Lineage puts his plan into full effect.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Ryan Stegman
What They Say:
All the threads of the first year come to a head in this epic oversized Annual! Medusa! Lash! Ennilux! Reader! Lineage! What will be left standing before Secret Wars sends it all crashing to the floor?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the shift in the Inhumans story coming up, as the main series ends and we get the other event series as part of Secret Wars, Marvel has given us an annual for Inhuman to bring the main arcs at hand a chance to bring things to a close. I’ve enjoyed the Inhuman series overall, but it’s been run at such a breakneck pace and through several arcs that needed more time to really feel fully realized. That’s still apparent here, even with the extra pages afforded to it as an annual, but it at least brings some things to a close before moving on to the epic changes that are supposedly coming along this year. This installment covers a lot of ground in the realm of the Inhumans across the world and it works well there in making clear the state of events within this particular society.
With Lineage having taken control of the Index and using all the knowledge has has from devouring the Capo, he’s put his plan into motion in a big way across the world. His main thrust is making clear that there are several factions of Inhumans out there, many that have been around for the twenty thousand year history they have on Earth, and that all the NuHumans don’t need to be beholden to these factions, especially since they outnumber everyone else after the terrigen bomb incident. To make it clear that he’s in a position of power with all his knowledge, and control of the Index, he starts the changes to the world as part of his plan for the NuHumans to establish dominance here by isolating Jersey City and infecting it in a way that causes all the normal humans to start going crazy. The Index and his Capo knowledge has given him a look at not just Inhuman genetics, but human genetics as well, and he’s setting the stage for mankind to be ruled over.
While Lineage is doing all of this, and tormenting those near him, events play out elsewhere. Jersey City gets caught up in events and Kamala does her best, but gets help from a few other NuHumans thanks to Lockjaw. This goes on as Medusa is dealing with Lash and the fight that Lineage set there, which is having its problems. The weirdest part continues to be Karnak’s story, but that actually has a great reveal here as he and the Capo try and fight their way out of the After Life only to reveal that they were eaten by Lineage and Karnak has been trapped in there all this time. With his ability to find a flaw in everything, his finding a way out is disturbing and comical at the same time. There’s a sense that we’ve reached the end of the first chapter here, chaotic as it is, and seeing what Lineage has put into motion is what will be explored in the event series coming up as part of Secret Wars. At least we cap off this series with the conclusion of Gabby’s story, tease that it is.
In Summary:
The Inhuman annual isn’t a one-off with unimportant side story material. It’s essentially the conclusion of the series itself ahead of Secret Wars. And it does a lot of work here in exposing the fractured nature of the Inhuman race with all of the different factions and how Lineage is attempting to usurp them all with the NuHumans – and to stand above humanity itself. There’s some solid action sequences here that play out well, and some great little bits such as with Eldrac getting his due that made me grin. Including Kamala for a bit and doing a montage double page spread showing a lot of different characters in various settings getting Lineage’s message just made me want to know more of what’s going on with them. This is a solid annual, though I do wish it had the opportunity to finish as the series proper since I can imagine some folks skipping it simply because annuals tend to be less critical to storylines.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 6th, 2015
MSRP: $4.99
