Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Beware, Fear Itself #4 spoilers ahead!!!

Yep, I posted my review for Fear Itself #4 earlier, which you can find here, but just like I did with the last issue, I wanted to dedicate a full post to the events that occurred in Fear Itself #4. So let's dig into FI #4 and see what we can find. As stated in the title of the post, there WILL be spoilers, so read on at your own risk! Okay, if we're going to talk about Fear Itself #4, then I think the best place to start is with the fate of Bucky... In this issue we find out that Bucky is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, dead. Killed by Sin. Now, I know Matt Fraction has it in his head that if Bucky was going to die he should die at the hands of the Red Skull, but come on, who REALLY considers Sin to be the REAL Red Skull? I mean yes, she took the name, but to me, and I'm sure many others, she is NOT the Red Skull. So yeah, since Bucky is dead, I hold Marvel, Matt Fraction and yes, even Ed Brubaker responsible, because he SHOULD have told Marvel, “Hell no you can't kill Bucky! Have you seen the awesome work I put into developing that character?!” Now yes, I am infuriated about Bucky's death, but, and call mean a naive dreamer, I'm STILL, even after this issue, holding out hope that this isn't the end of Bucky... Maybe at the end of Fear Itself when the Serpent is defeated Odin can do the right thing and undo some of the Serpent's damage? Maybe he could bring Bucky back from the dead? I mean he is Odin, a GOD, if anybody can do it, Odin can. So Odin, I shall be praying that you do the right thing here! It would be REALLY easy to change the title of that “Captain America and Bucky” series to simply “Bucky”...

Okay, the next big revelation from this comic was the reveal that the Serpent was actually Odin's brother. Not only that, but the Serpent(who I'm not sure we can really believe, all things considered) states that HE was the rightful king of Asgard, and that Odin the Usurper took it all away from him, imprisoned him and rewrote the world in Odin's image. The Serpent continues, telling Thor that if Odin kept THIS a secret for thousands of years, who knows what else he hid from Thor and the other Asgardians. Since, in the Serpent's mind, Odin is the bad guy here, he asks Thor to join with him so that together they could take Odin to task for his various falsehoods and transgressions. Naturally, Thor turns down that offer, since the Serpent was basically wrecking the Earth to build an army against Odin, so the Serpent teleports Thor to the Thing, who took down the Red Hulk, and the Hulk, who is the Hulk, figuring those two behemoths would deal with Thor, thus helping the Serpent avoid the prophesy concerning his death at Thor's hands. Okay, lot's to go through there. All of the Serpent's words were pretty interesting, and with the way Odin has been acting as of late(like an ass), that seems to give more credence to the Serpent's words. However, with a name like “The Serpent”, his classic, stereotypical super-villain look, and the fact that he's been allowing his forces to run roughshod over the Earth, it's hard to believe anything he says. To me, it seems more likely that the Serpent MAY have been the initial king of Asgard, but was too evil/corrupt/whatever, and as such was taken down by Odin and locked away. The fact that he sends Thor to what could be his death at the hands of his most powerful minions, also doesn't exactly help the Serpent's case that he was the wronged party here.

We also get Steve Rogers putting the Captain America uniform back on so he could lead the shell-shocked Avengers in the field of battle. With Steve playing Cap again, it would also appear that Nick Fury will be taking back Steve's position as Director of SHIELD. I have NO problem with either of those moves, since with the Captain America movie coming to theaters in a few weeks, you KNEW that Steve would become Cap again, because apparently, at least in the eyes of Marvel, comic fans are SO stupid that they wouldn't be able to understand that there was a Captain America out there who wasn't Steve, since Steve was Cap in the movie... It would be nice if comic companies realized that fans aren't THAT dumb... Hell, if memory serves me right, when the Dark Knight was released in theaters, Dick Grayson was Batman in the comics, not Bruce Wayne, and the sale of Batman books remained as strong as ever! I COULD be mistaken there, but I think my timing is right.

The last big shocker from this issue was Iron Man demanding an audience with Odin. Being a man of science, Tony Stark doesn't exactly believe in the whole, “Odin is a GOD!” thing, but in order to try to save his planet, he knows that he needed Odin's help. In order to gain Odin's attention, Tony drops to his knees and gives Odin a sacrifice... The one thing that meant more to him than anything else, his sobriety, as he downs a bottle of champaign. Odin, being the smug bastard that he is, then reveals himself to Tony, telling Tony that he was now listening. What more can I say about this scene? I guess in a way it bothers me because Tony's sobriety has always been so important to him, and no matter the threat(like in Iron Age #1), he's managed to keep himself away from the bottle. But in another way, Tony giving up the thing that meant so much to him in order to gain an audience with Odin, shows just how desperate times have become. It also keeps Odin looking VERY unlikable, which let's us fans continue to wonder if MAYBE he really did screw over his own brother for power...

So there you have it, an in depth, spoilerific look at Fear Itself #4. While the fact that Bucky is definitely dead here DID hurt my enjoyment of this issue a lot, like I said earlier, I'm still hopeful Bucky's death can be reversed. I mean hell, if he came back after being dead for like 60 some odd years, he can come back from this, right?? Thanks for reading, and if you feel like discussing anything related to this issue, feel free to post a comment. Well, until next time, X out.

10 comments:

  1. Nice run-down of this issue, X! Like I said in my comment on your review, I agree that killing off Bucky is a pretty dumb decision. Plus, if it was going to happen, Brubaker definitely should have been the one to write the story. But like you said, hopefully they'll find a way for Odin to resurrect him or for the chaos caused by Sin and the Serpent to be reversed somehow at the end of the miniseries.

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  2. I actually read an interview from Fraction where he said he was surprised that Brubaker allowed him the honor of killing Bucky in this series... But totally agreed. If this really WAS the end of Bucky, it's a CRIME that it wasn't Brubaker who wrote Bucky's final scene. Still, I'm holding out hope... I guess we'll see in a few months. I mean by the time FI ends, the Cap movie won't even be in theaters anymore, so reintroducing Bucky then would make perfect sense! Right?? I hope!! Odin fixing everything up would be a GREAT way to redeem the character... Just sayin'!

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  3. Will Bucky be back after the reboot? Wait...that's DC.

    So if I am only reading Cap and NOT this "mini-series" will I be totally lost? I have about 5 issues down on my desk to read....I think the last one I read was the trial ending....

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  4. I'm wondering about the same thing, Mock, and that's what makes me believe (or maybe "hope" would be a better word) that this isn't the end for Bucky. Brubaker's run has been pretty self-contained in the sense that you don't NEED to read anything else to get it. Even when Steve was shot, it wasn't like you had to have read the main Civil War series to understand what was going on, just the tie-in issues that Brubaker himself wrote. Having something major like this happen outside of the main Captain America book just seems like it would be pretty out-of-character for Brubaker.

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  5. Why thank you Marvel! another body thrown in the trash, I really LOVE to see characters being slaughtered left & right, it makes me keep reading your books. same to you DC...
    Now if you excuse me I'll go back to my fanon...

    Saidi

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  6. Without giving away too much spoiler-wise, Mock, in the most recent issue of Captain America(the issue before it changes over "Captain America and Bucky"), there is ONE line at the VERY end of the comic that kind of/sort of makes reference to what happened in Fear Itself... The fact that Brubaker acknowledged it, in a way, does have me a bit worried... With the movie coming out, Marvel is releasing a new Captain America series(of course...), and turning the current Cap series that we know and love into a WWII flashback comic, so I really don't know what the future has in store for poor Bucky. I know what I hope, but I just don't know... I still don't get why Marvel couldn't just change Bucky's name, give him a new series, or let him have a back-up feature in the Captain America series(like Nomad), while giving Steve back the Cap mantle. Maybe Brubaker didn't want to see anybody else work with Bucky? I honestly can't make sense of it.

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  7. Hey man, I came across this blog a while ago and rarely read your new reviews because i'm caught up reading abut the back issue stuff you have lol. Anyway I am a big comics fan also and feel that we sometimes have the same taste and appreciate the same things. With that said I completley agree with the bucky thing. I feel that the worst thing about it is that his death was so underwhelming.. After such an intense and great run in the cap books he at least deserved a very memorable death!
    -In the preview issues for captain america relaunch #1 they are at a funeral, presumably bukcy's. The only thing that i am really hoping for is an intense flashback scene of FI #3 with more of a bucky centric dialogue/monologue. I feel that with it being written by brubaker and drawn by mcniven, that it could at least add something to the shambled death scene. I too hold out hope that bucky will survive in some way. WIth all of the magic and science going on in fear itself it seems possible that he could make an eic return but i am doubtful.
    -I have one issue with this book however. Cap, Steve Rogers, The dream, The star spangled leader of the avengers, returns in costume (though no mask, which i think they are saving for the real "return")and no one, NO ONE, not a single avenger, not fury, no one seems to react. NO "cap is back!" not even a monlogue from stark about how he is taking control of the situation. I LOVED the splash page of Cap simply saying he's ready. But cap yelling avengers assemble for the first time in uniform in years gets a tiny 3rd panel on page! c'mon! haha.
    -I am excited for cap and bucky stories from ww2 because i love them. Anyway sorry for the long comment. Enjoy the rest of your books! i know i will.

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  8. Thanks for the kind words, Cap. I think that's what's bothering SO many people who read and loved Brubaker's Captain America run... Bucky's death was so... underwhelming... I mean he confronts Sin, she pulls off his arm, stabs him and bam, he lays there and dies... He at least deserved dying a BIG death where he was saving the world or something! You know, maybe he sacrifices himself in the last FI issue or something. Even the scene in this issue of FI bothered me because Bucky's on a slab, and Nick Fury's like, "Oh well, Bucky's dead... Moving on..." while everybody else(Steve Rogers, Black Widow), just seem emotionless... Like you said, if this really is the end, here's hoping Brubaker does an issue somewhere, even a one-shot where he can give us one last Bucky tale, with BW's and Steve's feelings on what happened. Maybe a look at Bucky's last will and testament or something.

    Yeah, Steve's low key return to the Captain America mantle was kind of weird too. He just kind of suits up and heads out to New York. I guess nobody wanted to act too excited since Bucky was dead and it could have seemed inappropriate, but yeah, you'd think Cap's return after however many years it's been since his return from the timestream would have garnered more of an emotional response. And again, agreed about the new Cap/Bucky series. I've always enjoyed Brubaker's WWII flashbacks, and since this may be the only place to see Bucky, that in and of it's self makes it worthwhile. As you can see, the length of your comment is no problem, because I love to talk comics too! So thanks for taking the time to comment!

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  9. Hey, I just found your blog and wanted to compliment you on the great reviews. (We agree on a lot of stuff, so obviously I think it's an awesome blog!) It's been three months, and I'm STILL angry they killed off Bucky in "Fear Itself" and not "Captain America."

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  10. Thanks for the compliment, JW! Always glad to hear from somebody with similar viewpoints! There's less arguments that way! :P

    Agreed 1000% with Bucky... There's NO way he should have died in Fear Itself... IF Bucky had to go(and I STILL say he could have made a great US Agent/Nomad-type character), it should have been in Cap, and it DEFINITELY should have been at the hands of Brubaker.

    Now I don't know how you feel about spoilers and stuff, but somebody sent me this link earlier today... http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?disp=img&pid=1318014462
    If you do give it a look, let me know what you think of it...

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