Slow start, but that seems to be the norm for tie-ins
Fear Itself is still chugging along with its tie-ins. This week, we take a look at "Youth in Revolt," a look at the not-quite-headliners that fill in some of the background scenes of the series proper.
The Good
The upcoming persecution of Thor Girl is something I'm legitimately interested in. While she's not a "true" Asgardian, she's got Asgardian-like powers and wields a big hammer; I can't see why the crowd wouldn't try to go after her in one way or another. I'm guessing this "Youth in Revolt" subtitle will somehow involve her teammates breaking her out of custody and "fighting the system," but it looks like we're going to have to wait until next issue to find out.
Boulder/Butterball is in a group shot, and I'm loving how they didn't forget about him. He's my favourite thing to come out of the Initiative; if you can't read his issue, I implore you to do so.
The Bad
If you didn't read any Intiative-based titles, you're going to have no idea who any of these people are. There are references to prior histories which can fly right over someone's head if they're not careful; this is a detriment to the plot because it just takes up space. Everyone referring to each other by their codenames really seems forced if they've known eachother for so long, and it really feels obvious that they're trying to accomodate both sides of the field: the people who know these characters and the readers who're just approaching them for the first time. I mean, I'm all for secret identities, but if you're alone in your house with another person that you've presumably known for a great amount of time, you can refer to them by their first name.
The Verdict
From the cover, we're given a look at what looks to be a core team of former Initiative members, but in the issue they're still working for different groups. This issue, like most of my complaints about introductions, is that they don't have a lot of time to get rolling before the writer runs out of pages. The plot has been set up, but none of the characters or major players have been assembled yet; we've been introduced, but it took so many pages that the book just lacks something. Hopefully it'll get up to speed in the next issue.
