Fear Itself: The Deep #4

Last review of the week, as tomorrow brings us a new comic week, with new comics to review. This issue was last week's Runt of the Litter, so it goes without saying that I'm not expecting much... But who knows, maybe it'll impress me and we'll end this week on a high.

Fear Itself: The Deep #4(of 4):

Summary: Serpent-possessed Attuma rallies his forces and prepares to storm the surface world in the name of the Serpent. Standing in his way? Namor, Dr. Strange, the Silver Surfer, Lyra and Loa. Initially Attuma knocks the heroes(including the Surfer!) around, emboldening his troops. However, Dr. Strange manages to send out a message that summons every Defender/Secret Defender. Attuma's forces begin to fall before the Defenders, but Attuma himself is still standing strong. Namor launches himself at Attuma and manages to drive a trident into Attuma's chest, which stuns Attuma. Dr. Strange rallies the Defenders and they attack Attuma, managing to disintegrate his hand, causing him to drop his hammer. Separated from the source of his powers, Attuma's strength begins to slowly wane, and Namor smacks him around a bit. Attuma manages to will his hammer back to him and regrows his hand, taunting the heroes before running away. With Attuma gone, his demoralized forces are captured with ease and Namor thanks Dr. Strange for his assistance, ending this mini-series.

Thoughts: Well, I wasn't fond of the first three issues of this mini(they were okay I guess...), but this issue was a fun little romp. I really don't have anything bad to say... I mean this issue wasn't a masterpiece or anything, but it was a satisfying read, and really, what more can I ask for?

Score: 7 out of 10.Little known fact: my middle name is Imperius! No, not really, but I've run out of things to say this week...

Fear Itself: The Deep #3

And this is it! This is the last comic in this week's new comic pile! I still have a few new-ish comics laying around that I'll probably try to review between now and next Wednesday(Uncanny X-Men #542, a whole mess of Morning Glories, some Irredeemables, the conclusion to the Iron Age mini-series, etc), but with no new comics left, I can actually do something besides reviews here at the blog! Huzzah! Now, I don't have the slightest idea what I'll do, but rest assured, I shall post SOMETHING other than more reviews some time over the course of the next few days. Since I have no clue what I'll be posting, let's just call it a surprise and leave it at that...

Fear Itself: The Deep #3(of 4):

Summary: Okay, so although this mini-series is a Fear Itself tie-in(it says so on the cover), the kind of/sort of Defenders are battling the Undying Ones, who have managed to possess the denizens of New Atlantis. Long story short, Dr. Strange busts out some magic and defeats the Undying Ones conduit to the earthly plane and sends the Undying Ones scurrying back to whatever the hell dimension the Undying Ones originated from. So the citizens of New Atlantis are free of the Undying Ones influence and the day is won... Or is it?! This issue ends with Namor reminding the kind of/sort of Defenders that while the threat of the Serpent possessed Attuma remained, New Atlantis wasn't truly safe.

Thoughts: You can probably tell from that review that this wasn't my favorite comic... In all fairness though, this wasn't a bad comic. It just veered a bit off-road with the whole, “Undying Ones making an alliance with Attuma's goons” storyline. Attuma has been kicking everybody's ass, from Speedball(okay, bad example), to Alpha Flight(um, another bad example I guess...), why does he need “lieutenants”, and why the hell did those lieutenants need demonic powers? For me it was the lack of Attuma that bugged me the most here. Next issue should be an all-out battle between the kind of/sort of Defenders and Attuma, and if it turns out to be that straightforward, I'll be a very happy camper!

Score: 5 out of 10.Wow, the Surfer was kind of an ass here...

Fear Itself: The Deep #2 & Fear Itself: The Worthy #1

I only have two more books left from last Wednesday to review, which means I have no idea what I'll be posting tomorrow... Ah well, I'm sure I'll think of something. These are the two books I placed at the very bottom of my new comic pile, so yeah, it's safe to say I'm not expecting anything from either of them. Besides all that, this is my 300th post of the year! Huzzah!! So if it's taken me 7 full months to reach 300, I should have a good shot at 500 posts before the year is out. That'll give me 3 consecutive years of 500+ posts, which would be, to me at least, a huge accomplishment.

Fear Itself: The Deep #2(of 4):

Summary: The New-new-new Defenders(Namor, Loa, Dr. Strange, Lyra & Silver Surfer) are trying to deal with venomous demon sea creatures that were actually possessed by the Undying Ones, who had struck a deal with Attuma and the Serpent... Yes, it's complicated. All you really need to know is that the Undying Ones are working with the Serpent against the New-new-new Defenders. There, that's a bit simpler... The Defenders manage to push back the initial assault they're faced with, but are soon confronted by three extra large whale-demon creatures. After a rather drawn out battle, the Defenders manage to topple the giant whale demons, but this issue ends with Lyra being pulled under the water by more freaky sea life.

Thoughts: Meh. I have to say, not all that much happened in this issue... I mean the issue began with the Defenders battling demonic sea creatures and ended the exact same way... I guess we learned that the Undying Ones were somehow involved, but I can't really say that I care all that much. There wasn't anything wrong or actively offensive going on in this issue, but in the grand scheme of things, it seemed like a wasted issue. If I skipped this issue and went right to issue #3, I doubt I'd even realize I missed anything.

Score: 5 out of 10.Take this page, read it about 20 times, and that pretty much sums up this issue.


Fear Itself: The Worthy #1:

Summary: All right! An easy review for me to close the week out with!! This comic gave us 8 mini origin type stories about Sin and the 7 Worthy of the Serpent. So if you want to read 8 mini stories as told by the Serpent's 8 generals, this is the comic for you! I guess before I end the review portion of this post I'll name the 8 characters profiled as well as the writers who did each story... Sin was written by Christos Gage, Jeff Parker did Juggernaut, while Jen Van Meter gave us the Titania tale. Frank Tieri wrote the Grey Gargoyle piece, Greg Pak did the Hulk story, Tom DeFalco gave us Attuma's story, Tom Peyer wrote the Absorbing Man story, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa finished things off with a look at the Thing.

Thoughts: Well, this comic didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. If anything, this would be a really good comic for fans who are newer to the Marvel Universe. With that said though, I enjoyed reading this... I mean, I probably shouldn't have, it was simply $4 spent on mini-stories that didn't cover new ground, but none of the stories were really bad. I don't have anything I can really point at and complain about, which is REALLY rare in one of these collection type comics... Usually you get one good story, a few solid ones and a bunch of crappy ones to round out the issue. This comic had some good stories(Sin and Juggernaut were my favorites), with the rest of the stories being solid. As much as I want to, I can't complain!

Score: 8 out of 10.It's easy to overlook, but the Red Skull is an awesomely evil character.

Fear Itself: The Deep #1 & Herc #4

I have two more Fear Itself crossovers in my new comic pile, I might as well take care of them before I start reading anything else. Here's hoping they're as good as the two Fear Itself issues I reviewed earlier...

Fear Itself: The Deep #1(of 4):

Summary: This issue starts off with a bang, as we see Namor and the forces of New Atlantis trying to stand against the Serpent possessed Attuma. However, Attuma's god-like powers are WAY too much for Namor to contend with, as Attuma beats the hell out of Namor, forcing Namor to flee the city(with Loa), leaving his citizens behind. With Namor running scared, Attuma destroys most of the city and captures the citizens, forcing the people into slavery. Namor and Loa head to a bar, where Namor is plagued by self-doubt, since he'd never been thrashed in the waters like that before. Dr. Strange arrives at the bar and offers to help Namor by trying to contact the Defenders(!). After a few days, nobody shows up(HA!), and Strange begins to sense some demonic entity approaching. With that, a demonic sea creature goes sailing through the wall and Lyra(UGH!!!!!!!!) enters the room in the place of her alternate dimensional father, the Hulk. Lyra offers to help the heroes, and with a horde of demonic sea creatures preparing to attack, Namor and Strange are in no position to turn her down. The battle goes back and forth, with the tide finally turning when the Silver Surfer(!) arrives on the scene telling them that the threat on Earth was so great he was there to offer his assistance.

Thoughts: Well, if this comic would have ended after like the first 6 pages, I'd have given it a perfect score, because the beginning, with Attuma battering a... dare I say, frightened Namor was fantastic. Unfortunately, this issue didn't end after that battle... Now, I don't have anything against Dr. Strange, but Loa annoys the hell out of me, and I can't really stand anybody in the Hulk family, which is why Lyra's appearance really hurt my enjoyment of this one. Honestly, if there were two characters I enjoyed more in Loa and Lyra's places, this comic would probably be around the 9 range score-wise. Unfortunately that's not the case, which means the score looks more like this...

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.The Imperius Rex taunt? AWESOME!!!


Herc #4: Fear Itself tie-in

Summary: This issue kicks off with Hercules taking on the combined might of Kyknos and Hecate... Neither one of which has anything to do with the greater Fear Itself stuff... Hmm... Anyway, Hercules gets attacked by some Hecate possessed people, and winds up getting carried to safety by the Griffin, who seems to have gone fully animal now. Spotting a fight below, Hercules lands and tries to play peace maker, but gets stabbed and attacked for his troubles. Griffin takes Hercules to a rooftop where he passes out. Griffin brings Hercules some rabid dogs to eat, and Hercules patches himself up before passing out again. Hercules eventually wakes up to trees sprouted up all over Brooklyn, apparently thanks to Hecate's magic.

Thoughts: Ah-hahahahah!!!!! You got me Marvel!!! Sure, this issue may have SAID Fear Itself on the cover, but it had NOTHING to do with Fear Itself! Not the villains, not the action, not Hercules, NOTHING! Yep, I got fooled! And the worst of it was that this was co-written by Greg Pak, who's work I usually try my damnedest to avoid... Yes, Marvel may have tricked me this time, but I'll be damned if they get me again! Nope, I'll be WAY more careful in the future with which Fear Itself books I pick up, and I can promise you I sure as HELL won't be getting the next issue of THIS series!

Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.Yep, nothing says "Fear Itself" like Hercules being fed dog by the Griffin.........