Inhumans #5

History

The Jenkins/Lee Inhumans series was one of the founding titles of the Marvel Knights imprint, launched in 1998 under editors Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, who were given unusual creative latitude by Marvel at a time when the company was financially distressed and struggling to generate interest in characters outside its X-Men and Spider-Man franchises. The creative pairing came about through an unusual route: Jae Lee, whose previous Marvel work included Namor and X-Factor, approached Quesada and made Paul Jenkins — then known for his long run on Vertigo's Hellblazer — a condition of his involvement. Jenkins arrived in New York having never met Lee in person, yet the two forged one of the tightest writer-artist collaborations of the decade. Quesada has acknowledged publicly that completing all 12 issues with Lee was an open question given the artist's reputation for missed deadlines, and that managing editor Nanci Dakesian was instrumental in keeping the book on schedule. Issue #5's story, titled 'First Contact,' introduced Yelena Belova as a shadowed operative working for antagonist Stalyenko — serving double duty as the series' own plot escalation and as advance promotional seeding for the then-upcoming Black Widow Marvel Knights miniseries by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Paul Jenkins, with pencils, inks, and cover by Jae Lee; colored by Avalon Studios; lettered by Richard Starkings and Wes Abbott; edited by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti under editor-in-chief Bob Harras.
• Published March 1, 1999, under the Marvel Knights imprint; story title is 'First Contact,' the fifth chapter of a 12-issue limited series.
• First comics appearance of Yelena Belova, the second modern Black Widow — the character appears in shadow with dialogue across several panels but her face is not clearly shown, making this her debut in the medium regardless of the full vs. cameo classification debate.
• Yelena Belova was created by writer Devin Grayson and artist J.G. Jones; she first appeared as a design sketch in Marvel Knights: Wave 2 Sketchbook #1 (January 1998) before her comics debut here.
• Additional first appearances in this issue include supporting characters Elejea, Mendicus, and antagonist Edson Jarzinho (per Marvel Database).
• The issue also features real-world figures Bill Clinton and the United Nations as contextual players, reflecting Jenkins's intent to ground Inhuman/human conflict in contemporary geopolitics.
• The entire Jenkins/Lee Inhumans run won the 1999 Eisner Award for Best New Series, establishing the series — and by extension this issue — as part of one of the most critically recognized superhero runs of its era.
• Issue #5 has been reprinted in the 2013 and 2015 collected editions of Inhumans by Paul Jenkins & Jae Lee (both Marvel), and the full 12-issue run was adapted as a Marvel Knights Animation motion comic DVD released by Shout! Factory in April 2013.

Full credits

Key issues in Inhumans

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#2 1st appearance — Tonaja