Inhumanity #2 – Review

by Matt Fraction (Writer), Nick Bradshaw, Todd Nauck (Artists), Antonio Fabella, Andres Mossa (Colorists)

The Story: The world begins to react to the massive terrigenesis as Medusa begins to act as the queen she needs to be.

The Review: However you approach it, there are some comics that are made for specific purposes. While entertainment will always be a factor in the production of serialized stories, there is always the matter of building up events, scenes and many other things in order to entice readers to check out what might come next. Some comics, of course, do it better than others.

This comic, sadly, has the task of setting up many elements for an eventual ongoing starring the inhumans, a whole franchise that might set itself more clearly in the Marvel universe. While the characters and concepts are sound, events from Infinity and the need to set up many elements in other places makes this issue kind of a chore in many aspects.

One of the main problem of this issue is the constant reminding of what just transpired, with some events that are unfortunately already known to the readers who were actually aware of much of what happens in the Marvel universe. While the way Medusa informs Captain America of what is happening and how she reacts to the disappearance of her husband and son does inform new readers, there is a certain lack of surprising reactions or actions from her part. There aren’t many twists and turns to what is shown here, which does make for some dull reading.

That’s not saying that there aren’t any, however. Matt Fraction does try, in some ways, to add some characters and potential problems to the ongoing narratives that is the emergence of inhumans. Factions, cults, new characters and hidden agendas are in this comic, providing some potential to the future stories that should be told from all of this. Where it fails a little, however, is that there isn’t that much context nor is there any explanation given to most of these things. While the arrival of a liberator of inhuman cocoons and the general research done on those newly affected beings does makes for some rather interesting story ideas, here it is used merely as a pretext for actions scenes and a few ominous lines at best.

Superior Spider-Man #5 – Review

By: Dan Slott (Writer), Giuseppe Camuncolli, John Dell (Artists), Edgar Delgado, Antonio Fabella (Colorists)

The Story: Spider-Ock meets an unusual aide for his classes and deals with Massacre.

The Review: This is a little bit more like it. After the last issue that had shown some unpleasant business, Dan Slott is back on track with some much-needed elements that were a little bit lacking in the previous issues of Superior Spider-Man.

One of these is a small change in the supporting cast, as even though it is still Spider-Man we’re talking about, this is not Peter Parker. The use of the ancient supporting cast was a wise choice in the beginning, as it permitted us readers to get accustomed to the new nature of Otto as Spider-Man. Now though, Slott is trying to gather up some new characters for Otto to interact with, giving us the delightful Anna Maria Marconi, a dwarfish woman that is also a tutor in chemistry and physics. Such an unusual character, both in her look and her demeanor, can only bring some good storytelling potential to the book and it also bring the promise of perhaps more new characters.