Uncanny Inhumans, Vol. 2: The Quiet Room by Charles Soule
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
So what do former Kings do when deposed from their throne? Open a night club of course.
The Quiet Room is the place where Black Bolt gets to express his freedom, have a midlife crisis, and play bouncer.
The Quiet Room is a multi use club that features gambling, conference rooms, and seemingly much more. Ennilux, the Inhuman run company, just happens to be having a conference there to show off their newest invention which will shortly be ready for sale. Unfortunately it's stolen and Ennilux is holding Black Bolt, The Quiet Room, and New Attilan responsible if it isn't returned.
Black Bolt's associate Reader is tasked with getting it back.
The first volume of the Uncanny Inhumans, Time Crush, was excellent, but The Quiet Room is a mixed bag. It has some interesting moments such as the origins of Medusa and Johnny Storm's relationship,
a special prisoner keeping the Unspoken company in New Attilan's dungeons, and learning the back story of Reader.
A large portion of the story is devoted to The Quiet Room which was first introduced in the Secret Wars story Inhumans: Attilan Rising. The Quiet Room was fine as some throwaway story's location and the business of an altered Black Bolt, but it's not so interesting for the deposed King of the Inhumans in this volume. It's hard to know much about a guy who basically never gets to speak his mind without the risk of killing the person listening. Perhaps night club owner was Black Bolt's dream as he learned to hone his especially destructive power as a boy. If I never see The Quiet Room again, I'd be perfectly fine.
The characters also have mixed performances. Ahura, Reader, and Iso were quite interesting. Particularly Ahura and Reader. Their actions will undoubtedly lead to some more interesting stories in the future. Iso continues to display a keen mind and high IQ. Frank McGee and Inferno finally had some page time in Uncanny Inhumans, but neither were particularly memorable. That's unfortunate because I really enjoyed them both in the series Inhuman. Frank was Frank and perhaps he'll never be more than a former cop with glowing eyes. Inferno didn't really even do anything. If he was removed altogether and not replaced it wouldn't have effected the story whatsoever.
The Quiet Room was spectacular in moments and overall it was a solid entry. I do however hope the storyline gets back to the more exciting adventures in the first volume.
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