Fear Itself

With Steve Rogers back in the combat boots and Thor facing off against two of The Serpent's heaviest hitters, how will the heroes hold up against since such a long assault?

The Good

If you like fighting, this issue has it in spades. The Thor/Hulk/Grimm fight was superb, and really illustrates what happens when you let heavy-hitters go at each other full-tilt. I actually exclaimed "Ho-crap!" at Thor's relentless assault, which I think is a compliment to itself.

While Tony's panels were kept short, it really illustrated how far back these Avengers go: seeing him converse with Odin casually (and seeing the allfather respond in kind) just felt like they were having an honest, man to man conversation. It might've been the fact that Tony was drinking, but it wasn't a "Oh, I'm quaking in my boots!" feeling in the air.

The Bad

While the use of Franklin to "cure" Ben Grimm is inventive, why didn't they think about that before? Is it just a matter of not being able to get close enough to a Hammer-Bearer to try? I just thought it was a bit of a cop-out to give make it that easy to cure Ben, especially since he was easily the Hammer-Bearer with the most amount of backstory (except, maybe, for Juggernaut).

I'm looking to see where it goes, but I'm not the most pleased about it.

For all the hype of bringing Cap back into the armor, seeing him "give up" one issue back just seems a little dumb. Seeing Spider-Man swing off to worry about Aunt May and whoever (yet again! Argh!) just really put a bad taste in my mouth. It's like they're just waiting for Tony Stark to get his act together with Odin, which will solve everyone's problems.

The Verdict

Despite my complaints above, the good in this issue really outweighs the bad. Even though there was only two pages of build-up, Thor's fight was really well-done, and felt like it was long-awaited. With him spending the first issues of this series moping and in captivity, his call to arms was definitely a highlight of this series.

Again, there are things on the horizon that interest me more, but this issue did not disappoint.

Also, time to update the Bingo Card!

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