Journey Into Mystery #627

And after a one issue reprieve, we're back to the Fear Itself tie-in issues of Journey Into Mystery. I've been surprised by just how much I've enjoyed this series since I started collecting it several months ago, here's hoping Kieron Gillen can continue his extremely strong work with this issue.

Journey Into Mystery #627(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: Hey, it's an all Mephisto comic! This issue gets started with Mephisto entering a bar at closing time to tell the bartender the story of how his day has gone. With the Serpent ravaging the Earth, Mephisto heads up to Infinite Embassy, which is where all of the various godheads meet up and discuss matters that concern them. Through some asking around and snooping, Mephisto discovers that while the Olympians want to fight the Serpent on the behalf of humanity, the other godheads have decreed that the Serpent's invasion of Earth was an Asgardian affair, and as such the other godheads wouldn't interfere... And no, the Olympians don't want to defend Earth out of the kindness of their hearts, they are currently living on Earth and fear being wiped out when Odin and his army raze the Earth to kill the Serpent. From there, Mephisto heads to the Devil's Advocacy, which was the meeting place for the hell-lords and demons. Some demons want to attack the Serpent for his audacity(Cyttorak), while others have no interest in confronting a being as powerful as the Serpent. As for Mephisto, he feels the best move is to simply sit back and let the drama play out, and since Mephisto is the preeminent devil in the Marvel U, the hell-lords seem to abide by this decision. Next, Mephisto heads to Nightmare's domain to see how the fear-lords were holding up. Nightmare is a wreck since the Serpent was feeding off of the fear permeating the Earth, which was leaving no fear for Nightmare to feed off of, basically starving Nightmare. Mephisto prods Nightmare for information, and discovers that the other fear-lords were content to simply sit back and let the Serpent's assault run it's course. Nightmare on the other hand wants to attack the Serpent head-on, hoping to defeat the Serpent and feed on all of that sweet, sweet fear. Mephisto manages to convince Nightmare against such a rash action before heading back to his version of Hell. Back home, Mephisto writes a message to be given to the Serpent asking for a treaty between Mephisto's forces and the Serpent's army. Mephisto also writes a second message that is to be given anonymously to whoever was in control of Asgard once the battle against the Serpent had ended. This message reveals that Loki had made a deal to free Surtur from Limbo, something the Asgardians would have Loki's head for.

Thoughts: What can I say, I'm a sucker for Marvel mythology. Be it the various gods or the assorted demons running around the Marvel U, I love reading about them. Mephisto, when written properly, is a great character, and here? He was definitely written properly. There's really not much more I can say about this comic. You'll either love it or hate it, depending on your view of beings such as Mephisto, Nightmare and the godheads. Me? I absolutely loved this issue.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.And now you know!