Inhuman #1

   Sometimes you read a comic, and for whatever reason, it just doesn't work.

   Here's one now.

   Inhuman has a good writer, Charles Soule, who's doing excellent work on She-Hulk. It has a fine artist, Joe Madureira, who has a stellar career of solid work.

   But this issue, coming on the heels (if that's the right phrase) of the still-ongoing Inhumanity series, and spinning out of the Infinity mini-series, is dedicated to the Inhumans - a race of humans who were artificially evolved in the planet's pre-history.

   As part of Infinity, the king of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, released the Terrigen Mist onto the world, transforming (or threatening to transform) seemingly normal people into super-powered (or severely mutated) creatures.

   So you have an issue filled with twisted imagery, a powerful Inhuman pursuing a deadly purpose, strange transformations, and lots of death.

   And perhaps it's the casual death that bothers me - it's all too common in comics theses days, to the point that it loses all meaning.

   But more likely it's the lack of a protagonist. The main character is a murderous mystery figure,  and Medusa isn't particularly sympathetic or welcoming and is really a minor character here.

    Look, I've enjoyed the Inhumans since they first appeared in the Fantastic Four (just before Galactus' first appearance). But they've never hit it big because, well, they're just too strange. There needs to be some common ground for the reader to latch onto.

   So far, I don't see any evidence of that here - just lots of sturm an drang.

   The've got the "In" (for incredible) part of the series worked out, but not much in the way of "Human" (or humanity) in evidence,

   Back to the drawing board.

Grade: C+

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