Written by Matt Fraction
Illustrated by Stuart Immonen– Tony Stark returns from the depths with a last-chance arsenal that will transform the Avengers from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…into Earth’s Last Hope!
– It’s THOR’S DAY– the day that everything ends!
– Double sized Finale with a little something extra for keen eye
Fear Itself has been been the most polarizing event in comics history (I genuinely believe that). There is a large contingent of people who really like it (I won’t go with love) and there is a large contingent who loathe it’s very existence (besides the manimal that is Stuart Immonen). I fit more with the latter than the former.
What’s my take on the “final” issue?
Find out after the jump.
Let’s get this out of the way: Stuart Immonen is in complete beast mode on this issue. Even if the climactic battle between The Serpent and Thor is visually reminiscent of the one in Sleeping Beauty, it (and the rest of the issue) is an epic undertaking by Immonen and a complete concussive blast of incredible art from the man.
Immonen is one of the most impressive artists in the world of comics because of his versatility and his expressive style, and that is all there in this issue to an even grander scale than we’re normally used to from him. Every splash page in this issue is just astoundingly powerful, especially the one that has the recently Mjolnir empowered Cap and the Avengers making their assault on Team Serpent. That page reminded me of this assault page between Autobots and Decepticons in the old Marvel Transformers series strictly in the sense that it is cool to look around the page and just notice all of the details. The Uru empowered Wolverine heading towards the bad Juggernaut, Cap throwing Mjolnir at extra crazy Sin, Black Widow wayyyyy in the background flying off to attack god knows who…it’s all very fun to scan through and take in the details, but besides that, it’s just an incredibly powerful image.
There are smaller moments that Immonen makes work – a certain embracing between father and son, a brother kneeling over his fallen brother – but this issue is one of big moments through and through.
The reason why is pretty simple: this isn’t a comic, this is a movie trailer.
On my second read through, it was hard not to imagine Clint Mansell’s “Lux Æterna” playing throughout, as all of these very dramatic things happened in little snippets. Black Widow assaulting what looks like Frost Giants with her new Uru gear while shouting “who’s next?!,” Dr. Strange and Iron Fist taking out Titania while going through witty repartee, Red She-Hulk taking out Attuma with a bold line and responding with a surprised “whoa.” It’s all very Michael Bay, but in the broad strokes only. It’s like Matt Fraction thought “man, I wonder if I could get away with this?”
The execution is all quick flashes and cliche lines and big moments, but it doesn’t add up to much. It’s just snippets of something that might be good as part of a larger whole, but when you’re done with it you can’t help but think “wait, that’s it?!”
But it isn’t. Like The Return of the King, this comic is at least 20% false endings (and deaths…ahem…I’m sure that one will stick). Instead of giving us a more well-rounded story, we get what amounts to four full page teasers for comics that are kind of sort of springing off of Fear Itself. You know what is worse than having one comic with story that amounts to one teaser for a comic? A comic that has five teasers. The craziest thing about it is, Jason Aaron and Mike Choi’s single four page Incredible Hulk teaser is absolutely a better and more complete comic than Fear Itself #7 (I am all over that comic, by the way).
The comic – the main body of it – ends with the reappearance of a normal guy named Rick who helped out with the battle earlier on (in what way that didn’t involve being cannon fodder and giving the deluded Steve Rogers a hand up I have no idea) and then a zoom out from Broxton to a full shot of the Earth. Rick is off on some sort of pay it forward type exercise, and I think by zooming out bit by bit and showing that, they are saying it isn’t just Broxton that needs to take care of each other, it’s everyone on Earth.
Continued belowHeart warming.
Said Rick character gets prominent face time on five of the comic’s pages.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: this comic fails at being a cohesive narrative for which readers can enjoy and feel satisfied by. On one hand, it’s an epic battle that looks amazing because Stuart Immonen is on fire. On the other hand, it’s a bit of a travesty because it isn’t even a complete story, or one that feels satisfying in any way (maybe that’s why they added three extra issues). I really like Fraction and know he’s capable of greatness – anyone who reads Casanova knows this – but this series is a complete bust besides the pretty pictures.
Final Verdict: 6.0 – Pass (5 for Immonen, 1 for Fraction)
