Secret Invasion: Inhumans #1

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Joe Pokaski (TV's Heroes) and penciled by Tom Raney (Annihilation: Conquest), with cover art by Stjepan Šejić; inked by Scott Hanna, colored by Wes Hartman, lettered by Cory Petit, and edited by Bill Rosemann.
• Released August 13, 2008 (cover date: October 2008); issue #1 of a four-issue limited series, with a second printing variant also published.
• The story is subtitled 'Family (Part 1)' and takes place chronologically prior to the events of the main Secret Invasion #1 series.
• The issue opens on Attilan with Karnak instructing young Inhumans on the importance of family as the unifying principle of Inhuman society — using stained-glass windows depicting Royal Family history as a visual device, evoking a Kirby-esque aesthetic — before pivoting to Tony Stark presenting Medusa and Crystal with the corpse of a Skrull wearing Black Bolt's garb.
• Confirmed at issue's end: Black Bolt is alive but a prisoner aboard a Skrull warship, where a Skrull scientist plans to weaponize his quasi-sonic voice for the Skrull Empire.
• The Black Bolt Skrull-substitution was first established in New Avengers: Illuminati (specifically issue #5, by Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung); the timeline of his capture was later further clarified in Hickman's Fantastic Four run to have occurred before Planet Hulk.
• The series is a direct narrative prelude to War of Kings (2009), with issue #4 explicitly billed as a 'War of Kings: Prelude'; the miniseries repositioned the Inhumans as central players in Marvel's ongoing cosmic line.
• The complete four-issue run was collected in a 2009 trade paperback (ISBN 978-0785132486, 120 pages) that also includes Thor #146–147 as Inhumans origin material; the run is also available digitally on Marvel Unlimited.

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