Original Sins #3 - "Whispers of War"

[arbre_rieur]

"I plan to use every one of the thousand new Inhumans over the 600 issues this series will run." - Charles Soule, on his plans for INHUMAN

Three and one-third pages from Charles Soule and Ryan Browne's short story in ORIGINAL SINS #3...



The new guy describes his vision: Black Bolt and some Inhuman soldiers had discovered a secret Kree vessel hiding on Earth...







"You don't know nothin'."

Comments

[skemono]

It seems like Black Bolt is only ever allowed a single, dramatic word. Has he ever gotten really fed up, pulled out a book, and started reading the whole thing aloud?

[doc_destructo]

That's probably his "Galactus, Get Off My Lawn" stratagem.

[q99]

People seem to stop listening after the first one, for some reason.

[althechi]

"TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QU-

"Black Bolt, please stop!! The eastern seaboard doesn't exist any more!!!"

[shadowpsykie]

oh god! now i am picturing Black Bolt as the world's greatest Shakespearean Silent actor who REALLY wishes they could hear his voice!

[thezmage]

Black Bolt's audiobook series was just a really Ill-conceived idea all around

[q99]

But if you have a stereo that can handle it...

[beyondthefringe]

There was a great Dazzler issue long, long ago, where Dazzler was fighting someone like the Absorbing Man, and went to ask the FF for help. Instead, she finds that no one's home, and somehow accidentally gets Black Bolt on the video-phone.He then comes to Earth to help out.

Yeah. Black Bolt + Dazzler = supercharged fun times.

[skemono]

He did? Holy crap he did! And I thought it was awesome when Cyclops had Dazzler & Siryn team up to fight a god-possessed Juggernaut.

[thosefew]

"Well, as long as we're here, shall we form a choir?"

"I've got yooouuu... under my skin..."

[crinos]

That there is a real "Evil cannot comprehend good" moment right there.

Kree agent: We didn't harm you or your people directly. We just kidnapped and murdered some humans for science. I don't see why you're so mad about it.

Also, you really think the Kree would have learned by now not to come down to Earth and mess with it. How many times have Earth based super heroes stomped a mudhole in the Kree and walked it dry. I mean Hell, the last time the Sktulls started shit with Marvel Earth, they managed to KILL THE SKRULL GODS.

Why the fuck would anyone in space mess with Earth after that.

[q99]

There's a reason why the Galactic Council has an agreement: Don't mess with Earth!

That said, there's a lot of cool stuff there.So, although you definitely want to avoid large-scale invasions, a ship or two to pick up something valuable, maybe...?

[md84]

It's not really surprising that the Kree would say that. While there are a few decent Kree, the Kree in general are basically Space Nazis. It says something that Ronan the Accuser is actually one of the more reasonable and likable Kree alive.

[cainofdreaming]

I thought that was Axi-Tun's role. Or maybe Gnobulans', but, really, they had some extenuating circumstances going against them.

[bewareofgeek]

It's actually rather difficult to find an alien race in comics that AREN'T either Space Nazis or cannon fodder.

[md84]

There are some that are Space Communists instead.

[q99]

The Shi'ar aren't exactly either. Although they *are* often jerks.

[northstarfan]

Lately, they seem to be Klingons. :/

[q99]

Yea. Though their 'hat' has never been as stable as the Skrulls or Kree.

[md84]

Yeah, the Marvel verse' doesn't have many decent alien races, at least among those that don't look like humans. The Kymellians from Power Pack were okay.

It gets funnier when you realize

[chortles81]

The Kree agent is actually trying to de-escalate the situation, i.e. by recognizing the sovereignty of a "mere" kingdom (versus his Empire) and the sacrosanct status of Attilan citizens, the royal house, and Black Bolt's person... problem is, the agent doesn't recognize that (or denies the legitimacy of how) Black Bolt does consider the shared "small genetic resonance with Inhumans" to be close enough to Inhuman/Attilan that the Kree are "disrespect[ing] [his] kingdom in such a way" to him.

Re: It gets funnier when you realize

[crinos]

And on that note, why are the Kree doing this at all? The Inhumans were RULING THEM not too long ago. Hell, Ronan the Accuser was married to Crystal. You'd think messing with anything even remotely Inhuman related would be verboten.

Re: It gets funnier when you realize

[arilou_skiff]

The inhumans are products of Kree messing about trying to fix their genetics. (not exactly sure what's wrong with their genes, but it's kind of a running theme that they try to fix it) That's basically what the Inhumans used as justification when they took over anyway "We're basically kree. Shut up and obey or my husband will have a word with you guys..."

Re: It gets funnier when you realize

[md84]

The Kree's genetic issues are entirely their own fault. They're a bunch of racists who believe anyone who isn't a pure blue-skinned Kree is garbage. All of the selective breeding/in-breeding to remove "undesirable" traits essentially pruned the Kree family trees and they became a genetic deadend.

Re: It gets funnier when you realize

[chortles81]

That's the thing, the Kree agent in question is making a show of agreeing that "anything even remotely Inhuman related would be verboten", he's just essentially declaring that his higher-ups don't see what they did as that! Heck, his tone is accepting of what he believes to be Black Bolt's prerogatives... which just so happens to be crucially more limited than what Black Bolt considers them to be.

[bruinsfan]

Aside from being instrumental in periodic overthrows of each of the 3 major intergalactic empires, Earth has also driven away Galactus multiple times. No one in their right minds should want to even go near the place by now.

Which wouldn't rule out the occasional invasion from Thanos, but then he's known for having a death wish...

[crinos]

Plus its Thanos. If anyone has what it takes to mess with Earth, its that guy.

[silicondream]

I'm pretty sure the more powerful space empires could get rid of Earth if they really wanted to, considering that they have star-busting weapons and individual operatives like Gladiator who could kill a planet by hand. Especially considering that Earth's superdefenders are regularly crippled by infighting or the Red Skull taking over the UN or something.

Either they fear retaliation from the few heroes tough enough to survive Earth's destruction, or they don't actually want to destroy Earth because it produces most of the characters capable of dealing with Thanos, Maelstrom and other universe-level threats. (Or it's inconsistent plotting but haha how likely is that haha.)

[bruinsfan]

Has Marvel really accelerated the interstellar arms race to the point of nova bombs in the hands of the big galactic empires? I thought that sort of thing was the province of cosmic powers/technology like the Watchers and Celestials. (I remember when Thanos being able to use all six soul gems to destroy a star was a vast and horrifying display of unimaginable power. Get offa my lawn, kids!)

As for the individual agents, I've seen Gladiator have his butt handed to him at least three times by people from Earth, so I wouldn't be any too confident of that approach were I the Supreme Intelligence/Skrull royalty/Majestor Shi'ar.

[silicondream]

Yeah, the Shi'ar have starcracker bombs, and the Nega-Bombs that can kill small galaxies for when they get serious. (They deployed a couple of those recently, I think. Maybe in the War of Kings dealie.) And I believe the initial value of the soul gems for Thanos was not that he could destroy a star with them, but that he could eventually destroy all the stars in the universe, one by one, without running out of power.

True, Gladiator certainly can't beat up everyone on Earth. But the thing is, he wouldn't have to in order to kill Earth itself. All he has to do is shove an asteroid at Earth at a decent fraction of lightspeed, at some point when a lot of the buffer heroes are off-planet or busy with this year's crossover threat. Then have the Imperial Guard move in to engage anyone tough enough to survive the planet's destruction.

There still would be survivors, naturally--powerful, vengeance-obsessed survivors. But for a galactic-scale empire millennia old, that's probably easier to deal with than the ongoing threat of a healthy Earth packed with superdudes.

[md84]

One humorous X-men story revolved around an ill-fated alien invasion attempt. One alien analyst did the research on Earth's history and learned about all of the above, freaked out, and tried to warn his superiors. Only to be shot for his trouble because they were annoyed by his sudden outburst and didn't think he had anything important to say. Said invasion was foiled by THREE X-men on vacation. And two of them didn't even fight (they drew one of the alien commanders and his men into a poker game). Most of the invasion fleet was blown up by a drunken Havoc.

[thezmage]

Dude, don't go walking your dog through a superhero battle. Get some puppy pads or something.

[protogarrett]

Tonight Black Bolt will be reading "Goodnight Moon".

Also, just when you thought there weren't any original powers anymore...

[silverzeo]

Wait, how is this Black Bolt's fault? The Kree were experimenting on human beings and leaving them for dead! Or is it that they were experimenting with dead humans to begin with (cause the trapped mist-person seems to contradict that). Is this like how the Shi;Ar empire had official business to kill most of Jean Grey's relatives on the ground that they were related to her and could be hosts for the Phoenix Force, a tactic that pretty much did nothing but killed innocent people for no reason? Where the justice?

[nyadnar17]

Even actions in the name of justice have consequences. Issues of right and wrong get fuzzy when dealing with the actions and reactions of sovereign nations.

[crinos]

Also, what the Heck is up with the framing device guy for this story. Does he just randomly sprout the faces of people who have died so they can tell how they died? Who is this guy?

EDIT: Nevermind, it actually says right there in the opening panel. My bad.

[big_daddy_d]

Well then. That happened.

[thanekos]

He has a frog in his ribs, and a sheep on his back.

[silicondream]

I'm gonna assume those are dead Inhuman relatives of his, because it would just be too confusing if he was descended from humans, Inhumans and muppets.

[burkeonthesly]

For a second, there, reading that first panel made me think that this was the Purple Man getting a weird power upgrade for some reason, and not just a man who happens to be purple.

Does that make me colorist or something?

[skemono]

I thought so too, since one of the faces calls him "the purple man".