It is somewhat the lesser cousin of those stories that both ripped the Marvel Universe apart, setting hero against hero, with ramifications that are still felt today.
Instead Fear Itself introduces seven mystical weapons to up the power of seven established characters, e.g. Juggernaut and Grey Gargoyle. You know that the goodies are going to win and so the story becomes little more than a seven issue slug-fest.
Anticipating this I avoided all the spin-offs apart from those in the comics that I read regularly already, e.g. Iron Man and Avengers.
In contrast I bought just about every Secret Invasion story going and while some were weak (e.g. Thor) some were excellent (e.g. Black Panther).
The good news about Fear Itself is the epilogue. Issues 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 show the impact on Captain America, Thor and Iron Man respectively. This both ties the story up and hints at where future stories may lead. The not-very-subtle aim is to encourage you to read the individual characters' books.
It could work because Fear Itself 7.1: Captain America is excellent.
I loved the story but I loved the Butch Guice art work more.
I have seen many examples of his work over the years, starting with his first work for Marvel on Micronauts (great book) in 1982, but this is a bit special because there are strong hints of Jim Steranko in the movement,bold lines and page construction.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are welcome. Comments are moderated only to keep out the spammers and all valid comments are published, even those that I disagree with!