Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #6

This issue ends what has easily been my favorite Fear Itself tie-in mini-series. And really, how couldn't I love a series that showcased so many of the awesome Avengers Initiative characters? Let's get into it and see just how highly I score this one.

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #6(of 6):

Summary: Last issue Hardball and Gravity had managed to put aside their differences and prevent an earthquake from destroying Las Vegas. Unfortunately, in doing so they got trapped inside the earth, along with Telemetry and Firestar. Back on the surface, Thor Girl begins to... um, transform(?) into something else, and takes on an energy form. Prodigy, fearing that she'd gone crazy, sends his forces to attack, but in this state, Thor Girl is nearly god-like and simply stands through the assault until Prodigy gives the order to stop. Thor Girl, now calling herself the Designate, pretty much rips humanity and the heroes standing before her, calling them petty, dumb and fearful with very few exceptions(Cloud 9 being one of those exceptions). Realizing she now had a more important role in the grand scheme of things, the Designate leaves the Earth, but not before using her powers to pull Gravity, Telemetry, Hardball and Firestar from the Earth's crust before they ran out of air. With that, Prodigy orders his forces to continue searching for survivors as word of the Avengers victory over the Serpent begins to come in. As the days roll on, some characters(Cloud 9) rediscover their love for super-heroics, others realize how lucky they are(Hardball), while some realize their life wasn't nearly as bad as they made it out to be(Gravity). Finally, Captain America thanks Prodigy for his leadership during the Fear Itself event, and tells him that the feds Prodigy had locked up earlier on in the mini-series had no hard feelings and wanted to offer him a promotion. This issue ends with the vindictive feds bringing Prodigy to his new job... Sorting through hundreds of old files.

Thoughts: I enjoyed everything about this issue with the exception of the Thor Girl stuff, mainly because I had NO idea what the hell was going on there! I'm not an expert on Thor Girl, her powers or origin or anything like that, so when she suddenly became the god-like Designate, I was pretty lost... But like I said, everything else here was great. The stuff with Hardball and Komodo(easily one of my favorite couples in all of comicdom), Gravity finally lightening up, Cloud 9 remembering who she was, for a fan of the b and c-list Marvel characters like I am, this issue, and this entire mini-series was a treat. Here's hoping Marvel gives Sean McKeever another mini-series featuring these characters sometime VERY soon.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Please give me a Hardball series/mini-series/anything, Marvel!!!

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #5

While probably not the most popular choice for my next review, this was a comic that I didn't want to put off reading too much longer because besides Iron Man, it's been the best written Fear Itself tie-in. So while I may be the only one who winds up reading this review, I know I'll enjoy typing it up.

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #5(of 6):

Summary: Thanks to Gravity and Hardball's epic throwdown last issue, Las Vegas is suffering a major earthquake. Cloud 9 and Thor Girl head into a hotel to try to evacuate it before it comes down, but as they begin herding the people clustered inside along, the building collapses. Thor Girl manages to hold much of the wreckage up, but she realizes that her strength would eventually ebb and that Cloud 9, the civilians and even herself would be crushed by the falling debris. Moving away from that cheerful scene, we head to Hardball and Gravity, who were both knocked out after their tiff last issue. Prodigy and Firestar head over to the two and manage to wake them up, with Prodigy telling them they had to go inside the earth's surface to try to fix the damage to the fault line they caused. Along with Telemetry, Firestar, Hardball and Gravity head into the unstable earth and Gravity and Hardball combine powers to create an electro-gravitational field that would repair the fault and stop the earthquake... Or something sciency like that. Prodigy is monitoring the four heroes from the street and loses his transmission with them just as the earthquake ceases, leaving him unsure as to whether they survived or not. Back inside the collapsing hotel, Cloud 9 manages to break through to Thor Girl, convincing her that she was strong enough to lift the rubble up enough to evacuate the trapped people. This pep talk actually works and Thor Girl bench-presses the weight of the hotel, allowing Cloud 9 to ferry the people inside to safety. Thor Girl gets outside and is confronted by Prodigy, who kind of/sort of had Thor Girl locked up early on in this mini-series. Prodigy tries to reason with Thor Girl, explaining that he had to lock her up because of the widespread fear across the country due to her Asgardian links. Thor Girl doesn't want to hear it and this issue ends with Thor Girl bringing the hammer down on Prodigy... Literally.

Thoughts: Yep, I still love this series... I mean it's just the perfect series for me. It's chock full of b-list hero awesomeness! I don't even care that the Serpent nor any of his Worthy were in this issue, it didn't matter because I love pretty much all of the characters that were in these pages. I do find it a bit odd that Sean McKeever is writing Gravity as such a whiny punk as compared to the uber-awesome Hardball, but I guess that just goes to show that he's such a good writer he can write a character that he created with no bias. Needless to say, I can't wait to see how this series ends. Here's hoping Hardball gets offered a spot on the Avengers when it's all said and done though!

Score: 9 out of 10.It's not said NEARLY enough, but Hardball is The Man.

Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #4

It's time for me to dig into my Pick of the Week! As of right now, I haven't read the comic in question yet, so all I'm going to say is this... Please don't kill off Hardball, Marvel/Sean McKeever. That is all.

Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #4(of 6):

Summary: This issue gets started with Gravity, who abandoned the battle against the Worthy because it was too hard, suiting back up and heading to Las Vegas. Back in Vegas, Komodo finds Hardball alive(!!) after his battle with the Serpent possessed Juggernaut last issue... Whew... Komodo is angry that Hardball's fight with Juggy killed some idiots who refused to evacuate the area when Juggy arrived, and Hardball rightly points out that if it wasn't for his actions, Juggy would still be destroying Las Vegas. Not wanting to deal with Hardball right now, Komodo leaves to see where else she could help. The Order from California arrive on the scene and look to help with getting the stragglers out of Vegas, which had become tectonically unstable due to Hardball and Juggy's battle last issue. A few of the heroes stationed in Vegas begin to argue about whether Hardball made the right move taking Juggy on while there were innocents around, at which point Hardball shows up and rightly tells those whiners to stop bitching and to see who they could save. While yelling at his idiotic team, Gravity has the unmitigated gall to attack Hardball, blaming him for the death of the people killed by JUGGERNAUT'S attack. Hardball warns Gravity off, telling him that now wasn't the time to fight since there were still people who needed to be evacuated from Vegas, but Gravity is too stupid to listen, so Hardball and Gravity have themselves an epic brawl, while the heroes try their best to evacuate the city. Prodigy, who was put in command of the heroes starring in this mini-series by Steve Rogers, is back at his control center in Virginia, trying to keep everybody in line, a losing battle. Hardball and Gravity continue to tear into each other, causing a few small tremors to the already unstable area. Komodo tries to get the two to stop their fighting, but winds up getting cheap-shotted by Gravity. That act FINALLY clears Gravity's head, and he heads over to Komodo to check on her. With Gravity distracted, Hardball does what any normal person would do, walks over and hits Gravity as hard as he could. Gravity has the presence of mind to erect a force-field to protect himself, but the force of the shot knocks both Gravity and Hardball out cold, as well as triggers a massive earthquake in Vegas.

Thoughts: You can probably tell from the tone of the above review that I am an unrepentant Hardball mark. Let's begin with the good/awesome news. Hardball survived a battle with the super-charged Juggernaut... Let THAT sink in for a moment... No, he didn't defeat Juggy, but he survived, on his own, against the JUGGERNAUT! And in doing so, saved Las Vegas. Sure, a few people died during Juggy's last attack, but those people were warned to evacuate Vegas, so I don't see how ANYBODY can blame Hardball for those deaths... But then again, in my eyes, Hardball can do no wrong, so there's that. Gravity on the other hand, a character I normally enjoy, came across as a whiny bitch this issue... He's the one who ran home instead of remaining to battle against the Serpent's Worthy, so he has some set of balls on him to blame Hardball for anything. Maybe if he had been helping his fellow heroes, the people who died in the Juggy/Hardball throwdown would still be alive. But once again, remember who I'm a fan of as I say those things. All in all, Hardball being alive, as well as a good story make for a very happy X.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Kick his whiny ass, Hardball!

Fear Itself #4 & Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #3

Well, there's no doubt which two comics I'll be reading first today. I'm not even going to waste any time with an introduction here. Let's just get right into it.

Fear Itself #4(of 7):

Summary: Thor is cast out of Asgard by Odin since Thor was insistent on attempting to save humanity from the Serpent's influence. Unfortunately for anybody who cares about good comic book stories, he was too late to save Bucky Barnes, who is, officially, dead... Thor meets up with Nick Fury, Iron Man, Black Widow and Steve Rogers, and he informs them of a prophecy that states that he would have to face this Serpent, and they would both die in the process. Since it had been prophesied, Thor tells his allies to stay out of the battle so they don't end up as casualties of what is, ultimately, an Asgardian battle. Steve dons his old Captain America outfit and tells Thor that he'd be on the front lines with his friends fighting until the end. While that's going on, the Serpent possessed Attuma is gathering more and more energy for the Serpent until the Serpent's lair is finally lifted from the bottom of the ocean floor, and the Serpent stands fully powered. As for the heroes, Steve Rogers... or I guess I should start saying Cap, once again... heads to New York to face down the Serpent powered Sin, Iron Man heads to Broxton, Oklahoma to seek an audience with Odin, and Thor heads to the Serpent's lair to confront the madman. Upon meeting the Serpent, he informs Thor that he was in actuality Odin's brother(Thor's uncle), and that Odin had stolen his rightful place as the head god of Asgard. After that deception, Odin locked his brother away in the bowels of the Earth until he was awakened by Sin. The Serpent, well aware of the prophecy that a battle between Thor and himself would kill them both, tries to convince Thor to join him against that liar Odin, but Thor refuses, which leads to the Serpent teleporting Thor to the location of his two strongest warriors, the Hulk and the Thing, ending this issue.

Thoughts: So that's that. Bucky's dead....... I don't even have the words to express how disappointed I am about that fact. I'll take some time to gather my thoughts on that and do a post about it later. As for this issue, it was okay. It was more of a set-up issue, almost a breather after the needless death of Bucky last issue. Pieces were moved around the board, there were a few revelations, but that was really it. Eh. I'm too pissed off to go into much more detail about this issue right now, but like I said, I'll have a Fear Itself #4 post up up in a few hours looking more in depth at this one.

Score: 8 out of 10.Fuck you, Marvel. Bucky deserved better than this.


Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #3(of 6):

Summary: This issue gets started with the Heavy Hitters, led by Hardball(who just so happens to be my favorite Initiative character, just so you know...), being tasked with doing the impossible, stopping the Serpent powered Juggernaut and saving Las Vegas. The Hitters initial moves work out well, as they manage to lead Juggy into a big hole they dug outside of Vegas, but Juggy manages to pop out of the ground. From there we head around the country to other heroes, with Prodigy trying unsuccessfully to get Gravity back into the battle, while Thor Girl and Cloud 9 are still puzzled as to why Prodigy sent government agents to torture Thor Girl(he actually had no idea what those agents were doing, and had them imprisoned once found out). Back in Vegas, Juggy is tearing through everything thrown in front of him, so Hardball takes a page out of Speedball's book and puts one of his energy balls under Juggy, hoping to blast him out of town. While the blast does send Juggy skyward, it doesn't send him out of town, just into the storm drains below Vegas where several families were hiding. The heroes arrive on the scene and Hardball tells his team to clear the civilians out, figuring he'd have enough power left to hold Juggy back for 10 seconds or so. The team reluctantly does as ordered, and Hardball surrounds himself with a massive ball of energy. Distracted, Juggy lifts his hammer and brings it down on the energy ball, raising a huge cloud of dust. When the dust clears, Juggy has left Vegas and continued his trek westward, while Hardball lays motionless in the rubble.

Thoughts: You know, if Marvel is trying to piss me off by killing off all of my favorite characters during this Fear Itself stuff, they're doing a fantastic job. What the goddamn hell?!? First Bucky NOW Hardball?! As with last month, I don't know for SURE that Hardball is dead, but from the looks of things, yeah, he didn't survive that. And quite frankly, if he didn't, I'll be holding Sean McKeever's favorite, Gravity, to blame, since he was too afraid to rejoin the battle this issue. My anger notwithstanding, the rest of this comic was pretty good. You get a good feel for who Hardball was, as we get his origin story, and in the end(if that really was his end), you get the sense of the type of hero he was/is/could have been. The other stuff, with Thor Girl and Cloud 9, and the strange government officials who were hunting Thor Girl adds some extra intrigue, but unfortunately, it seems like Hardball will simply be used as a plot device to get Gravity back into the battle, and if that's the case, that's bullshit, in plain English.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.If that's the end of Hardball, you haven't seen ANY ranting yet!

Fear Itself: The Home Front #3 & Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #2

Two Fear Itself crossover books to get through today. I'm mildly optimistic that both of them should be pretty good reads. Does my optimism pay off? Let's find out!

Fear Itself: The Home Front #3(of 7):

Summary: We have four stories here, but I'm only going to summarize the first one... Miriam Sharp, who held Speedball somewhat responsible for the death of her son during that Civil War mess, convinces a bunch of idiots to free Speedball from the deadly plastic bag they had placed over his head... That's right, they were gonna suffocate him with a plastic bag! With how messed up everything was thanks to the whole Fear Itself event, Miriam figures Speedball could do more good dead than alive, and since she was toting a shotgun, while the mob only had a plastic bag, they free Speedball. Upon learning how bad things had gotten, Speedball wants to rush to Washington DC to assist his Avengers Academy students, but Miriam tells Speedball that there were enough heroes in DC, and that he should head somewhere with little to no hero protection. Speedball reluctantly agrees with that logic and heads out to a small town in Missouri that was about to be trampled by the Juggernaut(!). Trying to talk sense to the possessed Juggernaut gets him no where, so Speedball uses his... um, Speedball bubble powers to literally launch Juggy out of town. Juggy turns around and slams his hammer down, splitting the town in half, but continues on his way from there, leaving the town in peace. From there, Speedball decides to try to assist other towns that didn't have a super-hero defending it, and as such heads to Newfoundland to take on Attuma.

Thoughts: Eh. As I said, the other three stories didn't really impress me(well, the Cardiac one wasn't that bad), so this was basically a one story comic for me. I liked the Speedball stuff... I didn't love it, but I liked it, it was readable, and left me with no real complaints. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the old New Warriors characters,

Score: 7 out of 10.What kind of hero nearly gets killed by a plastic bag?!


Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #2(of 6):

Summary: This issue starts off with Prodigy convincing Thor Girl to turn herself over to the panicky authorities, who thought that she may have had something to do with the Serpent due to her ties to Asgard. From there we head to New Jersey where Gravity and Firestar are leading a team of super-heroes at a office building that had dissolved into chaos. Gravity is distracted by the news that somebody died during the battle in Washington DC(Grr.....), and enters the office building, getting himself shot in the chest by Crossbones(!!)(who obviously escaped from the Raft). Crossbones treats Gravity's team like a bunch of rank amateurs(HA!) and manages to escape from them after tossing a grenade. Gravity is physically fine from being shot, but is mentally shaken by the Fear Itself events, and quits the team, leaving Firestar behind. From there, Hardball invites Komodo to Las Vegas, where he had managed to convince the police to enforce a round the clock curfew for the citizens. With everything quiet, it Hardball seems intent on hanging around the deserted city with Komodo, until he gets word from Prodigy that the possessed Juggernaut was heading straight for Vegas, and it was up to his team to do the impossible... Stop the Juggernaut! Finally, Thor Girl is being tortured by the officials she was handed over to, but is freed by her old Initiative teammate, Cloud 9, who realizes Thor Girl could be doing WAY more good on the outside of a cell.

Thoughts: First off, this issue featured Hardball, so it automatically gets a score of a 7 or higher, as per my Hardball rule. Basically, I liked everything about this one. I like pretty much all the characters featured here, since I do love my b and c-list Marvel heroes, and the story was fast and enjoyable. With the next issue featuring Hardball and his Heavy Hitters standing up to the JUGGERNAUT in order to save Las Vegas, you KNOW I'll be looking forward to that! Now if something happens to Hardball after what happened in Fear Itself #3, look out, because I'll be ALL sorts of pissed off!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Hardball can make any comic better!

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #1 & Journey Into Mystery #623

First up for today are two Marvel books, both Fear Itself crossover issues. Thus far I've been very high on the Fear Itself event... Will the era of good feelings continue here at the old blog? Read on and find out!

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #1(of 6):

Summary: This issue gets started with Prodigy(of Slingers fame!) being asked by Steve Rogers to get a group of younger heroes together to keep the peace while the Avengers were occupied with the events of Fear Itself. To the end Prodigy pulls together a bunch of heroes who had been serving in the Initiative, as well as Firestar, who joined to support Gravity, who wasn't sure if he should bother. From there Prodigy splits the multitude of heroes into smaller groups and dispatches them across the country, where they break up various riots and criminal activities that have been spurred by the Serpent's arrival on Earth. During a riot in Atlanta, Thor Girl, Ultra Girl and a few other heroes arrive to try to calm things down. Unfortunately, the arrival spooks the crowd more since Sin's attack on the White House had just become public, and upon seeing Thor Girl's hammer, the crowd thought Thor Girl was one of the Serpent's marauders. This issue ends with the panicked crowd trying to get at Thor Girl, endangering themselves and Thor Girl's teammates in the process.

Thoughts: Wow, this issue was great! I've always been a sucker for b-list Marvel heroes, and this comic had PLENTY of them! Hardball was here, which means this comic was going to get at least a 7 for a score from me(due to the Hardball Rule), but the great story helped boost the final score up way higher than a 7. For a regular sized comic, Sean McKeever was able to get A LOT of characters face time in this one, as well as some little moments of character development(Prodigy, Ultra Girl & Thor Girl, Firestar & Gravity, Komodo & Hardball, etc). On top of all that, the comic read like a breeze. By the time I got to the back cover I was already eagerly anticipating the next issue. If ALL of the Fear Itself tie-ins turn out like this one, I'm going to be one VERY happy comic book collector!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.You know the rules... Add Hardball to any comic to make it better!


Journey Into Mystery #623:

Summary: As he continues to prepare for his eventual war with the Serpent, Odin brings the massive Hel Wolf to Asgard, disturbing many Asgardians, including the young Loki. Loki voices his disapproval of Odin's recent actions to a fellow Asgardian, who agrees, but then tries to slit Loki's throat since most Asgardians still blamed Loki for the fall of Asgard during Siege. Volstagg interrupts the attempted murder and ferries Loki away from the gathered crowd. Volstagg takes Loki to Thor's pet goats, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, and while Loki cleans up after the goats, Volstagg relates the tale of how Thor wound up with the goats(at the urging of Loki, a youthful Thor used a magic bridle to break the rambunctious goats). Telling the tale makes Volstagg thirsty, at which point he leaves to get some mead. With Volstagg out of sight, Loki summons Ikol, the bird with his older self's knowledge. Loki inquires as to who this Serpent character was, to which Ikol tells Loki to go to the World Tree and ask the three wise women who were there. Loki does just that and returns from the trip very disturbed by whatever it was he was told. From there Loki visits Thor for some advice, before heading to the cell that was holding the Hel Wolf. Loki lets the Hel Wolf out, but wraps it in the magic bridle Thor had used years earlier to break his goats. After a while, Loki manages to break the Hel Wolf, and this issue ends with Loki telling the Hel Wolf that they'd be heading to Hel.

Thoughts: I'm still extremely intrigued by this story. There are still big holes as to what's going on, such as what Loki learned from the wise women, but I find myself enamored by the story... I really like Kid Loki, and have to say, the story and artwork here are doing a great job of keeping me interested. This is another Marvel book that I find myself looking forward to every month.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yes, the top panel with Loki taunting while riding the Hel Wolf made me laugh.