Silent War

Inhumans in Chronological Order #9

by David Hine (Writer), Frazer Irving (Illustrator)

Son of M told how Quicksilver stole the precious Terrigen Mists from the Inhumans and how Black Bolt retaliated by declaring war on humanity. Now war is about to break loose as Gorgon leads a terrorist attack on New York. Old friends become deadly enemies when the Fantastic Four are forced to defend their city against the Inhumans.

Collecting: Silent War 1-6

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2007

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

2011 read: Following on from House of M and Decimation: Son of M is the impact those events have on on Attilan, the home of the Inhumans. This Frazer Irving painted feast, tells of the Inhumans attempt to retrieve the Terrigen Mist appropriated by O.N.E./U.S. Government. Guest starring X-Factor, Fantastic Four and the Mighty Avengers this is a great tale underscored by the artful far sighted machinations of Black Bolt's supposedly mad brother Maximus. 8 out of 12. Collects the mini series Silent War # 1 - 6.

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

At the end of Son of M, Black Bolt declared war on the United States over the stolen terrigen crystals. The Silent War is the fulfillment of that declaration.

There is so so much wrong with Silent War. Perhaps that's why most of the plot points are dropped in the future Inhuman editions. It's just a sticky mess like walking out of a movie theater that was showing a kid's movie. Everything in me said not to read this, but my Marvel Unlimited Month is almost up and I wanted to see if there was anything worth knowing in Silent War and the answer is no. The Silent War is a lot like Civil War where all parties have lost their minds and are just choosing to do some stupid stuff. Everyone is ultra aggressive and they ignored simpler options that they utilize later on. Just about every part of this was a stinker including the so so art.

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huge fan of Frazer Irving's art, it's a shame he have not been used more often, and the story was pretty alright, for an Inhumans story, but the final chapter made no sense to me, and Medusa was pretty disgusting on this one.

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's the big follow-up to Son of M, the next big phase of the Inhumans that was such a flop Marvel abandoned it and it never actually matters. America has some Terrigen crystals and the Inhumans have declared war to get them back! So they fight, and the Inhumans prove pretty bad at it, but of course they have wacky weird powers so they do other shit. America experiments in a way that never goes anywhere. Maximus does stuff that's creepy. Really it feels like most of this has been seen before, it's yet another Inhumans vs Humans story but this one is more about the WAR than it is about the politics and personal drama that made the war in the Jenkins/Lee series so interesting and original. The only real conflict is more Maximus vs Black Bolt stuff which is played out.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the Prelude to War of Kings.

3.5 stars. After Quicksilver took the terrigen crystals he fled to earth. There, the government ended up taking them from him. This promoted the Inhumans to send a crew down to try and retrieve them. One of them however, went to far and killed some civilians. Now the seeds of war have been planted. From here, everything built up to a big battle between the Inhumans and the American government. This book was pretty good. Some great artwork and Hine did a solid job with the writing building the suspense and “oh shit” moments.

[Rodolfo Santullo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luego de ese gran hallazgo que fue Son of M (Heredero de M en la edición Salvat) quedé con la sangre en el ojo de saber qué pasaba en ese conflicto entre los humanos y los Inhumanos a raíz de que el zarpado de Pietro Maximoff, alias Quicksilver, se robara las piedras que provocan las nieblas que dan poderes a los que viven en la Luna y esas mismas gemas quedaran en manos del gobierno de los EEUU. El pedido de reintegro es denegado porque los humanos ven en las piedras el potencial de generar superhéroes a mansalva, pero para los liderados por Black Bolt las nieblas son más que poderes: son una parte fundamental de su cultura y su sociedad. Por tanto -y jugando con variados paralelismos con el mundo real- el guionista David Hine pone sobre la mesa asuntos interesantísimos en el conflicto que se da entre los personajes -primero los Inhumanos contra los Cuatro Fantásticos, pero luego contra una amplia gama de lo que la Tierra tiene para ofrecer, Vengadores incluidos- al mismo tiempo que desarrolla lo que verdaderamente más le interesa: la sociedad conformada por los Inhumanos y cómo, muchas mentiras mediante, la verdadera amenaza ha crecido entre ellos. Con Medusa algo más protagonista que el resto -pero verdaderamente atendiendo a todos los personajes- Hine toma la batuta y patea por completo el status quo de los Inhumanos (qué, debo admitir, no tengo idea de a dónde fue su historia después). Se respalda por el excelso arte de Frazer Irving, dueño de un estilo muy particular pero que le da verdadera identidad gráfica al relato (lo vuelve bastante único, por cierto) y narra con total maestría sean las escenas de tensas discusiones cómo los violentisimos intercambios entre los personajes (la violencia está muy presente, ya desde la primera acción “no letal” de los Inhumanos en la Tierra). Por encima de un relato tenso, entretenido y por completo orgánico con la historia previa de los personajes, me queda registrado que David Hine es un gran guionista, uno del que me gustaría leer todavía más cosas.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mission: catch up on the last decade's worth of Inhumans. Reason: Inhumans are the new "mutants" of the MCU. Challenge: wade through some of the most tedious, second-rate, forgettable stories of the Marvel Universe that I've studiously avoided like a bad STD since getting back into Marvel comics. Round two: bridge between Jenkins Inhumans glacial primer and the War Of Kings event.

Here's an interesting lesson in fickle readers and creators: New Warriors kill 60 kids, leads to Civil War, echoes in Marvel for years. Gorgon leads an Inhumans terror cell that results in dozens of adult deaths, leads to War of Kings, no one talks of this ever again. What's the difference? Millar/Bendis/McNiven lead the former event; Hine/Abnett/Lanning lead the latter.

Can we hang the success on the talents of the creators? Did editorial have any influence over the staying power of such events? Are we readers to blame - did sales figures just kill an equivalent event? Or is "cosmic" just not as popular (and for reasons I could probably guess)?

I suspect there's well-documented speculation and hindsight, but either way it's fascinating that similar plots end up having vastly different impact.

Mr. Hine, could you straighten something out for me? Did Pietro steal *some* of the crystals and disturb the Terrigen chamber (as your last book said), or were they all stolen and the Terrigen chamber is bereft (as you say in this book)? It'd be awesome if you kept any of your key plot points straight. Hell, in the last book the mists could now affect human mutants (not kill them like was always true before), and a single exposure either gave them permanent powers (Pietro) or temporary (everyone else).

OTOH, the art makes some things much clearer than the writing (or the art from the last book): we see Maximus in all his insidious glory, we see actual emotion written on Black Bolt's face at a tragic betrayal, the crackle of schadenfreude all about Luna, even the cowardice of Jamie Madrox in his body language. Irving has an exaggerated style, and his faces often look like something out of a funhouse, but damned if he doesn't make this story come to life - finding the emotional tensions and turmoil that any run-up to war would bring.

Somehow the inevitability of the wars about to occur lend some extra weight to the dramatic tension for me, and I have no idea why. What is it about knowing the outcome that makes it so hard to watch heroes try to avoid it? Is it the nervousness that comes with waiting to find out how good intentions are thwarted? Do we feel terrified of the unknown quirk of fate that will cause the machinations to crumble?

Hine turns out to deliver a great premise to the War of Kings event, nearly intact. The Inhumans are broken and ready to fight, the humans and heroes are wrapped up in this mess, and we're headed to Earth. Hoo-rah?

[Villain E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the Inhumans, have been since I got into comics. The idea of an entire other society has always captivated me, but it's pretty clear that most writers have no idea what to do with them. While Paul Jenkins' Inhumans story was excellent, it didn't add anything new. Pacheco's Inhumans changed the dynamic so dramatically that the changes were written out of continuity and largely ignored. McKeever's Inhumans just brought them to Earth, rather than dealing with them on their own terms. Surprisingly David Hine, who has recieved a lot of negative criticism for his writing, has proven the best writer for the Inhumans at least ten years.

There's a lot of backstory to this one.

In "Son of M" Quicksilver stole the Terrigen Crystals, the source of the Inhumans' power, and brought them to Earth in an attempt to return the lost powers of Earths mutants. In the end the US government kept the crystals for themselves, Quicksilver had the power to reactivate a mutant with a touch, and the Inhumans had declared war on Earth.

In "New Avengers: Civil War" the Sentry takes a trip to the moon and encounters the Inhumans. The tension is palpable.

In "Civil War: X-Men Universe" and "X-Factor: Heart of Ice" we see Quicksilver's actions in Mutant Town, an area of New York that used to house a large population of mutants.

Which leads us to Silent War. The Inhumans are checking out Earth, trying to find a way to take back the Terrigen Mists quietly. The US government captures Gorgon and, as an experiment, subject him to the Terrigen Mists again, mutating him further. The government is experimenting with using the Terrigen mists on humans. We finally find out what's been happening with Blackbolt and Medusa's son, a character I honestly thought everyone had forgotten about. As usual, when there's chaos in Attilan, Maximus the Mad is manipulating things behind the scenes. The war is waged on Earth and on the Moon.

The predominantly digital artwork is at times beautifual and at times unreadable. Overall I liked it, but it's definately subject to personal taste.

While the story is a little randomly paced, and it ends on a cliff-hanger, I still feel that someone is finally moving forward with the Inhumans.

[Emma Sonck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am trying to get into comic books again. I used to love them when I was in middle school and when I started high school. For some reason I stopped reading them. The love was still there I just didn't read them. So I decided to change that and try to get back into reading them.
This one was pretty good. The art was amazing. It wasn't the storyline I was expecting but it was very good. I can't wait to read more comics soon.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edición española, tomo único. Secuela de El vástago de M.

[jorge · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a direct continuation of Son of M in which Quicksilver’s actions lead to the US government seizing the Terrigen Crystals and the Inhumans declaring war. I thought the story was okay-ish, not really an outright war which was a bummer. It was more of a cold war between Inhumans and the F4 and Mighty Avengers. The Inhumans sensed the humans using the Terrigen Crystals and planned a mission to get them back from the Pentagon. However, their mission was intercepted by the Mighty Avengers which included Ares and Sentry. Sentry, knowing the potential catastrophe that would be unleashed if he and Black Bolt clashed, sought restraint and urged Black Bolt not to escalate things further. It appeared that even Sentry was afraid of Black Bolt’s destructive voice but why he didn’t unleash it was a mystery. Overall, the story was average since it didn’t have enough battles or good lines between the Inhumans and Avengers. The Inhumans had a point; the crystals were crucial for their culture and necessary for the survival of their race. How Reed Richards didn’t attempt to understand their POV was beyond me because since when is he so damn patriotic? The F4 broke their friendship with the Inhumans way too easily it almost seemed out of character. A full on battle between Sentry and Black Bolt should’ve happened to up the stakes and increase the quality of the story.

[Luciana Cavalcante · Rating 3 out of 5]

"But the peace never comes, does it? There is never a better world waiting, only more conflict, more bloodshed, until one day there is Apocalypse and then, finally, we achieve peace. The peace that comes when we enter the void and the darkness engulfs us, the peace that comes with oblivion". (Sentry)

As usual, war leads to absolutely nowhere.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y acá hago al revés de lo que hice con "Vástago de M", y promedio para abajo una buena historia que por ciertos problemas narrativos termina confundiendo un poco. Y eso que me lo leí por creerme incondicional del dibujante, Frazer Irving (de hecho, sólo para llegar a este punto es que me había leído "Vástago..." en un principio). El británico este tiene una originalidad y una fuerza visual que se ve muy poco en el comic yanki, y lo poco que leí de él (Batman y Klarion) me pareció espectacular, pero no sé si acá estaba en horas bajas, le faltaba perfeccionarse, se la complicó mucho buscando un estilo más expresionista o qué, pero no me deslumbró tanto como sus otros laburos. Aunque tiene más de una secuencia tremenda, y las caras de loco que dibuja Irving son de lo más perturbadoras. En resumen: un muy buen trabajo de un tipo que me acostumbró a la excelencia.
Yendo al guión, tiene sus puntos flojos, como toda historia de Hine, pero mantiene un nivel digno a lo largo de los 6 capítulos. Quizás peca de ser poco bélico para un comic que tiene "Guerra" en el título, pero los combates y las distintas instancias de las batallas están bastante buenas. Gana puntos extra, además, por el recurso "a lo Día de Venganza", de que cada capítulo lo narre un personaje distinto, y por el peliculesco final.
No sé si esta mini tendrá a su vez secuelas en ooootra más, pero si la hay, será bienvenida como sus dos hermanitas mayores.

PD: creo que me acabo de hacer fan de los Inhumanos.

[Judith Groen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story, but didn't love it. The artwork didn't help with that, I did not like that at all. The story was okay, and even as a new reader into the inhumans easy to understand (if you also read son of m). I do not really know anything about Black Bolts brother, their shared love for Medusa and the child Ahura. But they were sort of re-introduced and I found Maximus an interesting character. I am curious to see where this story leads.

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows the Inhumans fragile balance in their leadership and their relationship to the other heroes in the Marvel Universe. Relationships fracture as the fight over the transformation educing mists fall into the hands of humans. This was an action packed story arc that leaves the reader wondering a bit about what is coming next in the series.

[Matt Piechocinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a shame that monthlies about the Inhumans don't sell ... Hine did a really good job here. I think there's no greater drama than that of familial dysfunction.

[Kyle Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story, amazing artwork. Inhumans are underrated.

[Judah Radd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solidly good stuff.

The art stood out to me. It wasn’t necessarily consistent, but there were certain frames that were gaspworthy. The style was unique and I mostly really enjoyed it.

This concludes what is unofficially a trilogy following the consequences of House of M. It starts with Son of M, continues through the X-Factor Civil War crossovers, and ends here. All in all, it’s an interesting tale. Quicksilver has gone full psycho, the Inhumans bumble into a war, and Maximus has plans of his own. It’s actually one of the cooler Inhuman appearances I’ve seen (although I still spent the whole time hating them.)

Some cool appearances from people like Sentry and Iron Man. A cool fight at the end. This is a fun little story.

All in all, I don’t see why you shouldn’t read it. It has big picture significance and it’s pretty. Is it literature? Not exactly... but you won’t get bored.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d say this is more so a 4.5/5 stars rounded down. I’ve never heard if this event before but I was intrigued that it was a fallout of the House of M/Son of M event (Son of M I had also never heard of, thankfully this has a summary of both). And I’ve always enjoyed stories about the Inhumans. This one gets dark, starting off with a terrorist attack on the New York City, the Inhumans declare war on America for stealing their Terrigen Crystals and refusing to give them back. It ends up bringing in the Mighty Avengers which is an Avengers lineup I haven’t had much experience with. And the Fantastic Four show up briefly as well. It’s pretty slow but has some big implications for the Inhumans going forward after this event.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silent War (1-6). There are quite a few nice elements to this sequel to Decimation: Son of M. Hine truly seems to understand how to depict the Inhumans as inhumane and he gives us a great plot with important repercussions. It also follows an interesting format, with each issue focused on a different character. However, it doesn't have the strengths of Son of M. We don't get close enough to any character for the story to be grounding, and it's a bit plodding besides [6/10].

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Directly following Son of M, Earth (or certain jerks from Earth) won't give the Inhumans back their crystals so they declare war. And the inside circle starts to break down and Maximus is back!

[Ondra Král · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tohle byl solidní šit. Postavy? Ne. Děj? Taky nic moc... Inhumans i Amíci se chovaj jako kreténi, divná kresba.

[Daniel Jantulík · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kvůli kresbě 1*. Kdyby ta kresba byla lepší možná bych dal 2*.

[Madeline Rossell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting story with unique artwork, but after finishing it (while the story ends on a cliffhanger) I found that a resolution is never written and the story is completely reconned later.

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve all but given up trying to pretend I’m unbiased when it comes to the whole Marvel/DC thing by now. Every time I review (if that’s what you want to call what I’m doing here) a graphic novel of some sort, I end up apologizing for giving Marvel a pass on things and then raking DC over the coals for sucking so hard. Granted, I did give the whole Green Lantern Blackest Night clusterf**k some very generous ratings, but that was basically me trying to pretend that I’m being impartial, or explaining that I don’t have the youthful experiences with DC properties to allow me to fully enjoy them as an adult, or whatever.

The truth is that not much about their universe makes sense to me, it’s complicated in ways I don’t think it should be, I feel old, I don’t want to waste my time learning the rules and powers of a whole universe worth of characters and histories when I’ve already got Marvel in my head. Marvel is mine, I like it, I’m not interested in DC in any major way. So I’ll watch the TV shows and pick up the occasional book that looks interesting to me. But I’m not really a fan.

Of course, Marvel has its own cosmere to play with, and even though everyone is connected to everyone else, some parts of it were branches that I’d never really looked at before. Like the Runaways books I read a while back. I knew almost no one involved in those stories, but they were still pretty amazing.

Well, there are groups inside the Marvel universe that I didn’t really know much about too, of course, even though they were around in my heavy comic reading days as a kid. Like the Inhumans. I always got them mixed up with the Eternals. Which ones fought with the Deviants? Whatever, never really a big fan. I did read that Eternals mini-series a few years ago. I don’t remember a single thing about it. Except that I liked it.

Well, Marvel announced their movie slate for the next… uh… 6 years, I think. And in it, I see that they had an Inhumans movie on the schedule. So, homework time.

And really, that meant that when I saw the Silent War graphic novel for $4 at my local used bookstore I picked it up.

How was it? I don’t know. Okay, I guess. Like a lot of stuff, it’s so referential to other things that I also don’t know much about that it isn’t really that fun. It started well, I liked the first issue to so, I take it that those terrigen mists are really important to the Inhumans, and regular humans stole it and the govt refused to give it back. I totally believe that’s what we would do, too. We can be jerks some times.

On a side note, I kept thinking of the mists as Tarragon Mists instead, and wondered if the govt got confused and thought that they just had some great herbs for cooking and didn't know why the Inhumans were freaking out over it. They could run down the grocery store and by some more.

But, alas, a war over the finest French herbs was too awesome for the folks at Marvel to consider, so the actual thing they had was a magic/science mist-thing that gives people powers. The Inhumans kinda turn into terrorists and kill a bunch of people. At least some of that was a mistake.

In the end, what I remember most was that Black Bolt’s wife appears to be mind-controlled, along with a lot of other Inhumans, by Black Bolt’s brother. It was my least favorite part of the story, but also, I was wondering, and I do mean really wondering, if she was, er, pleasuring her husband’s brother between the bars of his prison cell? I mean, I’m not trying to insert a thing into the story that wasn’t there… but I’m pretty sure that she was. Maybe. Dammit. I can’t tell. I’m not sure I was prepared for this level of darkness in this book. I’m fine with all the violence you can throw at me, was not prepared for that sort of mind-controlled sexy time in there.

So I was totally derailed from whatever the story was by trying to figure out that little mystery. Apparently, 10 seconds on Google confirmed that others do share my interpretation of that page. So I’m not entirely crazy. I guess the powers that be wanted to imply the thing, but standards they impose on themselves makes it hard to get that message across. So weird.



Also, while I’m complaining about all the sex in my Marvel comics, I guess I should say that Marvel has had Secret Wars, The Secret War, and this Silent War. I think those three are too similar. I hope their next crossover event isn’t the Serious War, or the Scattered War, of the Stupid War. I want a different kind of title. Hmmm… I may be a little petty if that’s what I’m complaining about.

Well, I don’t care. I wasn’t blown away by this (I swear, that pun was on accident). I went ahead and ordered the Inhumans maxi-series from the late nineties though, I hear that’s, more or less, the definitive Inhumans story. So we’ll see how that one goes.

As it stands so far. Meh.

Edit -- I forgot that I loved the art on this (I read it a couple of weeks ago) and am giving it a bonus star for that.

[violetDelights · Rating 3 out of 5]

annoyingly, the ramifications of this story are totally dropped after this. this is also fully unnecessary in the War of Kings reading order. i did enjoy stylistic elements of the story, but it was pretty messy overall.
★★★☆☆☆☆

[Christina Nightengale · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was interesting and worked for the story, but wasn't really to my taste. The Inhumans anger is understandable, but Jolen took it a bit far. Poor Gorgon! S.H.I.E.L.D comes off really terrible in this! That one head scientist dude in this seems like quite the terrible person. Luna's powers are very odd. Maximus is quite enjoyable in this. Quicksilver has fully gone to crazy town! Poor Luna and Crystal. I did like how Crystal reacted to seeing her husband be so far gone. She is a good mother to Luna. I liked Layla Miller and Jamie Madrox showing up. Luna's reaction to Layla was interesting. I wonder what that means about Layla? Black Bolt and Medusa's relationship never really made sense to me and this story didn't help it any. Poor Ahura! I'm not sure how Medusa kept it together after agreeing with Black Bolt to lock their son away forever. It's kind of odd that Ahura looks so much like Maximus and both have the same genes that cause madness. Ares is kind of great for how he seems to just accept that he is a horrible person. It seemed Black Widow went deaf, but that has never been addressed anywhere else. The suicide squad that S.HI.E.L.D sends to the Inhumans to attack Attilan was disturbing. Saying "God bless America!" as you attack a city full of people makes it even more disturbing! They actually gave off strong terrorist vibes to me. The ending is a little bit of a cliffhanger. It was an interesting story, but very different than I expected.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story about the Inhumans, one of those weird little pockets of the Marvel Universe that I don't particularly understand, but often enjoy reading about. Each issue of this 6 part miniseries is told from a different character's point of view, so that makes it fairly easy to follow the various characters, even though I didn't know who most of them were going in.

The plot leans a bit too much toward trying to draw parallels to real world events and -- as fast as events in Marvel have been moving lately, this already feels really dated despite only being a year or two old. The ending of the series is open and I don't really know what happened after this to get the Inhumans to the (very different) place they are now. (Is the Black Bolt in this Skrull Black Bolt? I have no frigging idea). But taking the story by itself, it's a pretty engaging read. Not so into this computer-generated kind of art, but did love the X-Factor cameos.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've really been enjoying the Inhumans story line that started with Decimation: Son of M. That being said, this is by far the weakest entry in it. I still enjoyed it, but it's definitely not as good as the others.

I think the thing that really soured me on it was the art. It was really amazing art, awesomely stylized and beautiful to look at. But, and this is a big but for me, it just didn't feel like it fit the superhero genre very well. the combat scenes were hard to follow and all the females faces came off looking way to young and it was just.... I don't know, too moody at times. there were scenes where this fit AMAZINGLY well, like when Medusa was kneeling outside Maximus' cell, but too many other times it just didn't fit.

[Dmitry Yakovenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Продолжение "House of M" и "Son of M". Нелюди наконец-таки вторгаются на землю, после недавнего объявления войны, однако, земляне готовы дать отпор бывшим союзникам.
Довольно неплохая история, наполненная различными событиями, интересными персонажами и очень интригующим финалом. Рисунок стандартный, не получится ни похвалить, ни поругать. То же самое и с диалогами - радости они не приносят, но и расстроить особо не должны.
В целом, людям, которые интересуется вселенной marvel и хотят быть в курсе всего происходящего в ней - стоит читать, история далеко не гениальная, но это очень важное звено, которое соединяет прошлые события и является важной частью будущих.