Fear Itself #4
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger
Wow.
Seriously, wow. I don’t know where to start; whether it be with the book opening with Thor getting thrown, movie style, from the sky, or the Serpent’s true identity, or the general disconnect I have with the drama in the issue, I don’t know what the hell to feel here. This issue is a mess as far as the story goes, it pushes forward, but it does a horrible job of building up the suspense or the drama, not unlike previous issues. By the end of the issue you come out knowing that a lot has happened, but whether or not you care is a completely different story.
Like I said, the opening is ripped directly from the Thor movie as a giant cyclone in the sky spits the Odinson out into Oklahoma along with his hammer, and apparently a few words by angry rednecks are enough to get him to shrug and give up on the city he’d been living in. From there we see the Serpent feeding on the actions of his Worthy while Odin, in an ‘other side of the coin’ panel, plans how to defeat his never before mentioned nemesis. And then we get to the fallout from last issue, and yes, Bucky is dead. Despite that his body is surrounded by some relatively big names in the Marvel’s who’s who list, quite literally only one person seems to actually care that he’s dead; that being Natasha “The Black Widow” Romanoff who happens to have been involved with Buck. Iron Man cared more that “The Red Skull killed Captain America”, Thor only wants to talk about the Serpent, and Fury…well, I’m not even a hundred percent why Nick is there, but him being a stoic badass works.
The problem is Steve, and admittedly, this issue might not be the time and the place to see him react to the death of his former partner. And sure, Steve has spent a long time under the belief that Buck was dead, but that’s not an excuse for his “Right back to work” portrayal here. He doesn’t even say Bucky’s name once, there is absolutely no mourning from Steve Rogers at the death of his original partner. I honestly would have settled for a “This one’s for Bucky!” when he arrived in Manhattan with his assault rifle, but I got nada. That’s the problem with Steve.
The problem with Tony, and yes, each of our three core Avengers has a big boy problem, is that Fraction forgot how to write him. Fraction who has been turning in gold for the past few years in Invincible Iron Man manages to take what should be an incredibly powerful and one of a kind Iron Man moment and completely trivializes it. Tony takes a bottle of wine and starts chugging it to get Odin’s attention, while saying how he doesn’t believe in Odin because he’s a scientist. On top of this, the bottle is labeled “Démon dans une Bouteille“, or “Demon in a Bottle”, so there’s an obvious nod to the iconic story about Tony’s alcoholism, but again, it’s cheap, the whole damn thing is done in ONE PAGE! It comes across as little more than shock value, instead of a big character defining moment. Tony doesn’t come across as being at rock bottom, he comes across as annoyed and angry. What could have been an unforgettable moment falls completely flat by trying to force the drama into the situation. He’s been through a whole lot worse without cracking, but this is the straw that breaks his back. So stupid.
And then the Serpent…I did a spoiler warning on his true identity, so I won’t spend much time talking about it here, but his origin and identity are the epitome of throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks. Seriously, they are trying to force name branding with this guy to build importance and drama, but what we’re getting instead is a force fed villain who still is pretty much completely undeveloped and I wouldn’t be surprised to see his entire origin reduced to “I’m a bad guy and bad guys lie”. I’ll be astonished if people even reference him in a year. He doesn’t come across as a big shock or an oh my god moment, he’s strictly a “really?”, hell, I feel like I should put in a Miz promo to explain my thoughts.
Not a wrestling fan? How about Seth Meyers?
Now, let’s talk about the art. Stuart Immonen turns in one of the best looking books I’ve ever seen out of him, and that’s saying a lot as I’ve been enjoying his work for over a decade. As bad as the issue is, his art is worth the price of admission alone. There’s a lot of energy in his pencils, and the issue has a great kinetic feeling that makes the book feel as epic as it was meant to read. The image of Steve Rogers suited up in his Captain America gear, looking down on his mask, it’s a great visual. The Serpent scenes are equally as awesome looking. The art team really went above and beyond the call of duty with this issue, and it’s fantastic looking.
I really wanted to like this issue, I did. Fraction generally does amazing character work, and just running over the events of the issue, it had the makings of a home run. Unfortunately, he forgot to include any real drama so that while a lot of stuff happens…he doesn’t make you care so much as expect you to. Tony taking his first drink in over thirty years should have been a big pivotal moment, even if he did it out of spite, but instead it just feels like something that happens for the sake of it. Bucky’s death last issue isn’t treated like a giant loss to the hero community, it’s just an excuse for Steve to be Cap again an issue later. The book does a great job of moving forward, but it does so at such a pace that nothing feels important. Hell, we got our first real look at why the Serpent is doing what he’s doing, and it was run through so quickly that I stopped and asked myself “Really? That’s it?”.
I’ve been saying this for a little while now, but Fraction chose the wrong one of his books to do a big event based out of . Thor might have a movie in theaters, but he’s had a horribly uninteresting character arc in this book, and while he’s definitely in the number one spot, I can’t help but wish that this was an Iron Man event. Fraction’s Iron Man is awesome.
So this book…it’s a mess to read, but it looks fantastic. If you like watching a lot of big things happen with no real emotional impact, this will be the book for you, but for me? I enjoy a little fallout from the big things happening instead of more big things happening. A few pages of characters reacting more, or potentially pivotal moments drawn out, it wouldn’t have taken much to make this book better. As it stands, it feels like the book really needed a few more pages devoted to characterization to really make it feel like a big deal.
Overall?
5/10
