Written by Matt Fraction
Illustrated by Stuart ImmonenThe Mighty Thor—imprisoned by his own father! As Odin and the Asgardians leave the Earth to fend for itself against the God of Fear, the Avengers and the world’s remaining heroes battle the unstoppable tide of terror! And then— the Serpent’s Hammers fall! Who are the Worthy? Who shall rise up and join the Serpent as living avatars of his evil? And how can the Avengers respond…to fear itself?
After quite an audacious beginning to an event with a double-sized jam packed intro issue, we now get the second issue of Marvel’s big blockbuster summer event, Fear Itself! I am one of the few people who does not have event fatigue, and I’m an admitted Fraction/Immonen fanboy. So with our second issue of Fear Itself, do my spirits remain high?
Check after the cut for some thoughts.
Fear Itself #1 began in an over-sized fashion setting up the climate and tone for the rest of the series. The world is in unrest, and civilians aren’t happy. While the Avengers struggle to figure out a way to solve everything, Sin unleashes the Serpent and all Hell is assumedly ready to bring up as the Asgardians abandon Earth and hammers begin to fall. I guess the only problem is: yes, the hammers have fallen. But no, no one really does anything with them.
Fear Itself #2 is essentially a comic that seeks out its main players and identify a few of them. Several of the Worthy are introduced (Hulk, Juggernaut, Titania are all transformed, and Grey Gargoyle, Absorbing Man, and the Thing all get obvious nods), and Steve Rogers watches alone from his protective bunker, absolutely lost what to do. That’s about it, though; not much else happens. While Fear Itself #3 is already promising huge consequences for various actions, Fear Itself #2 doesn’t introduce in it’s story anything that we didn’t know would happen from reading the solicits or looking at teasers. Yes, it’s Blitzkrieg USA, but unless you don’t know what the term “Blitzkrieg” means, nothing is effectively surprising, or even ostensibly that interesting. It just is.
That’s not to say this issue is inherently bad, or anything along those lines. Far from it. It depends on how you look at the bigger picture of Fear Itself. For all intents and purposes, though, this should have been the first issue. While I can understand the reasons for pacing given, and that the Asgardians leaving Earth is a much more dramatic ending, the various Worthy reveals all lost impact due to their appearances in other titles. If we didn’t know that the Hulk would become a member of the Worthy, that scene could’ve been shocking. Instead, it just serves to explain why that happened so the Hulk can go run off to other titles. Same with Juggernaut, and even Attuma and Titania (who were the only characters I personally did not know would become Worthy). Nothing is explicitly gained from the issue, and the issue’s set-up nature is made rather plainly clear with an extra page at the end telling readers to check out three other titles for the continued adventures of several involved players. It’s kind of an odd thing to see, really.
No matter your various personal opinions on events, there is something to be said for not just getting to the point, but really making the nature of the event really worth your extra money and time. Events are places for big things to happen, and for scenes that have tremendous consequences. Say what you will, but Brian Bendis certainly set a great pace for his various events in single issue form, almost all of which ended on rather big twists or one-liners. Fear Itself #2 instead begins with a shot of the ethereal realm, and ends with the Earth enveloped by the Serpent. Perhaps it was meant to be bigger than it was, but when Fear Itself mostly compares itself to Civil War in scope, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that Civil War #2 ended with Spider-Man unmasking after the first issue served as the event’s set-up. Spider-Man unmasking is decidedly bigger than the world once again being in peril from a terrible foe. You know, again.
Continued belowSo despite this rather large complaint on the pacing of the story after this issue, Fear Itself #2 isn’t a bad issue. Life kind of worked against his one, but if you hadn’t read the solicits or various interviews with Fraction explaining the concept of the story, this issue is where everything is explained. The Serpent’s dastardly power – being fueled by fear – is spelled out rather clearly, and what the hammers do to those that pick them up is also made much more clear. Why does the Hulk become a villain? Because he’s not the Hulk anymore! The issue may be set-up, but for Fear Itself – a story that effectively does need some explanation, if not a lot – having Fraction spell it out for the reader is interesting for a second issue. Events should generally be more show as opposed to just tell, and Fraction does get to the point towards the end. It’s just a shame it takes so long to get there, as opposed to beginning the issue with the Serpent blowing up the Capitol Building. We all love disaster porn, but the waiting gets tedious.
The one thing I have zero complaints about, however, is Stuart Immonen’s art. Again. I said it in my review of the first issue, but watching Immonen’s career evolve from much humbler beginnings into the artistic powerhouse it is now is one of the greatest treats any comic fan could have while following a career. Fraction had tweeted in the past something to the effect that he essentially told Stuart to just “go for it,” and go for it Stuart does. These pages are filled to the brim with characters and details that require a minute or two to it and appreciate. Immonen is pretty much perfect for the event comic, and the book already looks better than Siege did two issues in (not that Coipel did a bad job with Siege). The issue also features a lot of widescreen action at the end to start showing the widespread effect of the story, and it’s at this point that Immonen’s timing really begins to show the global effect of Fear Itself, which is ostensibly the point of the sequence and by far the best point of the issue, both scripted and visually.
In a brief sentence, Fear Itself #2 can be summarized with one thought: this is the book about the world. While the first issue was the set-up for the entire story, this issue is the set-up for the event. It’s kind of a confusing way to play things out, because in a way this issue is essentially filler. Events are always supposed to be “big” and “game-changing”, and that’s why words like that get tossed around. We want events to change everything, and to be constantly raising the stakes. To an extent, Fear Itself #2 does that; it’s just not in a very familiar way. Instead of having people we know get blown up, everyone get’s blown up. Whether that is more or less exciting is essentially on a personal level, but for now I’m waiting to see a hammer really get thrown.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy
