Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

Which I want now, so, so badly.   Zero came out in April and they had to know that the series wouldn't start up until now, until after Battleworld.    That being said, Attilan Rising was a nice between the prologue and the series break, and now I'm ready for more. 

This is broken up into two stories, and I'm going to talk about the second - a bonus - first. It was a cute Flint and Iso story, and showed them standing on their own, making mistakes, and fixing them on their own.   It also showed some character development, and I kinda ship them now.   

The first story was about how Black Bolt deals with his son, Ahura.   It was bittersweet, and everything I could have wanted, except that it ended on such a huge cliffhanger.   The thing about Black Bolt being effectively mute is that he needs a translator, and that has always been Medusa.   Even though others can read him, she's been with him since he was child, and it's just taken for granted that she knows him best.   She can read him best, and take his meaning from the smallest of twitches.   

But you also get his words via a translator.   It's like reading a translated book: there's something lost.   And I like Black Bolt more and more for all he has to say about words, the power of words, and how they can be mistranslated and warped or not.  How careful one must be when one relies on a translator, how much trust there must be to rely solely on someone who interprets you to the world. 

You don't often get him in his own words.   Even when he's speaking via Charles Xavier, even if it might be his exact words, how can it be?   How can inflection and tone and maybe a misremembered word warp his own intentions?   

So when he gets to speak to Ahura via the Terrigen Mist - which I didn't quite understand how that worked, but I didn't care, because yay - it's an incredibly touching moment.   Especially since earlier, angry at being left with and effectively abandoned with Kang the conqueror, Ahura had mocked Black Bolt for his silence, for how typical it was that he had nothing to say.   I have a feeling the little Prince will have quite a to do in Uncanny Inhumans, and I quite hope so.  There's a lot to be hashed out there, and Black Bolt has surprising depths: yes, he makes some really lousy choices for his kingdom, but he's also not really given the ability to explain himself fully.  Not without a translator who will have their own take on his thoughts, and their own biases. 

So, yes, this was a nice way to give Black Bolt a voice, even if for only a while, and a nice way to flesh out his character, a lot.   There was so much done with so little space.   

I'm so glad I found this, I'm so glad I read it, because I didn't think it would be integral to Uncanny Inhumans, but now I do.   I think it's a large setup, not only for the bigger things that I suspect are planned with Ahura, but also the arcs that are just as important, but may not have the global impact that Ahura has.   (Iso and Flint, for the record.)

Lovely, lovely work.