Secret Wars: Planet Hulk #2 - Review

Written by Sam Humphries. Art by Marc Laming.
Published by Marvel Comics; June 24th, 2015.
Worth Your 3.99?: Yep. This book continues to be pure, entertaining fun.
Rating: 4/5.

You wanted more Gladiator Steve Rogers riding a red t-rex through a land filled with Hulks? You GOT more Gladiator Steve Roger riding a red t-rex through a land filled with Hulks!

THE GOOD
Another solid, fun issue by Humphries. We catch up with Steve and Devil Dinosaur resting in Greenland. They're in the middle of a long journey and it's fair to let them take a rest, but upon waking up they find a hulk nearby picking at a Gamma Grub. The Hulk has not torn Steve apart, much to his surprise. And that's when we get the good news... this is Doc Green! For any fan's of Gerry Duggan's recent run of Hulk, this is exciting because Doc Green is 616's Hulk/Bruce Banner. Admittedly, I miss his beard, but I'll take what I can get.

The rest of the story is fairly simple, Doc Green outlines the travel plan for how they're going to get to the Mud Kingdom so Steve can kill the Red King and rescue Bucky. This is clearly driving the story forward, although it's light on much plot development. What we do get, however, is some nice character development, something Humphries does well. Doc calls out Steve on what his plan is after rescuing Bucky. Fighting for "justice" is not such a simple thing on the Battleworld and Doc poses some questions Steve clearly hasn't thought through before.

Doc Green's ramblings are the most interesting part of this issue. He starts quoting Hemingway (which is amazing just on it's own) but attributes it, snidely, to Doom. It's clear that Doc Green sees through all the pretense that Doom has put around the world. What isn't clear though, is whether he remembers the world before. We've seen that most people on Battleworld have no memory and I think it's safe to assume he doesn't, so I'm curious to see if his rantings about Doom become a bigger thing somewhere down the line for our version of Hulk.

There's also a very interesting flashback for Steve to how he and Bucky became soldiers in his reality. In a world at war, it appears that Sam Wilson was the original Captain America and is seeking recruits for a Super Soldier plan. A simple, but fun twist.

Also good: the art by Laming issue continues to be great. It's the kind of comic book art that you almost forget (in a good way). It's fun and exciting, but it's so clean that you can just get lost in the story and not even think about it. Then you can go admire it afterwards.

THE BAD
Not much bad, mainly that the book felt too short! Like a few of the other Secret Wars books that have entered issue #2, it felt like a little bit of filler story-wise. The thing is, Humphries writing is so entertaining that I didn't care. I'm hoping next issue will drive us further into the actual journey while still giving us that fun banter that we got here between Doc Green and Gladiator Steve Rogers.

PREDICTIONS
Will Devil Dinosaur be okay? Yes, I think he'll survive and show up just in time to join Steve in his battle with the Red King. Come on, it wouldn't be Gladiator Steve Rogers without a red T-Rex.

With the revelation that this is our Doc Green, I'm wondering how he's going to play into the larger Secret Wars story. For the first time, I'm wondering if each of these tie-in books will eventually lead into the characters from them rising up against Doom in some massive crazy battle. Wouldn't that be awesome?! The answer is yes, yes it would.

Ant-Man: Larger Than Life (MCU Tie-In) - Review

Written by Will Corona Pilgrim. Art by Andrea Di Vito.
Backup Stories: Written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Penciled by Jack Kirby. Inked by Dick Ayers.
Published by Marvel Comics; June 24, 2015
Worth your $3.99?: If you're an MCU and/or Ant-Man fanatic, YES. If not, pass on this one.
Rating: 4/5.

Let me start with something you may or may not know about me: I am a big Ant-Man fan. More specifically, I'm a big Hank Pym fan. Scott Lang (soon to be portrayed by Paul Rudd) is great and fun character, but my fandom lies with Pym. There's a few reasons behind this. One, the Ant-Man power is just cool. Shrinking or growing to any size has a million and one uses. Two, Hank is a man with no superpowers. Yes, he is highly intelligent, but his intellect is not crazy over-exaggerated like you find with Reed Richards or Tony Stark. Beyond that, Hank is a very flawed human. He has problems, serious problems (only superhero with bi-polar disorder I know of), and because of that, he's relatable. I could wax poetic on this character for much longer, but let's discuss this cool little comic that focuses on Hank, or Ant-Man OG.

WHAT IS IT?
Ant-Man: Larger Than Life is an Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in acting as a prequel to the upcoming movie (and also sort of a prequel to the prequel that was Marvel's Ant-Man Prelude). The cover actually doesn't really do a good job of letting you know this, but the main story is set in the MCU. The book also has a bonus reprint of Tales to Astonish #27 (the first ever appearance of Hank Pym/Ant-Man) and #35 (the first appearance of Ant-Man in the suit).

PLAYING WITH SCIENCE FEATURING HANK PYM

The best superhero stories are the ones that keep it small (pun intended). This story focuses just on Hank in his lab, testing the limits of his ant-whispering abilities. Of course, as a scientist he gets in over his head by pushing the boundaries of what he can do and discovers that one breed of ants is unwilling to listen to his commands.

In a way, it's actually a remake of the first ever Hank Pym story, just with him a little further along in the science of his suit than he was in the original story. He experiments, shrinks down, can't grow back to normal size, and has to fight off a big bug with ants at his side. He learns some of the limits of his abilities.

I'm glad we get to see Pym in this light and honestly, the biggest thing this comic did is put my mind at ease a little bit about the upcoming movie. With Ultron already stripped from Pym's storyline, I've been worried he would be relegated to some overbearing, annoying mentor role for Lang. But if the voice that's in this book (as well as the Prelude) remains consistent into Michael Douglas' Pym, than I'll be satisfied.

Pym vs. Ant: Then and Now

If I have any negatives about this book it's that the story might be too simple, since Hank is the only one in the story. There's no real growth or anything for him in this story, even as he learns things in terms of science. That being said, for $4 you get this original story and two iconic reprints so I still feel like I got my money's worth.


OVERALL THOUGHTS
A fun little story to get you excited for Ant-Man (the movie). With Lang taking front and center on screen, I'm happy with any Pym stories I can get.

Secret Wars: Thors #1 - Review

Written by Jason Aaron. Pencils by Chris Sprouse. Inked by Karl Story. Colored by Marte Gracia.
Published by Marvel Comics; June 17th, 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5
Worth the $3.99?: Yep. If you're reading Secret Wars this is a great companion series.

If the main Secret Wars book is the Marvel to Game of Thrones than Thors is the Marvel Law and Order. That's right, if you wanted a cop drama where every police character is replaced by some crazy version of Thor than you've come to the right place.

Basic breakdown of the story, Thorlief or the "Ultimate Thor" as other members of the Thor Corps refer to him (try to guess which comic he hails from) and his partner Beta Ray Thor (aka Beta Ray Bill) are on the scene of a murder. As it turns out, this murder is the same as four others recently. The rest of the book follows a fairly standard cop-drama story (pissed off Chief, visit to the forensics lab, detective drinking when he's run out of answers, etc) except all layered with insane Thor references.

The book hits the stereotypical points of a serial killer drama right on the nose here, but that's a good thing. Keeping it in familiar territory let's the details of the mystery shine. Who are these women getting killed and why is someone going after them? We can focus more on how this all builds out the world of Secret Wars and the fun of the different Thors (Groot Thor FTW), because the baseline of the story is so familiar.

Of course, if you're going to start a Thor themed mystery it makes perfect sense to go to Jason Aaron (the writer behind the recent mystery of the new female Thor's identity) and he lays it out in a smart way. He builds a mystery of who these five women are and you never question that it's five different people, until he suggests they might all be the same person (something just plain old normal on Battleworld) and then it's the only possible conclusion. He also manages to end the book by answering part of the mystery (the identity of the victim), but leaving more mystery (the murderer's identity) to solve. It leaves the reader satisfied, but begging for more.

Now, let's take a look at the big twist at the end. (**SPOILERS FOR THORS and THOR #8 AHEAD**) We find out in the last moments that the victims are all various Jane Fosters. This is an obvious choice given that Jane is so central in the classic Thor stories, but it's a very interesting choice based on the recent revelation about Jane Foster being our new 616 Thor. My instinct says that these two things are directly related, the question is how. So let's play detective.

QUESTION: What motive could someone have for killing all of the Jane Fosters?

1. Maybe they are in love with Thor Odinson and are eliminating competition (I don't like this theory, but hey... no judgement in brainstorming). 
2. They are trying to eliminate Jane Thor and figure this is the best way to be sure.
3. A revenge plot against the Thors (we've seen that many people throughout the Battleworld hate them).
4. Trying to pull Thor Odinson (616) or Jane Thor into the open. 

Of those theories I'd have to say 2 is the strongest. Not only does it make sense to tie the current iteration of Thor into this book (she's the only one on the cover that doesn't appear in this issue), but it would feel downright wrong not to. This book seems to have every Thor ever (even Throg!) and leaving her out would feel like an oversight.

So who could it be? It would have to be someone who can cross borders undetected and if the above theory is true, would have to be someone who knows Jane's identity. Right now I see three options.

1. Loki - Loki is the last person we see with Beta Ray before he dies. Loki presumably tells Beta Ray that the women are Jane Fosters and that is why he gets killed. As the god of mischief, crossing borders seems like a cake walk for him, but I don't see the motive or how he would know about our main Jane. I think this is a red herring. 
2. Odin - In the main Thor book up until now, Odin has been the bad guy to Jane's Thor and it seems like it would fit to continue that storyline here. It wouldn't be the same grudge per se, but that hatred may carry over despite the lack of memories pertaining to why. Do I mean 616 Odin? Some other Odin? All the Odins? Great Odin's Raven, I have no idea. This is why Secret Wars is so damn complicated...
3. Doom - God-Doom is supposedly omnipotent on this world, or at least he claims to be. That seems like enough of a step that he would know Jane Thor's idenitity. In Secret Wars #3 we found out that Jane Thor was aboard the life raft with several of our other 616 heroes, but that doesn't mean that Doom hasn't been searching for her. Since she has been missing for so long, this could be his way of trying to find her and snuff her out. 

FUN STUFF WITHIN

Let's take a look at the most ridiculous Thors in this book (just 'cause it's hilarious and fun):

Odison makes a stink.

• Thorlief (Thor of the Ultimate Comics universe)
• Beta Ray Bill (Alien from 616)
• Ororo Stormbreaker (Of course Storm is a Thor...)
• Groot Thor (who could resist making a flying tree shout "I am Thor!")
• Throg (the Thors forensic scientist is a Frog carrying a hammer. Yes, yes to this all day.)
• Destroyer Thor (aka 'Stroyer. Yep, that's right: the Asgardian weapon The Destroyer has picked up a hammer of his own and now has a cape and winged helmet. Basically... run.)
• Old Man Thor (Thor of the future, this elderly man who lost his eye is that classic pissed off Chief of Police)
• Odinson (yep, if you look real close, it appears that the recently unworthy Odinson has been found on Battleworld, and all he wants is a drink. I'm glad he survived and found his way into at least a part of this book. His shouting about being proud of his unworthiness as freedom is interesting and even though it's not needed, I kinda hope we see him again soon. 

LONG STORY SHORT

Needless to say, I'm very into this story. I love a good comic book themed mystery and this has started out great. I'll be interested to see what Aaron does as the story unfolds and how he keeps the twists coming. The art here by Sparce, Story, and Gracia is great. It's nothing crazy or out there, but there are some absolutely beautiful scenes unfolding in these pages. 

Silk #5 - Review

Written by Robbie Thompson. Art by Stacey Lee. Color by Ian Herring.
Published by Marvel Comics; June 10th, 2015.
Rating: 5/5
Worth the 3.99?: Been reading Silk? Then yes, absolutely. Haven't been? It's not the worst place to jump in but I highly recommend tracking down issue #1!

In the middle of the equal parts exciting and exhausting mega-event known as Secret Wars, the fifth chapter in the Silk storyline is a breath of fresh air (which is ironic given that Silk's story had her locked in a bunker with no fresh air for years.... but I digress).

A TOUCHING STORY
One of the reasons I've latched onto the Silk series, is because it manages to toe the line between small personal story and big superhero spectacle. Seeing Cindy struggling with how to go about this, unsure of whether to accept outside help, and regretting the past makes her real.

I was genuinely touched when J. Jonah Jameson stopped what he was doing to listen to and help Cindy Moon. We often think about JJJ as the one dimensional Spidey-hater, but this was another side of him and it's great to see that every now and again. His momentary switch from the nickname Analog to calling her Cindy is something a good human being does and Jameson gets to be that person, if only for a few pages. At one point, he tells Cindy that "It's okay to get help," and this moment is not lost on Cindy. Later in the issue, she is quick to call on Spider-Man as backup before going after Black Cat. Ah, if Jameson only knew that his words of wisdom inspired someone to call Spidey in for help...

The little look back at her brother's fright at her transformation is another interesting point. Played against the Peter origin story that we're all so familiar with, the fear of the unknown that her brother feels, plays as a stark contrast to the secret double life that Parker led when he first got bit. All of these subtleties are smart writing on Thompson's part. It's the kind of writing that is good the first time through and gets better on the second read through. Not an easy feat.

BOSS BATTLE... FIGHT!
Black Cat has been hunting Silk for a few issues now and this was a sufficiently twisted way to get them to a face-to-face. I'd say Black Cat's continued journey from anti-hero to full on villain is complete with the kidnapping of a former employee's daughter just to get to a rival superhero.

The actual sequence leading up to and through the fight is good all around. After Spider-Man arrives, he questions Silk's choice to have Dragon-Dude there, questioning her choices mainly, I'm assuming, because of her lack of experience, but Silk holds her ground and believes he should be there. The three of them then jump knowingly headfirst into a trap.

The battle plays out well and there's some cool lines and quips along the way ("That kitty cat is a butt!"), but it's the ending that hold the real twists. Black Cat almost becomes a red herring, as she is quickly displaced by what now seems to be the real Big Bad for Silk. An armorer who worked, briefly, for Black Cat rigged up her henchman to explode at the right moment so that he could kidnap Silk. The question is... who does he work for?

THEORY TIME - WHO KIDNAPPED THE MOONS?
The obvious first thought is Ezekiel Sims or someone he secretly worked for. All we really know about them is that they've been watching Cindy for some time and have kidnapped her family. To what end?

They could be taking a page out of the movie version of Amazing Spider-Man and perhaps her genetics are somehow important to a larger scheme at work. Or it could be much simpler and they could just be leverage. That would mean that they managed to kidnap the Moons and erase any trace of them all in the short time that Cindy had been out of the bunker (it's a while since she got out in terms of when her story was release but in universe, it wasn't too long ago).

NOTABLE MOMENTS

Silk's comment about whether Spider-Man "felt that" is a small piece of something interestingly different for Spidey. Someone in the world with the same power set could give him a truly powerful teammate. Being able to communicate via spideysense maybe?

Black Cat giving Silk that backhanded compliment of being B-list vs D-list was funny and it felt like the creators feelings on their own character. Seeming like a small time character, but in reality seeing her become very popular.

Silk calling Spider-Man her sidekick made me giggle.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Silk is a really great series. It's fun, simple in the best ways, and has a fresh, humorous voice that, at least for me, lands just right. Add on top of that Stacey Lee's exceptional and unique style (which I was excited to see back this month), and this issue is another chapter in a great ongoing title.

Secret Wars: Spider-Verse #2 - Quick Review

Written by Mike Costa. Art by Andre Araujo. Color by Rachelle Rosenberg.
Published by Marvel Comics: June 10th, 2015
Rating: 3.5/5
Worth Your 3.99?: If you've already bought issue #1 and love these characters, yes, but otherwise wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds and go for the trade.

We pick up with Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman right where we left off, discovering a secret room in Oscorp with a most epic hostage, The Amazing Spider-Ham. Caught by Norman Osbourne, Gwen must now figure out what to do, kidnap Norman to get some answers or rescue Peter Porker?

THE GOOD
This team of Spiders (or the Sinister Six as Osbourne refers to them) is just an awesome line up. Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, Spider-UK, Anya Corazon, and Spider-India... I'll basically read anything that brings this team together. The variety of backgrounds and voices at work while they are all still Spiders is just plain fun. It's serious fun reading some of this dialogue out loud as I go (my brooklyn accent for Spider-Man Noir is pretty solid and my Indian accent for Paviitr Prabhakar is solid, but my English accent for Spider-UK is pretty atrocious I'm sure).

I especially enjoyed Noir in this book. Costa has effectively given him a sort of Punisher-esque attitude and it's great played against the non-violence of Gwen and the others.

It's also cool seeing some familiar faces around. Carnage, Tombstone, and the (actual) Sinister Six gathering at the tail of the book are fun. Seeing familiar faces in Secret Wars is fun, although the first two seemed to be interchangeable name checks of Spider-villains.




THE BAD
This story here is just kind of... meh. Not bad really, but nothing exciting. By the end, I felt like I hadn't gotten a full story, just a piece of one. I know it's just one chapter of a larger story, but I align comic issues with TV episodes more than chapters of a book. While it's fine (and I want) the titles to have arcs that span issues, each individual book should also have some sort of arc contained in it's pages. This is where Spider-Verse #2 falls short. It's the middle of the story and that's kind of it.

Other than finding each other (which they kind of did in issue #1), not a lot happens. Nothing new is revealed, characters don't grow or change, or even begin to find anything new about themselves. They just restate the situations we kind of figured out they were in from issue #1. Getting from 'Gwen rescues Ham' to 'team forms' to 'Sinister Six appears' could have happened in half as many pages as it does here.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Cool characters at play here and some great moments. But without driving the story forward, it falls into just a filler issue. Getting the team together means that next few issues should hopefully pick up the pace a little bit and turn this into something really cool.

Pull File: June 10th, 2015

Five chapters of Secret Wars, 3 Spider books. So many books I can't wait to read this week! Here's what I'm reading. Look for updates and some full reviews to come later today.

Secret Wars: Spider-Verse #2 - A middle chapter of a decent Spider story. Unfortunately doesn't drive the story forward much and felt like a filler chapter in a story only four issues long.

Secret Wars: 2099 #2 - The creepy dystopian world of 2099 continues to get creepier, as the corrupt Avengers 2099 mystery builds. Who is out to kill Captain America?

Secret Wars: 1602: Witch Hunter Angela #1 - Definitely a cool little kingdom to explore if you like Shakesperean era drama that involves superpowers. More fun revelations of the 616 versions of certain characters, keeps this fun.

Secret Wars: Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps #1 - In the to-read pile.

Secret Wars: Inhumans: Attilan Rising #2 - The more I read of this series, the more important I think Secret Wars story. Also (no spoilers), there's a very popular new Inhuman who makes an appearance in a most badass way...

Silk #5 - Another great chapter in this series. Stacey Lee returns and Silk's story take a big step forward. Left me eagerly anticipating the next chapter.

Spider-Gwen #5 - A chapter of Spider-Gwen's story that continues to build the drama in her life in great ways. This might be the strongest issue yet.

Secret Wars: Giant-Size Little Marvel #1 - Review

Written by Skottie Young. Art by Skottie Young. Colors by Jean-Fracois Beaulieu
Published by Marvel Comics, 6/3/2015
Rating: 5/5
Worth the $3.99?: Yes. Absolutely, yes.

This may have been one of the funniest week's of Marvel books in recent memory. The star of the show was Skottie Young's "Giant Size Little Marvel." What was it? Basically a Saturday morning cartoon version of the Marvel Universe.

It even starts out with a opening tune that sets up the Kingdom's place in the Battleworld (you can bet I sang it out loud as I was reading) and keeps that absurd tune throughout.
Where the original Avengers vs X-Men involved fights, death battles, and an all an out violent match between Marvel's two premiere super-teams, this story has the Avengers and the X-Men going head to head.... to win customers for their food carts. It's basically  a one upsmanship contest between Captain America and Cyclops.

This book is basically the most self-referential Marvel story ever written. It comes down to the details. Daredevil orders the "Diablo Nachos" (while facing the wrong direction, of course). Deadpool and Spider-Man complain that the Storm pulled off a "make it rain joke" even though Spider-Man thought they "were the funny ones." And Tony Stark meets the new kid, Spider-Gwen, but gets called out by her on how it's creepy for a kid to have a goatee.

And I would be remiss if I didn't give Mr.
Young credit for the high quality of the bad puns throughout the issue. Cyclops gets an eye pun and Thor gets some "hammer time." It's fantastic.

But perhaps the part where my gut was most busted, was the last page. They stop when they see that someone new has moved into "the old Richard's house." At this point, the two teams stop to see if the new kids on the block are (as Wolverine puts it) "Mutants? Science Freaks?" At this point they spin around to see....  the Maximov twins. And as Cyclops and Captain America both call "dibs" I wet myself a little bit from laughter. It's that voice of being self-aware of the audience (and their knowledge of the comics and movie versions of these characters) that really made this book shine.

One moment worth noting in terms of the larger Secret Wars. Across all the books that I've been able to read, there has been a distinctive lack of the Fantastic Four. Thanks to the main Secret Wars story (**SPOILERS FOR ISSUE 3 AHEAD**) we know where the 616 Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Reed Richards are, but we've seen no alternate versions of these characters or Doom. In this safe little world, the Richards' house has been abandoned (presumably for a while since it's referred to as "the old Richard's house") so they're not here either. Was that something Doom did? Did he round them all up? Kill them? It stands to reason that he would want to snuff out his biggest rivals and so this line created an odd darkness in an otherwise lighthearted book.

BOTTOM LINE

This book is funny. It's well written, drawn in a great silly style that we've gotten used to after seeing Skottie Young's drawing grace the variants of basically every book in the Marvel catalogue. If you're up for something that doesn't take itself seriously in any way, shape, or form, then this book is for you.

Pull File: 6/3/15

Trying out a new feature here. Since I can't always get full reviews up right away, I'll just post some quick two-three line reviews of each book I've bought this week as I read them, updating this post as I go. Full reviews will come later in the week.

Secret Wars #3: Answers. Sweet, sweet answers! This longer-than-average chapter of Secret Wars main story was so good it felt like it was super short. And we got some actual answers to just what the #^@% is happening here.

Secret Wars: Renew Your Vows #1: Less Secret Wars and more just an alternate universe tale, this was a truly just a Spider-Man tale with the classic married Peter Parker. And the issue stands pretty much completely on it's own.

Secret Wars: Giant-Size Little Marvel AvX: Ridiculous and ridiculously funny. Skottie Young's "Little Marvel" variant covers come to life in this weird segment of the Battleworld where Avengers and X-Men are basically rival gangs of little kids in a superhero version of The Little Rascals. Legitimately had me laughing out loud. And safe for kids to boot.

Yes. That is Gwen Stacy
as Groot.

Groot #1: Not bad by any means, but didn't really excite me either. Had a couple good laughs, but definitely prefer Groot as part of his team. Best suited for kids. That said, that image to the right is the absurd variant I picked up.

All-New X-Men #41: Nice little story with some legitimate questions about where mutants stand in the Marvel Universe. Seems like it could be building to something interesting.... if we had any idea if this series would be continuing on after Secret Wars.

Wonder Woman Annual #1: In my "to read" pile.

Secret Wars: Future Imperfect #1: The kingdom of Dystopia is kind of a bland place in my opinion (compared to some epic lands elsewhere in Battleworld). There are two cool twists that made this cool a cool story, but I'm not sure it will be enough to keep me around for issue #2.

Superior Iron Man #9: In my "to read" pile.

Secret Wars: Battleworld #2: Howard the Duck fights Blade. A cyborg Thunderbolt Ross vs Taskmaster in the Killiseum. Ridiculousness thy name is Battleworld.

Darth Vader #6: In my "to read" pile.

Star Wars #6: In my "to read" pile.

Princess Leia #4: In my "to read" pile.




Do you like this? Think it's useless? It's something I'm just trying out so I'd love to know what you think! Sound off in the comments below.

Secret Wars: Inhumans: Attilan Rising - Review

Written by Charles Soule. Pencils by John Timms. Ink by Roberto Poggi. Color by Frank D'Armata.
Published by Marvel Comics: May 27, 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5
Worth Your 3.99?: Yes, if you're looking to get deeper into the details of the Secret Wars story.

Now this is a tie-in issue. Whereas some of the other books in Secret Wars (i.e. 2099, Infinity Gauntlet) are very much self contained within their kingdom, Inhumans: Attilan Rising really digs into the meat of the Battleworld and what's happening there (and I love it).

MAIN QUESTION: WHAT IS THIS BOOK?

Basically, this book takes a few of the characters from the most recent Inhuman series and divvies them up on different sides of Doom's rule. NuHumans Flint and Naja have joined "The Voice Unheard" aka the resistance, while Medusa has been allowed to rule New Attilan by Doom's decree. Medusa finds herself now tasked with hunting down this resistance, unaware of her own people's involvement.

IS IT GOOD? CRAZY? GOOD CRAZY? WHAT HAPPENED?

Like most of Secret Wars this book starts out with a world establishing bang. It opens in Greenland (a realm of nothing but Hulks) where we find a small, ridiculous scout team. The team is made up Flint, Naja, an intelligent Hulk called Megarad, and G-Man (a Ghost Rider). The most fun part of this team is clearly G-Man. I mean, come on, he's a 20s gangster era Ghost Rider, complete with a tommygun and flaming-wheeled 1920s convertible. If you're not familiar with Flint and Naja, they're new Inhumans who have the rock powers and invisibility powers respectively. Megarad is a new character who appears to have a cap to his strength usage (and a Duracell PowerCheck style meter to tell him how much).

The G-Man is an amazing character to choose for Secret Wars. He's a little known character from Ghost Rider #33 and much about him is unknown (such as his identity), but if you're in a world of Hulks funning around with a lizard-lady and being attacked by multiple Thors... why NOT have a flaming-skulled gangster spouting off lines like "I ain't never been scared a' the heat."?



Anyway, this little group is on a mission to restore intelligence to the mindless Hulks of Greenland when they run into a group of Thors. G-Man is quickly taken to Medusa as a prisoner and Doom wants her to interrogate him to route out the "insurgents". So now we're seeing some of the true interconnectivity in this world. Although Medusa is in control of Attilan, she's still just a servant to Doom and she is utterly replaceable. This is interesting because the way that this book presents it, it feels like Medusa (as well as Flint and Naja) are probably 616 natives (like all the books so far, there's no evidence of this, just a hunch). I do like this design from John Timms on Medusa. She looks very regal, very powerful, or simply, as Doom puts it, "Royal."


What I like here in terms of the big picture is that God-King Doom no longer seems completely in control, because people are finally working against him. We've heard the rumblings of it in other books, but here we get to see the resistance at work. And if the four crazy characters from the top of the book weren't ridiculous enough for you, why not add Matthew Murdoch of Neil Gaiman's 1602. Yeah, that's right a Renaissance-era Daredevil.

Medusa's speech added to my building questions about how this world was formed. She speaks to G-Man about how Doom protects them by keeping the monsters relegated to the lands beyond the Shield. Again, I'm just asking myself why? Up until this point, I've generally assumed that Doom has been the architect of the Battleworld, but what if he's not? What if he's simply taking charge of it for now since no one else did? Maybe the Beyonders really are behind it all and he's just making the most of it. It certainly seems possible, since, if he was hand picking these pieces, why bring Marvel Zombies in the first place? I really hope that we eventually get an explanation as to how this all came together.

Ok, last but not least, let's talk about that twist ending. They manage to pull only three words out of G-Man before he dies, "The Quiet Room," which turns out to the name of a super swanky bar in the middle of Grand Central Station. But what is The Quiet Room, really? Medusa gets that it's connected to the resistance in some way and sends her agent Auran (whose power set involves knowing when a single word is spoken anywhere on the planet) to check it out. The Quiet Room is full of powered people, potentially from multiple domains. But the shocking one is... Black Bolt. And he's TALKING. So with that twist ending I think it's fitting for an...

EXTREME GEEK QUESTION

Question: How is Black Bolt talking and not killing a bunch of people?
Issue: Black Bolt's power lies in his voice. Even a whisper can kill a man and a shout could blow up a building, easily. Here we see him as a bartender, casually greeting Auran and, of course, knowing that his wife Medusa sent her.
Potential Explanation A: This is an alternate universe Black Bolt. It could be that simple, this Blackagar could simply have the choice to not blow you up when he talks.
Potential Explanation B: The Quiet Room, somehow serves to quiet his power. Medusa said that there is some kind of treaty involving this place. It could be a place that depowers anyone inside. It would have to selectively since we see a flyer in the crowd shot, but it could still be behind Blackagar's non-death voice. After all, his foreheard charm is seen prominently displayed in the ballroom, so it's probably his place. If it's connected to the resistance, this would pit Medusa straight up against her (ex?) husband, which would be great drama to see unfold over the next 3 issues of this series.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Inhumans is probably a book that most people will overlook. Despite Feige and the MCU's love for them, they're still not many peoples favorite characters and so, with a massive volume of Secret Wars books to read, this one may fall off of a lot of people's lists. But I think Marvel likely knew that and is probably why this book is so much connected to the world at large. Doom says that "New Attilan is crucial. To me, and to the safety and security of Battleworld." We don't quite know why yet, but with Marvel trying to make sure their readers are familiar with Inhumans as much as possible, I think this book will wind up being crucial to the fabric of Secret Wars and, therefore, worth a read.