Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Fear Itself #7! Spoilers, thoughts and more!

Well, before I do a single thing today, play Arkham City, continue the job search, eat, there's one thing that MUST get done... And that would be reading Fear Itself #7. In my opinion, Fear Itself has been one of Marvel's stronger events in recent memory, so yeah, I'm pretty excited to see how it ends... Sort of... Since Marvel has already announced three extra Fear Itself issues(7.1-7.3) as well as The Fearless, a twelve issue maxi-series that spins out of Fear Itself, it looks like the Fear Itself festivities will be continuing going forward. So while the Serpent will almost definitely be taken down in this issue, there's A LOT of fallout that should be felt through the Marvel U from Fear Itself going forward. Here's hoping that fallout makes for some great stories. And now, without further ado......

Fear Itself #7(of 7):

Summary: Okay, lots to go through as this was actually a $5 comic that was well worth the price. We begin with Captain America(the original and sadly the only) standing his ground near Broxton, Oklahoma, while the Serpent and most of his Worthy(Hulk was freed in Fear Itself: Hulk vs Dracula #3) slowly approach the location of fallen Asgard and the World Tree. However, Iron Man emerges at the World Tree site and hands out the 8 enchanted weapons(well, 10 if you count Iron Man's armor and Thor's additional armament) Odin gave him to attempt to stop the Serpent before Odin and the hordes of Asgard had to step in and destroy the Earth to stop the Serpent's march. The enchanted Avengers, The Mighty, charge to Cap's aid and engage the Worthy, while Thor himself makes a beeline for the Serpent, even though Thor knew that he was prophesied to fall with the Serpent if they were to battle each other. Thor throws his hammer at the Serpent, but it is deflected away, so he attacks the Serpent's with the Odinsword instead. As for the hammer, it falls near Cap, who picks it up(!!!!!) and rallies the Avengers. As these events are going on, around the globe the citizens of the planet are slowly breaking free of the fear effect the Serpent had been plaguing the planet with and are helping their fellow man, thus weakening the Serpent's powers even more. The battle rages with the heroes slowly gaining a tentative advantage, but Odin can't wait any longer and rallies his own troops and begins to march to the Earth to raze the planet and kill his evil brother. As Odin enters the Earth from Asgard, he watches as Thor thrusts the Odinsword deep into the Serpent's head, killing him. With the Serpent dead, all of the Serpent's mystical hammers abandon the Serpent's Worthy, turning them back to regular flash and blood villains. Villains who were no match for the still god-powered heroes. As for Thor, as prophesied, he falls at the feet of his father, seemingly dead(!!). And that's that. A few days later Thor is laid to rest in the remains of fallen Asgard in Broxton, where Earth's heroes are preparing a funeral pyre for him. Before the pyre is lit, Odin takes the corpse of his brother to Asgard to stand guard over it forevermore, and apparently leaves the rest of the Asgardians on Earth at the site of fallen Asgard. From there the days roll along and Bucky is buried(.....), Tony Stark heads back to his dwarf friends and the dwarfs recreate Captain America's shield, this time mixing it with some Uru, making it stronger than ever, although there is a slight scar in the shield. Stark gives the shield to Cap, who is pleased with the new shield, and feels that the scar gives the shield a bit of character. With that, Cap promises the Avengers that they would rebuild, and the planet slowly begins to get back to normal... And that ends the main part of this event. However, there are several epilogues here, and I'll hit on each of them in rapid fashion. First, Sin is freed from captivity by some weird looking freaks, and Sin realizes that although she lost her god-like powers, she still remembered all she had learned as Skadi(the World Tree, the hammers of power, etc)... The Hulk, tired of being used, and doubly tired of Bruce Banner's constant whining, separates from Banner, leaving them as two separate beings, a feat that leaves Banner shocked and angered... Something about Marcus Johnson being the most wanted man in the world(don't ask me what that means!)... And finally the Hulk realizing that when he broke his Serpent hammer, he released Nul, the Breaker of Worlds and gave him physical form. Not being able to let Nul roam free, Hulk heads to Dr. Strange to tell him that the Defenders were needed once again...

Thoughts: Well, that's that. There really wasn't much NOT to like here. The final battle was powerfully drawn, and well written. Cap picking up and using Thor's hammer was awesome in so many ways. Cap getting the new shield and wanting to leave the scar on it makes sense since Cap himself is scarred from the events of this mini-series. Thor's death? I'm not sold on it since Thor is a major part of the upcoming Avengers movie coming out next Spring, as well as the fact that he still, you know, has a solo series... So I'm not expecting Thor's “death” to really stand for long. I liked Odin heading to Asgard space and locking the portal behind him to watch over his brother to make sure no more evil would come from him. The Asgardians on Earth? Been there, done that. So I'm not too keen on that. I will say I am a bit pissed that Sin survived this, because nothing would have felt better than to read Sin dying at Cap's hands to end this one. But I guess Marvel thinks she's worth more alive than dead, but after what happened to Bucky, I almost needed to see her die here... But hey, there's always later on down the road, right? That's probably the best thing about this event. There IS more to come. The multiple epilogues, for the most part, they look really interesting going forward. Hell, I actually want buy a HULK comic for the first time in my life! How crazy is that! So overall, this event did some things wrong(Bucky's death), but did many more things right. And for that, and this very strong final issue, I'm going to give this comic, deserving or not, a score of.....

Score: 10 out of 10.Oh hell yeah!!!

16 comments:

  1. wow!
    oh it deserved it :)

    oh the marcus johnson thing will be handled in the 2nd fear itself epologue book Battle Scars (6 issues)
    and dont forget there is also
    fear itself #7.1 (deals with cap)
    fear itself #7.2 (deals with thor)
    fear itself #7.3 (deals with stark)

    ReplyDelete
  2. i saw someone post
    "Fear Itself is Worst Comic Book Event in the History of Comics"

    i really just dont know how people think anymore

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh here is somthing of interest
    http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35017

    ReplyDelete
  4. Movieartman, one thing I've learned from doing this whole blog thing for nearly 4 years is that some people have strange opinions... And yes, I can be one of those people at times! :P But this? Fear Itself? It was the best Marvel event since...... Maybe the beginning of Civil War, and probably the most satisfying event from start to finish since like the Age of Apocalypse! Seriously, the "worst" event? Whoever wrote that must not have read Secret Invasion, Final Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Brightest Day, and several others... For me? Fear Itself felt epic throughout, and even though there was some stuff I didn't like(BUCKY!), I'll stand by my perfect score here. This was epic.

    Hmm, I don't know about that team... I mean I like Venom, but I'm not overly fond of the rest of those characters. But who knows. I never thought I'd be looking forward to a Hulk series, and yet I'll be adding the new Hulk comic next week(Defenders too), so maybe by the time that event occurs, I'll be psyched for that too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, and I also made sure to tell the owner of the comic shop I go to that I want all of the 7. issues of Fear Itself, the Fearless AND Battle Scars, so I'm all set! I also added that Point One that you mentioned to me before.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OKay i really enjoyed this issue and this series. How though, was cap able to pick up mjolnir? maybe it forgot about something in another issue relating to it? It wasn't because thor was dead because he still was stabbing the serpent with the sword. My only complain was that for Thor to die, the battle should have been more brutal. It was drawn well, but it seemed like not a lot happened. I know too though that he was destined to die regardless so i suppose it makes more sense. This story made me love cap even more and i didn't know that was possible. overall id give FI about a b+ very solid event!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I always thought if you were noble of heart or something like that you were able to wield Mjolnir. But they've switched things up so many times it's hard to tell. Lately I've been reading the Essential Avengers Vol. 1 and Thor is constantly harping on the fact that only HE can lift his hammer. But like I said, I thought that was relaxed a bit and others could pick it up, but I'm honestly not that knowedgable about Thor to say for sure. I think Superman may have been able to pick it up and use it during the JLA/Avengers mini-series as well... But it's been a while since I read that so my mind may be playing tricks on me!

    And I definitely agree about the battle and Thor's death... Thor didn't really seem to take THAT much damage. I mean the Serpent was getting hacked to pieces, so he took damage, but I can't recall Thor being beaten up badly enough to die here...

    Oh, and it should go without saying that the image of Cap that I posted here is my desktop background now, because it's an awesome image!

    ReplyDelete
  8. You are right, X, Supes did pick up the Mjolnir, in thar JLA/Avangers, but when the batle ends he try to picked up again and he can´t, then Thor explains that only he can weild it, but someones are able too when the moments of nesecity comes, or something like that. but that is out of continuity, Same for Wonder Woman in the amalgam series.

    ..Wasn´t bad, but for me has the same problems of ALL big events, (the word is over, etc)Genereally I enjoy more the Tie Ins than the main history
    but beign my first Marvel event was a nice jumping on point for this universe. And now I'm looking forward to the aftermaths series.

    ReplyDelete
  9. HA, Question here, Hulk and Banner are diferent personalities? I thought that Hulk was just Banner angry. But if they are diferent personalities are both in love with Beth?, I´m kind of confused with that epilogue.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "but someones are able too when the moments of nesecity comes" Ah, got it. I'd guess that Cap using it here would fit into that "moment of necessity" deal.

    I think that's the most important thing. If Fraction was able to keep long time fans happy(like myself, Movieartman and Cap), as well as get newer fans to Marvel(like yourself) interested in the aftermath, then he did his job. It was a strong story, it wasn't perfect, there were things I'd love to change, but overall it was WAY better than most of the recent comic book events, and that's all I can ask for.

    I don't even know how to begin to answer that Hulk question, Alien! :P I hardly have any Hulk comic books, as a matter of fact, Hulk is probably my least favorite Marvel character to get a movie. I probably know as much about Hulk as you! I always thought he was Banner when Banner got mad. I guess he was actually an aspect of Banner's personality(his rage?). Regardless, this issue did get me interested enough in Hulk to pick up the new series, so that's another thing this comic did right.

    ReplyDelete
  11. O for sure it worked for me and now Im am looking forward to the nex issues of Migthy Thor, Iron Man, Journey Into Mistery, and the Aftermath issues...

    But for my short experience with events (Final Crisis/ Blackest/Brigtest Day/Flashpoint/ Fear Itself) I Alway enjoyed more some Tie In than the main series.
    Here Journey Into Mystery and Avangers Academy fill my cup

    Anyway for me THIS event was way better than the others I read.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wait, you read the Avengers Academy stuff, Alien? Awesome! That's one series I'm expecting great things going forward. And Marvel seems to be adding some big name characters to the series to make it even better. But yeah, Thor should be REALLY interesting, same with Journey, definitely now that Thor isn't around to protect Loki from the other Asgardians anymore. Hopefully Iron Man will be good, but I don't know that there will be a lot of Fear Itself fallout going on there.

    Definitely agreed. Blackest Night was pretty good until the weirdness at the end(White Lantern Sinestro? Really?), but it led into Brightest Day, so that REALLY hurts it. I can't say I was a big fan of Final Crisis, especially the way it ended(Superman's singing...). But out of the ones you listed, Fear Itself seems to have been the best thought out story, and should lead to the most interesting fallout, which is always a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yes I read it, and love it, I am all for damaged characters, and Avanger Academy is plenty of them!!
    (I have the same feeling with Gen Hope but Hope Summers being the messiah and her devotion towards Lord Sumers hurts that book).

    Starks resilient would be rebuilding Asgard on Earth right?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ah, I am so glad to read that, Alien. Avengers Academy is one of my favorite monthly books, so the more people reading it, the better! :D

    They were supposed to before Fear Itself, so I'd think they still would... But then Tony also has to rebuild Stark Tower in NYC, so that might take priority.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I read this issue this weekend, and I'll try to keep my comments brief:

    -Above all, I did not like how Marvel only used half of this issue to wrap up FI, and used the other half to pimp their upcoming wares. An event as epic as FI deserved a fully fleshed out final act. Instead we got a rush job.

    -How many panels did we get to see the mighty do their thing? I remember a few shots of Wolvy messing up Jugs, like one shot of the black widow and thats it. Not a single real moment dedicated to Iron Man in his awesome destroyer armor.

    -The worthy also felt discarded in this issue - major case of villain decay up in here.

    ReplyDelete
  16. To be honest, TRobb, I didn't even think about the way the end of this issue built towards Marvel's post-FI events. There was a surprising amount of epilogues(four I believe), but it didn't really hurt my enjoyment of this issue, so I'm not going to gripe about that.

    Now the lack of Iron Man WAS weird in retrospect... I mean we've been building up to Tony magicing himself up for a good 4/5 issues, right? You'd have thought that he'd actually get to do something spectacular in this issue... Unless we'll get to see that in the next issue of Iron Man.

    As for the Mighty/Worthy battle, I don't know that we really needed a mess of splash pages of various god-powered villains battling god-powered heroes. In the end the battle only really needed to revolve around two things, Thor facing the Serpent and Cap(with Thor's hammer) taking down Sin. Would I have liked to have seen more of Hawkeye and his arrows that didn't miss? As a Hawkeye fan, of course! But realistically, this issue was all about Cap and Thor, all of the other heroes and villains were secondary, so I can understand the Mighty and the Worthy getting the short end of the stick... Plus with Marvel, who knows, we still might get some of those battles! You know how they love to milk an event! :D

    ReplyDelete