Written by Geoffrey Thorne
Drawn by Bruno Oliveira
Colored by Emilio Lopez
Published by Marvel Comics

PREVIOUSLY: MOSAIC #5

Although last issue capped off the first arc of this serious mostly satisfactorily, there was one pretty large dangling plot-thread. That being the status of Morris’ body.

When the Brand Corp. tower blew up, I wasn’t sure if Morris’ was willingly sacrificing his body or not. Well, this issue picks up right in the aftermath of that final scenes, as Brand Corp. operatives and First Responders are on the scene of the blast. Morris, characteristically, avoids doing anything to help any causalities, figuring that Spider-Man, who is still on the scene, can take care of that “hero thing,” while Morris inhabits the body of one of Brand’s recovery agents assigned to find Morris’ body in the wreckage. Morris hits a bit of a snag and before he can figure out his next move, Lockjaw (the Inhumans’ large teleporting dog) shows up!

Morris, who is semi-aware of who Lockjaw is, thanks to the memorized he retained from when he possessed that Brand executive last issue, decides to jump into Lockjaw. What follows is another dramatic sequence, reminiscent to the one when Morris first possessed Spider-Man in Mosaic #4. Just as Morris had trouble adapting to the brilliant mind of Peter Parker, he has trouble adapting to the simple mind of Lockjaw. I love the way Geoffrey Thorne writes this scene. Morris inadvertently has Lockjaw teleporting around the Marvel Universe until he finally finds his way to a secret meeting of many of the top Inhumans, during which Morris pops out of Lockjaw, in which he is confronted, and instantly recognized by, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch.

To Morris’ surprise, Johnny can see and hear Morris in Morris’ intangible and invisible form. But, at first, he can only see him when he (Johnny) is in “flame on” mode. After some theorizing, Johnny is able to help Morris become visible, which is a new twist to his powers (and should make him more effective in the future), and introduced Morris to the present Inhumans, including Queen Medusa. This is meant to be Morris’ first chronological meeting with the Inhumans, although I gather that he has been appearing for the past 6 months in the Inhumans Vs. X-Men miniseries. I won’t spoil too much more, but by the end of the issue Medusa officially gives Morris the code-name Mosaic (which he isn’t too sure about at first) and gives him his first assignment, which could drag him into conflict with another major Marvel character…

Great issue. It’s been known from the start that Mosaic is meant to tie-in with the greater “Inhumans Universe” that Marvel has been developing, so it’s about time for him to start interacting with them. Still being new to all of this, it should be interesting to see how Morris adapts to this new dynamic, it’s been clear that despite his former(?) profession, he’s not much of a team player. It’s hard to see him getting used to following a “Queen”, as well. But what works best is that even with this new development, the story remains pretty self-contained. You don’t need to have read the IvX miniseries (although I have just bought it myself) in order to understand what is happening. In fact, that’s kind of the point, as we are seeing this series through Morris’ eyes, and he doesn’t know everything that’s going on either. We know as much as he does, and learn more along with him.

At the same time, hopefully, those who are enjoying the other Inhumans titles will take this opportunity to jump on to Mosaic, to learn more about him. Even if you haven’t read the first 5 issues, this is a pretty good jumping on point for new readers. Bruno Oliveira steps in for regular artist Khary Rhandolph this issue, and does a very good job. Luckily his style isn’t too dramatically different from Randolph’s, so it’s not a jarring change. Plus Emilio Lopez remains as the colorist in this issue. I shamefully haven’t mentioned him in previous reviews, but his work on this title has also been a major reason as to why it looks so good.

So what are you waiting for?!? Pick up this book NOW!

MOSAIC #6