Comic Info
Comic Name: Monsters Unleashed! (Limited Series)/Monsters Unleashed!
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Steve McNiven/Greg Land/David Baldeon
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2017
Monsters Unleashed! (Limited Series) #1
Reprints Monsters Unleashed! (Limited Series) #1-5 and Monsters Unleashed! #1 (March 2017-June 2017). When monsters begin crashing down on Earth, the Avengers, X-Men, Inhumans, and other heroes of Earth question if they’ve finally met their match. Elsa Bloodstone has uncovered a secret behind the monsters’ attacks and that someone named Kei Kawade could hold the answers. With an ancient enemy called the Leviathan Queen targeting the planet, Kei could be Earth’s only hope…unfortunately he’s just an eleven-year-old boy.
Written by Cullen Bunn, Monsters Unleashed! was a five issue limited series running from March 2017-May 2017. The series served as a launchpad for a new continuing Monsters Unleashed! series with Monsters Unleashed! #1 (June 2017) collected in this volume. The comic features art by Steve McNiven, Greg Land, and David Baldeon.
I loved monster comics as a kid. I also really like it when Marvel (and DC) mixed monster comics with superhero comics…unfortunately, these mixes are often pretty poorly done. With a new Monsters vs. Superheroes type of comic being floated in Monsters Unleashed!, I had some hope. Unfortunately, Monsters Unleashed! was more disappointment than fun.
If I were a kid, I might enjoy Monsters Unleashed! That isn’t necessarily a criticism because Monsters Unleashed! could be a comic targeted for kids, but Marvel isn’t really clear on who they are trying to sell to most days. A comic like Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is aimed at kids, but characters like Wolverine and Deadpool are for adults…and all those characters are featured in the comic.
Monsters Unleashed! (Limited Series) #5 Variant
The comic is also another attempt to mainstream the Inhumans who have proven to be a real drag on Marvel. I liked the original concepts of the Inhumans, but Marvel’s push to make the Inhumans the new X-Men in recent years (mostly due to ownership rights) is wearing thin. Every time they need a new character, it is an Inhuman awakened by the Terrigen Mists…it feels like lazy writing. It doesn’t really make Kei a new or compelling lead character and it also makes him a clone of Ms. Marvel or Devil Dinosaur with less personality.
The last problem is the monsters themselves. Besides Fin Fang Foom, not many of the monsters have personalities. I’ve encountered some of the monsters like Goom in reprints, and despite having history, they don’t have dimensions. It makes it hard to find them compelling…and making up five new monsters that look relatively similar for Kid Kaiju to control doesn’t help.
Monsters Unleashed! is a quick but dull series. The comic shouldn’t have been a continuing series and the idea of another whole run of Kei and his monster friends seems pretty tedious. Monsters Unleashed! is simply another entry in the Marvel “so-so” category that probably can be skipped. Monsters Unleashed! is followed by Monsters Unleashed!: Monster Mash.
