Waiting for the Trade
by Bill Miller
Fear Itself
by Matt Fraction and
Stuart Immonencollects Fear Itself 1-7 and Fear Itself: Book of the Skull #1.
Why I Bought This: While
I tend to avoid the big crossovers, this one caught my interest because it came
out the summer of the Captain America and
Thor movies and seemed to be built
around those two characters in an intriguing way. In my post-Cap movie rush I decided I would buy
this eventually. Lo and behold about three months ago, my favorite local comic
shop moved all the Fear Itself tie-in
trades to the discount bin, so I used that as an excuse to buy this off Amazon
(and yes grabbed a few of the tie-ins from the local store too).
The Plot: The Red
Skull’s daughter Sinn gets her hand on an Asgardian hammer that she uses to
awaken Odin’s long lost brother The Serpent. They then deploy seven more
hammers to make super powered minions to fight alongside a Nazi army in an
attack on the Earth with an ultimate goal of overthrowing Asgard.
Chapter 0 – In the wake of the latest death of the Red
Skull, Sinn and Baron Zemo are unearthing one of his old Nazi fortresses where
they find an Atlantis Necrominicon. We get a flashback to 1942 when the Red
Skull was sacrificing Atlanteans to try to utilize the book’s magic to summon a
weapon. The Invaders stumble across the carnage the next day and Namor is not
happy. The mystic mumbo jumbo leads Red Skull to Antarctica
where he finds a hammer that he and his Nazis can’t lift. The Invaders arrive
and get attacked by a frost giant. Red Skull helps it and although the Invaders
kill it, the Skull tricks the Invaders into thinking it was his weapon summoned
by the book so they never see the magic hammer, which Skull hides for future
study. Back in the present Sinn determines the location of the flashback hammer
and teleports away from Zemo so she can retrieve it alone.
Chapter 1 – Cap (Steve Rogers, currently serving commander
of SHIELD while Bucky has the Cap identity) and Sharon Carter are monitoring a
political protest that breaks out into a riot, during which Steve gets hit in
the head with a brick. In Antarctica Sinn retrieves the hammers and transforms
into a Thor-like being, and claims to be “resurrected.” Back in NYC Cap talks
to the Avengers and is disappointed the riot was entirely man-made (i.e. no
mind control, magic spells, etc). In Broxton ,
Oklahoma Rainbow
Bridge
Chapter 2 – Odin imprisons Thor and tells his warriors how
the Serpent feeds on fear and will destroy the Earth growing in power as people
feel fear and then attack and destroy Asgard. His plan to stop that is to “raze
the Earth” before the Serpent can gain his full fear power and then go to war
with him and kill him. In NYC Juggernaut picks up a hammer. These hammers don’t
just empower their hosts but also possess them into other Serpent Asgardians.
(This explains that Sinn is now the host for Skaadi, mentioned in the last
chapter). Steve deploys the Avengers to hammer sites, while Reed takes the FF
to a hammer on Yancy Street Brazil Washington
DC
Chapter 3 – Bucky-Cap, Black Widow and Falcon respond to DC
and Bucky-Cap engages Sinn in battle. In Asgard, teen-Loki frees Thor from
jail. Absorbing Man finds his hammer in Dubai
Chapter 4 – We see glimpses of chaos around the world
including Juggernaut vs. the X-men in San Francisco
and Grey Gargoyle with a hammer stacking up bodies in Paris
while the Nazi war machines arrive in New
York
Chapter 5 – Thor does okay against Thing but Hulk is getting
some big hits on him. Sinn confronts Cap and gloats about killing Bucky. Odin tells
Tony he will not risk Asgard to help Earth, to which Tony replies he doesn’t
want help, he just wants to use Odin’s workshop to build weapons to counteract
the hammers. Thing attempts to kill Thor, which causes Thor to kill Thing in
self-defense. Thor then pummels Hulk with his hammer. Cap isn’t doing well
against Sinn and then the Serpent arrives to join her. The New Avengers attack
him but he casually sweeps them away with an energy wave. Cap throws his shield
at Serpent, who catches it and breaks it in half. He follows that up with a
massive energy explosion. We cut to the heroes waking back up and Spidey wants
to leave the battle to check on his family. Meanwhile Franklin Transylvania ).
Thor then promptly passes out from the effort. Spidey leaves as Cap tells
Hawkeye “We’re going to lose.”
Chapter 6 – The Avengers tend to Thor, and Cap splits the
teams with the main team taking Thor to Asgard for magic healing and the New
Avengers overseeing the evacuation of NYC. In Asgard Odin is addressing his
troops when Cap interrupts and orders him to heal Thor. Odin feels disrespected
but does it anyway, although he teleports the Avengers away. Cap thinks the
Avengers need a plan to evacuate the Earth as the Serpent levels up again.
Spidey finds Aunt May and they share a moment before he heads off back to war.
Odin gives Thor some magic armor and the Ragnarok Sword for round 2 while Tony
and Odin’s dwarves build a bunch of magic weapons. Cap, armed with a shot gun
of all things, sets up a last stand in Oklahoma since the Serpent has to
destroy the World Tree (which is in Okla. now) for the next phase of his plan.
Chapter 7 – Cap, now armed like the Punisher, is holding
back the Serpent’s army by himself. Tony returns and hands out his magic
weapons to Spidey, Black Widow, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Hawkeye, Red
She-Hulk and Dr. Strange. The Serpent powers up again to what is presumably his
full power. The Asgardian-powered Avengers arrive to help Cap, and the citizens
of Broxton also vow their support. Thor engages the Serpent, who is now in
dragon form. The Serpent deflects Thor’s hammer when it is thrown at him and it
hits Cap, but the Ragnarok Sword draws blood. Cap meanwhile struggles to his
feet and becomes inspired by the Broxton militia showing up to help. Cap then
lifts Thor’s hammer to power up, and we can get an Avengers Assemble moment
that turns the tide against Sinn, Juggernaut and the Nazis. Thor continues to
stab the Serpent, while Hawkeye enjoys using magic arrows that don’t miss, and
Dr. Strange puts down Titania. Cap gets his chance to confront Sinn for killing
Bucky. Red She-Hulk defeats Attuma. Thor is still stabbing, while Odin prepares
to raze the Earth even the heroes seem to be doing damn well at this point.
Wolverine defeats Juggernaut. Odin and his army arrive on Earth just in time to
see Thor decapitate the Serpent, and the two fall from the sky together. With
the Serpent’s death the remaining evil hammers depart from those villains still
standing (Sinn, Absorbing Man and Grey Gargoyle). Odin clears away the rest of
the Serpent’s army, only for Thor to stagger forward and die in his arms. The
next day Odin takes Serpent’s body to the former extra-dimensional site of
Asgard for safe keeping and then seals off the Rainbow
Bridge leaving the entire Asgardian population
behind in Oklahoma
Critical Thoughts: This
is a good example of why I skip most of the big event crossovers. This story is
riddled with problems. The biggest of which is Cap’s voice is all wrong. In no
instance is that worse than Cap saying, “We’re going to lose” at the end of
chapter five. Cap is the guy who always believes “Where there’s life there’s
hope.” Heck I can think of plenty of crossovers and even regular Avengers
stories where the threats are a lot more powerful on a universal scale than a
rogue Asgardian and some leftover Nazi tech: The Beyonder, Thanos and the
Infinity Gems, Korvac, most of Grandmasters' and Immortal’s plots, Nebula with
the Infinity Union, etc. Heck in Infinity Gauntlet Cap witnesses the slaughter
of every hero on Earth under his command and still walks up to Thanos to tell
him, “As long as one man stands against you, you will never claim victory,”
which is a heck of lot more desperate a circumstance than Fear Itself, where the only casualty is Bucky—and yes I get Cap
would feel that loss keenly, but I still don’t see him losing hope over it.
Cap’s voice also comes off really wrong in chapter one. His
reaction to the Asgardians departing Earth is “the gods have abandoned us.” I
don’t buy for a second Cap sees the Asgardians as gods. (I think The Avengers film quote sums that up
nicely, “There’s only one God and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”)
Does Cap respect Thor as a warrior and friend, absolutely. Does he see him as a
“god” after decade or more of working alongside him? Highly doubtful. And no
matter how he feels about Thor, does Cap have any reason to give two sh*ts
about Odin and the rest of the Asgardians? Not that I’ve seen in decades of
stories. Hell for much of continuity Asgard has been in a separate reality from
Earth with only Thor and Enchantress have any regular crossings back and forth,
so who cares if they go home? Especially since at this point in the story the
Serpent/crisis hasn’t even reared up yet? In fact I can’t think of a single
story where the Asgardians have defended the Earth. Where were they during the
countless Kree/Skrull/alien invasions, Thanos attacks, Red Skull cosmic cube
epsidoes, Galactus and Celestial arrivals and other planet-wide crisises the
heroes have thwarted on their own? So who cares if they leave now? Especially
Cap, who in 90-percent of the above cases has personally led the
Avengers/heroes of Earth to victory? I’ll add Cap didn’t show any of this
reverence for mythological pantheons during the “Olympus War” when he took on
Zeus in physical combat without a moment’s hesitation.
Speaking of things the characters should not care about in
this story, Tony drinks to get Odin’s attention. Take everything I said about
Batman unmasking to Green Lantern in my New 52 JLA review and multiply that by
50. Sure Tony breaking his sobriety is a big deal to the reader, but give me
one logical reason Odin would remotely give a crap. It’s entirely possible
given their physiology that Asgardians don’t even have a concept of what
alcoholism is. Even if they do, Odin pummels and imprisons his own son for
questioning him in this story and then mocks him for caring about frail
insignificant mortals. So Tony making an ass of himself and not being able to
hold his liquor challenges Odin’s viewpoint on the worthlessness of man how? Odin
states several times he is willing to “raze the Earth” thus by inference
killing 6-billion people, but one man taking a drink, that he takes seriously?
Also Tony breaks his sobriety and gets drunk but then as
soon as Odin shows up he’s like let’s design and build magic weapons despite my
long-standing aversion to magic and how it works. It’s amazing how getting
drunk not only doesn’t impair Tony’s critical thinking, it actually grants him
mastery of skills he’s never had before.
I’ll also add the details of the final battle are very
vague, both in details and choreography. We as readers are never told what
Tony’s new weapons do. If it’s just a strength power-up how does that put them
on even footing with the villains, most of whom lift 100-tons without hammers? Shouldn’t
that baseline mean if the villain is enhanced and Black Widow is enhanced then
you’re back to square one and she’s still incredibly outclassed. Wolverine especially makes me say what the
hell is going on. Tony seemingly gives him uru claws and spikes that come out
of his skin. Just what the hell is Tony supposed to have built for Logan
And once we see how the final battle unfolds, you have to
ask, Why is Odin so scared of the Serpent? He defeated him once before when he
imprisoned him. He gives Thor the sword that defeats him this time, so
apparently he’s had it in his possession all along. The Serpent’s big move is
to morph into a giant snake (which if that is his true form then how are Odin
and him brothers?) which is more or less the same thing every major Thor
villain does that he and the Warriors of Asgard fight every 50 issues—the
Midgard Serpent and Seth are the two most obvious Thor examples, and you can
probably throw Set in their too. Yes, it is implied Odin fears Thor’s death
more than the destruction of Asgard and Earth based on this prophecy; but both
Odin and Thor have died more times than I can count so that’s still a fairly
weak motivation.
As a Cap fan this is a real uneven crossover as it is really
just a glorified Thor story, and Cap’s involvement is less than secondary,
which isn’t what the advertising made it look like. I mean sure one of Cap’s
villains in Sinn gets the first hammer, but then she gets possessed by Skaadi
so who cares. It could be anyone wielding that hammer, for all the difference
it makes. Then he doesn’t even get to take her down and avenge Bucky in the
final battle. She’s just someone Odin casually clears away after Thor falls
alongside rabble like Attuma. That just fails narrative 101: you have two major
heroes and two major villains in this story, and when you pair them off for the
grand battle, you don’t let each hero triumph individually over their own
villain? Heck if this crossover was
designed to tie-in to the movies of those heroes why not just resurrect the Red
Skull for the 42nd time from whatever he died of this week and use
Cap’s actual nemesis instead of his daughter. Because the idea of the Red Skull
with Thor-like power is a lot more interesting than Sinn gets possessed and
teams up with a new character that will likely never be seen again.
I also want to say this story pokes holes in Marvel’s stated
crossover policy that a reader can buy just the main title and skip the tie-ins
and still get the full story. Because on that level the other hammers do
nothing. Absorbing Man and Titania grab a hammer and we never see them again
until the last three pages; ditto really everyone but Hulk and Thing who have
the fight with Thor.
I could keep going as this story is just cloaked in fail.
Who cares if the Avengers rebuild Asgard? I mean I can see how it’s a nice
gesture by Tony and Steve for Thor’s sake, but Tony insists this will inspire
the public. If am John Q. Public, why does the rebuilding of some mythic city
that’s already been floating over bumblefuck Oklahoma
Then there is the Spider-man subplot. Why is it here? How is
it good to have your franchise character leave the fight and be the first hero to
accept the so-called inevitable defeat? Is he really the only hero with friends
and family to check on? How is he able to find Aunt May by swinging around
screaming her name during the evacuation of the 8 million people in New York
Why does Odin melt the weapons Tony built down? Even if he
doesn’t want to let the Avengers keep them, doesn’t he think maybe these would
be nice to keep in a vault for his own soldiers the next time Surtur or whoever
raids Asgard. In fact like most crossovers this story is remarkably consequence
free. NYC and Washington DC Franklin
I’ll end my criticism by noting the story is filled with
snippets of conversation about real world issues, which is meant to somehow be
pithy and tie in to the mass fear thing but like most of the writing here
completely fails.
So do I have any positives? I liked seeing Cap go to town
with Thor’s hammer. Tom Defalco showed Cap could lift the hammer over two
decades ago, so it seemed like a big story where that comes into play for the
finale has been a long time coming, as it is a natural strategic surprise Cap
and Thor could pull off in a crisis. Unfortunately this story doesn’t deliver
what I’d want from that scene as not only does Cap with the hammer not win the
day, he doesn’t even beat the secondary villain Sinn on his own. In a related
positive note: the art, particularly the splash pages, look nice—none better
than when Cap lifts the hammer. Bucky’s death is also dramatically done. Sinn
rips off his arm and beats him with it. That’s something you hear in action
movies as a threat all the time but never actually see realized. I also liked
the prologue a lot probably because it was written by Ed Brubaker and not
Fraction, and thus tonally comes off a lot better than anything that follows.
Grade: E
Comments
Post a Comment