Written by Nick Spencer
Illustrated by Scott EatonArmies are mounting against the Avengers on every side, and even the Gods have turned their backs on Earth. With humanity facing it’s gravest threat yet, Steve Rogers and his Secret Avengers will make some hard choices about what’s just in times of war. And even as they do, a new danger of a different kind emerges– one that confronts them not in the name of evil or fear, but freedom and liberty.
I have been rather unabashed in my high opinion of the Secret Avengers title. While there are certainly many Avengers books on the market right now, I’ve found Brubaker’s work on this title – paying off elements of his work on The Marvel’s Project – to be quite entertaining. If nothing else, Brubaker’s long form conspiracy plot in Captain America have proved that this is a man that can quietly tell an extremely powerful story.
…But now he’s done.
The future of the Secret Avengers is a tad uncertain. Brubaker has left the Shadow Council storyline completely open for the following writers to do with what they will. And while Warren Ellis is the next ongoing writer of the title, in the mean time we get three (four, if you include the Point One) Fear Itself tie-in issues from Multiversity favorite Nick Spencer! With his goal being to reflect the carnage of the event while also telling character based stories, the question is: did Spencer succeed?
Take a look after the cut to see some thoughts on the issue.
As I said earlier, the appeal of Secret Avengers was it’s conspiracy plot initially. Nobody knew about the Secret Avengers except those involved, and that allowed them to go on covert missions with an interesting cast that included an actualized Nick Fury LMD, a very old soldier, and the Prince of Orphans, the story worked so well because it accomplished on so many levels what Brubaker had succeeded with during the first 50 or so issues of Captain America run.
Now Nick Spencer is here, and the point is no longer the Shadow Council, there weird Lovecraftian overlords, and John Steele’s brainwashing. Instead, it’s Blitzkrieg, USA; all Hell has broken loose and all hands are on deck to deal with the situation. And wouldn’t you know it, but it looks Beast, War Machine, and Ant-Man are the first on the scene to help fight the Nazi hordes. So far, of the few Fear Itself tie-ins that I’ve read (oh, who am I kidding? I’ve read them all!), all the participating creators have done a rather fantastic job of showing the global perspective of the attacks. While your opinions of Fear Itself are certainly your own, it’s rather undeniable that the tie-ins have done a good job of showing isolated versions of the rampant disorder brought on by the ensuing chaos. The titles that should tie-in to the event do, and the Secret Avengers joining the fight during the blitzkrieg not only makes perfect sense but is also handled quite well by Spencer, who – between this and Iron Man 2.0 – is taking his first shot at a company-wide crossover event. It’s always nice to see isolated moments of bigger events to fully comprehend the scope of an event like this, and Marvel has usually been very good about their huge events and the corresponding tie-in issues (see: Civil War), if not all of the little ones (see: Shadowland).
Spencer’s initial take on the idea of the event is a rather pleasing one. Spencer clearly understands the duties that go between the characters and their various duties, and not only does Steve Rogers not make an appearance due to his involvement elsewhere, but the Prince of Orphans gets a quick line of dialogue for appearances elsewhere and War Machine is quickly taken out of the picture so that he can have his own adventure in Iron Man 2.0, also written by Spencer. It’s a nice synergy present, and it helps to enforce the elements of the larger story while also letting Spencer tell a story that he wants to tell.
Continued belowWith this issue, Spencer gives us a Beast-based story, in which Beast talks to the one man refusing to leave the Senate floor so that he can help the American people in his own during it’s time of need. Previously described to us as Sorkin-esque, Spencer holds true to this idea with a politically and emotionally charged story that finds, amidst the explosions, an intense dialogue between two old friends about the nature of war. This is not the first time that Spencer has looked at the nature of battle, with Iron Man 2.0 pretty heavily addressing concepts of modern warfare and it’s effects/nature. It’s interesting to see Spencer take the Secret Avengers in such a different direction during his brief time on the title while writing the Fear Itself tie-in. Brubaker’s run was not stooped in lessons, but rather focused on the mystery of the conspiracy he was establishing with the Shadow Council. Spencer is using the book more as a tool for social dialogue, and a place for questions to be asked. It’s so overt that it can even come off as preachy if you don’t read it carefully enough, but for those that take the time to slowly read what Congressman Leonard Gary, the issue becomes a rather spirited call to the reader, and not just the characters in the story.
However, I have a few questions about the title that I’m still unsure of. My minor thought here is that I can’t fully tell if the Secret Avengers are secret anymore, because it appears that everyone knows about them and their covert mission. The second question that I have, with bigger concern about the premise, is that I’m not sure how real I can believe this story could be, despite it’s very realistic intentions. Spencer’s goal here was to put a truly human face in an epic-in-scope comic concept featuring the grueling Armageddon that is Sin’s attack on the Capitol, and he gets that point across well; the issue here is that the way he does it is in a curious way. I enjoy the message, but the road taken to get there is a source of some confusion. As I mentioned earlier, our plot follows the one Mississipi Congressman who refuses to abandon the Senate in it’s final hours. While this is a bit of a spoiler, it is revealed that he is a mutant, which leads to some “you have to see it to believe it” sequences. This revelation makes his refusal to leave and the armies inability to remove him make more “sense,” and his reciting of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address is rather poignantly paired against the violent backdrop of Fear Itself – but at the same time, it seems a tad odd that Beast in the end could not, and did not, save him. I’m conflicted, because I both understand what Spencer was doing with the finale as well as somewhat disagree with the way he chose to present it. It seems a bit out of character given my experience with Beast and his “All life is sacred” attitude, but in context of the story it does somewhat make sense. Basically, it’s similar to the ending to Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, which upset a fair amount of critics at the time of it’s release due to the nature of how Chaplin chose to end the film (although, as a side note, I adore the finale to that film) – assuming the reference is clear.
So Spencer’s second foray into the world of the Secret Avengers is an entertaining one. With Scott Eaton on the book, you end up with a ridiculously good looking title with a heavy helping of metaphors. Eaton’s work here is as clear as you’ve come to expect from the artist, and it’s really a shame that his work won’t be on the book longer. It’s nice to see Eaton’s Beast again after the fantastic work he did in Endangered Species (which, to me, is really the modern day Beast story). Eaton’s handling of the scenery and setting of the war is apropos, and matched with the Gettysburg Address Eaton manages to pull off a visually powerful finale. In the end, the issue lies with your take on Spencer’s work here. If you’re into the heavy metaphorical positing the issue provides, then the issue is sure to be a highlight of the week.
However, there is one element of the issue that I feel can go undisputed: Marvel has always put forth the stern notion that the events that take place in their comics are events taking place in our world. No matter how bad things get, this is where you and I, the reader, live – if we happened to live in a comic book. With that in mind, Marvel has always managed to assemble groups of writers who have been able to appropriately reflect the times we live in, and to put that forth in their titles. Fear Itself, at it’s core, is a reflect of our times and the paranoid climate we survive in from the eyes of Matt Fraction. Nick Spencer gets that, and this is what he is bringing to the table for Secret Avengers. Why? Because this is Marvel: our universe.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy
