The Guardians of the Galaxy and the Inhumans get involved as the fight over the twins spills over to everyone. 

Funny, charming, just gorgeous art - pencils, inks, colors, everything - this is a perfect mini-series.  I need to remember I own this on Comixology whenever I need to cheer myself up.   Love, love, love!

Cute, funny, and that combined with the bright colors - think the cover, but for a whole comic - make me smile and forget all my anxiety. 

I read this on August 22nd, along with All-New Inhumans #11.    (Loved that ending, loved this ending, too.)   Medusa is faced with a choice.   She can choose to follow Doom's lead, or to recognize what a fascist he is - and fight back with Black Bolt.   She chooses the latter, having been told what's really happening.   She now sees through Doom's ruse, and is willing to fight him with everything she has. 

Except it's Doom.  He's planned for all eventualities, even this one, and he's more than ready to take on both Medusa and Black Bolt - even a Black Bolt with a destructive force.   

I didn't see this heartbreaking ending that speaks of cycles, of how violence and fascism thrive, on being doomed to repeat your mistakes coming the first time, and I did the second. I was afraid that it would lose it's impact knowing that surprise twist, and it... did not.   It's as impactful as ever, and I'm in awe of what this series did. 

The best of the Battleworld/Warzones mini-series in my opinion.

When Black Bolt is captured and interrogated by Medusa, he both questions her loyalty to Doom and also tells her there are towers that broadcast signals that force people to accept the world as it is, rather than see what it could be.   Black Bolt isn't affected, and he tells Medusa that people are more willing to questions and less affected once they're made aware of the truth. 

They also talk about why Black Bolt hasn't been through Terrigenesis, and he answers that it's a matter of control.   Once you get your gifts, you're not allowed to choose where you want to go.  Your powers dictate that, and that's where you are for the rest of your life.   The example he uses is an artist who gets offensive abilities, and is put on the security team.   

Transformers time.   I didn't put it together, despite reading some about this in the Inhumans series by Jenkins and Lee.   I think that's because it's a little bolder here: it's a huge point in this series, a huge motivator, and stated far more plainly as a form of Functionalism than in the previous series.   In Transformers, the Decepticons were originally acting out against Functionalism, or the belief that what you turned into was your function.   Like Jetfire was told that because he was a flier, he couldn't be a scientist.   Fliers aren't scientists, they're made for battle.   They, much like Black Bolt, wanted the freedom to be whatever they wanted.   (Both Functionalism and Attilan had problems with racism of a sort: if you didn't turn into something good, or you didn't get top notch, or even good, gifts during Terrigenesis, you were outcasts.   Ravage was always treated like an animal because  of his panther form and in the Inhumans series - Jenkins and Lee again - there's a lot about that: a girl who's hands are deformed and is told that her best friend that they can no longer be friends, or Wuz, the boy who turns into an Alpha Primitive and is forced down into their literal underground society.   They are the morlocks of Attilan, these Alpha Primitives.)

Anyway, loved this issue.   The fact that Black Bolt is tortured is a plus, because I like seeing this in my favorite characters.  I also hope for a hurt/comfort story, and I like seeing how much they can take, even if there's no real comfort in the end.

Things go badly for the resistance - named The Voice Unheard - and then they get worse.   Still, they fight, because otherwise they bow to Doom, to his regents like Medusa, and they can't help the people they need to help.   The Hulks, the people who need medicine, those are pitted against once another although they don't have to be.   

Medusa shows herself to be more ruthless than I'd remembered, but she has no good choice: if she's deposed, who knows who Doom will put in her place and if he'll punish the innocents in her domain.   He can easily use them to hold her hostage by implying or telling her outright that he'll put a Maximus - possibly a less sane one than we're used to - in her place should she fail him.  (That would mean death, destruction, and terror for her people, a people that Medusa has always protected.   Even when she was younger, in Once and Future Kings, she rails against another fascist in power, a man who abused his power.   Doom might do that, but by keeping power as Regent, Medusa can mitigate the harm he does by taking on his threats and not allowing herself to fail and for her people to be devastated by Doom through her compliance.)

To get at Doom, she'd need a lot more power than she has, so I'm not sure what else she could have done.   So many people deify Doom at this point, and he has multiple Thors - that's right, many Thors, including a Dazzler Thor who shows up in a later storyline in A-Force - that not many are willing to acknowledge his faults, much less rise up against him.   She couldn't possibly stand up against him alone, nor gather the power she needs to fight off an army of Thors - and Doom to boot. 

Black Bolt may not be a Regent, but he remains a leader in name and at heart.   When his people, The Voice Unheard, are cornered, he sacrifices himself. 

Note: I'm not sure how the royal family works here.   Medusa seems to not know Black Bolt at all, although they're first cousins.   Karnak and Triton are both working for The Voice Unheard, but don't acknowledge if they're brothers or not.   Gorgon is working for Medusa, further fracturing the family aspect.   (They are all, in fact related.)  I mention Maximus, but I can't remember if he or Crystal show up in this mini-series.  I remember some details at the end, but not this.   It would be confusing if they didn't, because Nur and Auran are lesser characters in Inhumans mythology and yet both are used.   To great effect, but it shouldn't be hard for Soule to slip in the two remaining royals in my opinion, even in a less prominent role.   Also, Maximus is just plain fun and having him be sane would be a super fun twist that I can't believe hasn't been touched upon yet.   Huge missed opportunity.