Fear Itself #3: OK, so, one of my fears, when it came to "Fear Itself" (see what I did there?) was that it was going to be impossible to follow the main story without reading at least a good number of the tie-in issues. (Chaos War had a similar problem, where the main plot really didn't exist at all, so the tie-in issues were pretty much the only ones that told the story.) I think we're officially there with "Fear Itself" #3. Some events follow directly from "Fear Itself" #2, such as the Hulk and Juggernaut becoming members of the Worthy and the Future Foundation researching the hammer that struck Yancy Street. Cool. Some events tie into issues mentioned on the last page of "Fear Itself" #2 that I knew I wasn't going to collect, like the Absorbing Man getting a hammer in "Iron Man 2.0" #5 and Loki making some sort of decision in "Journey into Mystery" #623. I'm fine with not knowing all the gory details there. However, several things leapt off the page at me here as being inconsistent with where we were at the end of "Fear Itself" #2 or in other comics.
First, the Captain America aspects of this story sucked. Last I checked, Bucky was in a gulag in Siberia and not fighting Sin's forces in Washington, DC. This storyline has been building for months (seriously, months) in "Captain America." However, here, we're basically just told Bucky frees himself from the gulag (or somehow manages to get sprung) just in time to fight Sin in DC. (Or, we'll just ignore it entirely in the main title and just have to assume "Fear Itself" fit between story arcs.) Moreover, I'm pretty sure we're going to see Steve take up the shield in "Fear Itself" and not "Captain America," given the events of this issue. NOT COOL. I mean, I'll give Fraction credit that the battle between Bucky and Sin was awesome and epic, but I am NOT COOL with the shield being changed outside "Captain America." I don't believe Bucky is going to die; see Mockingbird in "New Avengers" for my arguments. If he did die...
...FUCK YOU, Marvel. Seriously, FUCK YOU. You actually bring back the character and, against all odds, when it had so much potential to fail, give us a Captain America that isn't the emotional robot Steve Rogers is often portrayed as being. You give us a character who, over the last few years, we've watch grow and mature in his role, becoming the hero he hoped he could be, in spite of all the crap that's happened to him. You give us a totally soul-draining last few months of "Captain America," leaving us to hold out hope that, when the dust settles, Bucky was going to get to be his own man. Instead, you kill him. Not only do you kill him, his death is absolutely meaningless. Natasha and Sam try to convince him to retreat, he says the world won't have a tomorrow if they do, he charges them into war, then he dies. I'm assuming Marvel Comics isn't closing shop next month, so, essentially he was wrong. So, they make him commit a grave error and just kill him, all so Matt fucking Fraction can have his "big death" so that "Fear Itself" means something. Yes, if Bucky is dead, it'll mean something. It'll mean we're once again in the fucking 1990s and "celebrity" writers and terrible editors just willy-nilly kill a character in events that have no bearing on the rest of the Marvel Universe (despite promises to the contrary) all so the event can "mean something." Congratulations, Marvel. I assume Chuck Austen will start writing "X-Men" any day...
Oh, hi. Wow, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a surprise here tonight. It's Ben Reilly, the deceased -- or so we thought! -- clone of Spider-Man. [Applause.] Ben, wow, what a surprise! You look great. Death really agrees with you! [Laughter.] So, how's life been treating you since, you know, you were revealed to, in fact, be the clone after all and disintegrated on some rooftop? Oh, you were in Portland. Cool, cool. Did you happen to run into Jean Grey there? You did. Good, oh, good to hear. You were running a coffee shop together? Awesome. Say hi to her for me when they kill you off again next year. Anyway, thanks for stopping by the set. Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Reilly! [Applause.] I just can't believe it...
Ahem. Anyway, on top of all the Bucky-related bad, we also get Steve-related bad. Am I really supposed to believe that, in the middle of a major international crisis, Steve Rogers would literally bail on Maria Hill just because he wanted to pound on some bad guys? Really? The Sentinel of Liberty is all, "Hey, good luck with saving the world, I just need to stretch my legs a minute."
Second, why wasn't Spidey with the Avengers OR the Freedom Foundation? I mean, he's on both teams, you think SOMEONE would've called him for help. I'm assuming it has to do with something in "Fear Itself: Spider-Man" #2, but, since that hasn't hit the stands yet, I don't know.
I could continue, but I'm tired. Basically, it's only been three issues, and I'm already annoyed and, if Bucky is dead, ENRAGED. Can we wrap up next month and just spare us the time? If we're just going to ignore or forget about ongoing plots, change up everything in the Marvel Universe to make Matt Fraction feel better about himself, it would just make life easier. Please, Marvel? Throw a guy a bone.
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