Inhumans Vs. X-Men #2

By Jeff Lemire, Charles Soule, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and David Curiel

There seems to be too much hero versus hero fighting going on in the Marvel universe these days. Civil War II thankfully ended, but we’re not really out of the woods on the good guy squabbling just yet because Inhumans Vs. X-Men is happening. As we enter our third issue, (there was a 0 issue), friendships and truces come to an end. Many bonds have been broken and there may be no going back for some of these characters. But, then again, it’s Marvel, so it will all probably be retconned in a year or so.

Jeff Lemire and Charles Soule were responsible for handling the flagship X-Men and Inhuman books; Lemire on Extraordinary X-Men and Soule on Uncanny Inhumans. Neither book really took off, but together for the second time, (unfortunately Death of X), they are looking to right the ship. This issue is more or less a giant fight. There is very little in the way of character development. The writing duo give us some interesting fighting matchups, like Human Torch and Sabertooth, which is cool to see. This issue will be a bit hard to enjoy if you’re a fan of the Inhumans though, they come of very bad here, Medusa especially. Medusa acts like a complete backstabber and even attacks a teenaged Beast, while destroying whatever data and solutions adult Beast had in his lab. The Inhumans are not sympathetic in this issue and it actually appears like they got what they deserved. If there is one saving grace to the Inhumans, it is that Iso continues to be represented as very likable. In an issue where the Inhumans come off as terrible people, at least Iso is being rational.

The pencils this issue are handled by Leinil Francis Yu with colors by David Curiel and inks by Gerry Alanguilan. Yu’s art is excellent, like always, but he does his regular faceless background people too often this issue. Yu does a good job of making the action easy to follow, you’re eyes will easily slide from panel to panel as heroes battle. One of the most enjoyable things about Yu’s art is that it has a texture to it. In the first couple of pages as we catch establishing panels of New Attilan, all the architecture has a feel to it. Even the Human Torch has markings all over his body that brings a texture to the pages. This is just one of the little things that Yu does that separates his style from others. The colors and inks by David Curiel and Gerry Alanguilan are a great compliment to Yu’s work. Curiel shines when he is laying down red, which he has to do a lot this issue, whether it’s Medusa’s hair of the flames from the Torch, the red is vibrant and eye-catching. The inks also play a huge role in the issue. This is very apparent in the pages where several Inhumans have been taken to Limbo and they are shaded just right. Overall this was an extremely well done issue for everyone involved in the art department.

Inhumans Vs. X-Men #2 didn’t develop much in the way of characters, but the battle progressed and this was essentially an all out battle issue. It’s hard to have both sides well represented here and that has been a flaw of the series so far, but it has been more entertaining than expected and here’s hoping the rest of the series will be as fun as the first three.