Uncanny Inhumans Annual #1 Review - Marvel Mondays

I Am Banyan

Written by: Charles Soule
Art by: Kev Walker, Scott Hanna, Dan Brown and Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: August 24, 2016
Review by: Josh Vermillion

To be honest, I’m not really a fan of the Inhumans and I think Marvel should focus more on their good characters instead of constantly trying to make the Inhumans a thing. Along with that, I’m not really sure about the power sets of most of the characters in this title, but I did a little bit of research to at least have an idea of what I was dealing with. All that being said, I was going into this annual with an open mind, hoping to be surprised at what I got. Let’s see if I got that pleasure.

The issue opens with some awesome art from Kev Walker as our team is trying to stop an Inhuman named Kludge, who is attempting to integrate the weapons of an Indian Naval Destroyer. Grid, who is Indian, doesn’t want to stop Kludge because he doesn’t want to destroy the ship and hurt his country, but Crystal talks some sense into him and he decides to take action. His EMP pulse takes out Kludge, but does some major damage to the destroyer as well. The Indian Navy isn’t too happy with the way the Inhumans handled the situation, but Crystal says she’ll talk to the government to try to smooth things over, especially where Grid is concerned.

Back in his home country, Grid goes about talking about the city of Mumbai and Indian culture in general. Grid takes Naja and Inferno to meet his parents, and man, are they nice. Grid’s mother is very receptive of the Inhumans and makes them feel right at home. But apparently it’s all an act and his parents don’t trust the Inhumans at all and want him to come home. Grid refuses and tells his parents that he’s an Inhuman and that’s where he belongs.

In the middle of their conversation, the Inhuman Banyan shows up and asks to walk with Grid. He thanks Grid for saving his fans back in the Free Comic Book Day 2015 issue, then tells him how he came to be this way. He tells Grid how he turned from the hideous Groot look-alike into the handsome, human-looking tree he is now. Banyan then shows Grid a machine he has that can control the electricity throughout all of Mumbai and asks him to help distribute the power evenly throughout the city.

It turns out that Banyan planned the entire Kludge attack to get Grid here and make him use his powers for what Banyan wants. He kidnapped Grid’s parents and is going to use them to make Grid comply. Grid shuts off the lights like he’s told, but he leaves a bullseye pattern pointing directly to where he is so Inferno and Naja can help him out. They show up and Inferno accidentally makes Banyan go up in flames. The whole building is coming down around them, but Grid stays and reroutes the entire power grid. He hooks up the poor neighborhoods to get their power off of him so that they won’t have to deal with any more brownouts. Then he tells his parents he’s done with the Inhumans and is going to stay in India with them.

A lot of stuff happens in this Annual and I’m not entirely sure where it’s going to lead. Is Grid actually done, or is he just going to be used in a more limited capacity? I can’t tell you. But I can tell you that Kev Walker’s art looked great throughout this book and Charles Soule gave us a pretty enjoyable one-off issue.

Bits and Pieces:

While I’ve never been a big Inhumans fan, this was a pretty enjoyable issue centering around Grid and his time in his homeland. The art looked great and this book could have big implications moving forward.

7.0/10