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.