INHUMANS PRIME #1
Writer: Al Ewing
Penciller: Ryan Sook and Chris Allen
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Price: $4.99
Release Date: 3/29/17
What happens when there is no royal family to lead the Inhumans? What happens when democracy is installed in one of Marvel’s oldest monarchies? How will Inhumans react to their existence no longer being shielded from humanity? Inhumans Prime introduces these questions and more in an extremely well-written one-shot.
The purpose of this type of one-shot is to generate interest in an upcoming series or event. When looked at through this prism, Inhumans Prime excels on every level. A well-written, well-crafted, and well-drawn comic, Inhumans Prime introduces several key plotlines that will, no doubt, be addressed in Royals, the new Inhumans series set to debut this coming week. Writer Al Ewing does a remarkable job of weaving, what I am sure were mandated, central themes of Royals into Inhumans Prime. The one-shot did its job of getting me to subscribe to Royals,which I am guessing is exactly what they were hoping I would do when I picked it up.
Plot: Taking place after the events of IVX, Inhumans Prime deals with the trial of Maximus, the arrival of Marvel Boy, and the future of Inhumans as a democratic society. Medusa is left with the task of handing down Maxiumus’ sentence as one of her final acts as a regal, but will she show mercy or vindicate her people by hitting him with the hammer of God? Plus, Maximus plays head games with Blackagar for maybe the last time.
Story: Al Ewing likely had the unenviable task of taking four or five themes Marvel wanted him to introduce and had to craft that into a story that made people want to subscribe to the upcoming Royals series. To use baseball parlance, he stepped up to the plate and knocked it clean out of the park. Inhumans Prime delivers on all fronts and does a great job of weaving central themes into an interesting story.
Like any great one-shot, Inhumans Prime leaves you asking a ton of questions. Questions you know will be answered in the upcoming Royals series. It doesn’t just ask small questions, either. Al Ewing comes with several bombshells that should have any reader of past Inhumans series counting the days until the first issue of Royals is released. I don’t see a great need to spoil those questions here, but by now you should realize that it’s worth picking up if you’re a fan of the Inhumans and are in the mood to see some hefty changes to the way they live and interact within the Marvel universe.
Art: Ryan Sook and Chris Allen did a fabulous job with the art in the book. Not only were the characters richly detailed, they did an outstanding job conveying simple and complex emotions. The battle scenes were a mixture of entertaining information and raw displays of powers by the different Inhumans. They also did a tremendous job of changing the mood and tone of the drawings to fit the scene. You don’t often see this in comics, but they took a swing at it and connected in impressive fashion.
Verdict: Inhumans Prime exists to convince you to spend more money on Royals and that’s exactly what it did with me. So curious am I to see how these new changes play out in the world of Marvel that I may have set a world record with how quickly I hit the subscribe button once I’d finished reading Inhumans Prime. I need more, I want more. I will have more. — JW
Rating: 5/5 Stars