Fear Itself #7 – Review

Personal Fear #7 – Monsters, martians, murderers, oh my. So if you haven’t gathered from the first six entries, I’m pretty much afraid of everything. In fact, afraid of so many things that it’s hard to just pick seven. So this last one pretty much encompasses my fear of the unknown. Sure it may sound far fetched to some, but when that day comes when the alien spaceship appears in our skyline, or a giant monster starts destroying skyscrapers, I won’t look so crazy then, will I? Hey, it could happen. But even more realistic unknown quantities such as a stranger breaking into my apartment or car jacking me has haunted my dreams since I was young. It’s a scary world out there, I don’t know how I manage to leave my apartment every day for work.

Fear Itself 7: Thor’s Day

Writer: Matt Fraction

Art: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger with Dexter Vines
Colors: Laura Martin with Justin Ponsor and Matt Milla
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Art and Alternate Covers: Steve McNiven, Stuart Immonen and Billy Tan

Plot: The Serpent and his minions approach the World Tree outside of Broxton, Oklahoma. Captain America stands his ground, guns raised, and takes down the Serpent’s Nazi battle tanks and followers. In the ruins of the fallen Asgard, the remaining Avengers are greeted by Iron Man and Thor. Tony Stark presents several of the Avengers with the Asgardian weapons he forged. The Serpent continues to grow in strength as Stark’s Mighty Avengers storm the battlefield and join Captain America with their powerful new weapons.

Thor, decked out in Odin’s armor and wielding the Ragnarok sword, challenges the Serpent, now transformed into a giant dragon-like creature. The two clash, beginning their prophesized battle, and Thor loses his grip on his mighty hammer, Mjolnir. The weapon crashes to earth, sending several of the combatants, including Captain America, sprawling. Rick, a local resident of Broxton, has returned to help defend his home, and assists the iconic hero to his feet. Captain America retrieves Mjolnir, raises the weapon in the air, and rallies the heroes and normal humans alike with his “Avengers Assemble” battle cry.

The war begins to turn in the Avengers favor as Black Widow, Hawkeye, Dr. Strange and Iron Fist employ their new weapons to great effect. Thor battles fiercely with the gigantic serpent, Captain America downs Skadi, and She Hulk and Wolverine defeat two of the Serpent’s minions, Kuurth and Nerkkod. In Asgardian space, Odin prepares his army to march on Midgard to raze the planet and defeat his brother. News reports from around the world begin to tell of heroic and miraculous events involving the perseverance and goodwill of mankind, and Thor strikes down the Serpent with a fatal blow.

Odin arrives in time to see the war end. The hammers of the Serpent’s Worthy lose their powers and fly away from their owners. Captain America stands over a fallen, unconscious Sin. Thor stumbles toward his father and collapses in his arms.

The following day, the Avengers construct a funeral pyre for their fallen Asgardian ally. Odin leaves with the defeated Serpent’s body, swearing to watch over his brother until the end of time. The All-Father returns all the Asgardians to Midgard, preventing them from returning to Asgard. In the next few days, things begin to return to normal. A service is held for the deceased Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark destroys the Mighty’s weapons and presents Captain America with a reforged, uru-infused shield. Cap tells the Avengers that there is nothing left to do but rebuild.

In Broxton, Rick greets new neighbors and provides them with a lawnmower, telling them that in this time “we all gotta take care of each other.” 

In a series of epilogues, Sin is revived by a mysterious team of scientists and she remembers the power of the Worthy and vows to obtain the hammers again. A team of hit men and mercenaries begin a hunt for Marcus Johnson, the most wanted man alive. The Hulk separates himself violently from his alter ego Bruce Banner, leaving him in the desert. Nul, the Breaker of Worlds and former Serpent minion who possessed the Hulk, is running free. The Hulk seeks out Dr. Strange to assist him in finding and defeating Nul.

*

What to Cheer: It took seven issues to reach the awesome ‘wow’-moment that I would expect to see in every issue of a big story event. Captain America wielding Mjolnir with lightning crashing into the hammer as he rallied the Avengers was that scene and the best panel of this series by far. I was disappointed that Tony Stark didn’t include Cap in the weapon-making process, so I appreciated Fraction having Tony explain that he didn’t think Cap needed a weapon because Captain America had his shield. Steve Rogers is definitely worthy to lift the powerful hammer and this was much better than having Cap mow bad guys down with guns.

One of my complaints earlier in the series was that all of the Serpent’s minions possessed hammers, so I liked that the Mighty weapons were each different and catered to the specific heroes. You don’t get to see the weapons used a lot but when you did, Immonen did a nice job creatively showing the heroes and their armaments.

The powered-up heroes also gave the team of colorists, Martin, Ponsor and Milla, a chance to really make the Avengers stand out. I’m still unsure why it was necessary to outline the Avengers in neon designs, but it definitely made them stand out more. However, it didn’t work for Iron Man and Wolverine. Why did they grow spikes over their outfits with their powers, and what exactly was Wolverine’s weapon? He wasn’t present to have his adamantium claws blessed with the other weapons so I’m not sure what Stark did for him or why his claws were glowing.

It seemed a tad corny and cliché that Mankind rallied and conquered their fears, but it was a good ending because it reflected the focus on their fear at the beginning of the arc. I’m glad it was not overly drawn out as it was in the beginning. 

*

What to Fear: Fraction didn’t really draw anything out in this last issue, which was the issue’s downfall. This huge battle needed more time and more focus on the weapons and heroes. Everything felt rushed in order to cram all the important things into this final issue. I would have liked to have seen this battle given a full issue to really flesh it out and highlight more action and use of the weapons. It seemed odd as well that the Avengers were just standing around the ruins of Asgard in the beginning while Cap held the line by himself. The battle, the weapons or the ending should have been developed more fully, as they could have been if a whole issue had been devoted to this battle.

There were other points that could have been explained with more time for example, where did the non-hammer wielding minions of the Serpent come from? It also seemed a bit jarring to see the Serpent turn into a massive dragon all of a sudden. The quick battle scenes never really conveyed a sense of danger for Thor. Even when the Asgardian Avenger was literally in the jaws of defeat, I never got the sense that he was outmatched or overwhelmed. It seemed a little forced when he fell to the ground in the end and also when his corpse was resting on top of the funeral pyre. And why is it necessary to burn his body anyway?

The action wasn’t the only thing that seemed stunted. The dialogue was rushed and tacky at times, especially Odin’s and the Serpents. I know the Asgardians talk in a Shakespearian dialect, but I just wasn’t a fan of Odin pontificating things like “Brother of mine, oh brother of mine.” Odin’s behavior seemed a little at odds with how he was portrayed earlier. He didn’t care about destroying Earth or killing innocents at any point in this series, but then when the time comes to invade, he claims it’s for the “glorious dead of Midgard.”

*

The Big Picture: This event received a lot of build up only to fall short and feel extremely rushed in the end. The best issues were the middle three comics in this seven-part series. Overall I thought it was a decent story, but it just wasn’t great as a big, universe spanning event. It was too drawn out and could have been better managed to make the first two and last two issues more enjoyable.

Worse yet, I am unsure what the point of this event was. They returned Steve Rogers to the role of Captain America, brought the Asgardians back to Earth, and killed Thor. Is that it? The mighty weapons Stark created were destroyed right away, Cap’s shield has been repaired and the world will be rebuilt and faith in humanity restored. It just seems as though this event won’t have as much of a lasting impact on the Marvel Universe as the Civil War or Skrull Invasion did.

However, there will be an impact for a short while as the epilogues served as introductions to several new storylines. Stories such as the Fearless and the Defenders will spin out from this story, but the degree of their importance to future Marvel storylines is yet to be determined, and I have no interest in continuing to read about Sin or Nul. In addition to these new stories, there are three more follow-up comics to wrap up the event. I have no idea why these are necessary, and it just adds to my opinion that this event was mismanaged. It draws more attention to the fact that seven issues weren’t enough to tell a complete story for some reason.

*

Rating: Good, art. Meh, story and action. Poor, characterization and writing. 3/5 Frightened Marvelites.

*

Story Arc Rating: Good, art. Meh, action, characterization, story and writing. 3.5/5 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