Secret Wars has thus far been somewhat of a mixed bag, but it is a mixed bag which is easily explained.  There have been some standouts, and even some surprise standouts, and also a lot of misfires.  The easy connection of good quality vs. bad quality is that the good stories don’t dwell too much on the setting of Battleworld, while the weaker series overly dwell on those concepts.  The first issue of the Secret Wars Inhumans series established itself as very much the latter of the two, as it took its own story into the overall approach to Secret Wars.  While the plot of an Inhuman insurrection against the system established by Doom is dependent on the scenario, it also mostly avoids dealing with it.

This is even more the case in this second issue.  While the first issue involved some movement between the established zones on this planet, this second issue deals primarily with the infiltration of Medusa’s agent into the establishment of Black Bolt, ostensibly to see where his loyalties reside.  What follows is a sequence of interactions as the espionage team tries to figure out what exactly is going on.  The issue focuses primarily on these interactions, although there is a bit of action towards the end as Medusa finally shows up.

This issue is proof that the Secret Wars setting need not be too constrained in its outlook and approach as long as the writers are willing to take a few chances with it.  As it stands this story doesn’t really depend on the Secret Wars setting at all, rather at the moment could be set in any kind of time and place which involved these particular Inhumans.  It is really not the plot that stands out here either, but rather the well established characters, especially how the two groups of Inhumans deal with one another, almost like watching a chess match without the pieces.  While some other series from Secret Wars are not reaching the goals they are aiming for, this series is hitting all its marks, and it is still one of the standouts from this universe.

Story: Charles Soule Art: John Timms
Story: 8.7 Art: 8.7 Overall: 8.7 Recommendation: Buy