Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Fear Itself #7.2

This should be interesting... On one hand, there's no way this issue could possibly reach the levels of awesomeness Fear Itself #7.1 achieved... But it IS written by Matt Fraction, so it COULD be good... Just not as good as Fear #7.1.

Fear Itself #7.2: Thor:

Summary: We begin at the end of Fear Itself with Odin cradling the corpse of Thor while the Serpent laid dead nearby. Fast forward a bit to Fallen Asgard where Odin is preparing Thor's body for the funeral pyre. Unable to stand readying Thor's corpse alone, Odin summons Freyja, Gaea and Idunn to his side and steps down as the ruler of Asgard, handing his crown over to Freyja. From there, Odin takes Thor's corpse to Earth and is soon told by Captain America that the pyre was ready. With that, Odin takes his dead brother and leaves, heading back to Asgard Space and locking the “door” behind him, choosing to remain at his brother's side to make sure he caused no further mischief. From there we head back to the site of Fallen Asgard where Thor's body begins to burn... Until he is suddenly replaced by the form of some goof named Tanarus, the God of Thunder... Wha-huh!? Anyway, everybody celebrates with drinks and revelry since they all seem to believe that Tanarus was Thor(or something...), except for Loki, who seems to be the only one who realizes that this “Tanarus” character didn't belong. From there we see Thor floating peacefully in the afterlife(?), and this issue ends with Thor's eyes opening.

Thoughts: Um, okay then... First, the obvious... Fear Itself #7.1 was WAAAAAAY superior to this issue. Hands down. Alright, now for the the good in this one... The first 4/5's of this comic was quite good. The mood was perfect for the situation(somber) and all of the characters acted in the manner I'd expect them to. I liked Odin leaving to play brother's keeper for the rest of eternity, and I'm intrigued to see how things turn out in Asgard with Freyja and the other goddesses serving as the leaders. So everything is moving along smoothly, and then the Tanarus thing happens... I think Loki put it best with regards to THAT. I guess Matt Fraction wanted to keep us completely in the dark with who/what Tanarus is, but this was just plain bizarre... ANY kind of explanation, even a vague one would have sufficed! Instead we get Tanarus drinking and chilling with everybody. Weird. As for the Thor thing, I'm not surprised in the least. I seriously thought Bucky would be the one to stay dead from Fear Itself because with the Avengers movie coming up next year, you knew there was no chance in hell Thor was going to stay dead. So I guess we'll get a few months of the Mighty Tanarus before Thor returns and Tanarus will either vanish into obscurity or maybe he'll stick around and we'll get ANOTHER Thor #1 issue... With Marvel, anything is possible.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Well said, Loki... Well said...

17 comments:

  1. yeah loki u are a master of languge,statment and the ability to capture the moment in words.
    im fasinated by tanaurus and i would be FINE with him taking over thor's place for a bit BUT
    them having rewrittn history COMPLETLY OVER in the minds of evreybody in that he was the avenger and original thunder god PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF
    this mean when thor does come back there will be many depressing issues of thor wandering to his freinds and being rejected (kinda sentry like witch makes me even madder)

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  2. Agreed. I don't get the whole rewriting history thing... How the hell does THAT work!? Fraction has a lot of explaining to do in the upcoming issues of Mighty Thor, that's for damn sure!

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  3. Marvel really likes making their entire universe forget their biggest heroes, first sentry then spider-man and now not even thor is safe from this!

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  4. Hey mas numeros.

    This chart is a little more clear since the one of the other day was comparing the total sales of issues #1 (initial orders and reorders) to initial orders of issue #2 giving percentages of line wide sales from #1 to #2 dropped like a 20%

    when line-wide sales from #1 to #2 dropped just 6%.

    http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-52-month-to-month-sales-111108.html

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  5. HA! That is so true, Anonymous! Sentry I was fine with... I mean that's the only way they COULD introduce him. Spidey you could make a case for doing it to(although I'm one of those people who think Marvel shouldn't have fooled around with Spidey like they did) and Thor? That makes no sense to me at all... I don't see how making everybody forget about Thor is going to make for a good, compelling story... Regardless, I'll give Matt Fraction a few months to try to explain how doing this was a good move.

    Sweet, more numbers! Thanks Alien! Even though that chart kind of/sort of makes it look better for DC, what with the sales only falling 6%, looking deeper I can see some cause for concern for DC... Besides Animal Man, which even the article said was an aberration, most of the comics that went up, and they only did slightly, were the Bat-family of books(as usual). Six bat-books saw gains, while only 9 non-Bat books saw gains(while 37 saw decreases). I think that goes to show that the Batman family of books ARE DC's breadwinners(which has always been true), while books that were huge at one time, Superman and Action Comics saw some huge falls in their numbers(probably from the #1 issue collectors)... Overall that second chart was the most interesting to me. I'm starting to think that the true story of the reboot will be told after six issues or so when the first arc is over for most books. The special issue collectors and speculators will have picked up that first storyarc and will almost definitely either horde it or try to sell it on eBay. That second chart is why Marvel shouldn't panic yet... If DC fell across the board 6% after the first month(and taking Animal Man out of the equation would reveal a slightly larger fall), figure a slightly larger fall come month three, four and probably five before things stabilize. That's the way I see it though.

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  6. Is not only that, we are trough the second wendsday off november, and the only book that have had a second print is Swamp Thing 2 so there arent so many news about big reorders of issue 2.

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  7. That's a good point. I guess that shows that except for the surprise hits(Swamp Thing, maybe Animal Man will get one) there isn't the same level of demand for the #2's as there were for the #1's. By that logic, the demand for #3's should be even less.

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  8. Sure, and talking about surprise surprise hits has you consider reading Animal Man and Swamp Thing?

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  9. I judt don't know, Alien... I mean you've been really high on those series and all, and I'll admit, I AM a bit intrigued by Animal Man, but I just don't see myself adding any DC comics to my pull list any time soon... I won't say never, but I doubt it.

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  10. I got Fear itself 7.1, and am looking forward to 7.3, but am seriously on the fence for this one. I've not yet read a Fraction book that impressed me. Anything about this book that you would describe as memorable? I like Adam Kubert from back in the day, but am not sure I would buy a non-action book just for his art.

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  11. "Anything about this book that you would describe as memorable?" In a word, TRobb? No. Not at all. Compared to Fear 7.1, this comic was a massive fail. Granted, in my eyes at least, Fraction doesn't hold a candle to Brubaker, but this issue really didn't impress me. The beginning was okay, the end was just plain bad. Still to say something good about Fraction, Fear Itself was better than most of Marvel's summer events in recent memory. At least it wasn't an unmitigated disaster like Secret Invasion...

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  12. "Compared to Fear 7.1, this comic was a massive fail. Granted, in my eyes at least"

    Ha Taking in count that 7.1 means that Bucky is alive and that you are a fan of Bucky, maybe your Judgment is unbiased.

    I don't see nothing special in any of these two issues they are more like teaser of the things to come for those characters but aren't must read books.

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  13. True, Bucky's return probably had a lot to do with me giving Fear #7.1 a perfect score, Alien, but story-wise, I thought Fear 7.1 was more solid than Fear 7.2. Fear 7.1 left me excited for the future, Fear 7.2 just left me confused!

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  14. "I AM a bit intrigued by Animal Man"..() I won't say never, but I doubt it"

    Esta bien... Nunca digas nunca mi amigo.

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  15. ¡Exactamente! Siempre hay alguna posibilidad de que lo lean. :D

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  16. Duly noted, thanks! I will pass on this one, while keeping an eye on might Thor to see if anything good comes of it.

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  17. I'm still cautiously optimistic with regards to Mighty Thor, TRobb, even after reading this issue. If nothing else the mystery of how/why Tanarus came to be should be worth reading. Hopefully!

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