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.