Fear Itself #6 – Review

Personal Fear #6 – Flying. As in flying in an airplane. Flying like Thor, or Magneto or Storm would be very cool. But sitting in a heavy, large, metal box does not make sense to me. And then once you get up there, there’s no getting out of it. It’s not like you can pull over to the side of the road or anything. Sitting in such confined quarters with all those other random people for a couple of hours is not my idea of fun either. I don’t care if flying has physics or years of scientific study on its side to support it, all it takes is one gremlin on that plane wing to ruin your day.      

Fear Itself 6: Blood-Tied & Doomed

Writer: Matt Fraction

Art: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Art and Alternate Covers: Stuart Immonen, Mike McKone, Steve McNiven, Humberto Ramos, Ed McGuinness (variant covers are a new personal fear after tracking down all of these)

Plot: Thor, the Asgardian Avenger, is out of commission following his throw-down with the Serpent’s minions, Nul and Angrir. Captain America and his teammates carry the thunder god through the debris of New York towards the rubble of Avengers Tower and Heimdall’s Observatory, a portal to Asgard. A crowd has gathered and watches the heroes. Captain America, is afraid that the onlookers will assume the Avengers are retreating, but Luke Cage offers to stay behind and evacuate New York City with his team of New Avengers.

In Asgard, Odin surveys his army. The Avengers arrive through the portal and Captain America demands that Odin heals the All-Father’s son. Taken aback by the super soldier’s confrontational attitude, Odin banishes the heroes from his realm, and returns them to Broxton, Oklahoma, Asgard’s former home on Earth. The All-Father carries his son off by himself, and Captain America tells Hawkeye that they need to find a way to evacuate Earth.

News reports of riots, suicides and other forms of chaos fuel the Serpent’s strength. He prepares his soldiers for the final battle. Skadi expresses her concern about the prophecy concerning her father’s demise and the Serpent tells her that it will be her time to rise if he falls.

Elsewhere, Odin sits and talks with his recuperating son, explaining the history of the Serpent. Thor remains adamant that sacrificing Earth is unacceptable and vows to keep fighting. To protect his son, Odin outfits him with the same armor he wore when the All-Father first fought and banished the Serpent. Thor also receives the Odinsword, also known as Ragnarok, a weapon that is capable of killing the villain.

In the Asgardian realm of Svartalfheim, Tony Stark has finished constructing weapons of his own which are intended to even the battlefield. The industrialist presents the arms to Odin for his approval, including his own Iron Man armor. The weapons, and the armored-up Stark, are cast into the fires of Svartalfheim for Odin’s final blessing.

Back in New York, Spider-Man is swinging over the crowded streets calling out for May Parker. Peter finds her in a crowd gathered around a bridge and is immediately swarmed by people asking for his assistance. May does not understand why Spider-Man was looking for her and tells the hero that he has a responsibility to keep everybody safe, not just her. Spider-Man swings off after letting her know that Peter is okay. In Broxton, Captain America rallies the civilians who are standing guard at the edge of town. Equipped with only a handful of rifles, the leader of the Avengers prepares for a final showdown with the Serpent.

*

What to Cheer: The art team of Immonen, Von Grawbadger and Martin continues to impress. Immonen gives his characters very heroic designs, with strong jaws and thick muscles. Von Grawbadger provides a great outline to the art and compliments it with great shading. The coloring by Martin in this issue is of particular interest. I like how Asgard and its realms are brightly colored with golds and reds, to contrast the blues and greens of Earth and the Serpent’s panels.

Thor remains a great beacon of hope for mankind. Even while battered and bruised, he refuses to give up on his allies and Earth, his adopted home. This attitude is a stark contrast to Odin, who I am beginning to really dislike. He is proving to be a very selfish and prideful god and I like how Captain America stood up to him, much like Tony Stark did. He does not have the respect of the heroes of Earth, as his son does, because he thinks himself above them. I’m sure this doesn’t bother him, but I’d like to see this attitude of self-centered pride come back to bite him in the end.

*

What to Fear: All this focus on Thor and Odin is fine, but Fraction is getting really involved with the Asgardian storyline and background. Readers who don’t follow Thor may find themselves a little overwhelmed by all the talk of prophecies, Asgardian lore and new locations, such as Svartalfheim. Not only is he throwing a lot at the reader, he also continues to take liberties with the Norse mythology source material. He’s tweaked some of the legends to fit the story, as he did with Skadi’s background, and again here by turning Ragnarok into a sword, instead of a great battle as it is commonly known.

As far as battles go, so far it seems that the Serpent has only a handful of his Worthy and maybe a couple of hundred Nazi war machines on his side. When Odin looks upon his army, Heimdall informs him that he has roughly thirty-five thousand soldiers. Is this not enough to take down the Serpent and his minions? An army of tens of thousands isn’t enough to fight a handful of bad guys? And if that army isn’t enough to defeat the Serpent, what does Captain America hope to accomplish with a few humans armed with hunting rifles?

The fact that I am stopping to think about these problems in the second to last issue does not bode well for the finale of this story. I was hoping that after the last part we’d be going full steam ahead to the conclusion, and that is not the case. Things have slowed down again and the action is non-existent. This may result in the final chapter of Fear Itself feeling rushed and cramped, which should never happen in a seven-part story.

This is also the first time I’ve felt that the tie-in stories were mismanaged. I would have liked to have seen more focus on Tony creating the weapons instead of just having them appear in this issue. I also felt that Spider-Man’s part in this issue would have been better suited in his own tie-in comics. It didn’t add anything to this issue and the pages could have been used for something better.

*

The Big Picture: The clothes aren’t supposed to make the man, but that seems to be where we’re headed. Thor got a new set of armor which we haven’t fully seen yet, but I’m wondering how it will stack up against his classic apparel and whether or not this will be a new look for Thor. The Ragnarok sword could never replace Mjolnir, but if this weapon and armor is so powerful, why would he not continue to use them?

The same can be said for the new weapons designed for Tony Stark’s Avengers teammates. If Stark has endowed his whole Iron Man armor with Asgard power, will he be the only one to keep this new upgrade beyond Fear Itself? The Mighty have been revealed wielding their new arms and I can’t imagine these weapons will remain beyond the Fear Itself story. So for right now, it seems a little pointless and cheap to introduce them for one issue and then never use them again.

*

Rating: Good, art. Meh, characterization. Poor, story and writing. Bad, action. 2/5 Frightened Marvelites.

“Remember that one time during the fight when it looked like you might actually win? No? Me neither.” – Marvel vs. Capcom 3
“Did I mention I beat up Firelord once? No, seriously. Firelord.” – Ultimate Alliance 2