No one wants me to complain any further about Marvel’s abortive attempts at elevating the Inhumans. I’m even sick of hearing my own rants on the topic. Things were looking up in the aftermath of Jason Aaron’s Infinity, but from the moment Inhumanity was introduced as a focal concept on ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., we’ve endured a mediocre Inhuman title, two sputtering All-New All-Different launches, and a positively atrocious television mini-series. The latest flame-out came as Al Ewing’s once-promising Royals series drew to a close with issue #12. This week, in order to provide some semblance of closure to the Inhumans’ intergalactic quest for answers to new questions about their origins, Ewing is joined by Kevin Libranda and Mike del Mundo on the one-shot Inhumans: Judgment Day.
Despite knowing what this comic was going to be — a semi-rushed capper to a storyline that likely had been envisioned for a much deeper run — there are three distinct takeaways worth appreciating. The first is the fantastic art of Mike del Mundo. Even though he shares duties with Royals fill-in artist Libranda, any opportunity to see interior work by del Mundo is worth the price of admission. And in this issue we get not one, but two multi-page spreads.
Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward’s Black Bolt series continues to be one of the best comic books Marvel has published in years. Which is pretty important, I think, considering ABC’s Inhumans was one of the worst things to ever air on television. And recent efforts to push the New Attilan contingent to the forefront of the comic book universe have stumbled mightily. Poor Jack Kirby. At least Taika Watiti’s Ragnarok pays appropriate homage to the King’s style and legacy. But the Inhumans were always one of my favorite concepts, both in character origin and design, and it has bothered me to see so much of that colorful cosmically charged energy go to waste, whether in half-ass crossovers or gawdawful televised mini-series. Ask anyone only casually familiar with the Marvel universe for an opinion on the Inhumans, and you’re likely to garner a reaction ranging from dismissal to outright mockery.
Last week’s opening shot into 
I initially reacted with a little disbelief upon hearing that this Black Bolt series was the Inhuman king’s first solo series. Brought to life by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in the pages of Fantastic Four in 1965, Blackagar Boltagon and his compatriots have been central figures in a multitude of mighty Marvel storylines for decades. But he’s never fronted his own title? Hell, even his damn dog got to star in Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers back in ’09. Then I quickly realized, well… a protagonist who can level a building with a whisper probably won’t factor well in a dialogue-rich comic book. Or, a comic with any dialogue, really. He’s always relied upon Medusa or another member of the royal family to translate a series of stern gazes and austere gestures. And a book featuring even one of those folks wouldn’t really be a Black Bolt solo title anymore, would it?
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Both Marvel and DC have engaged a number of prominent novelists and screenwriters over the last few years, giving these writers their first opportunity to pilot a monthly comic book series. Invariably, every one of them opens a press conference or interview with the same caveat: I don’t know what I’m doing, but I love comics and I love these characters. It’s been hit or miss for the most part; comics is its own storytelling medium, and it often takes time for a writer to ably adapt his or her voice to accommodate the differences. But once in a great while, an author really figures things out. No growing pains, no collaboration difficulties, and no real sense of inexperience. A year ago, Ta-Nehisi Coates took the reins of a heralded 
Edit, 4/10: This isn’t how Marvel Comics should be making the news. After all the outstanding progress and forward thinking that has become a hallmark of the company’s titles in the last few years – a number of all-female creative teams, that totally Asian Totally Awesome Hulk, Kamala Khan,
Marvel’s X-event this month seems to be about a lot more than a refresh on their stable of mutant books. Developing out of the ashes of Inhumans vs. X-Men, ResurrXion looks to not only provide a new publishing initiative for mutant and Inhuman books, but also to re-establish the X-Men as one of the preeminent Marvel properties. For three solid decades, beginning in the 80’s, the X-Men were arguably the most popular characters in Marvel’s catalog. But with the success of Marvel Studios, and accompanying company mandates to focus on characters developed in the Marvel-controlled MCU, the treatment of the X-books, and mutants themselves, seemed to mirror the fictional resentment and discrimination that had been a hallmark theme of mutant storylines for so many years.
Somewhat lost amid the dragged-out Civil War II event, the ongoing Captain Hydra drama, various Marvel NOW! debuts, and even the fresh look at the cosmic catalog in the pages of books like 
In the aftermath of the Infinity event, we learned that the Terrigen mists unleashed by Black Bolt, while transforming both Earth’s populace and the greater Marvel Universe by awakening the Inhuman potential in thousands of unsuspecting humans around the globe, also have a terrifying side effect. The Terrigen mists are deadly to mutants.
The Institute of Idle Time 