Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: charles soule, Comics, david curiel, gerry alanguilan, inhumans, inhumans vs. x-men, ivx, jeff lemire, leinil francis yu, marvel, mutants, mutants FTW, x-men

Well, That Was Quick – Inhumans vs X-Men #2 Review

Current Marvel heroes fighting heroes event, Inhumans vs. X-Men, is onto it's second series…and already one side has won.

Writers Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire move the siege of New Attilan along at break neck pace, as the X-Men literally storm the castle and take out the Inhumans so they can focus on getting rid of the last Terrigen cloud and making Earth safe for mutants again.

One the one hand, this is great: instead of a long, drawn-out build up as the characters question their actions and plans, instead we dive straight in to the headline battle. However, it's pretty much all over in the space of this issue, and all the major players of the Inhumans, namely the Royals, are taken out.

So sadly, it has the effect of making the Inhumans look kinda ineffectual. All the way leading up we're told the X-Men have to take out the Inhumans first as they are just too powerful, so to see them handled so quickly, with no major loss on the mutants' side kinda contradicts that earlier assertion.

Of course, not all Inhumans are taken out, and as is seeming pretty obvious in this issue and previews and teasers for issues ahead, it is actually the New Inhumans, or NuHumans, who may yet save the day for the Inhumans.

If you've noticed how this review seems to be leaning more towards Inhumans as victims this time instead of the mutants, that's because this issue does a very good job of exactly that: portraying the Inhumans as the victimised party. After all, it is their home being invaded, them who are being dumped off in hellish Limbo, with no effort at diplomacy whatsoever.

In the overarching scheme of things, it's still hard to feel sorry for the Inhumans entirely: they did after all illegally gas the whole planet, killing many people who don't survive Terrigenesis and endangering the mutant species to the point of extinction. And with no push back from almost everyone on Earth. But this issue does do a good job of highlighting how the mutants actions are pretty nasty too.

Leinil Francis Yu and Gerry Alanguilan do a damn good job on the art, handling a large cast of characters, many on page at the same time, very well. With so many people on panel at once and with so much action happening it would be easy to get lost, but this doesn't really happen, thankfully. David Curiel's colours also serve to heighten the sense of chaotic events happening simultaneously, with often multiple light sources and colour effects that imply the depth of actions occurring, but keeping things wonderfully clear.

All in all, this issue is quite interesting for how much it moves the core conflict along, and it will be intriguing to see with the titular big battle out of the way, will we see the rest of the series focus on the few mysteries still surrounding some characters and actions? Only time will tell, but for sure, we'll almost certainly see more heroes beating on heroes as the Inhumans who don't live at New Attilan get involved.

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