Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Beware, Fear Itself #5 spoilers ahead!!!

Since I'm pretty sure Fear Itself #5 and Ultimate Fallout #5 will be the most talked about comics of the week, I'm going to do a solo post on Fear Itself now, and a duel post featuring Ultimate Fallout #5 and New Mutants #29 for tonight. Okay, with that taken care of, let's hit the Fear Itself review! As always, this review will be FULL of spoilers, so if that bothers you, turn back now!!

Fear Itself #5(of 7):

Summary: We kick off the festivities with Thor being attacked by two of the strongest members of the Worthy, Thing and the Hulk... Yep, it sucks to be Thor. From there we head to New York where Captain America(Steve Rogers) is battling Sin, before finally heading to the remains of Asgard where Tony Stark is asking Odin to use Odin's workshop to create weapons to combat the Serpent's Worthy. I'm going to skip over the Iron Man stuff, since it was covered in greater detail in the last issue of Invincible Iron Man. Back with Thor, realizing that he was in a life or death situation, and that he'd be overwhelmed by the foes he was facing, he tries to get through to Thing, begging him to fight off the Serpent's influence. When Thing proves unable to do so, Thor reluctantly sends his hammer THROUGH Thing's torso(!!), felling Thing and allowing Thor to concentrate solely on the Hulk. The two children of the Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman(Franklin and Valeria) head to their fallen uncle, who tells them that after all of the awful things he'd done, he was ready to face death. Franklin isn't ready to allow it though, as he uses his reality altering powers to heal Thing as well as free him from the Serpent's influence(!). Back to Thor and Hulk, Thor realizes that he's no match for the Hulk, so he hits Hulk with all of his might, sending the Green Goliath high into Earth's orbit, before Hulk comes crashing back down to the planet elsewhere. Completely spent, Thor then collapses to the ground. To finish things off, we'll head back to Cap's battle with Sin. Cap decides to attack Sin in a frontal assault(because that worked SO well for Bucky), and gets smacked around a bit. Before Sin can finish off her second Captain America of this mini-series, the Serpent lands in New York, much to the delight of Sin. The Serpent compliments Sin on all of the havoc she had wrought in his name, declaring that the Earth was now his. Luckily for Cap, the Avengers charge over and attack the Serpent, but are easily brushed aside like bothersome insects. Relatively pissed off by the whole situation, Cap throws his shield at the Serpent, who proceeds to rip it in half(!?!?!). While Cap stares dumbfounded, the Serpent lifts his ax and sends out a massive wave of energy, destroying buildings, as well as knocking the Avengers out cold. Upon waking up, Spidey tells Cap that it was probably time to evacuate the city, since there was no hope in winning. Cap surprisingly(inexplicably?) agrees with Spidey and this issue ends with Cap telling the Avengers there was no way they could win the battle against the Serpent.

Thoughts: So a few things of note happened here. The Thing was nearly killed by Thor, but was healed by Franklin Richards. Not only was Franklin able to heal Thing, he was also able to free him from the Serpent's influence... Now that's kind of a problem because it means that Franklin is as strong as the Serpent(a god)... If Franklin can cure Thing, then there's NO reason he shouldn't be able to free the rest of the Worthy from the Serpent's thrall, as well as undo all of the Serpent's damage(ie: return Bucky to life). As a matter of fact, if Franklin does anything less, I'll be quite pissed. There's a good reason Marvel downgraded Franklin's powers after the Heroes Reborn fiasco, throughout the 90's he had become TOO strong. Allowing him to do what Odin couldn't/wouldn't(stand against the Serpent), may be a mistake in my view... Speaking of mistakes, the Serpent destroying Cap's shield. While making for a great visual, and a real, “holy shit!!!” moment, is awful. I mean Cap's shield has been indestructible for YEARS!!! It's withstood everything and anything that's been thrown it's way. Onslaught, Thor's hammer, the Hulk, you name it, Cap's shield withstood it. Allowing the Serpent to destroy Cap's shield is, for me at least, a completely unneeded, and terrible move. We already KNOW the Serpent is really powerful. Destroying Cap's shield doesn't do anything to add to that. We already KNOW the Serpent is uber-powerful. The destruction of Cap's shield, as well as Cap giving up at the end of this issue were definitely the two lowest points of this issue for me. Captain America, announcing that the Avengers were going to lose, seemed wildly out of character to me. Cap has faced down a who's who of threats in the Marvel Universe, from common Nazis to super-powered demigods. Hell, he went toe-to-toe with Michael Korvac, who, it could be argued, was more powerful than the Serpent! He didn't back down then, so I can't fathom him backing down now. Cap doesn't strike me as the defeatist type, so I'm not sure what the hell Matt Fraction was doing there. Now, with all that said, I really enjoyed this issue. Yeah, I know, I just spent MANY sentences spelling out what I didn't like, but this WAS a very good comic. The pacing was fantastic, as I flew through reading this issue. It just went seamlessly from one storyline to the other, with the threat continuing to build throughout. Cap facing Sin one-on-one, while stupid for Cap, made sense, since he was obviously furious about Bucky's death and therefore probably wasn't thinking straight. The battle between Thor, Hulk and Thing was phenomenal, with the art perfectly complimenting the story. These were three of Marvel's top heavyweights going at it, and it felt that way. Their fight had that epic feel to it. The Iron Man stuff wasn't really worth mentioning, because like I said, it already took place in Invincible Iron Man, so you already know what Odin's answer to Tony was. Overall this was a very good comic, better than almost anything else I'll read this week(I'd have to think), but there were too many parts that outright bothered me to call it a great comic.

Score: 9 out of 10.I have three words to describe this scene... Bull and shit!

7 comments:

  1. .......... that is bullshit
    but if u had been reading the ultimate universe ud be used to it cus caps sheild's been shattered twice in 2 recent storylines in the ultimateverse the first time seemed epic and holy shit but the second was pointless and meh
    this................ i dont know how to feel on the matter
    also whats Fear Itself: Fellowship of Fear #1 about? i havent heard seen anything abouts it

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  2. Yeah, I mean in the Ultimate Universe, Adamantium isn't as indestructible in the mainstream Marvel U, so I'd be okay-ish with the Cap shield thing there, but in the mainstream Marvel U? Nope. Hated that part. That definitely bugged me. The Serpent was already shown as a huge menace, the shield breaking was just unnecessary, and as a HUGE Cap fan? I hated it. A lot!

    I only flipped through that Fellowship of Fear comic, Movieartman, so I don't know for sure, but it looks like D'Spayre recapping events that happened in the Marvel Universe from Heroes Reborn until Fear Itself, as well as a few profiles and stats for some random characters and storylines. I'm not sure if I'll even review it since it's a recap book with some handbook stats thrown in.

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  3. Hmm...wasn't Cap's shield destroyed once before by the Beyonder during Secret Wars and he "willed" it back together while on that world?

    I will have to check this particular issue out however and see what all the B.S. is about. Heh.

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  4. one last thing yes cap reatreating is a bit out of character but u must remember he is a soilder and soilders know when they are out classed if this really was the final end game cap wouldnt have stopped But remember he is aware of starks plan to make god level weapons
    and whats the point of that if there is no one left to use the weapons cus there dead dew to cap not alowing them too retreat and regroup

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  5. I believe you are correct, MonkeyBrains... Wasn't it Klaw, or a Beyonder possessed Klaw, or maybe omnipotent Doom who somehow broke/fractured/cracked Cap's shield? It's been years since I last read that series, so I may be off... That's something that could use a reread... It didn't really stick with me though because it happened on Battleworld, and right or wrong, the stuff that happened there didn't seem "real" if that makes any sense. Maybe Battleworld had different physics(or something) than regular earth? The stuff with the Serpent though happened on earth, which does piss me off a bit, especially since it's not like the Serpent merely cracked the shield, he SHATTERED it like it was a cheap frisbee!

    Yeah, I hear you on that, Movieartman. I think it was more the choice of words that Cap used on that final page. He wasn't like, "Let's regroup and strike again..." he was like, "We can't win..." I guess it could be an aspect of the whole "fear effect" that the Serpent is giving off that has Cap fearful and/or doubting himself, but it just seemed horribly out of character for Cap to be that defeated...

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  6. 3 things about fear itself # 5:

    1. Cap's shield has bee shattered a few times in the 616 for various different reasons. I think the molecule man messed with the molecules in it and shifted it or something causing it to shatter. Also i could be wrong because infinity gauntlet is another one that could use a re-read but i think thanos destroyed it there too. However, with all of that being said breaking the shiled WAS being used for a holy crap effect. I feel that it was completley unnecessary like you mentioned. Just a "oh man this dude is crazy" moment.

    2. I feel that cap was out of character this entire issue. Like Fraction could not find a voice for him. There were parts where i was like what? ESPECIALLY the end. Cap stands up to THANOS WITH the infinty gems! and thanos even quote: Admires his bravery and courage in the IG series. So with that being said Cap HAS to be feeling the fear effects that everyone else is seeing or fraction just doesn't know captain america! with those being said i completley agree that this was an enjoyable issue and has been a very good comic event so far.
    -I like the Franklin RIchards angle but i don't at the same time. It's nice to see him use his powers again, but breaking the worthy free is a bit much. I'm thinking that maybe because Ben was so injured and already talking to Franklin through the serpents powers that maybe he was JUST vulnerable/weak enough to reverse te spell? Idk. I do know though that with 2 issues and not just ONE remaining that we are in for some throw downs and character struggle/development. Here's to hoping Cap gets a "god-weapon" in the form of a shield powered by odin! I can dream!!

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  7. Yeah, I think you're right about Cap's shield, Cap(well that sounds kind of confusing!). I could see Thanos breaking it, but still, it just didn't seem necessary here. It's not like the Serpent needed to be established as a huge threat, he already is! The Infinity Gauntlet is another story that you KNEW everything had to be fixed by the end, so the shield breaking wouldn't seem that bad.

    You know what's funny? My sister said the EXACT same thing to me earlier today when I spoke to her about this comic. I voiced my complaints and she said the thing that bugged her the most was how out of character Cap "sounded".

    On the Franklin thing, my sister made a good point on that too(she was on a roll!). If Franklin could heal Ben from a nearly fatal wound, why the hell is poor Johnny still dead?! Couldn't Franklin just blink his eyes really hard and bam, Johnny's back? I think Fraction made a huge mistake with the Franklin thing and painted himself into a corner. We all know that Iron Man is going to be responsible for the Serpent's ultimate downfall with the weapons he's creating(along with Thor and possibly Odin), so the addition of Franklin here seems... idk, just weird and off. Like he didn't need to be added.

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