More noise would've made this war enjoyable.
The Inhumans lead by their leader and king, Black Bolt, declared war against the United States on the island of Genosha over a year earlier which ended in a cold war. After negotiations failed to be met, the Inhumans whom inhabit the blue area of the moon began to feel disrespected. Black Bolt puts an end to the cold war and sends his followers to attack a theater that ends with civilians being mercilessly killed. The cold war has ended yet some are hoping to still end this conflict peacefully. -summary
Silent War is another short status quo changing arc that took place across Marvel's makeover, and it's the direct sequel to Son of M. The roots of the series falls back to the final moments of House of M, when the mutant Scarlet Witch stripped many of the world's mutants of their powers, thus bringing the race closer to extinction than they have ever been. One of the mutants robbed of their powers was the main orchestrator of House of M, her brother Quicksilver. Heavily depressed with losing his powers, he used his connection with the Inhuman race to steal the Terrigen Mist crystals which is used to give them their powers in an attempt to return his. This angered Black Bolt enough to chase Quicksilver to Earth which brought the Inhumans and Earth to a cold war, due to the US government taking some of the crystals from Quicksilver and refusing to return them. These events took place in Decimation: Son of M. Silent War is the direct sequel to that story and it's written by David Hine. This TPB collects Silent War 1 - 6.
Silent War was definitely a story with great potential that was never truly realized. The artwork is what caught my attention only in the wrong way though. Frazer Irving's artwork isn't bad as far as quality goes, it's actually quite good albeit somewhat inconsistent; the problem is that it's in the wrong type of story and Hine even tries to force it into the narrative. Irving is more of a horror artist, and the work feels completely out of place with these superhero characters doing superhero things. It's hard to take this spacey, creepy atmosphere serious when the Fantastic Four and Avengers are using their powers and punching whom they believe to be villains. It also doesn't really work on the Inhumans world either, plus it's definitely difficult to take this serious with Layla Miller and Madrox of X-Factor making comedic appearances.
There's almost a complete lack of details in the backgrounds, and taking its place are various solid color schemes with near terrifying faces as if the characters are experiencing some horrible delusions. There's also an attempt to bring about a mad scientist from within the shadows with a creepy black and blue backdrop, yet there's nothing mad about him at all. The visuals are just one big fail in conjunction with this style of storytelling. It belongs in Hellblazer, Ghost Rider, or Morbius the Living Vampire. The action panels have some decent moments of murder when it comes down to civilians. Unfortunately the Inhumans conflicts with The Mighty Avengers and Fantastic Four aren't even marginal.
The story and the plot has some interesting moments that takes place with various internal dialog by the Inhumans as they ponder what to do, and Black Bolt appearing to be slipping mentally. Personally, I think someone new will have a firm enough grasp on their world and how they think. The FF and Avengers whom mainly respond to the Inhumans raids are only making token appearances. I believe the true winner here is the re-introduction of Black Bolt's twisted brother Maximus. He doesn't play a significant role at all, he only works towards developing the after math, but he was the most interesting character by far.
I thought the use of the Terrigen Mist in conjunction with SHIELD was a crafty move to trigger events in their act of war. Plus there's enough suspense going on to hold one's attention; but Hine is clearly forcing this horror like atmosphere into the story attempting some type of psychological warfare narrative, and the result is a plodding, slow paced somewhat bore that is trying to be deep when there's no call for it. This is just a classic superhero showdown through a misunderstanding, with a wild card from the shadows attempting to grab his reward from the chaos.
I don't hate Silent War, it may be an exaggeration to say I don't like it; the story still holds my attention and sometimes I can mildly ignore the artwork. Unfortunately, this storyline is pretty much skip-able and just not really necessary in moving forward. The Inhumans plight continues in Secret Invasion: Inhumans and later War of Kings. I recommend going into those storylines instead of this. Pick this book up only if you're a serious completest or if you read Decimation: Son of M and liked it enough to find some closure.
Pros: Some interesting storytelling
Cons: Out of place artwork, not enough cool action
