The Inhumans get creative with their powers, the X-Men bicker and events take a turn for the comedic via … er, Magneto? Uh, yeah, all this and more in Inhumans Vs. X-Men #4 from writers Jeff Lemire and Charles Soule and artist Javier Garron.
Inhumans Vs. X-Men #4 (Marvel Comics)
Remember when I gave the first issue of Marvel’s latest event series a 9/10 rating? Sadly, this mini-series has dropped in quality with each passing issue. It’s upsetting, because despite the whole Inhumans-are-ruining-mutants-lives story arc that’s been dominating the books for too long, creators like Lemire and Dennis Hopeless managed to produce some great stories. I was hoping IVX’s creative team would bring this chapter of Inhumans-X-Men history to a close with a truly great story. Unfortunately, this issue doesn’t inspire much faith in that dream.
We rejoin the Inhumans’ heavy hitters, who were imprisoned in Limbo by Magik. If you’re a fan of Medusa, Crystal and the rest of the species’ royal family (hate to keep saying it, but who are these people?), then you’ll be pleased to see them working together to escape. It’s classic comic book storytelling and highlights what each Inhuman brings to the table, but did it have to occupy so many pages? I mean, we all knew they were going to escape, let’s get on with the show, especially when there are so few pages to spare.
Meanwhile, the X-Men’s leaders continue to reveal just how much they dislike each other as they try to figure out what to do about the Terrigen cloud now that Forge’s machine has been destroyed and he’s gone missing. All this sets the stage for a comedic scene in which the Inhuman body-possesser Mosaic takes over Magneto’s body.
“I, uh, gotta go to the bathroom,” the possessed Magneto says with wide, cartoonish eyes. Garron’s more animated style is perfect for this type of visual lunacy – I can’t begin to imagine Leinil Francis Yu’s grittier pencils handling this scene.
I suppose the silliness of this scene is fine. I think what mostly turned me off is we just saw this all unfold in last week’s All-New X-Men #18. If you read that book, there are no surprises here, which only highlights the problems with events and their tie-in comics. Why am I paying to see the same scene twice? Also, why does young Iceman appear in this book? Didn’t we see him and his boyfriend Romeo escape the strike on New Attilan together in All-New X-Men #17?
It’s also upsetting to see the NuHumans squad that assembled in IVX #2 really hasn’t accomplished much, and it’s clear that battle with Magneto on the cover to IVX #3 is never going to happen.
I’ll let you decide if these complaints are the usual fanboy rants or actual problems with this story. In my opinion, the issues with this series are piling up and getting in the way of what could be an amazing event – one that maybe shouldn’t be stretched to six issues.
One good thing – enough plot points have been revealed at this point (the truth about what happened to Black Bolt and how Cyclops really died) that the final two issues of IVX could easily be slam dunks. And if there are any more Magneto comedy scenes planned, there’s still time to cut them!
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