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I love the Inhumans. But to this point, they are best presented in the pages of Fantastic Four and struggle in most of their solo endeavors. The slim exception is the short stint of Neal Adams on Amazing Adventures. The Jack Kirby account of their origin stands as essential if less than enticing.
Fans argue whether Jack Kirby really created the bulk (or possibly even all) of the Lee/Kirby characters. I’m among those who believe that he did, and I think that the Inhumans is a case in point. They debuted as supporting characters in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s FANTASTIC FOUR, but they embody tropes that appear over and over in Jack Kirby’s work – including work that he produced without Stan Lee. Let’s do a “by the numbers”:1) A hidden civilization? Check.2) Advanced genetics making some peopl...
There are definitely some highlights to the volume- anything Jack Kirby had a hand in was fantastic, and Neal Adams does some gorgeous artwork, but mostly it's a bore. It's great to collect these early stories, and that the Inhumans get a variety of voices to help flesh them out, but the stories aren't very exciting and I was just waiting for it to be over.
With the amazing success of the mutant storyline in X-men Lee & Kirby tried to do it again with a different set of outcasts, The Inhumans. Never the commercial success the X-men were I always thought the Inhumans had a very interesting background and storyline. Great stories collected here and some amazing art from the Silver Age, This is some of my favorite Marvel reads. Very recommended
This volume of the Marvel Masterworks series collects an assortment of early Inhumans comics after their initial appearance in the pages of the Fantastic Four. Comics featuring the Inhumans mostly focus on the House of Agon, whose members include Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Lockjaw, Triton, Karnak, and Gorgon along with the arch villain Maximus. Two of the comics in this collection appear in two other published collections: THE ORIGINS OF THE INHUMANS (the mini-comics from Thor #146-152) and AV...
I enjoyed the origin stories from the back pages of Thor and the art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott, but was less enthused by Chic Stone's inks on Kirby in early issues of Amazing Adventures (2nd Series). In particular, the Mandarin looked he had been drawn by Kirby during the 1940's in the age of stereotypical ethnic distortions :/ The Gene Colan art on Medusa's solo adventure in Marvel Superheroes #12 was lovely.I enjoyed the writing of Roy Thomas and the art of Neal Adams/Tom Palmer in issues
Amazing Adventures #9-10. Magneto is still in his evil phase.
I had never read these back in the day so I was eager to. Sadly the quality was all over the map - from great (Neal Adams and Gerry Conway) to poor (Jack Kirby, and later Mike Sedowsky art).
Well, the saga, or arc, of Maximus the Mad's coup against Black Bolt was wrapped up in an issue of Avengers.There follows some elaborate but not very funny parodies of the Inhumans (or Unhumans) in the style of Pogo, Charlie Brown, Prince Valiant, etc.Some of the first Jack Kirby scripts (and pencils) before he left Marvel for DC.So, more of historic interest than any intrinsic quality here.
Solid stuff.
This collection boasts some pretty great artwork (Jack Kirby and Neal Adams; 'nuff said) for the most part so it's a real shame that the stories themselves don't live up to their illustrations. It's not even just that the stories are bad; half of them don't even make any sense!I'm glad I read this, purely for the purdy pitchers, but I'm pretty sure the stories themselves will keep me away from any potential re-reads.