KARNAK #5 Spoilers: Why Do You Look At The Cube?

[CraigTheCylon]

Mostly because I'm thinking of booting up Eternal Darkness again...oh, wrong cube, nvm.

Synopsis:
spoilers:

We open with Karnak sat alone in the Chapel of the Single Shadow as Coulson appears, and muses about how weird it is that teleportation tech is something he takes for granted now. This turns into a talk about cubes, how they seem to be the product of intelligent design yet can occur in nature, and what that means, before Karnak requests access to one of the Single Shadow devotees presently being arrested by SHIELD. A bit later: Karnak gets his access, to a chap called Russoff the Painter. Karnak wants to know why Adam the maybe-powerless Inhuman was abducted - but Russoff claims he was simply invited along (although, being a more recent addition to the cult than Adam, he didn't see that himself). The 'painting' of Russoff seems to be another gift from Adam; a sort of stylised mental projection, he can draw images from his own mind and others'. He leads Karnak through the slums and crackhouses he called home in his previous life while recounting how sad that existence was; more importantly, he takes the memories of Karnak and use them (and Karnak's typical glib responses) to deliver a brutally direct definition of Karnak's own flaw. He was not born with any special talents, was denied Terrigenisis, and so has spent his life heaping scorn on everything extraordinary, and doing all he can to make the great feel small. Karnak's response is to lose his temper and explode the man's head with his fist. Karnak emerges from the room shaken and lies to Coulson, saying Russoff was a human bomb left as a trap. Coulson doesn't seem to buy it, but he's got more important things to talk about - Adam's real location has been uncovered, finally. And now Karnak, mission be damned, very much wants to go kill the boy.

end of spoilers

Initial Thoughts:
- I haven't talked about Karnak before now, mainly because I wasn't sure what to say. It's been a good series from the start, but there's not been much to it, just a blackly humourous reminder of how badass Karnak is, only really noteworthy for Warren Ellis and the bloody delays. But #5 changes that. It's gone from being a demonstration of Karnak into a deconstruction, and it's both simple and utterly fascinating and may have made me actually clap my hands, in public, on a train today and got all sorts of weird looks from elderly types for it.
- F*** grandparents and their judgmental eyes.
- The callback to the 'baby Karnak' scene from #2 is especially weighty. Previously the words in that scene held my attention, but now I see it's the images that carry the most weight.
- No disrespect to Gerardo Zaffino, but I'm kinda wishing now that Roland Boschi had been penciling this series from the start. His layouts and expressions have been A-1 thus far. And Dan Brown's colours have kept the book feeling unified despite the shifting art under them.
- Also, given what we now know of Karnak's persona, his initial interest in Adam takes on a new light. An Inhuman who went through the mists and gained nothing would be attractive to him as a kind of...trophy, I'd wager.

Sound off.

[MindofShadow]

This series went from "ok cool so Karnak is a bad ass" to "oh snaps shit got deep" rather quickly.

Man, i wish this wasn't delayed to death

[CraigTheCylon]

Man, i wish this wasn't delayed to death

It's pretty telling that one of the ad pages in my copy is promoting Deadpool and the Mercs for Money #1, which came out in JULY.

Question, though: if it weren't for the delays, we'd be past #6 by now - so would the series have ended there, or would Marvel have gone with a new writer to continue it (since Ellis never sticks around past 6 issues anymore)? I honestly don't know if anyone could follow him here.

...except maybe Spurrier. God a Spurrier Karnak would be marvellous. And it'd probably sell all of 10 copies.

[Winterboy]

- No disrespect to Gerardo Zaffino, but I'm kinda wishing now that Roland Boschi had been penciling this series from the start. His layouts and expressions have been A-1 thus far.

Roland Boschi is a great artist.

[Mike_Murdock]

Yeah, this issue was interesting because it's the first issue where Karnak himself shows his flaws. On the other hand, I really have to re-read the whole thing because I'm not sure the scenes hit me as well as they should have.

[Seren]

I haven't read this issue yet (soon) but I'm just gonna say that Eternal Darkness had me waking up a 3:33 am on the nose for months. Great game.

Can't wait to read this issue though.

[Doc Sonic]

Mostly because I'm thinking of booting up Eternal Darkness again...oh, wrong cube, nvm.
......

Awesome and on-point review.breakdown, CraigThe Cylon. You and I are very much on the same page in terms of how we appraised this issue.

My own review is here: http://inhumansforever.tumblr.com/po...ilers-spoilers

I agree that Si Spurrier could do great work continuing the Karnak saga... yet, like most Inhumans, Katnak might not have the mainstream appeal to carry another ongoing series in terms of sales. Another mini or maxi-series, however, seems quite plausible.
One thing. I'm not sure if Karnak out-and-out lied to Coulson and the others when he stated The Painter was a human IED. I mean, it's possible and quite likely he lied, but it may also be that, in Karnak's mind, this statement may have felt like the honest truth.

[Seren]

This issue was amazing. And I need to re-read it myself to let it all sink in. There was actually quite a bit going on this issue and I'm not sure I've gotten it all.

[Prof. Warren]

Damn it, I dropped this book due to the delays and for a feeling that it was just...ok. But it looks like I'm gonna have to check it out again.

[Habis]

Awesome issue.

I always felt that there was something fake about Karnak's phylosophy, how he pretends that nothing matters but at the same time tries so hard to contribute to Inhuman society and serve the Royal Family (both elements of his personality seemed antithetical to each other)....Now everything falls into place. It's all about Karnak's self-perception and need to prove his worth (or the lack of worth of everybody else); he needs to prove that he is as good as any Inhuman, but at the same time, he still feels worse, inadequate, less worthy, so he has built his phylosophy as a way to feel better about himself and his perceived lack of worth (by taking away the worth/value of other people's gifts).

Karnak reminds me of certain gurus/sect leaders who pretend to help other grow spiritually, but in fact export their own neurosis and make their followers adopt their brand of crazy as their own.

[Winterboy]

Warren Ellis is hit or hit.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Karnak being "denied" Terrigenesis (as opposed to refusing it so that the possibility of getting his brother Triton's transformation wouldn't hinder his innate powers) is either a retcon or an error. But it makes him more interesting regardless. We always knew why he didn't T-Gen, but he's always hidden the possibility that he wanted it.