Fear Itself # 1 Review
Reviewing Fear Itself # 1 by Matt Fraction, Stuart Immonen from Marvel Comics.
FEAR ITSELF #1 (of 7) (FEB110500)
FEAR ITSELF #1 (of 7) IMMONEN VARIANT (FEB110503)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Rated T+ …$3.99
FOC—3/7/11, On-Sale—4/6/11
Fear Itself officially begins kick off with the first issue of the new event book from Marvel. Mighty Thor and Invincible Iron Man scribe Matt Fraction deftly defines the twilight of the Heroic Age with the ascension of the Red Skull’s daughter to become a powerful fear entity called Skaldi.
Meanwhile domestic troubles brew in Asgard/ Broxton between All-Father and Son tandem of Odin and Thor as the former becomes restless and disgusted by the cooperation between mortals and gods.
The Avengers on the other hand contemplate on announcing their cooperation in the rebuilding of Asgard which was left in ruins after the events of Siege.
Marvel has promised lots of real-world dealings here and though it seems that they managed to pull it off without following the preachiness of Superman’s “Grounded” saga.
There were several things I thoroughly enjoyed for FI # 1. One of which was the elimination of hype buildup and even more story build up. Sure we’ve seen some inklings here and there between Thor and Captain America with Ed Brubaker but it seems like this would be the first real time we get to be immersed in the world during the events of Fear Itself.
No build up means that both loyal readers and new readers are on equal footing in the sense that they can easily get the book, read the events that transpire in it and then go and expect more from the title. Little to no build ups means that everybody can get on the same page.
The dialogue either between the original Asgardian All-Father the Serpent and Sin as well as the dialogue between the Avengers even between Thor and Odin was top-notch and seemed realistic enough for me.
The real life problems that Steve Roger and Agent 13 Sharon Carter experienced is also a great looking thing and certainly reminded me of a time when the concept of the normal people versus the super powered heroes were touched in Civil War.
Sadly, while Spider-Man makes an appearance in the book, there were no funny quips from the wall-crawler.
While introducing the main players, the book certainly isn’t dull. It still retains great action scenes like the battle between Thor and Odin as well as Skaldi (or Sin) showing off her new power set underwater as she battles the dragon guardians of the Serpent’s cell theres a lot of great moment.
The finale was also great especially since the all-out war between the Worthy and the Avengers will officially begin and the Avengers are Thor-less.
Definitely a great buy and my obvious pick of the week.
