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This brings the Inhumans back to the Marvel Masterworks fold. The Inhumans were granted their own solo series, spanning 12 issues from October 1975 to August 1977. This was written by Doug Moench, who also wrote the introduction to this collection. Doug’s introduction was great, talking about the Sumerians and civilization popping up basically overnight and speculating if there was an alien presence, must like the origin of the Inhumans. It was good stuff. Anyway, George Perez (#’s 1-4, 8) Gil Kane (#’s 5-7) and Keith Pollard (#’s 10-12) handled the art chores on the Inhumans run. You may notice that #9 is not present. That was an all-reprint issue featuring Amazing Adventures #’s 1-2.
After the Inhumans series ended they bounced around the Marvel Universe a bit. They ended up in Captain Marvel #’s 52 and 53 from September and November of 1977 (written by Scott Edelman and illustrated by Al Milgrom) and finally in Fantastic Four Annual #12 from 1977 that was penned by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Bob Hall. The unmentioned titles that appeared here (in the extras section I suppose) are pretty varied. The first is a two-part series that ran as the back-up in What If #’s 29 and 30 (October-December 1983) written by Peter Gillis and penciled by Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott. There’s a back-up to Thor Annual #12 (1984, by Gillis and penciled by Richard Howell) and finally a Marvel Fanfare story from #14 (May 1984) that was written by Mary Jo Duffy and illustrated by Alan Weiss. Some Inhumans pin-ups (one from Marvel Collector’s Item #21 by Barry Windsor-Smith and the rest from the back of FF Annual #5) are included as well.
Spoilers Ahead
-Inhumans #’s 1-2- We get the ball rolling right away with this one. The Inhumans are laid out for those who don’t know, as well as an imprisoned Maximus the Mad. Blastaar is freed by an unknown entity and he heads to Attilan as a device pops through the Royal Palace. Blastaar powers up the device and through the ground pops the Kaptroids, mechanical beasts bent on capturing the Inhumans. The combined forces of the Royal Family is able stop these beasts. There is a minor plot point of the Inhumans allowing an ugly woman to get the terrigen mist treatment and she ends up as a beautiful butterfly called Iridia. This was a good opener, showing the characters and what they could do as well as setting up for the next big arc.
-Inhumans #’s 3-4- Black Bolt and the royal family search out the Fantastic Four and head to NYC. Instead they find a Kree warrior named Shatterstar. He picks up an early victory against the Inhumans but it is Falzon, a Kree council member who is against their plans to take the Inhumans and use them in the war of three galaxies. Shatterstar is defeated and the Inhumans head back to Attilan where they find that Maximus the Mad, working with Shatterstar and the Kree, has overthrown the city and now rules it!
-Inhumans #’s 5-8- Black Bolt is hung out to dry as all the Inhumans are held captive by Maximus. The Inhumans are able to escape and they set out to defeat Maximus. They rid themselves of Shatterstar and of the cronies of Maximus but Black Bolt is unaware of the whole thing and utters out a scream after hanging for nine days in the city square. This utterly destroys Attilan and so the Royal Family, by decree of Black Bolt, head out to find a new home. Black Bolt is able to redeem himself somewhat by utterly defeating Maximus before they leave. The Royal Family leave (with Crystal and Quicksilver left behind) and they find themselves crash landing on a world where people travel around in giant insects. There’s a big gang war thing going on between the two factions that reads as a social commentary than anything else. The Inhumans don’t really solve anything there but there’s enough action to fill up the pages.
-Inhumans #’s 10-12- The Inhumans leave the Insect World (after finally defeating the outsiders and battling a one-issue reprint) and find themselves secretly entering into a Kree space station that is central to this war people have been talking about. The space station is destroyed and the Inhumans head back to Earth. They fight some US Army troops before the Kree channel a warrior to Earth to take the shape of the first being it finds. Of course, it is NYC and the warrior takes the shape of a Cockroach (really!). The Roach is powerful but not something some bug spray won’t take care of. We end with the Inhumans fighting the Hulk (he likes being in last issues – He was in the X-Men’s last issue of their original run, too). They fight, the Roach escapes and things just end with a teaser that it is continued in Capt. Marvel.
-Captain Marvel #’s 52-53- The first issue really has nothing to do with the Inhumans but it just sets up Marvel being hounded by the Kree in the Three Galaxies War. The Inhumans get involved in things and the whole issue is settled when one of the Kree was actually a Skrull in disguise. I noticed Marvel did this a lot back in the 70’s. They’d take a story and run it over a few issues of a title when it would be cancelled and left unended. So it was quickly ended in another book in the quickest way possible.
-Fantastic Four Annual #12- The Inhumans return home but find that their home has been taken over by someone who rebuilt it during the Royal Family’s absence. The Fantastic Four join in on the fun of taking back Attilan but they soon realize that the inhuman rebel is not the real enemy. So they fly to space to take on the Sphinx. They have a big battle and it is Black Bolt who seals the victory for our heroes. Black Bolt and the Family return home.
-What If? #’s 29-30- This just picked up where the Thor back-up stories left off. Basically it shows how Black Bolt looked for a new home for the Inhumans and found the Himilayas where they are now. There’s a cool run-in with Black Bolt and the Eternals and how the Eternals helped them out.
-Thor Annual #12- This is a short tale of the Inhuman faction of flying beings who split off on their own and this tied into stories from X-Men #44 and Sub-Mariner #26.
-Marvel Fanfare #14- This was just a simple story of Quicksilver being accused of stealing from the Inhumans (who is already seen as an outsider) but he reveals the true culprit and Karnak and Gorgon express their sorrow.
-The Bottom Line- I should mention that there is a Windsor-Smith Medusa pin-up from Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #21 and a series of pin-ups done by the great Stan Lee from FF Annual #5. This was an interesting volume to see how Marvel operated in the 70’s. I touched on it before how titles were cancelled with stories still going on and ending rather abruptly in the book of another. The Inhumans 11 issues really were built up well and if given time I thought it could’ve led to something really groovy. Moench had a vision and he was able to craft a well thought-out story featuring the Inhumans. Of course, the story he started was ended in another character’s book in about 12 panels. The FF story ended the entire saga of the Inhumans that was started by Moench and I have to say that it was a fun ending. The rest of the stories were good add-ons to complete the Inhumans collection. I think collections like these are where the Masterworks should go – collecting appearances by characters in books in a linear fashion so that completists could get all the 70’s stories. The Silver Age X-Men books are what I mean with the last two volumes collecting appearances from them in books from across the Marvel Universe. Collecting these individually would be very difficult and for the ease of finding complete collections of the character this is perfect. Of course, having a very good 11-issue saga helps the enjoyment of the books, too. Recommended.
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