Written by Matt Fraction
Illustrated by Stuart ImmonenThe penultimate chapter of the apocalypse is here! Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man scramble to make Earth’s last stand against the relentless Serpent and his army of world-shattering avatars–all while amongst unbelievable chaos and destruction, Spider-Man makes the choice of a lifetime! Dark Asgard has risen and all of Earth’s forces converge on the World Tree as the globe shudders in the shadow of FEAR ITSELF!
We’re up to our second to last issue of Fear Itself before the double-sized finale sees hammers flying, people dying (probably) and universe shattering events that will change everything forever. The rest of the guys here at Multiversity are all psyched up about this whole DCnU thing, but I like Matt Fraction and I like Stuart Immonen.
Let’s see if I liked the right thing after the cut.
Once upon a time I didn’t really read comics as they came out, and instead bought trades of important stories other people would tell me about. As far as “modern” events go, I experienced most of the big ones from both Marvel and DC by reading the trade collections of the stories long after the fact, not being part of the issue by issue experience. As my interest in New Avengers grew, I found myself buying Secret Invasion issue by issue, thus making it my first Marvel event to be read as it came out instead of in trade and leading that to inform my opinions on what I’d like to see in event books, for better or worse.
I hate to feel like the guy pointing out the obvious, but given the friendship between the writers, I get the impression that Fear Itself by Matt Fraction is just Fraction’s best impersonation of a Brian Bendis event, just not as good.
Let’s start by talking about what doesn’t work about Fear Itself first. I think my biggest problem with Fear Itself is this general idea that events seem to have these days, that an event can’t be told in one book. Obviously there are plenty of tie-ins to the event currently being published, but the unfortunate fact of the matter is that — as much as Marvel may tell you otherwise — you do need to read them to get what’s going on. Avengers tower falling? That happened in Avengers by Bendis. Iron Man building all that armor with Odin? That happened in Invincible Iron Man. Ok, fine, you don’t have to read those books to “get it”, but if you want the story to feel like it has some kind of natural progression, you really do. If I can’t just buy one title and get the full story, if to see “random part of story” I need to go out and buy Fear Itself: The Rest Of The Story In Tie-In form issues 1-3, then that’s the book failing to do it’s single most simple job.
Fraction isn’t really cut out for event storytelling. At least, not in the way Bendis was. Fraction is not a bad writer (see last week’s Casanova: Avarita for proof), but Bendis understood that the main book is the main book for a reason. All of Bendis’ tie-ins would elaborate on side-stories that wouldn’t be specifically important to the plot, but would at least enhance your reading of it. Secret Invasion is a fantastic example of this, because between New and Mighty Avengers, Bendis told stories from the past that showed where the Skrulls had invaded. Fraction, on the other hand, is letting the story wander off in other directions, leaving other writers to pick up some of the slack (Fear Itself: Hulk vs Dracula shows where Hulk ended up after last issues battle, for example, and has anyone else noticed that Hammer’d Up Juggernaut, Grey Gargoyle, Attuma, Titania and Absorbing Man have all had their stories told in every Fear Itself book except Fear Itself?). The fact that things that haven’t happened within the pages of Fear Itself are being addressed as if they have is sloppy storytelling, pure and simple, and it will certainly hurt any future re-reads of the event when I remember I need to pause and dig up other issues from my longbox.
Continued belowOf course, all that being said? I still enjoy Fear Itself. This isn’t Fraction at his strongest, but it’s still Fraction being quite enjoyable. This issue is probably the best of Fear Itself since the first issue, if only because it is clearly the most centered. A lot of the other issues seemed like Fraction writing a lot of filler, simply putting pieces into place so that an event tie-in could take place. With this issue, we actually hammer down and get some legit plot development: Thor and Cap get ready for the big battle, the heroes find their rally point, and Dark Asgard begins it’s final march (float?) to the World Tree for ultimate destruction. Everything is poised for an explosive finale, and I can’t say I’m not pumped to see hammer’s getting thrown and proverbial shit proverbially going down.
Fraction being more on point with this issue is both a positive and a negative. The plot of the issue moves along just fine. Despite not seeming to know exactly what he’d like to happen in issues two through five, six is well constructed, hits a lot of emotional highs for the characters, and is certainly the issue we’ve been waiting for. About halfway through the issue, though, you get to the point where the dialogue becomes rather excessively dramatic. Fear Itself is certainly Marvel’s summer blockbuster event, as well as a way to appeal to fans of the Thor and Captain America films, but does the dialogue have to be so over the top in a Hollywood kind of way? Cap quotes the Second Amendment directly, Thor mentions life being a refrain three times in one dialogue, and the last line of the book, “Lets see what makes you afraid,” is very clearly supposed to be the new “My God has a hammer.” It’s fun to a point, but it also still feels relatively forced.
It should also go without saying at this point that Fear Itself is an absolutely gorgeous book. Stuart Immonen has evolved so much from the earlier days of his career, and when you compare his work on Fear Itself to his first illustrated event, DC’s Final Night, the improvement is staggering. Immonen’s eye for detail in the background, fully fleshing out the universe the characters reside in, is absolutely impeccable. The issue features no action sequences, yet is just as visually striking and engaging as any of the issues that do, which truly speaks to Immonen’s character work (that Captain America is awesome) and scene blocking. On top of that, the ink work by Wade Von Grawbadger fully compliments Immonen’s original pencils, and Laura Martin is quickly becoming one of my favorite colorists Marvel employs, with her colors making this book (and every other book she works on, such as The Mighty Thor) absolutely pop in every way. It’s said that great art can help float along less than great writing, and it is certainly true that even if I absolutely hated Fear Itself (which I most certainly don’t), I would buy it for the art alone.
I want to like Fear Itself more than I do, but sometimes it’s ok to just enjoy a comic, if not be blown away. The first issue was very promising, but none of the other issues have lived up to that first issue excitement I originally had. After the sixth issue, I have more faith in the double-sized finale to come. At least, I think Fraction will be able to, with Immonen, deliver a nice wham-bam of an ending that will look absolutely gorgeous. Fear Itself isn’t really redefining the way anyone looks at event comic books, but it is certainly an enjoyable enough read to warrant a home somewhere in your collection.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy
As a side note, and a complete fanboy question, can somebody please explain something to me? If only Thor can carry Mjolnir — if we are to assume that, apparently outside of Rulk, it can’t even be lifted off the ground if not used by the God of Thunder — how can the Avengers lift up Thor and carry him while his hammer is still hanging from his wrist? Wouldn’t that stay anchored to the ground? Or am I over thinking this? I’m over thinking this. Carry on.
