Revenge is a human and inhuman need.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Loveness
Art: Ryan Lee
What They Say:
Inhuman Error continues! The story linking Amazing Spider-Man, Inhuman and All-New Captain America hits a fever pitch as a character who’s been around for more than 75 years returns to threaten the Marvel Universe. You haven’t seen all the effects of the Terrigen Cloud yet and this one is about to destroy New York City!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Since I’ve got the old digital comics subscription thing going, I end up getting the specials that I normally wouldn’t get. I knew this one was coming but didn’t cancel on it because I’ve mostly been enjoying the Inhuman series and I figured his would provide a different look at it since it’s done by the team of Jeff Lovenes and Ryan Lee. While I had thought it would be something like an annual since it’s billed as a special, it’s actually the middle part of a three part story that began in the Amazing Spider-Man special I didn’t get and concludes in the All-New Captain America special that I won’t be getting. So it’s just a kind of awkward in the middle release, which I did get involved in sometimes back in my younger comic collecting days.
This story is a pretty basic one but it ties into some of the more recent events overall so that it at least has some meaning. The main premise is that New Attilan is under attack by a floating island called The Aerie, a place that has an offshoot of Inhumans on it that has been largely left alone for most of its existence. One of those that lived on there is known as the Red Raven, a human that was part of a plane crash that landed him there as a baby. He grew up being an outcast there, but was given treatment to be like everyone else as they’re all bird-like Inhumans. While he was on the outs there, he spent time being a superhero known as the Red Raven back in the 40’s where he fought alongside Captain America and others. But after the war, he went back to the Aerie just to have a normal life with a family, which he got. At least until Black Bolt set off the Terigenesis Bomb which the result cloud caused utter chaos and death in the Aerie, forcing Red Raven to watch everyone mutate horribly and many of them die. So he’s intent on revenge on New Attilan and is taking it out on Medusa, holding her responsible for her husband’s actions.
Since this is the middle part of the three part story, exposition is heavy and we get a lot of it to explain what’s going on and why. The rest of the book balances it out with humor and action, as it follows Spider-Man as he and a few of the other recent new inhabitants known as NuHumans are falling from on high through the Aerie to their eventual deaths. Naturally, a lot of humor ensues as Spider-Man does his best to keep things lively, but it’s balanced against the need to be serious as these new and inexperienced kids need a leader to help them make it through this. Spider-Man should be good at this, but this Spider-Man feels like he’s near the beginning of his own career, even if he’s an Avenger and pals around with the bigwigs. He does step up, but it feels out of place for him to have to step up. Then again, I’m not reading his current book so I have no idea what his present personality is. It just feels out of place. But that’s the extent of things here as they deal with a few actio moments and basic survival, something to provide balance to all the exposition.
In Summary:
Coming into this in the middle isn’t always a bad thing, but there wasn’t much here that really captivated me and said to invest in picking up the first and third parts. What made it harder was that even familiar characters were kind of unrecognizable here through the art design. Ryan Lee definitely has some solid layout design and a good flow about his work, but with weak background design that didn’t click and a character design that just felt very off for this particular kind of world, it was even harder to invest in it all. I’ve enjoyed this style of art in original works, but whenever it’s brought into the mainline work, it feels so out of place that it takes me out of the story, especially with well established characters like Spider-Man. The Inhuman Error storyline is a straightforward enough one, one that touches on an interesting part of the Inhuman lore with The Aerie, but this installment is basic exposition and a bunch of decent but not compelling action pieces with barely recognizable characters. In the end, this simply reminds me why I avoid specials and most annuals unless it’s a team that I’m really liking or it’s part of an established large storyline.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 22nd, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
