Stricken with a mysterious disease called The Sea-Sickness, people all around the world hypnotically disappeared into the ocean in an almost hypnotic state. It is now a year later with those left behind having dealt with the grief of losing friends and family. Two people who were believed to be lost wash up on the beach, but they are changed, with one believing she knows the origin of the disease.
If you were a fan of the ABC shows Invasion (or even Lost, really), this is a good book to read. There is an over-arching mystery as our characters are searching for answers after an unexplainable event. This is a highly recommended read.
INFINITY GAUNTLET (SECRET WARS)
The Earth has been infiltrated by a bug-like alien race that has decimated the population at large. The survivors must travel in stealth, hiding from these invaders. From that description, you may not be tempted to give this book a try and that would be an egregious mistake.
New characters are created, ones that we immediately become invested in. The story has an almost Walking Dead vibe, with the zombies being replaced with alien bugs in this instance. The family we follow (a father, two daughters and their grandfather) are immediately identifiable, dealing with the loss of the mother of the children. The mom had left her family to go fight the alien invaders as she was a member of the Nova Corps. As a result, their are strong beliefs about her choice by her surviving family.
A lot of the story is action, more than the last half, but the first third was so strong with character development, that it felt important that they survive, no small feat with new characters. This was my favorite Secret Wars book of the week--not that the rest were bad, this one just stood out. Definitely check this out. I hope these characters survive the Secret Wars finale.
Inhumans: Attilan Rising
This book starts with a somewhat failed mission of freeing the Hulks of their stupor, of returning them to their former intelligent states. Unfortunately, as plans often do, this one goes awry, leading to the capture of one of the band of revolutionaries. The police force for Doom--the Thors--capture one of the revolutionaries. As a result, Doom appoints Medusa in charge of ferreting out the remaining resistance.
If you're a fan of spy books, it seems like this will be in that vein. The story feels like it will have some large implications within the Secret Wars universe. This is a good book, but it won't be to everyone's taste. Definitely give it a browse while you're in the store to see if it fits your tastes.
INFERNO #1 (SECRET WARS)
I've never been a huge fan of the X-Men, having only delved into their titles for the bigger storylines over the last fifteen years, so I've never read the original story this was based on. Despite that, it was surprisingly easy to jump into this book.
Colossus' sister is in the region of Manhattan, trapped by demons. Once a year, on the anniversary of the X-Men's greatest failure, Cyclops grants Colossus permission to take a group of X-Men into the area with intent of correcting their loss from a few years prior.
As with the previous instances, things don't go according to plan and secrets are revealed to Colossus about what happened after that initial loss. The last page definitely has me looking into the next issue. I do believe that longer term X-Men fans (the ones who were around for the original) will get more out of this storyline than a casual X-Men reader like myself.
