Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although it was interesting to read two different versions of the X-Men origin story, I have to say, I didn’t really like this comic book as much as some of the others. Out of the two different sets of comics, I actually preferred the origin story in the first one.

It was good to have the opportunity to see some of the background of the original five X-Men. I had a lot of sympathy for Scott in the first set of comics. I thought he looked far too thin… like he’d been starved by the man who had taken him.

I really liked Bobby’s character in this… but I think I preferred Hank’s a lot more. There wasn’t really much evidence of how intelligent he was until he was picked up by Xavier, though. It would have been nice to see something of that as well as how athletic he is.

I did think interspersing the story with details of the newscasts was an interesting effect. I did also find myself getting really annoyed with the people in the first set of comics especially. There wasn’t much evidence of anyone being accepting… though it was good to see that some of the parents tried hard to support their children.

I thought it was interesting to see that the first set of comics were in a different kind of style entirely to the slightly more juvenile version of the second set. What I also thought was interesting was how young Charles and Magneto seemed in the first set of comics. And I liked seeing the mutual understanding between Charles and the FBI agent… and I did like the FBI agent’s character. I did dislike most of the other police shown, though.

There was one mutant character I felt a lot of sympathy for in the first set of comics. It was a bit disappointing that the second comic meant that the first one was no longer valid, though.

I liked Warner’s character, even though he was technically a vigilante. I would have liked to know more about him… though he did remind me a bit of Tony’s character.

I liked seeing some of the artwork at the end of the book and I do think it was worth reading these comics… I just didn’t enjoy them as much as some of the others.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I hadn’t really registered much about the Inhumans, even though I had seen glimpses of some of them (like Crystal) in previous comics.

I thought it was interesting to get a glimpse of the origins of the Inhumans. While there were some similarities with the Fantastic Four, I thought it was good to see that they were also bound by the people they were leading. I would have liked the opportunity to see more of Black Bolt’s past with Medusa… but what I did learn about him made me have a lot of sympathy. I did get somewhat confused by the fact that he apparently couldn’t talk… but things did make sense by the end of the comics.

I felt quite a lot of sympathy for Crystal by the end of this comic. Although I could understand Medusa’s desperation to save her husband, I did think that she acted quite selfishly in that her only priority seemed to be Black Bolt… and not the rest of her people. While it was implied that Black Bolt’s brother was a villain, he at least seemed to care about the rest of the Inhumans, even if he was responsible for enslaving them in the past.

Once again, I noticed that there were some very clear differences between the first comic and the second set. The second was a lot different in the artwork and style… but, although there was a lot of action and fighting, I didn’t notice a lot of gore even in the second set of comics.

It was interesting to see the relationship between Crystal and Medusa, but I would have liked to see more of the relationships between the rest of the characters as well.

I liked seeing the different ways the Inhumans had evolved, though I would have liked to see a bit more explanation about how they all developed vastly different appearances and abilities. And it also would have been good to see more detail about how Medusa related to her namesake.

I liked reading about the history of the Inhumans as well… but I really didn’t like the Kree. Not in the first comic and definitely not in the second set.

This has triggered an interest in reading more about the Inhumans… and it was also cool to see Tony Stark make a brief appearance.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this comic book 3.5 stars. While I struggled somewhat to get to know the characters, I did like the artwork in this. It was very graphic in places, but the concept was a pretty interesting one.

I didn’t really know what to make of Gilad at first. I thought he was an intriguing character, but I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to see more of his relationship with his son and daughter. In the first comic, it didn’t really seem like he cared about either of them… and although there was a flashback to him with them as children later on, I didn’t get the impression that he considered them anything more than tools.

It was good to see that Gilad had his own morals and ethics, even though he was clearly a killer. It would have been good to see more of his past… how he became immortal and what brought him to serving the Earth. I was a bit disappointed to see the cliche of the god of death being the villain, though. It would be nice for that to be different for a change.

There was some very nice artwork in this graphic novel. It was good that the violence was shown… even if it was a bit graphic in places. I really didn’t like Xaran’s character. While there seemed to be some attempt to give her a well-rounded background, the very first few scenes involving her made it clear I wouldn’t like her at all. And I kind of thought Gilad should have let her die.

I liked the fact that the Earth goddess did appear, though it would have been good to get some more detail about her and the other gods. I couldn’t really understand exactly why Gilad was obsessed with killing the gods… or why it needed to be a particular place in order for it to happen.

Although there were some flashbacks in the comics, there was a lot that was confusing and seemed almost disjointed. I did like seeing the different variety of artwork at the end of this comic book, though. And I think there’s the potential for Mitu to be a well-rounded, intriguing character.

I’m not sure I’ll read the other volumes in this comic book series. I’ll have to wait and see what the blurbs of the others are like.