Attilan Rising Podcast

Mosaic #3 Review

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Morris Sackett’s wild ride continues in this third issue from the creative team of Geoffrey Thorne, Khary Randolph, Thony Silas and Emilio Lopez.

Morris’ new life as the Inhuman, Mosaic, has come with a lot of surprising revelations.  In this issue, Morris discovers some of the limitations of his powers as well as the sad truth that much of his former life had been built on lies.

While the shadowy Brand Corporation tries to ascertain the status and whereabouts of ‘Pops’ Sachett’s son, Morris himself returns to his swanky midtown apartment only to find Fife crashed out there.  Fife was the young man whom Morris had possessed when he first used his powers.  It seems that this possession entails something of a two-way street and Fife was left with quickly fading memories of who Morris is and his life prior to Terrigenesis.  Furthermore, the fact that Morris had once possessed Fife somehow enables Fife to see him in his ghostly form.

Morris’ girlfriend, Tia, and her personal assistant, Cece, arrive at the apartment to find Fife.  They cannot see Morris and assume that Fifi is a ‘stalkarazzi’ there to pilfer Sacket’s personal items.  Cece is actually a serious badass and beats the crud out of poor Fife with her tablet.  Morris attempts to leap back into Fife’s body so to explain, but discovers that he’s locked out; it would seem that Mosaic can only occupy a given body once and never again.

Morris considers leaping into Tia’s body, but decides it would be too much of an invasion of his girlfriend’s privacy… though he has no such compunction about invading the privacy of her assistant and instead possesses Cece.

Taking in Cece’s memories, Morris discovers the alarming origins of his and Tia’s relationship.  It turns out that Tia was actually hired by Morris’ father to merely pretend to be Morris’ girlfriend.  Morris’ dad felt that it was a necessary move to improve Morris’ Q-ratings among the female demographic.  And it would be mutually beneficial to Tia, whose own career as a pop-star was beginning to falter.

Tia doesn’t love Morris, she never did.  Indeed she’s in a relationship with Cece and she has only pretended to be with Morris for money and to enhance her own career.

It’s devastating for Morris to discover all this… to learn that his relationship with Tia has been a scam orchestrated by his father.  None of these people really care for him, they all just want to use him.   Livid, Morris is intent on finding his father and having it out with him.  Yet his dad is all the way on the other side of town and Morris has no patients for public transportation.  That is when he sees The Amazing Spider-Man swing by.

It’s too good an opportunity to pass up.  Mosaic chases after Spidey, leaping from body to body until he finds a bicycle messenger with a nice set of wheels.  Possessing the bicyclist, Mosaic continues his pursuit until he finally gets in range of Spidey and leaps into his consciousness into the webslinger.  Contact.  And the issue ends with Spider-Man, possessed by Mosaic, clinging to a wall.

Not a whole lot occurs in this issue.  We get a lot of exposition about the nature and limitations of Mosaic’s powers.  Those whose bodies he possesses retain trace residues of Morris’ memory; plus gain the ability to see Mosaic in his spectral form.  Yet he can only possesses a given body once and appears to be locked out once he vacates that body.

We also learn that much of Morris’ former life was a grand illusion predicated by lies and subterfuge.  Tia never loved Morris; she loves Cece.  And Morris’ father is shown as a duplicitous schemer who will go to deplorable lengths to mold his son into a star and cash-cow.  What is made abundantly clear is that Morris’ seemingly perfect celebrity life was little more than an illusion and I have a feeling it won’t be something he especially misses when he finally truly embraces his new life as an Inhuman.
The lack of decent action in the issue is made up for some heart-wrenching moments and terrific art.  It’s especially wild to see Spider-Man illustrated by Randolph, Silas and Lopez… it’s a frame-worthy panel.

I definitely like where Thorne and Randolph are going here.  The deconstruction of celebrity culture is a worthwhile endeavor and the nature of Mosaic’s powers works well with the metaphor.  Although I also feel like this issue should have done more to move the plot forward and what could have been condensed into a third of an issue was drawn out into an entire issue.  Although it could be that I’m just overly eager to see Mosaic interact with the other Inhumans.  We know that some point down the line he throws in with The Inhumans of New Attilan (as evidenced by his appearance in Uncanny Inhumans #11) and I’m very excited to see how this comes about.

Recommended.  Three out of Five Lockjaws

                               

Inhumans versus X-Men #1 Review

Writers, Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire, along with illustrators, Gerry Alaguilan and Lenil Yu, and colorist, David Curiel, brings us this first salvo in this world-shacking conflict between The X-Men and Inhumans.  Tensions between the two groups have been percolating for a long while and it finally boils over in this issue where The X-Men mount a series of intricately orchestrated attacks on their Inhumans foes.

                                 The stakes are clear…  For The Inhumans, the Terrigen Cloud is sacred and the means through which their people, culture, and way of life can be maintained.   For The Mutants, however, the cloud is poisonous and deadly.  For one group to prosper the other must die and all efforts to attain an alternate, mutually beneficial solution have been exhausted.  The time for diplomacy and negotiation has ended and there is no longer any choice but to go to war and The X-Men are going to strike first.The issue begins with The Beast apprising his fellow X-Men of his failed efforts toward ascertaining a cure.  The Beast has spent the last several months on New Attilan, desperately seeking a solution for Terrgen toxicity in Mutants; yet these efforts have proven futile.  The Terrigen in the cloud is rapidly bonding with nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere.  The plant will soon be uninhabitable for Mutant life.

While The Beast has been the voice arguing for a peaceful resolution to this dilemma, his former colleague, Emma Frost, has been his foil… advocating for a full fledged attack.   They need to finish what Cyclops had died starting, they need to destroy the second and final Terrigen Cloud.  Beast disagrees; it’s not that he has compunction over eliminating this sacred element of Inhuman culture, but rather he feels the Inhuman forces will overrun them.  He doesn’t believe the X-Men could defeat The Inhumans in battle and recommends instead that Mutants evacuate the planet.  The leaders of the various X-factions are there and they put the matter to a vote: go to war against The Inhumans or leave earth in search of refuge among the stars.  Beast and Forge both vote to leave; in a surprising out-of-character move, Rogue votes with them.  The others, Magneto, Emma, the younger McCoy, and Storm vote to stay and fight.

Outvoted, the Beast argues that their decision is folly; he feels they have no chance against The Inhumans.  Yet Emma counters; while The Beast has been working diligently in his efforts to find a cure, The X-Men have been devising plans of their own.  An intricate stratagem has been devised, a method for systematically taking out the Inhumans biggest hitters, leaving the rest vulnerable to a frontal assault.  The Beast is upset that the others have gone behind his back.  He attempts to leave, possibly to warn his Inhuman colleagues.  In a shocking twist, Storm blasts Beast in the back with a lighting bolt.  It turns out she has been a part of Emma’s plan all along; indeed she has been integral to its development.

                               As The X-Men see it, The Inhumans’ greatest threats are Black Bolt, Karnak, The RIV, and Lockjaw.  Remove these pieces from the game board and New Attilan will be left vulnerable.

The first of these sneak attacks takes place in The Quiet Room, Black Bolt’s Manhattan social club.  A rather thinly veiled Dazzler has infiltrated club posing as the lounge singer, ‘Lady Shine.’  Flagman informs Black Bolt that an important guest is awaiting him in his private meeting hall.  This guest turns out to be none other than Emma Frost herself.

 She stalls Black Bolt long enough for Dazzler to arrive, who then pulls a gun on hum.  As expected, BB utters a slight sound, firing his sonic powers at Dazzler.  Dazzler’s mutant powers allow her to absorb sound and redirect it back in the form of lasers.  Emma reverts to her crystalline form and karate chops Black Bolt in the neck.  BB has traded punches with The Hulk so Emma’s blow barely hurts him.  It does momentarily stun him, however, giving Dazzler the opportunity to blast him with the laser-based form of his own sonic powers.  It fells the midnight king and just like that The Inhuman’s biggest heavy is taken out.

Elsewhere, at The Tower of Wisdom, Jean Grey has come to visit Karnak.  Fortunately for Jean, Karnak is still under the assumption that there is a truce between The inhumans and X-Men, so he opts not to just jam his two front fingers into her brainpan.

Instead they talk and, in so doing, Jean ensnares Karnak in a telepathic feedback loop.  It’s a trap; a trap Karnak will of course be able to escape, but by then it will be too late…

Meanwhile, The Royal Inhuman Vessel (or RIV) has made its way to Chechnya just ahead of the Terrigen Cloud.  Crystal’s team has identified a sole Mutant among the dilapidated buildings of the waitron city.  Gorgon is sent in to evacuate this Mutant before the Cloud makes landfall.  This mutant, covered in a hood and blanket is discovered by Gorgon and brought aboard the RIV.

There the Mutant reveals himself as Magneto.  Being brought inside the RIV in this fashion has allowed him to traverse the vessel’s external defenses and Magneto uses his magnetic powers to rip the vessel apart, snaring the various Inhumans in twisted tentacles of reformed metal.

Finally, the X-Man illusion-caster, Fantomax has lured Lockjaw away from Kamala Khan and presented the massive pup with full bottle of Clonazepam.  Fantomex expresses some resentment over being the one assigned to take out the dog, but lets face it: a healthy supply of roofies is likely a standard item from his utility belt :3

Back on New Attilan, Queen Medusa has been speaking with three Inhuman youths all preparing to go through the process of Terrigenesis.  The trio will be flown up into the atmosphere and through the Terrigen Cloud, thus triggering their transformation.  Although these youngsters are putting on brave faces, it is clear that they are apprehensive over how and in what ways they will be changed.  Medusa empathizes with them; she too was anxious prior to her own Terrigenesis.  She reiterates what her mother had told her before she went through the change… stating that Terrigenesis doesn’t truly change you, it just brings to the surface who you truly are.

The ceremony is interrupted as they are altered to The X-Men’s attacks on The RIV, The Tower of Wisdom and The Quiet Room.  The children and non-combatants are all ushered to safe-rooms in the bowls of the castle.  Medusa had expected that this attack would come.  Johnny Storm is there with her and she offers him the opportunity to leave.  The Mutants are not Johnny’s enemies, this is not his fight and he should feel no obligation to remain.  Johnny declines; he’s willing to fight at Medusa’s side.

The issue ends with an armada of X-men bearing down on New Attilan…  things are certainly not looking good for the Inhumans.

The X-Men are longtime favorites of mine; yet all things considered I prefer The Inhumans… and it’s rather painful to see them routed in this fashion.  This pain, however, is mitigated by just how well the narrative unfolds.  The various attacks on the Inhumans key players unfold gradually, interspersed with what turns out to be flashbacks of The X-Men debating on whether or not to go to war.  It reminds me of that wonderful, dreadful scene from F.F. Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ where Michael Calderon’s child is being baptized and the narrative continuously switches to scenes where each of his adversaries are systematically assassinated by his goons.  The Inhumans may be quite powerful, but the X-Men have them outmatched in the crafty/treacherous department.  Round one goes to team X.

I was not a particular fan of how Death of X went down; it was a clunky story that relied on a twist ending over a satisfying revelation.  And I’m happy to report that Soule and Lemire do a significantly better job of writing the two teams in this issue.  The character’s voices are on point and the narrative unfolds in a neat, cinematic fashion.

The X-Men’s sneak attacks are quite ingenious and well thought out.  Emma’s recruiting Dazzler is an especially clever move.  The Dazzler and Black Bolt have shared the page a couple times before (way back during Daz’s solo series), and it is indeed cannon that she can take in and absorb his sonic powers. Furthermore, Emma is smart to take on BB in the heart of Manhattan, where he would be unwilling to really open up with his powers (in that doing so would destroy much of the tristate area).  Although I do hope that Soule and Lemire will eventually remember that BB has other powers beside his sonic abilities.  This is the third time that Backgarr has been nerffed at the very beginning of a fight and I got to say it’s getting rather old.

Magneto’s taking out the RIV is equally cunning, exploiting Crystal’s team’s humanitarian efforts to traverse the vessels’ defenses.  Seeing the RIV ripped apart by Magneto’s powers, however, left my quite worried over the fate of poor Hub (the Inhuman dynamo is powers the craft).  Has Magneto inadvertently killed Hub?  Not only that, but there are plenty of children and families living on The RIV.  What has become of them?  Hopefully time will tell.

Jean’s trap for Karnak was a little less adroit.  I’m not completely familiar with the full extent of teen Jean’s telepathic powers and I have to imagine Karnak would be able to see through her psychic illusions with little difficulty.  Though to be fair, it seems as though Jean and Karnak’s encounter is set to be more fully addressed in an upcoming IvX tie-in issue of Uncanny X-Men so it’s understandable that Soule and Lemire might chose to leave the matter less explored.

As for Lockjaw, he looks like he weighs more than a ton and I’m not sure a single bottle of Klonopin is going to be quite enough the send him to the land of nod.  I wonder if Kamala’s brief appearance in the book is a foreshadowing of her coming to Lockjaw’s rescue.  

The art is beautifully done throughout.  Gerry Alaguilan and Lenil Yu work wonderfully together and the color pallet chosen by David Curiel fits the theme perfectly.  Storm, Magneto, and Medusa are especially well rendered in the art.  Likewise Emma Frost, whose soft, angelic features contort into a gruesome sneer whenever her vitriol toward the Inhumans comes to the surface.

My only complaint would be the incredibly tacky gown Emma wears to The Quiet Room.   I thought she was supposed to have style…  and chilled Rosé after sundown?  tres gauche…

Some quick notes: Medusa’s mother, Ambur, was never queen.  Rhynda was queen and Ambur was a duchess, by way of Medusa’s marriage to Black Bolt.  Also, never give a dog Klonopin (even if it’s a giant Inhuman dog); there are some benzodiazepines cleared for animal usage, but dosages designed for humans can be fatal to animals.     

Once again, it is quite harsh seeing my beloved Inhumans so routed by the X-Men in this issue.  yet it was executed beautifully and I know this is just round one.  If the rest of IvX follows suit in regards to such high quality of art and writing then we are in for a fun ride and an excellent event.
Highly recommended.  Four and a half out of Five Lockjaws

The quasi-resurrection of Auran continues in this tale from the creative team of Charles Soule, Adriano Di Benedetto,  R.B. Silva, and Java Tartaglia.

The last issue saw the twin sisters, Irelle and Treste, coheres Reader to use his reality-warping powers to bring their mother back from the dead.  The twins’ mother, Auran, had perished, killed by Black Bolt while he was under the mental control of Maximus The Mad.  Desperate to see her again, the twins learned about the nature of Reader’s incredible powers, that he can manifest into reality anything he reads.  They set about compiling a book, a tome entailing what they believed to be a full account of who their mother was.

Somehow, they managed to talk Reader into to reading it.  He did and a version of Auran was indeed brought back to life.  And yet, the being created is not exactly who she once was.  She’s different, inexact and incomplete.  All of the secrets, omissions, and forgotten pieces that the twins had left out of their book are represented as literal holes, gapping voids in Auran’s body.

Frank McGee, Auran’s former partner and the twins’ current guardian, had discovered what the girls were up to and rushed to the Quiet Room (The Inhuman Nightclub underneath Grand Central Station) so to stop them.  He arrived too late and is shocked to find Auran, her body riddled with holes, writhing on the ground.

Frank is furious with Reader that he would do something so irresponsible and he gathers the girls to take them home.  Treste and Irelli realize that they had made a mistake.  They just wanted to see her again, get a chance to least say goodbye, but they never wanted this.  Reader is told to get rid of her, somehow use his power to de-manifest her.  Yet this new version of Auran has shaken off her confusion and pain and isn’t willing to be simply wished away.

Auran leaps forth, attacks Frank and grabs his gun.  Rushing off, she fires at Frank, striking him in the chest with his ray gun before fleeing into the crowd of The Quiet Room.

Frank’s wound is fatal, he dying and the twins plead with Reader to use his powers to heal him.  He can, but it will drain his power, leave him unable to again use his abilities to de-manifest Auran.  It doesn’t matter, if he doesn’t act quickly Frank will die.  Taking a braille tile on which the word ‘heal’ is written, Reader reads it and his powers magically undos Frank’s wound.

Elsewhere, Auran has made her way into the dance club portion of the Quiet Room.  She is confused and still in great pain, but she is quickly gaining her wits about her.  Her memories, or at least the memories bestowed to her by her daughters’ book, are coming back.  She remembers, she recalls how she died.  She accosts a club-going, demanding to know where they are, where Black Bolt is.  In so doing, she garners the attention of the club’s majordomo, Flagman.  Flagman approaches with a troop of his bouncers who try to secure Auran.  Though the bouncers are large and rather tough-looking, they’re no match for Auran.  She attacks and defeats them all, including Flagman.

Frank has caught up with her.  He tackles her, insisting that she needs to stop.  Auran is about to fight back when her daughters arrive and seeing them calms her down.  All that has happened is explained to her and Auran comes to realize why she feels so different and incomplete.  Much of the information that Treste and Irelli gathered was based on assumption and misconception.  She is not truly Auran, but rather an amalgamation of other people’s recollections, both accurate and inaccurate, about who she was.

And this includes the nature of Auran’s Inhuman powers.  Auran’s enlarged, elf-like ears could hear any sound and locate its source across an uncanny circumference.  That’s how her powers used to work, but not everyone who knew her truly understood it.  Now her powers work differently, now she is able to hear anything and everything… including Black Bolt.

The former king of the Inhumans and current owner of The Quite Room, arrives and stands over Auran.  And she can hear him!  She doesn’t hear his voice but rather the thoughts on the surface of his consciousness.  Herein she can hear his feelings of guilt over having killed her, as well as the fact that he had done so unwillingly while under the mental sway of his brother Maximus.

Then Auran realizes something new.  All of the people that her daughters had interviewed in compiling their book had different ideas of how exactly her powers work… some thought it had something to do with sound, something to do with hearing, something to do with control.  All of that has now been mixed together and augmented Auran’s power to an exponential degree.
Suddenly, Black Bolt’s hand bolts forward to cover Auran’s mouth, to prevent her from speaking.  Turning to the others, Black Bolt says: “Everyone get back!  She has my voice!”

Black Bolt’s words would normally have destroyed much of Manhattan, but that power is gone and his voice is normal.  It appears that Auran has used her new amalgamated abilities to take it from him, to have it as her own, and in so doing become possibly the most powerful and destructive Inhuman of them all.
And it is here that the issue ends with the promise of a conclusion in the next installment.

Wow, what a fun issue!  Another example of how Uncanny Inhumans has just been a wonderful science fiction/superhero romp, exploring new ideas in an inventive fashion.  Sadly, next issue will be the last fully Inhuman installment of the series.  From there the book will be dominated by cross-over issues with the IvX event; after which writer, Charles Soule, is set to step down from the book and it will likely end, relaunched in the form of the new title ‘The Royals.’  All of that should be quite exciting, but also kind of a shame because Uncanny has been such a fun and satisfying book with cool characters and inspiring new ideas.  And this issue is no different.

I really like what the story does here in exploring the constructive and inexact nature of memory and recollection.  Research in the field of cognitive psychology has shown that memory is rarely if ever perfect.  When we recall a memory, we take all of the various pieces of encoded information and reconstruct it back into a narrative.   It’s an inexact process, quite prone to all manner of interference and obstacle.  Assumptions, other memories, mis-recollections can all act to obscure the memory and produce an adulterated, inexact recall.

Psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus, has conducted some of the more renown studies on the inexact nature of memory.  In her research on the ‘misinformation effect,’ Loftus and her colleagues found that memory can be affected and impaired by way of retroactive interference.  This occurs when new information influences and shapes older, previously encoded information.  For example, someone can be shown a short film of a person wearing a red shirt performing a task; and then later shown a picture of that same person wearing a blue shirt.  Quite often, when asked to recall what they had seen in the film, individuals will incorrectly recall that the person in the film was wearing a blue shirt.  New memories mix with old memories, creating confabulated, mixed memories.

Or as Virginia Wolfe once wrote:

 “Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither.”

In short, memory is not an exact process.  And this important truth is underscored in this story-arc of Uncanny Inhumans.  Just as memory is inexact so too it the re-manifested Auran an inexact being.  She is a confabulated amalgam, both incomplete as well as boundless.  The fact that Auran has been able to take Black Bolt’s voice, that she can now wield near unlimited destruction with her words, further augments the symbolism.

False memories, after all, can be hugely destructive.  False memories have resulted in innocent people being sent to prison, they have ripped families apart, they add to prejudice and bigotry.  The ‘capricious seamstress’ of memory is pure havoc, and it is wonderfully represented in an incomplete Auran armed with an ultra-destructive voice.

I cannot wait to see how this story resolves.  Highly recommended.  Four and a half out of Five Lockjaws.

A wild new story arc begins here from the creative team of writer, Charles Soule, artists, Adriano Di Benedetto and R.B. Silva, along with colorist, Java Tartaglia.

The tale is all about Auran, the intrepid chief of security who was initially introduced in the pages of the first post-Inhumanity book, ‘Inhuman.’  Auran was a very neat character who captured fans’ interests and attention right away.  Her special powers entailed a specific type of echolocation: with her large elf-like ears, she could track down any sound, utterance, or given word within an uncanny range… it helped make her one of the best detectives of all of Attilan and she was tapped by Medusa to head up internal security during the foundation of New Attilan.

Auran sought out the new Inhuman, Frank McGee, to act as her lieutenant.  McGee had been a NYPD detective in his earlier life and Auran was able to coax him to return to the job as a part of his new life as an Inhuman.
McGee was having an especially difficult time adjusting to all that had changed for him.  Becoming an Inhuman was difficult; he lost his job, his wife had left him, he was lost and adrift.  Auran gave him purpose.  They were kindred spirits and they became terrific partners and fast friends.

Auran ultimately sacrificed her life in order to save Frank.  With her dying breath she pleased with Frank to look after her two daughters.  Aura’s twin teenage daughters, Treste and Irelle (we still do not know who or what has become of their father), have proven a handful for Frank, but they’re good kids and Frank has been a good guardian for them.

Treste and Irelle have been working on a secret project over the last several months.  They have been collecting stories about their mother, interviewing everyone who had ever knew her, anyone who interacted with her, tales that have been told about her.  At first Frank assumed that the girls were just trying their best to cope with their grief over their mother’s death, but they actually have a much more intricate and potentially dangerous plot afoot.

At some point down the line, one of the sister learned about the Inhuman from Orolan named Redaer.  Reader is an especially powerful Inhuman, a reality-manipulator who can make real anything that he reads.  The old zealot monks of Orolan feared this power so they had Reader blinded, cutting his eyes out from his head… yet Reader learned to traverse this obstacle by teaching himself to read brail.

Treste and Irelle have taken this massive amount of research and transcribed it all in into a large book, published in brail.  Their plan is to convince Reader to read this book and in so doing regenerate their mother and bring Auran back to life.

The girls seek out Reader in the Quiet Room, Black Bolt’s nightclub in the heart of Manhattan.  Reader has been spending a lot of time there, flirting with women and running up a sizable bar bill.

Treste and Irelle make their proposition to Reader, but he refuses outright.  What they are asking him to do is remarkably dangerous.  He might succeed, he could bring Auran back to the land of the living, but she surely wouldn’t be the same.  She would be merely be a collective of memories and stories, not the true soul that her daughters had known… all of her secrets and untold tales will not be there and who knows how or if these crucial spaces will be filled were she to be actually manifested back into a living being.

The girl are not easily dissuaded, the plead with Reader, demand that he help them.  Treste had once helped Reader save his dog and best friend, Foray, and she holds it over his head… he owes them.

The thing about Reader… for all of his power and understanding of the great responsibility that comes with this power, he is actually kind of a push-over.  He had lost his own parents when he first manifested his powers and he knows the twins’ grieve quite well.  Against his better judgement, Reader is ultimately convinced to help them.  Reader takes the book that the girl have made and reads it.

Meanwhile, Frank has become wise to what the girls are up to.  He discovers the brail-printer they had used and realizes exactly what the two are up to.  Understanding just how dangerous their endeavor may be, he rushes off to the Quiet Room to try to put a stop to it.

By the time Frank arrives it is too late.  Reader has finished the book.  His powers have surged and Auran’s being is manifested back into reality.  But who exactly is this Auran?  Is she the kind mother and dutiful detective that they all knew, or someone/something entirely different?  We’ll all have to wait to find out in that the issue ends on this cliffhanger with the promise of being continued in the next installment.

Death in superhero comics has lost a lot of its weight and consequence over the years.  When a main character dies in the pages of a story it can be sad and tragic (or sometimes a relief), yet above all else it is most often temporary.

I can think of few central characters who have died who haven’t subsequently returned sooner or later.  The Inhumans have been no different…  Black Bolt, Maximus, and Karnak have all died and all have ultimately returned to the land of the living.  And while I’m certainly glad that these specific characters returned, I also think that the revolving door of death in comics is a problematic thing.

In many respects, death is the driving principle of our lives.  The fact that life is finite, that there is an end, drives us and provides a motivation to do things and succeed and get things done before our time runs out.  Take death away and you also take away motivation… it takes away meaning.

I realize that all these Inhuman are fictional characters, but when characters who die are routinely returned to life, the sense of peril and excitement (and meaning) of the tales begins to wane.  This is something that I feel the entire superhero comic business needs to address.  This constant flow of resurrections is watering down the emotional weight and meaning of the stories.

But I digress.  I quite like Auran and (my objection to resurrecting characters notwithstanding) I’m happy to see her come back.  And Soule and company have come up with a novel and intriguing method for facilitating this resurrection.  Reader’s powers are just endlessly fascinating and I’m absolutely intrigued to find out exactly this quasi-resurrection has effected her.

The art by Di Benedetto and Silva is pretty cool.  I’m not a huge fan of how they depict the central characters, but that is merely a matter of personal preference.  They do an excellent job of compressing a lot of information onto the page.  The ways in which they illustrate Attilan and the confines of The Quiet Room has a very ‘Star Wars’ feel to it – a lived-in, alien setting populated by all matter of strange creatures who don’t seem out of place despite their weirdness.

It’s a very fun issue, although I must point out that I have one chief complaint: where is Black Bolt?

Black Bolt’s marginalization and frequent absence in the pages of Uncanny Inhumans is starting to reach critical mass.  Perhaps theres a method to this madness but I am becoming increasingly confused over the decision to keep The Inhumans’ most popular and recognizable character on the sidelines.  In the immortal words of Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, “if you’re going to ride in the Kentucky derby, you don’t leave your prized stallion in the stable.”

With an increasingly oversaturated comic book marketplace, Uncanny Inhumans has been slipping dangerously low in the sale department.  Rectifying this is easy: we need more Black Bolt.

This aside, Uncanny 15 is still a very fun read and definitely recommended.  Three out of Five Lockjaws!