I think that McKeever may finally have found the key to really making me care about the Inhumans, and it has as much to do with their alien natures as it does with finding a way to make them more accessible to the casual reader. Instead of making this a story about palace intrigue, slave revolt or other such common Inhumans story threads, McKeever has chosen to focus, as Paul Jenkins did, on the conflicts between the Inhumans and humanity. However, while Jenkins emphasized the military and political implications, McKeever has gone smaller, looking into the social interaction of Inhumans, and plunking down a bunch of aliens with a variety of temperaments into what is already an experimental phase for humans: college. The result? A fun and funny story with a sinister undercurrent, all brought to life in fine detail by Matthew Clark and Nelson.
My absolute favorite character in this whole bunch is Alaris, the friendly and naive Inhuman who comes across like a foreign exchange student in your average college comedy. His genial attempts to assimilate into the culture are great for humor value, but they also make Alaris quite charming, and it's easy to relate his love of this new culture to the pleasant shock of the new that comes from many students who go off to college for the first time. In addition, because he's so physically powerful, the more dangerous implications of his naivete are muted, and what's highlighted is that he's genuinely having fun, unaware that he's being taken advantage of or that he doesn't quite understand what he's doing. When he used the phrase "bling-bling," clearly oblivious to its actual meaning, I just about died laughing.
Surprisingly, McKeever is intriguing me just as much with the less-fun characters. Nahrees, the haughty and distrustful Inhuman who best epitomizes what spoiled royalty can be like, comes across as a character whose arc could take her in a couple very different directions. She seems more frightened than anything, covering it with anger, and so I suspect that she will eventually turn against her former lover's attempts to turn their mission into one of espionage and hatred rather than the outreach that was intended. But there's enough actual anger there that I can see her being drawn into something bad. At any rate, it will be fascinating to watch where her character arc takes her.
Matthew Clark's artwork has really shone on Inhumans. He does a great job of making the mundane elements of college, the fashions and appearances of everyday students, come to life, and as a result, the unusual appearances of the Inhumans really stand out. When Nahrees explodes in a display of power, it feels powerful and alien, thanks to the very realistic look of everything around her. But it's also interesting to note that despite Nahrees having a more human appearance than Alaris, she is the one who comes off as more alien, and it's in her features and expressions as much as in the dialogue.
Having set up his status quo, of the Inhumans as sort of trust-funded exchange students, McKeever takes a funny but clever way of upsetting that apple cart at the end. Now, instead of just having to face culture shock and assimilation, the students have problems that many real students face, and I suspect this will allow McKeever to continue the balance of humor and deeper characterization that has drawn me to the book thus far.
