Sunday, May 15, 2011

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #1 & Journey Into Mystery #623

First up for today are two Marvel books, both Fear Itself crossover issues. Thus far I've been very high on the Fear Itself event... Will the era of good feelings continue here at the old blog? Read on and find out!

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #1(of 6):

Summary: This issue gets started with Prodigy(of Slingers fame!) being asked by Steve Rogers to get a group of younger heroes together to keep the peace while the Avengers were occupied with the events of Fear Itself. To the end Prodigy pulls together a bunch of heroes who had been serving in the Initiative, as well as Firestar, who joined to support Gravity, who wasn't sure if he should bother. From there Prodigy splits the multitude of heroes into smaller groups and dispatches them across the country, where they break up various riots and criminal activities that have been spurred by the Serpent's arrival on Earth. During a riot in Atlanta, Thor Girl, Ultra Girl and a few other heroes arrive to try to calm things down. Unfortunately, the arrival spooks the crowd more since Sin's attack on the White House had just become public, and upon seeing Thor Girl's hammer, the crowd thought Thor Girl was one of the Serpent's marauders. This issue ends with the panicked crowd trying to get at Thor Girl, endangering themselves and Thor Girl's teammates in the process.

Thoughts: Wow, this issue was great! I've always been a sucker for b-list Marvel heroes, and this comic had PLENTY of them! Hardball was here, which means this comic was going to get at least a 7 for a score from me(due to the Hardball Rule), but the great story helped boost the final score up way higher than a 7. For a regular sized comic, Sean McKeever was able to get A LOT of characters face time in this one, as well as some little moments of character development(Prodigy, Ultra Girl & Thor Girl, Firestar & Gravity, Komodo & Hardball, etc). On top of all that, the comic read like a breeze. By the time I got to the back cover I was already eagerly anticipating the next issue. If ALL of the Fear Itself tie-ins turn out like this one, I'm going to be one VERY happy comic book collector!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.You know the rules... Add Hardball to any comic to make it better!


Journey Into Mystery #623:

Summary: As he continues to prepare for his eventual war with the Serpent, Odin brings the massive Hel Wolf to Asgard, disturbing many Asgardians, including the young Loki. Loki voices his disapproval of Odin's recent actions to a fellow Asgardian, who agrees, but then tries to slit Loki's throat since most Asgardians still blamed Loki for the fall of Asgard during Siege. Volstagg interrupts the attempted murder and ferries Loki away from the gathered crowd. Volstagg takes Loki to Thor's pet goats, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, and while Loki cleans up after the goats, Volstagg relates the tale of how Thor wound up with the goats(at the urging of Loki, a youthful Thor used a magic bridle to break the rambunctious goats). Telling the tale makes Volstagg thirsty, at which point he leaves to get some mead. With Volstagg out of sight, Loki summons Ikol, the bird with his older self's knowledge. Loki inquires as to who this Serpent character was, to which Ikol tells Loki to go to the World Tree and ask the three wise women who were there. Loki does just that and returns from the trip very disturbed by whatever it was he was told. From there Loki visits Thor for some advice, before heading to the cell that was holding the Hel Wolf. Loki lets the Hel Wolf out, but wraps it in the magic bridle Thor had used years earlier to break his goats. After a while, Loki manages to break the Hel Wolf, and this issue ends with Loki telling the Hel Wolf that they'd be heading to Hel.

Thoughts: I'm still extremely intrigued by this story. There are still big holes as to what's going on, such as what Loki learned from the wise women, but I find myself enamored by the story... I really like Kid Loki, and have to say, the story and artwork here are doing a great job of keeping me interested. This is another Marvel book that I find myself looking forward to every month.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yes, the top panel with Loki taunting while riding the Hel Wolf made me laugh.

8 comments:

  1. who's the chick with the THOR like costume? she looks pretty cool. speaking of THOR i saw it yesterday it was good. a solid 3 out of 4 stars i give it. among other things the movie was cast well but the dude who played Loki was perfect.
    by the way Nate is that FF#3 review comin up soon today? your not trying to keep me in suspense are you?

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  2. Hey man cool review
    on the loki stuff im almost positive the 3 wise women refered to in the book are the 3 norns or The Fates witch appeared in Thor dissasembled and the issues of dark wolverine tieing in to seige
    if anyone besides odin would remember the serpent and the horror revolved around him it would be the fates and personly i cant see how thats a plot hole that they didnt tell us what loki was told just that we realize it was horrible if it was enough to saden loki so and we will find out the serpents origins and past with odin in the main fear itself
    one last thing in a pervious conversation u said u where geting all the fear itself tieins CEPT the spiderman series Why just curious it looked cool to me

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  3. http://www.comicvine.com/norns/29-31603/

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  4. That would be Thor Girl, Dave. I think she's an alien or something... It's been a while since I read up on her though, so who knows if Marvel's changed her origin since then! Good to hear about the Thor movie. The mainstream media wasn't very kind to it but so far I've only heard good things about it from comic fans, and those are the opinions I'd listen to anyway. That review is the very next thing I'll be posting today actually! It should be up pretty soon...

    Yeah, you're right, Movieartman. I'm pretty sure somebody(Ikol perhaps?) refers to them as Norn women(or something similar), so there you go. I know we'll eventually find out the Serpent's origin, but I'm just not a very patient person! :P I was hoping we'd get at least a hint of who/what he is, Loki's ramblings didn't really shed much light on things. As for the Fear Itself: Spidey book, I can't stand the writer, so I refuse to buy that mini. If it was written by ANYBODY else, I'd buy it, but sadly, I'm out of luck!

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  5. Woooo, Gravity!!! You KNOW I'm going to have to read that comic now. :)

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  6. Yep, with Sean McKeever writing this, you KNOW Gravity is going to get some serious face time. Hopefully they'll stop teasing a relationship between Gravity and Firestar and just go with it already! This issue was loaded with Marvel's b-list characters, making it a pure joy for me to read!

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  7. I'd be down with Gravity and Firestar getting together. It's easy to think of her as being way older than him since she's been in the comics a lot longer, but actually, I think they're pretty close to around the same age. A part of me has always hoped he would get back with that girl from the original Gravity miniseries, but I can understand Marvel wanting to hook him up with another superhero.

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  8. They're both in college in the Young Allies, so at the most she's probably got three years on him, but it's a good fit... At least until Firestar cheats on him...

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