Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: all new marvel now, Comics, inhumanity, jack kirby, jonathan hickman, marvel, marvel now, matt fraction, olivier coipel, Victor Gischler

Oh, The Inhumanity – A New Name For The Inhumans

Is it an Infinity crossover? Is it an Inhumanity crossover? The two things smooshed together so that it's pretty hard to tell. Last week's Avengers Assemble was an Inhumanity book, but it was telling the same kind of stories, about people getting cocooned and discovering they were Inhumans as the Terrigen mists spread across the planet as Fearless Defenders was, which was an Infinity crossover.

There's one Infinity crossover book, Guardians Of The Galaxy which concludes in… last week's Infinity #6. So make sure you read it before you read… last week's comics. And there's also Secret Avengers #12, which is listed on Diamond's forms as an Infinity crossover… but isn't.

No, the main event is Inhumanity, and Inhumanity #1 by Matt Fraction and Olivier Coipel. New Inhumans. Exploded Attilan. Gone Black Bolt. But the comic is only about Karnak. The Inhuman with super strength, speed and agility – but moreover the ability to spot any flaw, no matter how small, and exploit it.

But what happens when he fails to spot the flaw that led to the downfall? When Black Bolt kept it so, so hidden? When the actual flaw… is himself?

Because, and I suppose it was always going to be this way, the book isn't about inhumanity as such, as it is about humanity. Grief, loss, regret, shame, and the spiral that can trap us all. We see Karnak imprisoned by the Avengers, and the only prison that's really there is within Karnak. Reading the book, reaching its invevitable conclusion, brought to mind the poem Days by Philip Larkin.

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.

Inhumanity solves that question rather brutally, yet perfectly keeping with Karnak's abilities and outlook on life. It also creeps up on you, and Coipel is masterful at hiding the conclusion in plain sight.

It also sets out a new history of The Inhumans, those that left Attilan, those that set up their own hidden cities, those who took to the stars, those who spread amongst the rest of the human populace – though much of it narrated through a surmised history, and nothing that can't be retconned away in the future.

But it also means we get a new name for the Inhumans. Inhomo Supremis. Distinctly, even by species, inhuman.

It's another attempt by Marvel to rewrite the past continuity to show a larger picture than we previously thought and one that could create so many new stories if it catches on. After all, that's what the Inhumans did when they were introduced to the Fantastic Four. Jack Kirby also did it with the Celestials. Jonathan Hickman tried it with SHIELD, as did Victor Gischler and vampires. Will Inhumans be embraced more successfully by the fans than the last two?

Inhumanity #1 is certainly a good place to start.

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, currently exhibiting the work of some rather well known comic artists from Portland.

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