|
|
 |
The Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four in 1965. They were big hits and they were always on the cusp of getting their own solo title. This collects their Silver Age foray’s into their starring roles. This collection spans a little over four years. It starts in the pages of Thor with the Inhumans back-up stories that appeared in issues #’s 146-152 (Nov ’67- May ’68). Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked on those stories. The Inhumans back-ups immediately followed the Tales of Asgard back-ups. We move to July of 1968 and Marvel Super-Heroes #15, a Medusa solo tale by Archie Goodwin and Gene Colan.
The Inhumans went from there to co-starring in Amazing Adventures with Black Widow. Their ten-issue run started in August of 1970 and ended in January of 1972. Jack Kirby worked on issues 1-4 before Roy Thomas and Neal Adams took over. Their run was a brief 4 issues (#’s 5-8) and the Inhumans run ended in Amazing Adventures with Gerry Conway and Mike Sekowsky manning the helm. We conclude this volume with Avengers #95 from January of 1972.
As usual, Roy Thomas writes an excellent introduction, detailing the origin of the Inhumans. It was Joe Simon signing with Harvey Comics and the fear of hit comics being produced by the duo of Simon and Harvey. So Goodman wants more titles and with more titles you need more heroes. This period of creativity for Marvel led to the creation of most of the Inhumans. He discusses the attempts at an Inhumans solo ongoing and how it never took off.
Spoilers Ahead
-Thor #’s 146-152- These back-ups were very short 5-page stories and can be sorted into two categories: the origin of the Inhumans and Triton venturing into New York. The origin has been played up in recent years (the Inhumans were humans experimented on by the Kree) and this doesn’t add anything different to the mythos. There’s a brief origin of Black Bolt included as well. The second batch of back-ups deal with Triton venturing to the outside world, getting captured, and escaping back home.
-Marvel Super-Heroes #15- Medusa heads off to find a machine that will give Black Bolt the use of his voice and she runs into her old cohorts, the Frightful Four. The three of them, especially the Wizard, coerce her into doing evil with the promise of this device. Of course, the Wizard is evil and he’s been lying to Medusa just so he can keep her in tow. Medusa ends up defeating the rest of the Four as the Inhumans head back to Attilan.
-Amazing Adventures #’s 1-4- This is a pair of Kirby stories that were split into four issues when the powers that be decided that the Inhumans would share billing with the Black Widow. The first two issues deal with the Inhumans battling the Fantastic Four over a misunderstanding caused by Maximus while the second two issues feature the Mandarin as the main villain. The first two stories were fun reads, but the next two never really took off.
-Amazing Adventures #’s 5-8- This is definitely the highlight of the book for me. Maximus is freed from his slumber by the unwitting Karnak and Gorgon as Black Bolt takes off to the USA. Black Bolt saves a kid as Maximus unleashes a mental blast that causes Bolt to be rendered amnesiac. Maximus takes over Attilan as Black Bolt falls under the influence of some radical protestors. Thor makes his way down to stop the protest and the man who had imitated Black Bolt and used his costume ends up dead. Black Bolt is still amnesiac as the four-parter concludes. The art of Adams was unlike anything else in this collection and to me it was the best art in this collection. I love Kirby but Adams was just at the top of his game here.
-Amazing Adventures #’s 9-10- This was the conclusion to Black Bolt being amnesiac and it was tough to read at times. To sum it up, Magneto kidnaps Black Bolt, the rest of the Inhumans save him, Magneto ends up possibly dead and Black Bolt regains his memory. The kid that played a prominent role in the previous four issues is zapped up into the stars in a plot that is completely forgotten by the next issue presented here. Man, I feel bad saying this but the art was nowhere near up to the standards of the previous issues. Magneto looked terrible here.
-Avengers #95- We see the conclusion to the story that Adams and Thomas set up before in Amazing Adventures #’s 5-8. It basically shows the Inhumans asking the Avengers for help in overthrowing Maximus, which they do. If you look at the numbering this was smack dab in the middle of the Kree-Skrull War and that is mentioned here. The art of Adams is just fantastic here, too. This is a great way to end this collection.
-Not Brand Ecch #’s 6 & 12- We have three stories of the Unhumans that appeared in Marvel’s comedy title. The first, by Lee and Kirby, just shows Torch meeting the Royal Family and getting the Frightful Four to scare his new in-laws away. The second one, by Drake, Thomas and Sutton, features some awesome spoofs of the Inhumans in popular comic strips at the time. Finally, the last story by Drake and Sutton features Medusa trying to find true love. The middle story was awesome to read, with spoofs of Peanuts, Prince Valiant, Batman and Dick Tracy among others.
-The Bottom Line- There was some good and some bad mixed in here. The highlights for me were Thomas’ introduction, which always provide great insight, the Thor back-ups, and the first 8 issues of Amazing Adventures. The lowlights were basically anything not done by Kirby or Adams. If you look at the work of those two you can see just how they blew away the rest of the artwork in here. The stories weren’t great but they were enjoyable. The only thing that hurt it was that since these were separate tales told years apart it was hard to get into a good flow while reading them. The only time I thought there was a real linear story line was during the Thomas/Adams stuff. Like I said there was some good and bad mixed in here. Luckily, the good outweighed the bad and that is enough for this to warrant a recommendation, especially considering how hard it would be to assemble these collection of issues together.
|
|
|
|
|
Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
|
|
|
|