The sense of wildcard instability that Max brings out has quite often acted to offer a great sense of dynamic tension in Inhuman tales.  Getting rid of him right from the start seems like an odd choice.  

Which brings me to the one death that I simply cannot abide…  How dare you kill Lockjaw?!?   This is unforgivable.  

Un-Forgive-Able…

And unless Mr. Cates can devise some means of bringing Lockjaw back to life before this series has reached its conclusion he will have earned himself an enemy for life.  

For all the anticipatory build up of who this Vox character is, he remains something of a cypher.  We learn that he is a creation of the Kree and has been imbued with many of the powers of The Inhumans, but that is about it.  Have the Kree always possessed the technology to create such a formidable foot soldier, and if so why haven’t they done so before?  Hopefully this questions will be more fully addressed as the story continues.  As it stands, he comes across as yet another over-powered, under-developed character wherein a writer uses the tired, hackneyed shortcut of trying to make a new villain seem way cool by having them kill off important characters.  

So where does the tale go from here?  There is only a small handful of Inhumans left.  I doubt Black Bolt and the gang will go to earth to recruit reinforcements among the newer Inhumans (or NuHumans)…  Ms. Marvel, Moon Girl and Inferno seem to have their own thing going on In Marvel Rising.   My guess is that the tale will continue to center on Black Bolt, Crystal, Karnak and Gorgon (with Medusa still convalescing from her wounds).  How will the four go about extracting revenge on a cosmic empire?   As much as I am saddened and angered by the character deaths, I am still looking forward to seeing how things progress.  

I recommend this book, but only to those with a strong stomach for fictional characters dying.  The carnage notwithstanding, it is a compelling story with truly excellent art and some good sci-fi action.  

I’ll give it two separate Lockjaw scores.  Three and a half out four Lockjaws as the official rating...  

...and a beforehand unheard of zero out of five Lockjaws based on the fact that Lockjaw died.

[inhumansforever]

The Royals #9 Review

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Artist, Javier Rodriguez, and colorist, Jordie Belleaire, join Al Ewing for the beginning of a new arc in the pages of The Royals, one that will see out heroes go up against the godly powers of the mysterious Progenitors.  Quick recap/review following the jump.

As has been he case for the previous issues of The Royals, the story beings with a prologue set some five thousand years int he future.  An aged Maximus, the Lat Inhumans, travels with Noh-Varr The Accuser to the post-apocalyptic ruins of Manhattan, where a crystalline Sky Spear remains inert amidst the crumbling and dilapidated building of the once-bustling city.  The dialogue between the two is as quixotic as ever.  Us readers remain uncertain as to what these two are talking about.  What can be discerned is that The terrible Progenitors are returning and Maximus and Noh-Varr are intent on some sort of last ditch effort to save what is left of the earth.   Within the superstructure of the Sky Spear is what appears to be a human skeleton.  Maximus refers to it as the Uni-King, hoping that it will arise… that perhaps it will prove their salvation against the Progenitors.  It’s all quite mysterious.

The scene switches back to the present where we find Flint in his stateroom aboard the spacecraft Asterion.  In the previous issue, Flint had laid hands on the Sky Spear planted on the outskirts of NovaHala.  Touching the spear had imbued Flint with the augmented powers needed to defeat the Snarks, but it would seem that the action was not without its aftereffects.  There’s an odd glow in his eyes, the robotic words of the spear continue to rattle through his mind.  Then Flint is shocked to find that his right hand has somehow transformed, made into a crystalized substance through which the skeletal bones of his hands can be seen.  Poor Flint, he’s horrified.  

Elsewhere on the ship, Medusa and Gorgon have pillow talk after the two had consummated their new relationship with one another (gross!).  Medusa is in rather bad shape.  The mysterious illness she is suffering from has continued to ravage her.  What is left of her once-bountiful hair has gone gray and she coughs up blood into the sink.  Gorgon is unfazed.  Although laid low by this sickness, to him Medusa is still the vibrant woman he has loved from afar for a long while now.   Somehow, the crew of The Asterion has learned of Black Bolt’s escape from the space prison (as detailed in Black Bolt #6).  Medusa and Gorgon wonder allowed what this may mean for them.  Will Medusa be compelled to return to the side of her one-time king?

Medusa explains tha the spark between her and her ex-husband has long since gone out.  She had felt obligated to stand at Black Bolt’s side during The Inhumans; darkest hours in hope that the sight of it might imbue their people with a sense of strength.  Yet, she is no longer queen and no longer feels the obligation to put her needs second in the service of duty to their people.  

On the bridge, Crystal and Maximus attempt to make sense of this sudden pairing between Medusa and Gorgon.  At first Crystal imagines that it all may be the product of Maximus’ trickery for mental manipulation.  Max assures her this cannot be the case; Swain’s presence acts to cancel out his powers as his does hers.  And for once Max says something entirely plausible, even mature: Medusa and Gorgon are both consenting adults; why should there be anything wrong with their seeking comfort in each other’s arms?

Besides, Maximus has grander matters filling his head.  The space ship is following the trajectory of the Sky Spear, tracking the spear to its source where they will find the mysterious Progenitors, the makers of the Prima Materia! Maximus waxes on over what it must have been like for the astral gifs to come across a prehistoric Hala and transform its savage populace into The Kree People.  The visuals that go along with Maximus’ words offer up an interesting visage… a turning of the tables wherein the Progenitors capture and experiment upon Kree savages in the same fashion that the Kree had done on earth when they created the Inhumans.  

The substances that The Progenitors use to mutate the Kree cavemen is the Primagen, the true goal of the Royals’ quest.  With this substance they can offer the Inhumans of earth a new lease on their collected future.  Exactly how the team is planning on accomplishing such a goal, however, remains a mystery.   Swain chimes in with concerns about the matter.  Her thought are for Medusa who appears to be suffering from an illness derived from the Terrigen.  According to Noh-Varr’s postulations, Medusa is suffering from a poetic revenge the Terrigen has cursed her with.  If this is indeed the case, and the primagen represents a more pure and powerful version of the Terrigen, might this further hasten Medusa’s illness?

There isn’t time to debate the matter, Flint comes rushing onto the bridge.  He ignores the other’s concerns over what has happened to his hand and shouts that they have arrived.  Some sot of giant cloaking shield dissipates before the ship, revealing the awesome sight of the Progenitor’s home: The World Farm.  I’m not even going to attempt to describe what it is they see…  it looks like this:

On this strange world, a harvester-class Progenitor picks fruit from an alien tree, studying the results and finding that the bizarre fruit as bore a crystal... a shard of unknown properties that the Progenitor refers to as ‘the quintessence.’  

The being senses the approach of the Asterion spacecraft and appraises it as a threat.  The being makes a motion with his hand and the spaceship explodes in fireball, apparently killing the entire Royals team on board. and it is with this shocking cliffhanger that the issue comes to an end.  

There’s a lot to unpack here.  I’m just going to skip my embittered feelings over Medusa and Gorgon being together since the matter has already been addressed in a dozen ‘asks.’  In short, I’m not a fan of the pairing and sad to see my hopes of Medusa and Black Bolt reuniting so dashed.  ‘nuff said…

Us readers and fans have known from the start that a crew of seven Royals would venture out on this mission, but only six would return.  The specter of one of the character’s dying has been along fro the ride since the first issue.  I had previously expected the character destined to perish to be Gorgon, but now I’ve changed my mind and my worry is fully focused on Flint.   The juxtaposition between Maximus and Noh-Varr  looking up at this mysterious crystalline Uni-King and the way the scene so quickly switched to Flint has me feeling that Flint is to be the one who is ultimately transformed into this Uni-King… a suspicion that was further augmented when his he discovered his hand had taken on the same bone-inside-of-crystal properties.  In short, I’m quite worried for Flint and the prospect of his making some heroic sacrifice to save the day is feelings like an increasingly viable prospect.  

Javier Rodriguez’s illustration is just tremendous, made all the more vibrant by Jordie Belleaire’s masterful coloring.  Rodriguez maintains his own unique style while at the same time letting his inner Jack Kirby run wild for the scenes with the Progenitors.  Words fail me in trying to describe it.  It’s just super cool.  

This issue was notably short, with a number of added on pages in the back that act as a refresher course of who the inhumans are and how The Royals ended up on his mission.  That bonus is likely helpful for new readers checking out The Royals for the first time.  For me, however, it was a bit disappointing in that I’m so eager to learn more about the Progenitors and see our heroes engage in this incurably strange, incredibly cool world.    

I definitely got a bit impatient with Medusa and Gorgon’s prolonged pillow talk, as well as annoyed with the perfunctory recap-oriented bonus pages.  Yet this is only because I’m so enthralled by where the main story is going.   Only because I just need to know what is going to happen to Flint; why Noh-Varr refers to the World-Farm as ‘home;’ what’s Maximus’ ulterior motives are; whether or not Medusa is going to be okay; what new visually stunning images does Rodriguez and Belliaire have in store for us?  

And yet, I suppose that is part and parcel with the nature of serialized comics.  The endings of a given issue are meant to leave the reader excited to pick up the next installment.  And to this extent, Ewing et al. have certainly fulfilled their job.

A touch unsatisfying, but visually stunning, curiosity piquing, and surely recommended.  Three out of Four Lockjaws.