Thunderbolts #161 & Heroes for Hire #10

Back to Marvel we go with two Fear Itself tie-in issues... Man does Marvel love their Fear Itself tie-ins!! I mean damn, we're at the halfway point, and there have been like 100 FI x-overs already! Overkill much?

Thunderbolts #161(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: After Serpent possessed Juggernaut's temper tantrum last issue, the T-Bolts are laying around in varying states of consciousness. Juggy, who apparently remembered that he had to get to the Uncanny X-Men series to exhibit a mess of new powers, flies up into the sky Thor-style and leaves this series. The T-Bolts dust themselves off and get up, just in time to see a massive missile careening towards Chicago. The T-Bolts figure the government was planning on nuking Chicago in order to stop Juggy and didn't realize that Juggy had flown away. Back at the T-Bolt's base, the Fixer realizes what the missile really was and secretly contacts Baron Zemo(FINALLY!!!). Zemo complains that the missile was based on his work(or something along those lines) and states that Sin had stolen his missile tech to use for her own ends. Fixer tells the T-Bolts to stop the missile at all costs, which leaves it up to Moonstone since Songbird was tapped-out power-wise, Mach-V's armor had been destroyed, Ghost didn't have the capabilities, and Satana was trying to coerce Man-Thing to rejoin the T-Bolts. Moonstone flies up to the missile, and manages to alter it's course, sending it skyward. Unfortunately, the warhead has disengaged from the missile itself and continues it's trek to Chicago with nobody left to stop it. Before hitting Chicago, the missile makes an adjustment and falls into Lake Michigan. Fixer realizes that was a bad sign, and decides to head out to the lake with the Beta-Bolts. As for the T-Bolts, Satana manages to convince Man-Thing to rejoin the team(so much for that Fearsome Four mini-series...), and Man-Thing teleports the T-Bolts to the shore of Lake Michigan, where a mess of mutated fish creatures emerge from the sea to attack the T-Bolts, and anything else in their path.

Thoughts: Meh. With Juggy gone, I don't really get why this series is still bothering with the Fear Itself x-over stuff. I mean I was only interested in the T-Bolt's Fear Itself books because I wanted to see how the team would react to the sight of their powered up, Serpent possessed teammate. Unfortunately though, Juggy had to go to San Fransisco to deal with those pesky mutants, leaving the T-Bolts to battle mutated fish monsters... Seriously, what more needs to be said? Just to end this review on a positive note, I will say it's nice to FINALLY see Baron Zemo pop up somewhere, especially since he was screwed over by Sin in that Book of the Skull one-shot leading up to Fear Itself. So much for Zemo having a role in Sin's downfall in the main Fear Itself title as I was hoping though...

Score: 5 out of 10.Up, up, and away!!!


Heroes for Hire #10(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: The Shroud and Elektra are trying to quell a Purple Man created riot at the Raft, while Paladin and the Gargoyle are being battered around Yancy Street(or the remains of Yancy Street) by some creature that was created when a chemical lab exploded on some guy. Misty Knight decides to head out to Yancy Street to help any survivors of the Serpent possessed Thing's attack, completely unaware of the status of Paladin and Gargoyle. As for Shroud and Elektra, Shroud uses his powers to send the room they were battling the crazed convicts into darkness, giving Shroud and Elektra a huge advantage. Not liking that turn of events, the Purple Man reaches a hand into the darkness and is able to gain control over Shroud and Elektra with his pheromone powers. With that, he orders Elektra to murder the Shroud, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Once again, meh. We didn't get a member of the Worthy in this issue, or even a single Nazi mech. Instead all this issue really dealt with was the fallout from the attacks on Yancy Street and the Raft. I don't get why this Monster guy is running around the remains of Yancy Street, since it doesn't add anything to the Fear Itself story, while the Elektra/Shroud portions were okay, even though I couldn't help wondering why the Purple Man didn't simply take control of the two heroes right from the start... Supposedly he wanted to torture them before killing them, but come on, at least escape prison before you decide to start torturing heroes! Like T-Bolts #161, this issue was a Fear Itself tie-in in the loosest sense imaginable.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Yes, several pages in this issue had Elektra and the Shroud battling criminals in the dark. Fun, fun, fun...