“Inhumans” is another fantastic Marvel Knights Animation motion comic book release from Shout! Factory. Featuring a wonderful, dark and compelling story with solid voice acting. If you enjoyed the previous Astonishing X-Men motion comic book release, you will definitely enjoy “Inhumans”. Recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2013 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Inhumans
DURATION: 132 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 4:3, Bilingual Japanese & English, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Shout! Factory
RATED: Not Rated
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Written by Paul Jenkins
Illustrated by Jae Lee
Directed by Carl Upsdell
Executive Producers: Joe Quesada, Jeph Loeb
Co-Executive Producers: Stan Lee, Eric Kradowski
Supervising Producer: Kalia Cheng
Production Services by Atomic Cartoons
Music by Dane Deviller and Tyler Weiss
Featuring the following voice talent:
Eli Gabay as Narrator/Father of the Child/CIA Director
Brian Drummond as Maximus/Gorgon/Neifi/Reed Richards
Lisa Ann Beley as Medusa
Alex Zahara as Karnak/Woz/Dinu/Jarzinho/Timberius/Mendicus
Kelly Sheridan as Crystal/Kalikya/Nahrees
Sarah Edmondson as Tonaja/Marista/Black Widow
The Inhumans have always been one of Marvel’s most enduring oddities. A race of genetic freaks, they live secluded in their island kingdom of Attilan, preferring not to mix with the outside world. Even stranger, their genetic mutations are self-endowed; each Inhuman, as a coming-of-age ritual, endures exposure to the Terrigan Mists, a strange substance that imparts unearthly powers, some extraordinary, some monstrous. But now the kingdom of Attilan is under attack from without and within. Can the Royal Family, led by Black Bolt (who cannot speak for his voice carries the destructive power of an atom bomb) repel the foreign invaders who blast at their outer defense, as well as the internal threat of Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus the Mad?
This popular series takes a classic Marvel stable of characters, and infuses it with a modern sensibility that includes international politics and an awareness of class systems. Dark and grimly compelling, The Inhumans is one story that won’t be forgotten any time soon.
For Marvel comic book fans, “The Inhumans” have been an intriguing group of characters. Created long ago during the Kree-Skrull War, the Kree experimented on Earth’s homo sapiens in order to produce a genetically advanced inhuman race. In one way, increasing the chances of life of the Kree but also hoping to create soldiers that would fight against the Skrulls.
But the experiment was abandoned and the Inhumans created went on to form their own society secluded from humanity and working on the development of advanced technology.
Most often in the Marvel Universe, the characters were tied into the Fantastic Four. While the group made their debut in “Fantastic Four” issue #45, Inhumans such as Medusa and Gorgon have appeared in earlier issues. And was probably best known in the Marvel Universe when X-Men/Avengers member Quicksilver (son of Magneto, twin brother of the Scarlet Witch) married the Inhuman, Crystal.
With nearly each decade (with the exception of the ’80s) having released an “Inhumans” comic book, it wasn’t until the second volume if the “Inhumans” in which many people would be fascinated by it storyline written by Paul Jenkins and featuring the art of Jae Lee. The second volume would eventually win the reputable Eisner Award for “Best New Series”.
And now the “Inhumans” vol. 2 comic books will be given the Marvel Knights Animation treatment via Shout! Factory.
These animated stories (also known as motion comic books) are more like comic books with slight movements but with voice acting, music and special effects. The series focuses on the complete 12 issues that were released via comic books back in 1998.
The storyline introduces us to the Inhumans and how Blackbolt is able to shut his emotions down, as part of him trying to speak. Meanwhile, it’s time for the young Inhumans to develop their special ability. Meanwhile, evil brother to Blackbold, Maximus the Mad is being kept in maximum security prison.
Also, there is concern about the second-class citizens of Attilan, the Alpha Primitives (those who do not have any special ability and are forced to be slaves to the Inhumans).
Meanwhile, peace is disrupted when Attilan, home of the Inhumans, which is protected by a protective barrier, is attacked by humankind, who is not sure if the Inhumans are friend or foe. But as Blackbolt remains silent on the attack, it causes strife among the other Inhumans including Gorgon who wants to strike back against the humans.
But why is Blackbolt staying silent?
The main characters of “Inhumans” are:
- Blackbolt – The ruler of the Inhumans and is most feared because his voice can level cities and easily kill. So, he has dedicate his life to find ways to mentally train himself to not say a word or sound, especially during sleep.
- Medusa – Wife of Blackbolt. She is able to control her thick red hair that has great strength (able to lift 1.6 tons). She can communicate with Black Bolt via sign language and body language.
- Karnak – Cousin of Blackbolt and brother of Triton.   He has the ability to find a weak point of any person, plan or object.
- Gorgon – Cousin of Blackbolt and has hooves that can generate destructive seismic waves. Trains the younger Inhumans.
- Triton – Known for his green skin, he can breathe underwater, survive cold temperatures and can only breath outside of water with a special breathing apparatus.
- Crystal – Has super inhuman physiology and able to manpulate fire, water , earth and air.
- Lockjaw – The family escort that looks like a giant bulldog to the Royal Family of the Inhumans and their teleporter.
- Maximus the Mad – The main antagonist and brother of Maximus and has psionic/telepathic powers and genius intellect.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Inhumans†is not an animated cartoon. It’s a motion comic book, so the characters are provided in their comic book version but you will see a little movement, lights blinking or small objects flying around the pages and also some slight animated movements of the character themselves. While a character talks, you will see their mouths move.
Presented in 1:78:1, the motion comics of today differs greatly from the motion comics of the ’90s. There is more use of CG animation for special effects and blurring as opposed to the comic book pages with standard lighting effects.
The best part of these motion comics today is the voice acting. The voice acting is fantastic!
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Inhumans” comes with the following special feature:
- The (In)Human Experience: Looking Back at InHumans – (29:18) A featurette about the Inhumans, its history and the present version and working with illustrator Jae Lee. Featuring Joe Quesada (Marvel Entertainment Chief Entertainment Officer), Paul Jenkins (Writer) and Kalia Cheng (Supervising Producer).
I have been a fan of the Inhumans when I was younger. As a reader of the Fantastic Four comic books, I actually owned several issues featuring the Inhumans and felt that Blackbolt was a fascinating character because he is quite powerful and his voice can level cities and mountains. But yet, he is a man who is deeply loved by Medusa and yet can’t even say the words “I love you”.
But in the past, the Inhumans have always been portrayed as this dysfunctional family. Those who want to live with the humans, Crystal getting married to Quicksilver, having an affair and dating Johnny Storm (Human Torch) and so much of the fascinating storyline of these characters, their powers and why they were created started to be come diluted with relationship dysfunction storylines and it would frustrate me because these characters were not being utilized effectively.
That was until 1998 when Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee were given the chance to do their own series. While the series lasted 12 issues long, it was one of the most fascinating, intelligent and complex storylines to be featured in the Marvel Universe and it was needed because Marvel was receiving negative feedback with the Spider-clone storyline and to make things worse, it’s flagship titles with the X-Men were suffering with too many titles and Marvel’s only course was to reset the main comics with issue 1.
Suffice to say, the late ’90s were a source of confusion for short while and changes were made to focus on comics that not only had great art but also great storytelling.
Paul Jenkins really went deep with conceiving this story about the Inhumans and how the teenagers go through a major change (puberty but in this case, their special ability starts to manifest) but showing the worry of humankind towards the Inhumans because they remain silent and so humankind does the attacking, while Blackbolt remains silent and infuriating his own people who want to defend themselves and fight back.
And also a surprising storyline that centers around the second-class citizens, the Alpha Primitives but also knowing that Maximus the Mad is up to no good.
This is a very deep storyline and was surprising to find out that the next Marvel Knights Animation motion comic book DVD release after the “Astonishing X-Men”, “Iron Man: Extremis”, “Black Panther”, “Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D.”, “Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers” would be the Inhumans. But I’m happy for the fact that the voice acting and the artwork really worked well and I’m looking forward to seeing what Marvel Knights Animation has next.
Having been one of the earlier adopters of motion comic books on CD, suffice to say, they have come along way especially with these Marvel Knights DVD releases. Back in the day, motion comic books were just a page featuring a panel with voice acting (which was not all that great) and lighting effects. It worked quite well during the mid-90′s but since 2012, you expect a bit more from today’s technology and sure enough, you do get animated movements, special effects, mouth movement. And of course, much better voice acting.
Overall, “Inhumans” is another fantastic Marvel Knights Animation motion comic book release from Shout! Factory. Featuring a wonderful, dark and compelling story with solid voice acting. If you enjoyed the previous Astonishing X-Men motion comic book release, you will definitely enjoy “Inhumans”. Recommended!
