Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I just can't even tell you how happy I am about this title.   I'm five-starring it despite the retcon, by the way.   It's a pretty big plot-hole/retcon.   See, Maximus Boltagon's sanity was destroyed when Black Bolt (aka Blackagar Boltagon) used his voice to stop some Kree enemies, and he accidentally killed some Attilan muckety-mucks - including his parents.   (And Maximus' parents, which probably didn't help him going mad there.)

In this, Maximus seems pretty sane, but their parents are dead.   Now maybe I'm wrong.   Maybe this will show that he isn't quite sane, but no one's realized yet, but I doubt it because they talk about his genius powers - powers that were supposedly stunted after the death of the Boltagon parents.   So far this is either a pretty massive plothole or a retcon.   I'm okay calling it a retcon and just accepting that, mostly because this story is amazing.   The writing is fun, the characterizations are not only solid but move these characters - as children - forward in a way that makes sense with their adult counterparts, and there's plenty of action, although some of is political maneuvering.   (Some of it is not; some of it is some pretty old school comic fights, which I love.)

Top it off with Phil Noto as an artist, and I'm all in.   Young Black Bolt, young Maximus, young Medusa, young Lockjaw?    Aw, yeah.  I do hope they get in the other royals - we see a bit of Crystal, but just in the background, but I want to see what young Triton, Karnak and Gorgon look like.   I want to see them, to have them interact, although I doubt they will. 

As far as plot, someone is using the Alphas, the created race that work as the Inhumans' slaves in Attilan.   Someone wants The Living Terrigenesis, the ruler until Black Bolt comes into his own power and matures enough to be king, dead.   He seems to be working for his own good rather than the good of the young royals, or of Attilan, much less for the good of the general population in Attilan.  

Someone is determined to kill him, and to see Black Bolt and Maximus safe - but who?   Maybe it's just me being paranoid, but I'm not sure I trust him as much as I think I'm supposed to in this issue.    Maybe it's because I know the Living Terrigenesis will become The Unspoken, so reviled that his name is stricken from memory.   Elisha is working against The Unspoken, true, but that doesn't mean he's truly got the best in mind for Black Bolt and Maximus.   And the ending makes it clear that the two young boys are in over their head, and stranded in a place they know very little about - a place Elisha describes as Wonderland to them.   

If Elisha should abandon them, they might not be as able to fend for themselves as they undoubtedly think they are.   

Meanwhile, Medusa has been mentioned to The Unspoken by Maximus.   He's trying to coerce her into becoming his wife, and she's angry at both boys.   While she cuts them with her sharp tongue, and holds them aloft with her glorious, living, weaponized hair, she's also drawn into the danger her future husband and his brother find themselves in now.   

Still, this is a gorgeously lush comic, full of intrigue.  It gives a little background to Medusa, and it makes it more clear why Black Bolt holds her so dear.   She rebels against all injustice, even when she knows it can undo her and her family: it's still unjust.   And while everyone is willing to keep their head down, Medusa is not.   

I'm sad this is only a five issue mini-series, while I'm also thrilled it exists at all.   I would buy this on a monthly basis for years.