INHUMANS JUDGMENT DAY / ABBOTT / DOOMSDAY CLOCK [Reviews]: Who Writes This Shit?!?!

**INHUMANS: JUDGMENT DAY #1** – Marvel Comics

Let me preface this review with the fact that I am not entirely familiar with past installment of the Inhumans series, so this is coming from someone with a completely blind background. First and foremost, the plot, written by Al Ewing (Avengers, Ultimates), was great. It was all over the place and convoluted, but not TOO all over the place to keep me disinterested. The soul-searching section from Medusa was my personal favorite part. It had me partly emotionally connected to the story. Anything that has the power to do that fits in the category as great writing.

The art, by Mike Dez Mundo (Spider-Man, Avengers) and Kevin Libranda (Venomized, Captain America), was honestly fairly bland for the first part of the story. It gave a nice contrast to the beauty that was page 4 and 5 (Progenitors’ introduction), and got more pleasing as the story went on, possibly metaphorical for breaking out of the mental prison that Medusa was in. Or maybe I’m looking too far into it. Regardless, this comic is worth the read and has caught my attention moving forward in the series. 4/5 Bibles.

“If the truth agitates people…does that mean we shouldn’t publish the truth?” Well said and so damn true. Abbott is a refreshing story based in 1972, Detroit. Abbott, Chapter One deals with very real and timely issues that are currently taking place in 2018, America. Elena Abbott is a chain-smoking, truth talker that is a tabloid reporter for the Detroit Daily. She is a fierce woman and also the only black reporter at the Detroit Daily News. Elena (aka Abbott) is trying to reveal the truth that is going on in the segregated city of Detroit, no matter the cost.

We come to find that Elena is being haunted by the murder of her late husband who was killed by occult forces in their home. At this point it has been a few years since her husband’s murder and she was under the impression that she was managing her mental health; however, very strange things are happening on the streets of Detroit that are giving Abbot the eerie feeling that she has seen this all before…but last time, it was her husband’s body she was discovering. Abbott Chapter One is written by Saladin Ahmed, illustrated by Sami Kivela, and colored by Jason Wordie. Abbott is a very real and sometimes hard to swallow story…but a story that has to be told. You feel the Saladin’s inspiration from Kolchack:The Night Stalker and Hellblazer throughout the pages of Abbott; however, the hero here is a bad ass, strong, black, female who is bringing a new and honest take to these classics. 4/5 Brandy Nightcaps.

“El Sacerdote” J.L. Caraballo Twitter @captzaff007

Aaahhhh…Doomsday Clock. It still does not get any better than this. Yes, yes, Dark Nights: Metal, is still going on. And there’s a new “creators first” initiative DC is spearheading. And Young Animal is still a thing. And Slade Wilson still apparently has opinions just dying to get out there, but no platform on which to express them. But Doomsday Clock is the most topical, exciting thing that is continuing to happen in comics right now.

So after a brief explanation of the reveal at the end of issue #2, we focus on Rorshach trying to convince Batman of his motives, a side-story (very much like the Tales of the Black Freighter) of an old man waiting for the family that’ll never come for him at a retirement home (as the reruns of a tragic film star plays on TV on marathon) and a delightfully violent and tense night out with the Mime and the Marionette.These two, with this issue, prove themselves as the MVPs of the maxi-series, and are already worth the price of every issue. Watching them tear up a group of the Joker’s cohorts (at end, in first-person POV) prompted a re-read of the entire issue, and knowing that neither they, nor the Joker, know what’ll happen when they encounter each other, sets up the next issue beautifully.

The story-within-a-story no doubt has parallels in the larger narrative, one that will no doubt be wildly clear once the entire series is complete and every issue can be examined from beginning to end (something that I can do only to an extent), but so far the flashes of violence and topical commentary are not lost on this reader (nor is the revelation of the identity of Rorschach #2…I FIGURED it was that guy!…if not his father…who is dead. Never mind!) But even something as simple as Batman casually locking up Rorschach in Arkham, another insane mind, is such a great image and commentary to the misguided souls who think Rorschach (Rorschach!) of all people is someone worth following and listening to, it’s refreshing to see Geoff Johns rejecting the zeitgeist and reducing these characters to their truest form: reflected off their DC counterparts, the Watchmen universe is one so depraved and broken it deserves to be locked up.

At least for now.

I’m all in for where Geoff Johns and illustrator Gary Frank will lead this epic story. The art, framing, and structure is luscious, again reminding the reader of where Brian Bolland would naturally evolve to if he were illustrating this story, with every detail lovingly rendered and each panel transition flowing naturally into each other. If one were to ask Slade Wilson, I’m sure he’d say this shit was perfectly written. But for now, I’ll just say fans of even discerning tastes will continue to enjoy this story, supercalifragilicious or not. 4.5/5 Short Stacks of Pancakes.