We previously reported on Marvel’s Inhuman delay of the new series to April 2014, mainly because wee were still really been looking forward to it. The way any sensible comic book fan looks forward to all Matt Fraction’s material. Unfortunately, they’ve solved half of that problem in the worst possible way: Matt Fraction is no longer writing it.
The announced reason is “creative differences”, and there does seem to be plenty of respect on both sides. Everyone involved was happy to explain that they just wanted different things out of the project. But given Fraction’s proven track record of re-engineering existing characters, it seems odd to let him work on the core title for an entire cast of characters for half a year and then slap it out of his hands shouting “Not like that!”
We’re still interested, but if there was ever a cast who desperately needed the kind of new motivation Matt can provide, it’s the Inhumans. In a world which already has both X-Men and X-Factor, the powerful outcasts and the powerful outcasts from the outcasts, or outcasts-squared, a third group of feared outsiders may struggle to find anything new to say about struggling. And that’s not just a joke about Black Bolt.
The replacement writer is Charles Soule, current writer for Thunderbolts and Red Lantern Corps. This change in direction hasn’t (yet) caused any further delays, so we’ll continue to wait and see.