#i feel like maximus is never really written to his full potential but like. he was treated horribly.

[kingmaximusboltagon]

ok so i know death of the inhumans is sort of. cruel. to basically EVERYONE there. but does anyone else think it specifically treated maximus like, really shitty??

hes the only member of the royal family shown dead, as triton is the only other one that dies, and triton's scenes happen off-screen. he also gets really limited screen time seeing how he "dies" in the FIRST ISSUE, and most of his scenes get immediately overshadowed and/or glossed over

(why is nobody that upset over him and triton? does karnak ever say ANYTHING about triton's death? does gorgon react at all to any deaths? why was there a joke played in the middle of their moment of silence for 15,000 deaths??)

additionally, in this first issue, where he gets,, maybe five pages before being "killed", he gets his arm shot off practically immediately.

so mark him down as also the only one who loses a limb. which leads me to my next point.

most of his scenes are grossly morbid in comparison to most of the others? gorgon does practically nothing the entire comic and only really fights anyone in the very final scenes, so obviously nothing happens to him. medusa gets stabbed but like,,, immediantly heals? karnak also gets stabbed, but he's also almost immediately better? lockjaw gets captured at the same time as maximus, but i guess they just sort of kept him locked up, because he has no wounds. crystal seems to similarly be more or less fine.

really, most of the bad shit just happens to blackagar, the guy the kree want to kill specifically, and maximus, who i guess is just kind of there for the writer to throw some more gore scenes in whenever he feels like it.

when crystal isn't controlled by vox anymore, even though she's clearly freaked out, she gets immediate comfort from lockjaw and medusa

and very quickly afterwards, she sees karnak, gorgon, and blackagar, and can easily assess that at least most of her family is safe. lockjaw has this same immediate comfort, as he awakens at the same time and same place. triton didn't have to deal with any of that at all since he was, ya know, exploded,, twice,,?

maximus gets out of vox's control, and is severely injured. he's bleeding, he's just been in a geniune fight, and he got a hammer to the face. looking at his bottom teeth and jaw, something is clearly fucked up there, to the point where im not even sure if thats bone or not. in some panels it seems significantly whiter than the top half of his face.

the first thing he would have heard is gorgon threatening to kill him! with that mask covering his face, he literally doesn't even know where he is, or who's around him. im not even sure if he realized his family were around him, or that he was coherent enough to even hear gorgon. his dialouge does not suggest he does.

when crystal approaches him, and he hears her voice, he immediately freaks the fuck out, panicking worse than i can recall maximus ever being written before

he seems geniuenly terrified for her, yelling at her to leave and run away. unlike most of the other characters, who go out quickly, most protecting someone or something, maximus doesn't get that at all.

karnak beats him to death, after maximus is surely convinced he caused crystal to either die or get teleported to a torture chamber. he doesn't get another chance to see his brother, or lockjaw, or any of the rest of his family. he dies painfully, and terrified, with no idea of what he's done or what's happened to any of the people he loves.

under the idea that somehow he survived or was cloned or whatever, he definitely would have died as a vox cyborg in that final scene, just as if not more painfully, forced to once again fight against his brother, who would have killed him there.

maximus gets severely mutilated, tortured, and then beaten to death by one of his family members. in the short few times while he's not under some sort of mind control, he's watching as lockjaw is harmed, and is unable to properly protect crystal, something he's clearly horrorfied over, to the point of trying to convince himself that what he was seeing wasn't real. if he was coherent at all after that blast, the last thing he would have seen is karnak suddenly killing him for,,, no reason, in maximus' eyes. while every other character it seems gets some sort of comfort or closure, maximus doesnt get any of that at all. he doesnt get a single scene with blackagar in the entire comic. he gets one panel with lockjaw.

it seems weirdly targeted, if you ask me. maximus wasn't even written as an antagonist in this series - he's exclusively fighting with his family, and blackagar requesting to speak with him doesn't suggest any animosity. why do all of this to the one character who's spent his entire life feeling neglected, putting him a setting where he subtextually seems happy, and then,,, torture the absolute fuck out of him, specifically?

he's barely even mourned.

[talenlee]

The Brilliant Fool

Normally when I write here about a Transformers character, it’s a character who has some significance to me as – well, honestly, as an example of a kind of person I could be, growing up. Blades gave me a lesson about quelling the want for violence inside me and also how defensive violent bf /softboy medic bf was a top tier pairing, and Dinobot gave me lessons about dying well in the face of oblivion, a lesson that I thought I needed really soon when I got it. There are Transformers I love because of jokes, Transformers I love because of association with toys and there are some Transformers that I love because they are, through no fault of their own, completely useless doofuses.

Let’s talk about Wheeljack

Wheeljack is an OG Transformer. Not only was he present in the original TV series, he was the first ever Transformer to be animated, the first one to appear on a cell and the first one to say or do anything. Wheeljack was also in this privileged position because he was from an earlier time, an earlier toyline, one of the diaclone toys that needed minimal changes to come on over. And not only was this the 1980s but this was a Japanese toy from the 1970s, so his toy was a really nice model that was also, coincidentally, made largely out of die-cast metal and had all sorts of lovely detailing and stickers that you could use to show how good you were at putting on stickers unless you were a fumble handed gallumphus like myself.

Don’t worry, I never had a Wheeljack, but I knew someone who did, and that toy was nice.

Anyway, Wheeljack as a character was one of the huge cast of Transformers who got a personality written up in what feels in hindsight like filling out a spreadsheet, where the writer got a picture of a character and had to devise a name and personality for them and keep moving, while also doing everything they could to keep them from overlapping with one another, which, of course, they did. Did you know that Grimlock (A t-rex) and Fortress Maximus (a city) and Brawl (a little guy about the size of a VW bug) are all listed as the strongest Autobot? Making sense of these original bios was like digging through Biblical harmonisation, but at least Transformers admit they’re making stuff up.

Anyway, Wheeljack got given the personality up front of being a crackpot mad scientist working for the good guys, which meant you took an archetype normally full of potential malice and potential goofiness and then just stripped out all the malice. Wheeljack in G1 was a guy who would invent things, and those things would have to be useful to pretty much only anyone in exactly one episode. This meant Wheeljack was either solving the problem of the episode by techno-babbling up a device that would fix it, or causing the problem of the episode by techno-babbling up a device that unfixed something, and sometimes both.

Wheeljack served a good, steadfast, mechanical role in the story of the show and to that end he hung around a lot. He also had a really easy face to animate – rather than flap a mouth or move a visor, his face lit up when he was talking, which meant you just changed its colour. Real convenient, real nice when you wanted to have him talk at length.

But this is just ‘why Wheeljack showed up a lot,’ it’s not by any means an explanation as to why I liked Wheeljack. What I like about Wheeljack is instead something created in the negative space of the character by what the people making it didn’t intend to do.

Here’s how it cooks out. First of all, Wheeljack is an inventor who is memorably depicted screwing up and eating dirt, regularly. He’s an inventor but it’s easy to feel like his hit rate is half and half, and a bunch of the things he makes have the weirdest solutions to them and ways they work. It’s not true in the comics, mind you, those are written a bit less for, y’know, four year olds in the 1980s, but the ‘crackpot inventor’ element sticks around.

The other thing is that Wheeljack’s disguise sucks.

It’s not that he doesn’t look like a car, he sure does look like a car! But Wheeljack doesn’t turn into ‘a car.’ Wheeljack turns into a sports car.

Well, so what you may say, it’s not like sports cars are that rare.

And then I go, he turns into a Lancia Stratos

And you’d interrupt me, comically, — Well, okay, no you wouldn’t, you’d say what and I’m embellishing for the bit — and say, hey, no no, see, you’ve got a specific name for it, a model, that means it got made in some degree of mass production,

And I respond with yeah, we know how many of his type of Lancia Stratos got made. He’s the Group 5 Lancia Stratos. He has specific racing regalia on him for sponsor material. Because he didn’t copy ‘a car’, he copied a race ready Lancia Stratos Group 5. There were only 500 Lancia Stratos made, and only a small number of them – like, less than ten – were ever put into racing colours, and then they were deomissioned. Imagine if while trying to blend into a location you picked the disguise of ‘recognisable celebrity,’ or maybe tried to blend in at the zoo as an endangered animal of which they knew they only had two. This means Wheeljack was in a position to scan the Lancia Stratos Group 5 (which wasn’t run in many races after it failed!) and then drove around after it left!

It plays into the way that his inventions seemed to fail a lot, or seemed to work in weird ways. It depicts a person who has somehow a skillset that’s suited to making big, impressive, technically challenging accomplishments and not a goddamn lick of sense about what he can do with it. This is a guy who can invent a teleportation machine and his idea of how to use it to solve the war is to let humans move more quickly to and from the base to update them on what the Decepticons are doing. This is a guy who makes a blender with a frappe setting that retasks a satellite. This is a guy whose first appearance on screen is using a machine he built that then immediately backfires and sets the tone for him for the rest of his life.

Wheeljack is one of my favourite Transformers, but only in the way that I love to watch the way fans talk about him, because of the beautiful alignment of super genius and fantastic idiot.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[aion-rsa]

Priest Returns to Marvel to Crown the Inhumans’ Once and Future Kings

In 1965’s “Fantastic Four” #45, legendary creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced Marvel fans to a mythic secret civilization of superpowered beings known as the Inhumans. Eventually, we got to know their Royal family, including larger than life figures like Black Bolt, a monarch with a voice that can crack mountains; his insane mind controlling, brother, Maximus; and Medusa, the Inhumans’ fierce warrior queen. The Shakespearean-style drama of the Royal Family has been a pivotal part of the Inhuman mythos ever since, with readers gaining the occasional hint and glimpse of their past, though the full tale of how they came to be has yet to be told.

That changes this August when writer Christopher Priest returns to Marvel and teams with artist Phil Noto for the five-issue “Inhumans: Once and Future Kings” miniseries, announced today at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. And while the pair have not yet begun work on their collaboration, the planned story will take readers back to a time just after Black Bolt underwent Terrigenesis, when a king now known as the Unspoken sat upon the royal throne of Attilan.

RELATED: New Inhumans Synopsis Teases Military Coup, Royal Family in Hawaii

We spoke with Priest about returning to Marvel, his take on Black Bolt, Maximus and Medusa, and what life was really like for citizens of Attilan during the reign of the Unspoken.

CBR: It feels like an early tale of the Inhuman Royal family would be an epic, almost Shakespearean tale that involves some of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s most inventive creations. Is that what drew you to this project? And had you written the Inhumans at all during any of your previous stints at Marvel?

Christopher Priest: No, I’ve never written the Inhumans before outside of, perhaps, a brief cameo or two. I was actually surprised and challenged when Marvel offered me the project. I see this series as part of a bigger and more complex overall history. As I see it, we can either bore people to death by trying to be too much, or we can go the “Rogue One” route and tell a fun story which embellishes key points of their origin. I presume if the audience wants to see more of this era of the Inhumans, Marvel will respond.

Nick Bradshaw’s cover for “Inhumans: Once and Future Kings”

Approximately how old is Black Bolt when you pick up with him in the first issue of “Inhumans: Once and Future Kings?” Has he undergone Terrigenesis yet? How similar and how different is he from the character we know now?

Neither Black Bolt nor Maximus are much like the characters they ultimately become. For one thing, Maximus is not yet Mad. He is a sane if hardheaded and strong-willed loyal brother, and the two are paired off for this adventure. Now, of course, Max’s unique character flaws give rise to certain rivalries and pettiness which will ultimately divide them but, from the beginning, they are Starsky and Hutch if not quite Quantum and Woody.

I’d prefer to avoid providing definitive ages because that sets off debates, but it’s fair to say the characters in this story are about the same age as the original Lee-Kirby X-Men. Most if not all have undergone Terrigenesis.

What’s it like writing a character like Black Bolt, where so much of his communication is not done through dialogue?

I’ve been writing a mute character, Jericho, for more than a year now [in DC Comics’ “Deathstroke”]. That has partly prepared me for some of the challenges we’ll face with Black Bolt. I also intend to explore the character’s dimensionality a bit more rather than limit him to seeming too flat or one-dimensional.

What I mean is, if you’ve ever had a deaf friend, you know that reading an email from a deaf person is no different from reading an email from any other person. That was a revelation for me and it changed my way of thinking about my deaf friends, many of whom I’d stupidly regarded as either less engaged or even less intelligent. They’re not. They’re informed, perceptive, brilliant. They are funny. My prejudice had been depriving them of much of their humanity. By allowing Jericho to speak mechanically, I’ve been able to explore the character in greater depth and have him emerge as a more rounded character capable of realizing a much greater potential.

I have a different path laid out for our young Black Bolt; not a mechanical device which would allow him to speak (although, frankly, this is not far-fetched technology. You can probably find something like that at The Sharper Image; surely Attilan technology could devise something), but an emerging way of interpreting not merely Black Bolt’s words but the intent behind them in greater depth and clarity. This presents a direct challenge to Medusa and Maximus, whose interpretations of Black Bolt’s hand gestures have traditionally been the most authoritative.

It sounds like Maximus will have a sizable role in “Once and Future Kings.”

These brothers are partners. They’re similar to Scott and Alex Summers, Chris and Liam Hemsworth. Ultimately, they become a bit more like Cain and Abel, as Maximus’ deep character flaws distract from their bond of trust and creates a wedge between them that grows exponentially until it reaches its ultimate conclusion.

The other important figure in Black Bolt’s life is, of course, his wife Medusa. Which aspects of her character do you find most interesting? What’s it like writing some of her initial interactions with Black Bolt?

Medusa represents the obvious flaw in a ridged caste system; she was born into a role she is genetically ill-suited to perform. Medusa was never going to host teas or perform ceremonial duties like a royal princess. From birth, she’s wanted to be on the front lines, with her male cousins, engaging the enemy, defending the realm.

At the stage of her life wherein our story is set, Medusa is terribly and completely sick of men falling in love with her. She is weary of all the speculative talk of who she will someday marry or who a prospective love interest might be. She’s a person, dammit, not a farm animal to be groomed and bred.

Our story presents several persistent suitors for Medusa, but she’s interested in none of them — including Black Bolt. She wants to be accepted, in the same way and on the same level as her male Royal cousins. The man who will ultimately win her over must first prove his acceptance of her as an equal partner in defiance of the stricter roles laid out by the Attilan caste system.

For me, the challenge of writing Medusa is to reveal her humanity and vulnerability without compromising her hard candy shell or writing her one-dimensionally “Hulk Smash!”

Will you get a chance to write much of the other Royal family members in “Once and Future Kings” like Gorgon, Triton, Karnak and Crystal? And if so, which of these characters are you especially enjoying writing?

They’re all in there, and they are a blast to write because what you will see in “OAFK” are these characters in their formative years with relationships just beginning to be explored and tested. “OAFK” is a lot like “X-Men: First Class” with The Inhumans. They are the characters the audience knows and loves but are fresh out of the gate and, therefore, different enough that following their development is fun and exciting.

What’s life like for Black Bolt and the Inhumans of Attilan when “Once and Future Kings” begins? Is this story set during the rule of the despotic king, the Unspoken? Is he sort of the central antagonist of your tale?

“The Unspoken” was never a despotic king. He was, in fact, The Good King. The theme of “OAFK” is communication, as the plot revolves around a series of miscommunications and wrong impressions in an operatic if not quite Shakespearean comic tragedy construction.

A young Black Bolt challenges the Good King’s thinking as regards to the semi-slavery imposed upon the Alpha Primitives. In so doing, and quite without realizing it, Black Bolt literally infects the Good King’s conscience to the point where The Good King begins to reevaluate his posture toward the Alphas if not the entirety of the Attilan caste system.

This ends up setting off a chain of events that leads to Black Bolt, Medusa and Maximus fleeing Attilan, with the help of a new friend, and taking refuge in the far away mythical land of Manhattan.

It seems like part of the fun of “Once and Future Kings” is the fact that this is a story that can be many things: an action story, a tale of intrigue, romance, and perhaps even involve some humor. Is that a fair description of what we’ll see? What can you tell us about the action and sort of overall feel of the book?

I’m not at all certain I am capable of writing a comic book that doesn’t have humor in it. Your description is spot-on. Rock and roll in two different worlds.

MINOR SPOILER: In the original comics, I found it ironic that The Good King Whose Names Is Unspoken was condemned, primarily, for wanting to destroy a terrible weapon designed to wipe out all of mankind. Yes, there were allusions to the Good King becoming The Mad King, but Black Bolt ultimately challenged his monarch because The King had stolen, with intent to destroy, The Slave Engine.

Now, I’m unclear of how that choice makes Black Bolt a “pure” hero any more than his attempts to destroy an obvious weapon of terrible evil made the King a “Mad” King. In that sense, “Once And Future Kings” is kind of a circular firing squad; a “Game of Thrones”-ish mashup of shifting alliances and changing motives.

If we get this wrong, this will be a confusing mess. If we get it right, “Inhumans: Once And Future Kings” will, hopefully, be a story debated over long after I’ve been drubbed out the business.

Finally, your last work for Marvel was in the early 2000s. What’s it like coming back to the company? Is there a possibility of more Marvel work from you after “Once and Future Kings?”

I hope so. Marvel has always been home. And it’s not like I’ve been in exile; I’ve had many conversations with the company over the years, but could never find quite the right project at the right time. Landing “OAFK” was really too easy. It was a project I wanted to do and something Marvel wanted me to do. I was a little shell-shocked at how easy the handshake was. We’d typically had these multi round-robins looking for projects or my pitching my own, which is [gouges his eyes out] exasperating for both for editors and talent.

The post Priest Returns to Marvel to Crown the Inhumans’ Once and Future Kings appeared first on CBR.

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