New Comics! (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Detective Comics #3:  OK, Daniel loses me a bit here.  I mean, he does a great job portraying the creepiness of the Dollmaker and his "family," but I have some issues.  First, it's unclear to me how Bruce knows to look up Wesley Mathis' file.  The first time we see it mentioned is during Bruce's narration of the research he's conducting in the Batcave, where he assembles all the components of the Dollkeeper's mask to match Mathis' face.  But, how did he know that Mathis was involved in the first place?  It's a pretty key question, since Bruce uses it to deduce the Dollmaker's identity as Mathis' son and since it establishes the Dollmaker's motive, getting revenge on Commissioner Gordon for shooting his father.  Second, could neither Commissioner Gordon nor Batman tell that Olivia was cray-cray?  It seems like both of them are smart enough to know that the Dollmaker had possession of her long enough to have corrupted her.  Also, we still don't know why she was picked in the first place.  Finally, why the backwards "R" in the note Commissioner Gordon sent Batman?  Is it a hint to bring Robin?  Unfortunately, as I generally find with Daniel, I found myself thinking we'd get some closure at the end of this issue, only to discover that we've added yet another plot twist, the Jokers.  I can't say that Daniel has done anything to really make me feel like the Dollmaker is an interesting enough villain to take up this many pages.  At this point, he's just some insane psycopath who's mad at the Commissioner for killing his insane father.  That's probably half the Gotham population at this point...

Fear Itself #7.1:  OK, Brubaker almost does it here.  He ALMOST convinces me that Marvel had planned Bucky's death from the start.  At the end of the "Gulag" arc in "Captain America," before Bucky died (again) in "Fear Itself" #3, it seemed pretty clear that Brubaker was setting up a "Winter Soldier" series where Bucky and Natasha, the sexiest dynamic duo in comics, would go after the loose ends from his Winter Soldier days.  Brubaker sets up exactly that series in this issue, using Bucky's "death" as a way to return him to the shadows.  He makes a compelling case for why it was necessary for Bucky to die, reminding us that he was a fugitive from the law (as a result of escaping from the Russian prison) when we last left him.  As such, his "death" is important in that it ensures he's not going to have the feds and the Russians on his tail as he tries to atone for his sins as the Winter Soldier.  Cool.  I'm down with that.  But, it still feels to me like they intended for Bucky to die and abruptly changed course.  Anyway you cut it, it makes me hate "Fear Itself" all the more, because Bucky's death was always going to be a cheap stunt, whether or not they planned him to return or not.  (Somehow, if they all along planned for him to return, it makes me even madder.)  At the end of the day, though, I'm just thrilled Bucky is back.  He's one of the reasons why I got excited about comics again, and I can't wait to see what Brubaker does with him next year.  (Also:  damn, Guice draws a sexy Bucky.  I hope we're going to see him next year, too!)

New Comics!: The "Fear Itself" Edition

Fear Itself #7:  OK, so, first:  The other day, I was going through my collection and ran across the recent "Avengers" issues where they fight the Hood after he steals the Infinity Gems.  I found myself instantly thinking, "Um, wouldn't now be a good time to go get them?"  "Siege" was such a great event because it built on years of story lines, such as "Civil War," "Secret Invasion," etc.  As such, it had a plot that didn't feel manufactured just for the event.  Everyone had watched Norman Osborn consolidate his power over a period of years.  We didn't just suddenly find him in charge of U.S. security.  Moreover, the ending of the event made sense.  The Sentry died and Norman Osborn went to jail.  The death of the Sentry felt pretty permanent, since he was a minor enough character to merit a long-lasting death.  Although you knew Norman would eventually free himself from jail, he at least was going to have to spend some time there cooling his jets.  The problem with the Infinity Gems story and "Fear Itself," however, is that they're random, discrete events that come and go.  As such, when you're reading the latest iteration of this sort of story, it's incredibly frustrating that the previous ones seemingly didn't happen.  Why didn't Cap say, "Hey, Tony, didn't we have the power to control reality a few months ago?"  The answer is that, unlike "Siege," "Fear Itself" doesn't build off previous events, so it's like the Inifinity Gems story never happened.  As such, when I saw the Infinity Gems issues, it was just a reminder of why this mini-series fell totally flat.  Despite assurances to the contrary, it was all meant to be temporary.

Turning to the issue at hand, as "Fear Itself" issues go, this one actually isn't bad.  It had some really great moments, like Cap picking up Thor's hammer, which even my Fraction-hating self had to admit was pretty cool, and an amped-up Widow screaming "Who's next?!"  I thought it was clever that the weapons Tony created went to eight Avengers, creating his own Worthy to combat the Serpent's.  (How bad-ass did Spidey look?)  I also liked how Odin banned the gods from Asgard, creating his own private memorial in which he alone will dwell.  The story ended as Fraction essentially told us it was going to end, with Thor sacrificing his life to stop the Serpent.  End scene.

This series, as we all understood it, was about tying together Captain America and Thor to take advantage of interest in the comics that came from their movies this summer.  So, Marvel does that by killing them?  As I expected would happen after the events of issue #3, I ended this series wondering how quickly it will all be retconned.  How long before artists stop drawing the crack in Cap's shield?  (It doesn't appear in his new series, which we're lead to believe happens after "Fear Itself.")  We already don't see anyone referring to a destroyed New York, Las Vegas, Paris, or Washington in the series that have moved past "Fear Itself."  (Manhattan doesn't suddenly go boom in the middle of "Spider-Island.")  How long before Thor (and hopefully Bucky) is resurrected?  How long before the various series Marvel is launching in the wake of "Fear Itself" are canceled?  I'm pretty sure that Sin will quickly get over her desire to dominate the Universe, because, unless she's going to gain the power of the Worthy again, it's not like she's all that powerful.  After "The Fearless," she's probably just going to be Sin again, with an occasional passing reference to her former deity-hood.

In other words, how long before this series is as meaningless as Fraction promised us it wouldn't be?  To my mind, at the end of the day, it was a colossal failure of imagination compounded by a marketing department run completely wild.  It hijacked almost every Marvel series I read and not a single one was better for it.  The fact that they're giving us three epilogues AND a maxi-series?  Unbelievable, actually.  Please, please Marvel, give us at least two or three years before you try doing so again.

Fear Itself:  The Home Front #7:  OK, I've been pretty down on the latest installments of this series, but this one isn't too bad.  Gage pulls out a decent ending to the Speedball story.  I actually got a little misty eyed over the conversation he had with Meredith, given that it seems to put the events of Stamford (the first time) firmly behind him.  The "Citizens of Broxton, OK" story was also good.  I had already read the adventures of, "Rick.  Just Rick." in "Fear Itself" #7 and found it to be one of the few moments of actual emotion in the entire series.  I enjoyed seeing a little more what went into his thought process here.  The faux Young Avengers story and the "Another Moment With..." story were as terrible as they've always been, but at least we get two decent stories in this issue (possibly for the first time). 

Fear Itself:  Youth in Revolt #6:  This title was one of the better "Fear Itself" tie-in series, particularly among the series created just for the event.  I liked how McKeever showed a group of ambivalent and/or wounded young heroes struggling with their insecurities and troubles to try to help people.  McKeever also made them make real decisions in the face of tough challenges, rather than giving them some easy way to resolve their immediate problems (such as Hardball having to take lives in Vegas to save the city and Prodigy having to allow Thor Girl to be arrested in order to quiet the mobs).  However, this issue unfortunately undoes some of that good work.

Throughout the series, I was confused why exactly the authorities tortured Thor Girl when she was in their custody.  McKeever seemed to be hinting at some larger plot where aspects of the government were supporting the Serpent (or using the chaos he was causing to advance their own secret agenda).  However, he never really went anywhere with that plot.  In the end, it wound up being a relevant point, because this whole issue turns on how Thor Girl holds Prodigy personally responsible for her imprisonment and, in her effort to get vengeance, winds up taking on the assembled superheroes.  McKeever portrays Thor Girl as almost completely irrational here, so it's hard to exactly feel sympathetic for her, even if understood what she was saying when she was saying it.  He also uses her departure as the deus ex machina needed to save the heroes stuck underground.  It's unfortunate, because it detracts from the sense he had built for most of the series that actions would have consequences.  Similarly, we see Hardball face no real repercussions for killing people in Vegas; in fact, McKeever seems to back away a bit form that event, having Hardball comment that few people died.  Conversely, Prodigy, who always seemed the coolest character of the bunch, gets pretty summarily dismissed, despite his efforts to hold the line during the entire conflict.

It's an unfortunate weak ending to a good mini-series I thought held a lot of promise and would serve as a staging ground for some of the more promising characters.  I'll keep my eyes open for them the next few months, because I don't want this series to fade into the background like the rest of "Fear Itself" will.

New Comics!: The "Fear Itself" Edition

Fear Itself #6:  OK, this issue...isn't that bad, actually.  The decision to split the team -- into a god squad, if you will, and an evacuation squad -- totally made sense.  Captain America chewing out Odin actually felt organic with Fraction (for once) showing us how the emotions of the events of the last few issues are finally taking their toll on everyone, including Steve Rogers.  Along those lines, Spidey's conversation with May and Odin's conversation with Thor are also both excellent.  It's like Fraction suddenly discovered how you write emotions and why doing so is important for a story based on one (fear).  Moreover, the idea that each Avenger is going to get some super-dooper, amped-up Stark Tech/uru magic weapon is awesome.  I can't wait to see Immonen unleashed on their design.

I do have some nitpicks, though.  Cap declares that they now know the Serpent is after the World Tree, implying the Avengers learned that during their brief sojourn to Asgard, despite the fact that no one in Asgard is shown as mentioning it during their time there.  In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the Serpent only discusses his plan with Skadi (Sin) and Odin only briefly mentions it to Thor before he returns to Midgard.  So, I'm not sure how exactly Cap "discovers" that the Serpent is after the World Tree.  Moreover, I'm not sure why Odin would send the Avengers to Broxton (conveniently where the Serpent is heading to enter Asgard), when they, after all, entered Asgard from New York.  Moreover, if the Serpent was in New York, why didn't he just enter Asgard from there?  He probably had to know that Heimdall's Observatory was attached to Avengers Tower.

But, in the end, I'm willing to overlook those failing because, finally, Fraction delivers us an issue that feels like it approaches the level of grandeur and emotion that this series promised.  I'll still be glad when this story ends, but maybe Fraction will redeem himself (not totally, because that ship sailed with Bucky-Cap's death, but somewhat) by the end.

New Avengers #16:  I thought this issue rocked.  I love the idea of Daredevil joining the Avengers, because it makes Luke Cage's team feel all the more like the family that the Avengers used to be.  I don't feel that in the main title, but I do here, in "New Avengers."  I'd love to see us exist "Fear Itself" with a New Avengers team of Luke Cage, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Man.  With the possible exception of Ms. Marvel, the rest of these characters have such history together, intricate ties dating back decades of storytelling.  I never thought it was possible to see them all together on a team, and it really feels like the fruition of years of Bendis' storylines, aligning Luke Cage and his supporting cast with the Avengers' continuity.  It's really a moment of genius that makes me feel like Bendis has created his own old-school Avengers (or new-school Justice League).  Moreover, Bendis really sells the emotion of it.  It doesn't just feel like a way of bringing together all these street-level characters, but a honestly-reached decision based on the heroism Daredevil displayed in saving Squirrel Girl and Baby Cage.  I can't wait to see where this title goes.

New Comics! (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Fear Itself #5:  I fucking hate Matt Fraction.  I know that’s harsh, but, as I detail in the first post of this blog, the reason why I stopped reading comics several years ago was because “celebrity” authors like Fraction were allowed to just do whatever they wanted to characters with long-standing histories.  These authors replaced careful storytelling with shocking twists and big reveals.  This issue is a great example of that.   To make matters worse, the plot itself makes no sense whatsoever.  It is all so unbelievably bad I almost don’t know where to start. 

Let’s start with the plot, I guess.  I’ve tried to write this paragraph for the last five minutes and I just can’t find a way to try to make sense of it.  Instead, I’ll just list my complaints and questions:

1) Odin abandoned Earth because it had no hope of surviving the Serpent and because he had to spend all his time preparing Asgard for the Serpent, but he has time to chat with Iron Man?  Also, if Iron Man really could forge weapons that could defeat the Serpent, don’t you think Odin would have known that and been able to commit Asgard’s forces to hold back the Serpent and given Stark time to do just that?  What’s the point of being all-seeing if, um, you’re not?

2) As the Avengers attack the Serpent, Cap tells them not to let the hammer hit…something.  Except, um, no one threw a hammer.  Even if someone had thrown a hammer (which no one did), it’s still unclear what the hammer wasn’t supposed to hit and, when it did hit said something, why it caused a huge explosion.  I’m not just being nitpicky here, since it’s this explosion that knocks out the Avengers and results in the Serpent winning the battle.

3) We’re supposed to be all, “OMG, no WAY!” when the Serpent breaks Cap’s shield and declares, “I am God,” while seemingly unleashing a nuclear-level explosion.  But, then, everyone is, um, you know, totally OK.  As Spidey says, “Nobody’s too terribly incapacitated.”  Um, why not exactly?  I mean, if I were the Serpent facing Earth’s mightiest heroes and I had the chance to kill them, I, you know, would. 

4) If Franklin Richards can keep the Thing from dying, can he bring back Bucky?  (That being said, if this whole series ends with Franklin just undoing everything, I am going to be fit to be tied, just to warn you.)

5) Thor tells the Hulk he can’t beat him.  The Hulk responds that he knows.  Thor, for some reason, is infuriated by the Hulk, um, agreeing with him, so he proceeds to beat him, despite the whole fight starting because he allegedly couldn't.  Um, yeah.

I almost don’t have the energy to keep ranting, but here we go.  The characterization:

1) Fraction has possibly the worst ear for voices I’ve ever seen in an issue here.  Tony Stark is just unrecognizable in his bizarre conversation with Odin ("My word?"  Did he become Aunt May?), Thor is portrayed like he’s Clint Eastwood, (“You were always a pain in the ass.”) and I don’t even know where to start with Cap.  (“Reckon you can’t, either.”  WTF?  Cap’s from Brooklyn, not Arkansas.)
 
2) We had a whole mini-series about how Spider-Man tirelessly defended the city in the face of the onslaught from the Serpent’s forces.  But, he just up and quits?  Um, no.  I know Fraction tries to make Cap and Spidey losing hope the big emotional moment where our heroes face their greatest challenge so that their victory will be all the sweeter in issue #7 when they inevitably beat the Serpent.  But, Fraction does NOTHING to sell that.  He just maladroitly uses the characters as set pieces.  Giving Spidey one quip does not characterization make.  What caused Spidey to lose hope?  I actually think they did pretty well, considering that no one died in their first skirmish with the Serpent.  I mean, what were they expecting, exactly?  The Avengers engaged him for one brief moment (seriously, it was three panels) before he unleashed an explosion and disappeared.  Spidey is going to quit simply because they didn’t beat him in less than a minute?   Fraction chose Cap and Spidey to lose hope because he thought they’d have more impact, since they’re the definition of hope when all hope is lost.  But, if you don’t spend any time showing us the reasons why they should feel hopeless, then I’m not going to believe it.   Fraction is essentially just relying on Immonen’s amazing art to tell the story.  Although the art is, in fact, amazing, the story is actually his job, and he’s not doing it.

I could keep ranting about this issue, but I’ll stop here.  Suffice it say, I can’t wait for this series to end.  And, I’m never buying a comic from Fraction afterwards again.

New Comics!: The "Fear Itself" Mega-Edition

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.

New Comics! (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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.

New Comics! (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batman Beyond #5:  OK, so, one of the challenges of reading this series is that, except what I gleaned from watching a few episodes of the TV show, I really know next to nothing about the universe of "Batman Beyond."  My guess is that I'm supposed to know who the villain on the last page of the issue was, why Dana's brother was in prison (and why his creepy comment about being glad to have returned was so ominous), and who exactly Paxton Powers is/was.  However, I don't know any of those things.  I'm tempted to do a bunch of Internet research, but I think I'll wind up just being confused, since it's still unclear what elements of previous "Batman Beyond" works -- from the TV show to the previous comics -- Beechen is using.  However, despite not entirely following all the ins-and-outs, I still thoroughly enjoyed this issue.  Beechen has a great ear for dialogue, and he gives us a really great version of a cranky Bruce Wayne.  I hope he gives us some background next issue without falling too far on the "super-villain explaining his grand plan while our hero is perched precariously over a ravine" side of such divides.  At any rate, I'm excited to see where this plot goes. 

Dark Sun #4:  Our rag-tag team of (sort-of) heroes gets one more step closer to the Tomb of Ianto in this issue.  Over all, it's a pretty solid issue, with Irvine doing a particularly great job of quietly building the suspense for the first few pages as the team makes it way through the too quiet tombs.  However, a lot of the details of the world are unclear to me, and we're far enough into the series that it's becoming distracting.  For example, Rubi tells us that she can sense Haskyr, since he's a fellow member of the Veiled Alliance; but, when we first met them in issue #2, they appeared to be unaware of the other's connection to the Alliance.  Can members only sense other members when they're revealed?  Moreover, the only real information we've gotten on the Veiled Alliance is in the recap page (paging pet peeve #2), which reveals they're an underground group of mages trying to restore Athas to its former glory.  Irvine probably doesn't have enough time to flesh out these details, which is a shame.  The biggest drawback to the issue itself is the art.  I normally like Bergting's pencils, but it feels a little rushed in this issue.  At times, it was hard to tell who was saying what to whom and the action sequences were somewhat confusing to follow.  The last page, however, is great, thanks to Ronda Pattison's colors; after four issues of a coloring us a bleak, desolate world, we suddenly get a light, green vista, and you realize how much restraint we've seen on the colors over the course of the series.  I'll be sad to see the series end next issue, just as we're seeing some hope sprouting in this really sad world. 

Dark Sun #5:  I'm sad to see this series end.  I feel like Irvine has left us with enough material for a bang-up ongoing series.  First, he leaves several mysteries unresolved here, almost all of them dealing with Rubi and the Veiled Alliance.  When she first appears in issue #2, she doesn't seem to understand the important of the amulet she gave to Grudvik and can't tell that Haskyr is a fellow member of the Alliance.  However, in this issue, it's clear that she's known much more than she's let the others think.  For example, she knows that Ianto's tomb holds something called Ianto's seed.  If she knew that, I kind of figure she knew the key she gave to Grudvik opened the tomb.  If so, why did she give it him in the first place?  Also, her sudden departure also raises all sorts of questions.  If she could form a portal to leave the tomb, why couldn't she just use that portal to get them into the tomb?  Who's this militia that will be chasing her?  Where is she going?  Second, Grudvik and Aki make a really compelling team, with Grudvik's quiet stoicism and Aki's quick wit.  I hope this title sold well enough for an ongoing series or at least another mini-series.  I'm going to keep it on my pull list just in case something appears one day! 

Fear Itself #2:  OK, this issue is better than the first one, so maybe this series won't be terrible.  Odin brings the Asgardian gods to what appears to be New Asgard, preparing for battle, and the Serpent assembles his warriors, sending them into the world to wreck havoc and spread fear.  Meanwhile, we see the heroes try to get a grip on events as they happen, so they don't really do much this issue, though I'm sure that will change shortly.  I was kind of hard on Odin in the last issue, mostly because I don't read Thor comics so I'm not entirely sure what his deal is.  But, he's a bit more clear here on the fact that the gods will be lucky to survive a war with the Serpent and don't have time to worry about Midgard.  As tempting as it is, I'm trying to keep a handle on my collector obsessivism, because I really have no desire to spend hundreds of dollars chasing down all the tie-in issues, particularly since Marvel did such a poor job of making them count in "Chaos War."  But, it would be useful if Marvel produced some sort of "core book" reading list.  At any rate, I can't say it's worth $3.99 an issue, but at least it's not terrible so far.  (How's that for a back-handed compliment?) 

Fear Itself:  The Home Front #2:  This issue is pretty forgettable, if not downright bad.  The Speedball story is OK, but, unless Gage really throws us for a loop, it seems pretty clear that Ms. Sharpe is going to come to an understanding about Speedball by the end of this story.  We'll probably all hug.  It's just starting to seem a little pat, and we're only two issues into the storyline.  Otherwise, it's fine.  Just like last issue, Gage adroitly presents the anxiety and fear that I imagine regular people would feel in a world of super-humans.  We don't get an insight into those feelings often, and Gage does a really great job with them.  The other stories are actually pretty terrible.  I still have no idea how Jimmy Woo and his "Agents of Atlas" are.  The story is basically a post-script to events we originally saw in the "Fear Itself" prelude, where the Red Skrull attempts to track down Skadi's hammer.  The dialogue is awful, the characters are wooden, and the plot seems irrelevant.  We then have a one-page "Purple Man" story (again, who?) that left me confused, which, really, given that it's a one-page story, is an accomplishment.  Finally, we have a totally random story about Liz Allan, Harry Osborn's ex-wife, that seems to screw up continuity, since Liz says they just visited Harry in New York, but I'm pretty sure Harry fled New York after the events of the "Origin of the Species" arc in "Amazing Spider-Man."  If next month's issue is as irrelevant and predictable as this month's, I'm pretty sure I'm canceling this series and saving myself $3.99 a month. 

X-Men Legacy #248 (Age of X Epilogue):  This issue actually clears up some questions left lingering from "Age of X," particularly who Revenant (aka Phoenix) was.  We learn here it was Rachel Summers, who got caught in the event while trying to connect with Professor X telepathically, inadvertently rendering her mind separate from her body.  I was excited to see Rachel here.  Havok and Marvel Girl are two of my favorite X-Men, reminding me of the awesome issues in the early and mid-200s from my youth.  They've been gone WAY too long and, hopefully, this issue sets in motion their return.  Carey cleverly uses "Age of X" to move along some long-stalled plots here, such as giving Legion more control over his powers (again) and addressing Gambit and Rogue's relationship problems (which I feel like have just been left to linger for a long, long time).  I'm hopeful that we actually get to see Legion start on the road of playing a role as something other than his usual "greatest mutant threat alive."  Also, I'm sure the psychological effects on the X-Men of "Age of X" are going to be totally forgotten soon, but it's interesting seeing Carey not completely ignore them immediately.  I still find Carey's writing somewhat...overwrought, making "X-Men Legacy" a book that I read more from obligation than enjoyment.  But, even if I don't exactly emotionally connect with his characters here the way I do with Gillen's in "Uncanny," Carey definitely does some interesting things here.  I actually find myself anticipating the next issue for the first time, possibly ever, in this title.

New Comics!: The Capes Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Detective Comics #875:  Snyder tells a great story here.  The only off-note is the exposition-y confession by Roy Blount at the end.  But, the best part is that, even with that confession, Snyder still leaves it unclear if James Gordon, Jr. is a killer or not.  Although we're presented reasonable alternative explanations for why Betsy went missing and why the birds in the aviary could've been freed, we're not actually sure at the end of the issue if those explanations are true.  Snyder may be in the process of creating the next Joker here, but, if James stays true to form, we may never know for sure. 

Fear Itself:  Book of the Skull #1:  OK, I'm intrigued.  You know you're dealing with a nut job when Baron Zemo thinks s/he's insane, as we see here in his reaction to Sin.  This issue serves as a prologue to the Fear Itself cross-over event.  After "Chaos War," I was a little skeptical that this event could be anything even remotely interesting, but Brubaker piques my interest here.  The issue has an Indiana Jones feel to it, with the flashbacks to the Red Skull trying to find a mystical device for the Nazis to use to defeat the Allies (and, natch, Bucky, Cap, and Namor trying to stop him).  The hammer-in-the-ice conceit is a little too similar to the hammer-in-the-desert conceit they're using for the Thor movie.  But, considering this project was invented explicitly to link Captain America and Thor before this summer's movies, I can't complain too much.  At the very least, this issue was fun to read, which is more than I can say for almost any of the "Chaos War" books! 

Fear Itself #1:  Fraction sets the stage here by showing us a riot in New York (seemingly between the two opposing sides of the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy), using it to show the tensions and divisions that exist in contemporary American society, clearly a theme of the series.  We see Sin become the avatar for Skadi (I'm not sure who that is), who then resurrects the Serpent (I'm also not sure who he is, though he calls himself the "All-Father").  The resurrections freak out Odin, who appears to be alive again (and totally ass-nut crazy).  Odin calls all the Norse gods to follow him to Asgard (which appears not to be the destroyed city sitting in a wheat field outside Broxon, Oklahoma, but an island floating in space), while the Serpent calls forth his "Worthy."  I'm willing to give Fraction some leeway here in setting up the parameters of the book, but this issue isn't really all that good on its own.  I mean, it's fine, but we certainly don't see a catalyzing event like the destruction of Stamford in "Civil War."  It's a pretty slow-paced book, with the most notable event being the departure of the Norse gods, which, frankly, felt kind of anti-climatic to me.  We'll see where it all goes. 

Fear Itself:  The Home Front #1:  The Speedball story in this issue is the best.  I found myself annoyed by the Twitter commentary at the start of the story, but then I realized it's exactly what Gage wanted.  Gage really captures that feeling you get when you read ignorant comments posted by angry people on websites, the type of comments that make you to realize that you're sitting at your computer with balled fists because some jackwad has hijacked a thread about the new "Green Lantern" movie to complain about fascists/communists. This sort of universal sense of anger and frustration seems to be at the core of the "Fear Itself" storyline and I feel like Gage actually captures it better here than Fraction did in "Fear Itself" #1.  Plus, just like "Uncanny X-Men" #534.1, I'm glad to see someone portraying the repercussions of one of those city-destroying events we so often see in the Marvel Universe.  The other stories, to be honest, are pretty disposable. 

Uncanny X-Men #534.1:  So far, I've been really impressed with these .1 issues.  Although a little gimmicky, both the "Captain America" issue and this one really accomplish the goal of introducing a new reader to new characters but also giving older readers a great story.  Magneto's interaction with Kate Kildare, the X-Men's public-relations specialist, is classic.  From her first appearance, I thought the idea of a public-relations person for the X-Men was clever, and Gillen really makes the concept meet its potential.  Kate proves a competent sparring partner for Magneto (which is saying a lot), so much so that I wonder if Gillen himself didn't work in public relations.  It's clear with this issue, Gillen's first without Fraction, that the improvement of "Uncanny X-Men" over the last few issues has been thanks to his addition to the title, so I'm excited to see what's in store over the next few months.  I also appreciate him mentioning Magneto's actions in New York.  As I mention above, so many cities in America have been wantonly destroyed and quickly forgotten over the years (Kang killing everyone in Washington, DC in "Avengers," Bucky annihilating part of Philadelphia in "Captain America") that I appreciate a writer who takes continuity seriously.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up, Mr. Gillen.