Hype Itself
Fear Itself begins to buckle under its own hype as the awaited moments of the third issue prove to be an unclear crisis and a cheap death. The supposed "shock ending to end all shock endings" turns out to be a moment many readers expected to come since before Fear Itself started and a moment rather painfully foreshadowed from the very first pear of the story.
It is beginning to be difficult to get a feel for what exactly the meat of Fear Itself's story is. We have characters behaving as if it is the end of the world, but we aren't really given justification for all this drama. Is it because Washington, D.C. is being attacked, again? Is it because a half dozen or so superhumans with hammers are running around the globe causing localized destruction? It's hard to grasp the crisis here. Bad things are certainly happening. But Washington, D.C. probably just finished rebuilding itself after it was attacked by Skrulls. All we see the Worthy doing is running around and randomly smashing things. This really doesn't feel like an event. It feels like a regular Wednesday in the Marvel Universe. In fact, this is probably not even the first time Nazi war machines after attacked Washington.
This issue features the apparent death of a major character. Now, I'm not someone who is against death in comics. I am in favor of it and really enjoy when it is done well. See my reviews from last week for the War of the Green Lanterns story. When deaths are natural parts of the story, they can really be great. The death in this issue is not such a death. It's definitely the other kind. The character is basically served up on a platter so the story can lay claim that it matters and has high stakes. Matt Fraction doesn't even bother to write the character well. There is no internal narration or strong character moments. He simply portrays the character in a rather generic fashion right up to the final page. If this death actually stands, then that is truly pathetic writing. This is not some D-list character dredged from the murky depths of limbo and offed in unceremonious fashion. This is a major character that readers have been following for the past several years. If you kill off a character like this, you do a better job than this.
The continuity of this event is getting a little confusing. We see Betty Ross shifting in and out of her Red She-Hulk form, when a major element of the character right now is that she's not supposed to be able to do that anymore. Or at the very least, it's a big deal if she does. We also have Bucky Barnes running around as Captain America when the character has been stripped of the mantle and is off in a Russian gulag. I'm aware stories don't all happen at the same time. But if Bucky's current story takes place before this, seeing him running around as Cap here kind of ruins part of the drama of his current gulag story. And I don't even know how to begin to rationalize Betty Ross.
Truth be told, the only thing Fraction handles very well in this issue is the Asgardian part of the story. His dark, arrogant take on Odin remains entertaining and compelling. It is only when Odin is on the page that Fear Itself starts feeling like a strong story.
Stuart Immonen carries this issue, because the bulk of the entertainment value comes from the art rather than the writing. While Fraction fails at defining what exactly is going on, Immonen at least provides cool images of the Worthy... doing whatever it is they are supposed to be doing.
It's funny in a sad way how Fear Itself, an event hyped to be so relevant and meaning, is turning out to be more like a Michael Bay movie. We have spectacle but are struggling on the substance. Landmarks are destroyed. A character dies. But none of it really means anything. Fear Itself may have been a better story if it was a major story arc in Thor's book instead, because Fraction is starting to show signs that he just isn't a strong enough writer to make this a Marvel Universe wide event.
