OK, so, as you can see here, I've decided to focus my immediate post-vacation reading on the multitude of "Fear Itself" issues. At this point -- four issues into the main series -- I think I can safely say that this cross-over event is rapidly approaching "epic fail" for me. As I detail below, Fraction seems to be almost incapable of conveying emotions. His writing isn't exactly wooden, but it often feels much more focused on moving forward a specific plot than expressing the emotional impact of said plot on the main characters. Given that the core conceit of the whole affair -- how fear affects us -- is all about emotion, this failure to make the reader, you know, feel anything is, well, a problem. On top of that, so much is happening in the side issues -- such as the apparent death of everyone in Paris, just to start -- that it's almost impossible to tell what the central story actually is. For example, the Initiative was fighting Juggernaut in Las Vegas in "Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt," while the X-Men were fighting him in San Francisco in "Uncanny X-Men." I know that sounds excessively nit-picky, but, to me, it raises the question of why I should be paying the attention Marvel wants me to pay to this event if its editors can't even muster the energy to do so. Essentially, unlike "Civil War" or "Blackest Night," this event so far is pretty clearly just a poor attempt by Marvel to make some money, as opposed to telling an interesting story or change its creative setting. Sad, but true.
Avengers #15: Bendis continues to structure the Avengers' "Fear Itself" cross-over issues as part of the "oral history of the Avengers" that he had been including at the back of "Avengers" and "New Avengers" before "Fear Itself" began. It worked spectacularly well when he first used it in "Avengers" #13 and continues to do so here. This story focuses on Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, the Protector, and Spider-Woman trying to stop the Hulk's rampage in Brazil. Bendis does two things here that made me wish -- for all my griping about him -- he was penning "Fear Itself." First, he manages to make the issue about the characters, not just advancing the overall "Fear Itself" plot but the "Avengers" plot as well. One of my main complaints about his run so far on "Avengers" has been that the cosmic nature of the crises they've faced has meant that the "street-level" heroes -- namely, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman -- have been largely ignored. Over the last few issues, he's done a great job of reversing that trend, giving us some great Hawkeye/Spider-Woman moments, for example. This issue is no different; in fact, it's a detailed character study on Spider-Woman. By using her as the lens through which we see the team's confrontation with the Hulk, Bendis gives us an amazing amount of insight into her character while at the same time telling a story that isn't just one long, mindless fight scene (as most of "Fear Itself" has been). Second, he remembers where his people are. It would've really, really stretched belief if Peter was fighting crowds in "Fear Itself: Spider-Man," the New York invasion in "Fear Itself," and the Hulk in Brazil. Bendis sends in four characters that haven't played a role elsewhere, making sure that the story (unlike many of the other cross-overs) doesn't contradict anything happening in other stories. Moreover, it's just a damn good story. He gives us a redemption arc for Spider-Woman that doesn't fall back on tired tropes or unbelievable outcomes. Some writers would've had Spider-Woman defeat the Hulk; Bendis has her hold him off long enough so others can get in the game and she can save a school full of children. Totally believable, totally redeemable. Bendis is really doing a great job on these "Fear Itself" cross-overs. Imagine what he could've done with the main title?
Fear Itself #4: OK, so, I'm going to ignore the killing of Bucky for the moment so I can focus on the positive aspects of this book. Fraction finally manages to resolve two dangling plot points by clarifying that the goal of the Worthy is indeed to spread fear so that the Serpent can re-power himself (he hadn't explicitly made that connection before) and revealing that the Serpent is the brother of Odin, who (allegedly) usurped his position as king of Asgard. We also learn that a prophecy exists (I'm assuming it was revealed in one of the "Thor" cross-overs) that predicts that Thor will defeat the Serpent by sacrificing his own life. Moreover, we finally see our heroes doing something rather than just watching the carnage unfold on giant television screens: Captain America has joined the Avengers' fight for New York, Iron Man is trying to convince Odin to help him create anti-Serpent tech, and Thor is taking on the Worth-ified Hulk and Thing in his push to get to the Serpent. Progress!
The bad news, of course, is that none of Fraction's efforts here to advance the plot matter, because they're overshadowed by how spectacularly badly he fucks up Bucky's death. First, we do actually get confirmation here that Bucky is, in fact, dead. His death -- particularly how meaningless it was, resulting in nothing more than putting Steve Rogers back in the Captain America uniform -- alone would be sufficiently rage-inducing to make me hate this series, despite Fraction's efforts in this issue to right the ship. (See my post on "Fear Itself" #3 to get a sense of my, um, opinion on this front.) But, Fraction makes it worse here by keeping all reactions to Bucky's death off-panel. We get a comment by Nick Fury about him deserving better and then Natasha crying on Nick's shoulder in the background while the menfolk talk. That's it. We don't even get a reaction from Steve, who just straps on the Captain America suit and heads into war as if it were a normal Tuesday. In fact, Natasha herself starts the issue just sort of standing next to the body like it was just some guy and not, you know, her boyfriend. In Nick's words, Bucky deserved better.
Moreover, Steve's reappearance as Captain America leading the Avengers is barely even mentioned, like he's just returning from a short trip to a B&B in Vermont for some R&R with Sharon. Given that Bucky-Cap was tight with the New Avengers, you'd think someone would've at least asked, "Hey, where's Bucky? Is he still in the gulag?" (As I mentioned in my post on "Fear Itself" #3, let's all take a moment to mourn the potentially kick-ass series Marvel seemed to be establishing for Bucky in the last few issues of "Captain America," with Bucky going all Cold Warrior and planning to atone for his Winter Soldier crimes. [Sigh.])
To sum up my outrage, Fraction seriously, seriously fucks up the transition from Bucky to Steve here, both in giving Bucky a meaningless death and Steve a lackluster return. The fact that he can't even convey any sense of emotion over Bucky's death makes me wonder how Marvel could've entrusted this big of an event to him. The ho-hum nature of Bucky's death and Steve's return completely overshadows any good "Fear Itself" could ever achieve. It appears nothing more than to be a cheap stunt to fluff the ego of a bad writer. I can't believe I'm still spending money on it.
Fear Itself: The Home Front #4: This title just continues to get worst. The Speedball story is...odd. Speedball seemingly defeats Attuma in St. John's, only to have him return and destroy the city with an enormous tidal wave. I think Gage is trying to show how bad things are, giving people hope (Speedball initially defeating Attuma) but then destroying it (Attuma ulitmately obliterating St. John's). The problem, though, is the problem of the larger "Fear Itself" storyline, which is that so many cities are being wantonly destroyed (Paris, Washington, etc.) that it's getting hard to feel any sort of emotion as it happens. The Jimmy Woo story was just awful. Jimmy could have saved the world but decided not do so, which makes him a hero? Wait, what? Finally, to be brutally honest, the Blue Marvel story is maybe the worst comic-book story I've ever read. It's just...moronic. I'm hoping the Jimmy Woo story will be replaced by something better, but I seriously doubt it will be, the way this whole sad, sorry affair is going.
Fear Itself: Spider-Man #3: OK, so Yost kind of loses it here. (I promise I like SOME issues in this review. Keep reading.) First, the last two issues of this mini-series managed to convey Peter's attempts to fight off "the fear" and rescue people without going too far and making Peter seemed like a scared newbie trying to keep himself together. Yost unfortunately goes too much in that direction here, with Peter giving us a running narrative on how he's lost hope, yadda yadda yadda. (Guess what? He's inspired by the actions of a "regular" person and finds the strength to defeat the bad guy. I know. Shocking! I never would've expected it.) To be fair, I'm a little harder here on Yost than I probably have to be. The problem with all the "Fear Itself" books is that (until "Fear Itself" #4), they've done a poor job really explaining "the fear" that everyone is experiencing. Yost has actually done the best job of that, so I feel like I'm punishing him for being the only one trying to flesh out the concept. So, I'll give him a pass personally, even if I found that his addressing of the issue used really tired plot twists. Second, it seemed WAY too convenient that everything got nicely wrapped in a bow for us in the end. I mean, I'm not saying everyone had to die, but, really, EVERYONE was OK? Really? Finally, my problem with this mini-series has been that it's a bit of a throwback to the days before Spidey was on every New York-based superhero team. Often, during these big cross-over events, Peter would save the regular people while the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men fought the big bad. Given that Peter's now on both Avengers teams and in the FF, it does make you raise an eyebrow, wondering how he's involved in those teams' responses to the crisis while at the same time saving regular people he encounters on the street. More than anything, it's the last part that made me feel like a sucker for shelling over $8.97 for these three issues, when I could see Peter fighting the big bad in the main title or the Avengers titles. (Also, on a total side note, I was annoyed when Ben spoke that weird "Worthy" speak, because we've established in other series that he actually has retained his ability to speak normally.)
Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #3: This title continues to be the best of the bunch. It does the best job, to my mind, in conveying the magnitude of what Fraction is trying to convey in "Fear Itself." McKeever shows us how often-reluctant C- and D-List heroes put their lives on the line just to try to slow the advance of Sin and the Worthy. They know their efforts aren't going to be enough to stop them, but instead just hope to buy the more super-powered heroes time. This approach lends itself to heroics like we see on the part of Hardball, who appears to sacrifice himself to buy people time to escape the Juggerneaut. The only real drawback to this series is that it's hard to keep all the characters straight. I vaguely remember Hardball from the first two issues of this series, but I can't remember if I liked him or not. So, his sacrifice, though heroic, doesn't exactly have the same impact as, say, Bucky-Cap's. Regardless, McKeever is doing a better job than almost anyone out there putting his finger on the pulse of "Fear Itself,"and I applaud him for it. This series is the only one worth reading, to my mind.
New Avengers #14: Bendis again uses the "oral history of the Avengers" format, using Mockingbird as our lens here as he did with Spider-Woman in "Avengers" #15. The device works well, bridging us from the previous arc in which Mockingbird received a combination of the Super-Soldier Serum and Infinity Formula and the events of "Fear Itself." As in "Avengers" #15, Bendis does a great job of keeping track of everyone; the Avengers who were in Brazil aren't the Avengers who are in New York. He also ties the events of this issue to "Avengers" #14, as we watch Avengers Tower fall from Mockingbird's perspective. I'm not sure what to say about the other major event of this issue, which is Spider-Man's apparent resignation from the team in protest of Victoria Hand's continued presence. Bendis is keeping that sub-plot on a steady burn, and he manages to give us some action without revealing his hand. (It reminds me of the very well done "Tracer Killer" storyline in "Amazing Spider-Man" during "Brand New Day.") I actually like Spidey best on this team, given his familiar ties to each of his teammates (as opposed to the main title's team, where he functions more or less as the provider of one-liners and nothing more), so I'd be sad to see him go. But, my guess is that whatever Wolverine and Luke tell him after his outburst manages to keep him on the team. Bendis isn't going to tell us Victoria's true motivations any time soon, so we'll see how he continues to build the suspense.
Uncanny X-Men #540: OK, this issue is a "Fear Itself" tie-in pretty much in name only. We see the Serpent-possessed Juggernaut get himself an acolyte as he marches toward the X-Men in San Francisco while Cyclops and Mayor Sadie try to reason out why San Francisco has so far been spared the "Fear Itself" trauma that other cities are facing. But, nothing else really...happens on the "Fear Itself" side of the house. To be honest, the other sub-plot in this issue, involving Magik's imprisonment, is also short on action. Peter goes to visit Illyana, who Cyclops has had imprisoned for setting Legion free to destroy the Elder Gods (over in "New Mutants'" "Rise/Fall of the New Mutants" arc). Gillen wraps up a loose end from that storyline by clarifying that Illyana's soul has not been fully restored. Otherwise, Gillen doesn't really do anything with this sub-plot; he seems to be setting the stage for a later story. (He might actually want to look to Bendis for help on this front, given that Bendis does something similar -- adroitly present drama without resolution -- with the ongoing Victoria Hand plot.) I'm not entirely sure what the connection between the two stories is, other than the possibility that Magik will be involved in Juggernaut's eventually defeat. We shall see.
Uncanny X-Men #541: This issue feels exactly like what it is: a cross-over event installment forced on Kieron Gillen by Marvel's management. Unlike last issue, this issue does directly address "Fear Itself," and you can pretty much sense Gillen's resistance here. Normally, I think he could've given us an interesting riff on the Juggernaut, given what he did with the Breakworlders in the last arc. Instead, we get a pretty straight-forward Juggernaut story, with the heavy hitters trying to pry off Juggy's helmet so Emma can whop him telepathically. Gillen does gives us a twist: the Serpent's powers appear to make Juggy's immune to telepathic attacks. In fact, he (or the Serpent) possesses Emma when she tries to take control of his mind. The issue has some nice moments, such as Kitty saving Magneto (who doesn't quite get that a mystic hammer might not be made of ordinary metal), but otherwise it's pretty much just getting the job done.
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