Quick Hits: Fear Itself: Deadpool #2, Iron Man 2.0 #7, Uncanny X-Men #541, Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #2

Another day, another Quick Hits post. The four comics I'll be taking a look at today are all Fear Itself tie-ins, and to be completely honest, they ranged from not that good to out-and-out terrible... I mean reading these books took some real willpower from yours truly! Well, let's get this cavalcade of comic crap out of the way... As always with these Quick Hits posts, I'm only spending 5 sentences or less on the actual review before heading to my “Thoughts” the score and the scan. If you want to know more about one of these comics, feel free to inquire about them in the comments section, although after reading these comics I can't imagine ANYBODY would want to talk about them...

Fear Itself: Deadpool #2(of 3):

What Happened: Deadpool's plan of having the Walrus terrorize a small town(in disguise), moves along smoothly, so Pool readies the second phase of his plan, defeating the Walrus and reaping the rewards from the town. Pool basically has his way with the Walrus until nightfall, when we find out that the hammer Pool gave to the Walrus to attack the town actually had some sort of bizarre werewolf/healing factor negating powers, which helps the Walrus take Pool down and out.

Thoughts: You know what the sad thing is? Out of the four comics I read for this post, THIS was the best one of the bunch! Things only go downhill from here! Honestly, the best thing about this issue was the cover, which was hilarious. I mean this issue had it's moments, I did enjoy Pool in a VERY lame disguise directing the idiotic Walrus's attack on the town, but the story has practically nothing to do with Fear Itself, except that Pool got the idea to give Walrus that hammer because of the Serpent and his Worthy. If you're following the whole FI event, this is a very easily skipped mini-series.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Deadpool's Serpent disguise = Awesome!


Iron Man 2.0 #7(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: The Immortal Weapons try to close the gate to Hell which opened in Beijing thanks to the Serpent's hammer tearing reality asunder. Before they can shut the portal, Iron Fist winds up getting possessed and attacking the rest of the Weapons. Luckily, War Machine is also there, and he takes on the possessed Iron Fist. The battle rages for WAY longer than it should(I mean War Machine is a frigging tank!), but War Machine manages to defeat Iron Fist with some mystical help from Dr. Strange from afar, who was spying on events. The Weapons then close the portal, nobody seems to know what the problem with Iron Fist was, and War Machine's part in Fear Itself thankfully comes to an end.

Thoughts: I am so glad this issue ended this series involvement in Fear Itself. I barely care about Iron Fist and hate the Immortal Weapons. I mean I like War Machine a lot, but he was almost a second thought these past few issues... Instead we get those damned Immortal Weapons and their completely asinine names(The Handsome Monkey King, The Bride of Nine Spiders, The Prince of Orphans... Are you kidding me?!), nothing really happening involving Fear Itself, and War Machine, who happens to be wearing a state of the art suit of armor, having difficulty defeating Iron Fist, a guy who kicks things... Yeah, this was pretty brutal.

Score: 4 out of 10.Apparently, you should always bet on the guy who kicks things instead of the guy in the multi-million dollar suit of armor.


Uncanny X-Men #541(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: Lord Summers sends out a few waves of X-Men to probe the Serpent possessed Juggernaut for weaknesses, which only leads to his most powerful X-Men making a tiny crack in Juggy's helmet. So naturally, Lord Summers sends out Our Lord and Savior Hope, who manages to pull the Juggernaut's helmet off... Typing that line leaves me SO pissed I can barely finish typing this up... Anyway, Emma Frost tries to enter Juggy's mind to shut him down, but can't, and this issue ends with the X-Men unsure what to do next.

Thoughts: You know, this issue started off well enough. Lord Summers actually enacted a plan that made great sense all things considered, since he was dealing with an old foe with vastly improved abilities... And then Our Lord and Savior Hope showed up... Seriously, Kieron Gillen HAS to get away from the X-books, because his obsession with Our Lord and Savior Hope is bordering on the unintentionally hilarious! I mean every goddamn issue of this goddamn comic book lately has revolved around goddamn Hope!! And do you know what that's doing to me? It's making me hate her with a passion I usually reserve for Barry Allen... THAT'S how much I'm starting to hate Hope! I'm comparing her to the character who singlehandedly destroyed most of my interest in DC comics! Hope has got to go, and Gillen has got to go with her, because once again, he ruined what could have been a very good comic book.

Score: 5 out of 10.Next up for Our Savior Hope, defeating every super-villain in the Marvel Universe simultaneously while explaining the finer points of the Negative Zone to Mr. Fantastic...


Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #2(of 4):

What Happened: The Man-Thing defeats Frankenstein, She-Hulk, Howard the Duck and Nighthawk(collectively known as The Worst Team Ever) before moving deeper into NYC. When the ragtag group regain their senses, Frankenstein gives his origin story(REALLY!?! Was that necessary?!) before the team continues after Man-Thing. It turns out the Psycho Man is also after Man-Thing, since he sees Man-Thing as a weapon he could use to further enhance his emotion control abilities. With the Psycho Man on one side, and a crazed Man-Thing on the other, who should show up but the infamous New Fantastic Four(Wolverine, Spider-Man, the gray Hulk and Ghost Rider) from the past. Sure, why not.

Thoughts: What can I say? The story was barely coherent, the artwork was done by two or three different artists, giving this comic no sense of cohesiveness, and Howard the Duck was here. What did my poor, darling She-Hulk do to deserve inclusion in THIS awful mini-series? And to make matters worse, there wasn't a single appearance by the Serpent or his Worthy, thus breaking my first rule with calling something a Fear Itself tie-in. Sure, Man-Thing going crazy is a direct result of the Fear Itself events, but that's not the same as an appearance by one of the main Fear Itself threats. This is another FI “tie-in” that should definitely be avoided...

Score: 3 out of 10.Ever wanted to see a duck talk to Frankenstein? Then you're in luck!!

Fear Itself: Deadpool #1 & Journey Into Mystery #624

I picked up 3 Fear Itself tie-in issues earlier today, and figured I'd take two of them and do some reviews for them posthaste. After looking at the covers of the comics, it became VERY obvious that I didn't want to read Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #1 due to the fact that Howard the Duck was on the cover, so that helped me decide on which two comics to review...

Fear Itself: Deadpool #1(of 3):

Summary: Wanting to profit from the whole “Fear Itself” thing going on throughout the Marvel Universe, Deadpool winds up getting hit on the head by a sledgehammer that flew out of an exploding van. Pool takes the hammer home with him, puts all kinds of jewels on it and decides to find the most inept super-villain he could find to wield the hammer. Why an inept villain? So Deadpool could then defeat the villain, save some small New Mexican town, and then bask in the rewards that would follow. To this end, Pool finds the Walrus and drops the hammer in front of the idiotic villain from a hang glider. The Walrus figures it was one of the hammers from the Serpent, but is confused by the fact that he doesn't feel any stronger, and that the hammer didn't actually DO anything. Not wanting his plan to fail, Pool puts a lame Halloween costume on over his Deadpool attire and tells the Walrus that he was the Spectre of the Hammers, and that he'd help the Walrus unlock the hammer's true powers, all while directing the Walrus to attack the small New Mexican town Pool had set his sights on. This issue ends with the owners of the van that exploded earlier on wondering what happened to their magic hammer.

Thoughts: So wait, the hammer Deadpool gave to the Walrus really WAS magic?! Huh... This was what you'd call a perfectly acceptable comic. It wasn't great, it wasn't horrible, it just was. It had a few funny moments, but it wasn't as funny as the main Deadpool comic, so for a score, I'll go with a nice, average number...

Score: 6 out of 10.This scene had nothing to do with this comic, but it made me laugh, so here it is.


Journey Into Mystery #624:

Summary: This issue picks up from the events of Fear Itself #3 where Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three helped break Thor out of prison and ultimately led to Odin sending Thor to Earth to fight against the Serpent. With Thor gone, Odin turns his attention to Loki, who he figures was behind the plan to spring Thor from prison. Before Odin can send his wrath Loki's way, Volstagg steps forward and claims that the plan to free Thor was his, and manages to convince Odin to spare Loki. Odin leaves, and Loki is surprised by Volstagg's defense of him. Volstagg explains to Loki that he himself had children, and although he didn't fully trust Loki, he wouldn't want to see any harm befall a child. After Loki has been left alone, he heads to the Hel-Wolf he freed last issue and has it take him to Hel, which was currently residing within Mephisto's Hell. Before Loki arrives, a dignitary of the Serpent is speaking with Hela, the ruler of Hel, asking for her to ally with the Serpent against Asgard. Hela has no allegiance to Asgard, but isn't exactly keen on joining in the battle against Odin. The Serpent's dignitary pretty much warns Hela that if she doesn't side with the Serpent, the Serpent would think Hela didn't fear him, and as a Lord of Fear, the Serpent would feel obligated to make Hela feel that fear, one way or another. With those threats ringing in her ears, Hela tells the Serpent's dignitary that she'd consider the Serpent's offer, telling him to head to his chambers while she thought about it. Hela is torn as to what to do, with her two lieutenants, Tyr and Leah both giving her conflicting advice. Tyr, being from Asgard, wants Hela to stand with the Asgardians, while Leah warns against such actions. Anyway, when Tyr is alone, Loki approaches him and tells him that he wanted to try to help defend Asgard against the Serpent, and that he didn't want to see Hela pledge her allegiance to the Serpent... To that end, Loki manages to secure Tyr's trust before heading from Hel to Hell, to meet with Mephisto. Loki makes his way through Hell and meets up with Mephisto, and the two talk, with Loki doing a pretty good job of convincing Mephisto that he was the same Loki from before, just in a younger body. Loki tells Mephisto that Hela was planning on allying herself with the Serpent, and that a god like the Serpent would surely be looking for other lands to conquer once he was done with Asgard and Earth, namely Mephisto's domain... Needless to say, Mephisto doesn't like the sound of that, and Loki leaves Mephisto to his thoughts. From there Loki heads to Hela and warns her that Mephisto was planning on invading Hel, which angers Hela enough to get her to head off to confront Mephisto. With Hela now temporarily out of the way, Loki tells Tyr that they needed to do something that would ally Mephisto and Hela against a common enemy... The Serpent's visiting dignitary...

Thoughts: I enjoyed this one. I've actually enjoyed all of the Journey Into Mystery comics I've been reading lately. I just can't help but like young Loki... I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's just something about him I really like. Anyway, this issue left me a bit more confused than the last few issues, with Loki weaving his lies and attempting to manipulate Hela and Mephisto into standing against the Serpent. There were certain aspects of this story I didn't get(the women Loki and Mephisto were talking about, Tyr being in Hel, whoever that Leah girl was, etc), but the stuff I did understand, I did like. So as usual, I'll be looking forward to the next issue of this one.

Score: 8 out of 10.Check out Mephisto's sweet tux!