Or – “As An Evil Orb Once Said, ‘From One World… To Another!’ “
Yesterday’s review of a huge crossover shmageggi leads inevitably (in the interest of balanced coverage) to today’s review of a huge crossover shmageggi. Unlike yesterday, however, today we open with a musical interlude:
Ma, Ma, Ma, Marvel hits me so hard!
Makes me say,
“Oh my word!”
Why is the Red Skull’s kid
in league with an Asgardian cryptid?
It ain’t good!
When the hammers fall down,
And our superdupe heroes get knocked around!
they’d know as much!
A hammer from the sky? You can’t touch!
BREAK IT DOWN!
Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh oh!
Uh oh! Here come the hammers!
FEAR ITSELF #3
Writer: Matt Fraction
Penciller: Stuart Immonen
Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: Laura Martin with Larry Molinar
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Previously, on Fear Itself: The Red Skull may be dead, but his legacy lives on in a daughter with similar facial scars and psychoses. Sin, as she has come to be known, has come into possession of a lost hammer of Asgardian myth, allowing her to channel the powers of Skadi (a giant and goddess who actually never carried a hammer anywhere but here, it seems). Making things even more complicated is the fact that Skadi is only part of a plan involving more hammers falling around the globe, each allowing familiar Marvel Universe faces (Juggernaut, Hulk, Grey Gargoyle, Titania and more) to channel their own Asgardian deities, each of whom seems to have the same mission: $&@$ some $#!+ up in the name of the mysterious Serpent. Sin has made a frontal attack on Washington DC, while the heroes of the Marvel Universe are scattered dealing with multiple, massive, extinction-level events.
Sounds a little bit like Final Crisis, doesn’t it?
Every Time You See Me…
I really can’t believe that it’s been three months of this story already, as we open this issue mere moments into Sin’s attack on Washington, as Captain America, The Falcon and the Black Widow (and, for seemingly only one panel, Shang Chi, the Master of Kung-Fu) are MASSIVELY outgunned by an army of giant mechas led by a putative Asgardian gawd. There’s some nice dialogue (when Sin threatens that she will kill Bucky Cap, Barnes snarls back, “Take a number, lady!” without missing a beat) but it’s all fighty-fighty for the first third of the book. It is nicely rendered fighty-fighty, though, with Immonen and Von Grawbadger pulling out all the stops to give the battles some scale. We get quick vignettes of carnage (Juggernaut in Missouri, Absorbing Man in Dubai, the Hulk in Brazil) as Thor finds himself busted out of Odin’s dungeons by a very unexpected person. (Hint: Rhymes with ‘smokey.’) We are also given an insight into the nature of the hammer possession, as Betty Ross almost-but-not-quite manages to reach her beloved for a split second before he continues rampaging through Rio.
Ring The Bell, School’s Back In!
The most emotional development comes in Brooklyn, though, as the FF investigates the hammer found on Yancy Street. While Reed tries to analyze the strange energies, a heckler in the crowd (making particularly tasteless comments about the recent death of Johnny Storm) angers Ben Grimm into just stalking over and picking the thing up. Our hero is immediately transmogrified into Angrir, the breaker of souls, and devastates several city blocks with a single stamp of his foot. It’s a real “Holy Crap!” moment made even more terrifying by the possession of the Marvel Universe’s everyman. The Asgardian underground (the Warriors Three, Sif, Heimdall and Loki) try to sneak Thor back to Midgard, but they are immediately caught by All-Father Odin, who has decreed that the Serpent must fall, even if the Earth dies. Thor taunts his father into sending him to Earth (Odin literally hurls him through space, throwing Mjolnir after with a terse “Don’t say your father never gave you anything.” Heh…) while Steve Rogers leaves his command post to enter the fray himself. The issue ends with a very shocking moment, as Captain America again engages Sin/Skadi in battle, leading her to rip off his cyborg arm and stab him with the hilt of her mighty hammer. Cap loses consciousness as he murmurs warnings of The Serpent to his friends and we fade to white…
The Verdict: A Dozen Interesting Tangents
This is not a bad issue at all, but it serves as a very high-level overview of a massive situation, checking in with various characters at several key points of the story, and ending with a key of where to check out the continuations of which plot-threads in other Marvel titles. The lack of a greater context really dogs the whole issue, reminding me that the whole story will only be told to those who read all the comics that come out this week with the big green banner on top. Even though I’m the kind of reader who only pays attention to characters he likes (and, say, where did Shang-Chi go during the big battle?) it’s a bit galling to wonder what’s really going on. Also kind of frustrating: We see The Avengers (Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel and Protector) all clustered up together, leaving Washington to be defended by four hand-to-hand fighters and a bird of prey. Yes, it’s been a very short time since all hell broke loose, but are all the heroes tied up elsewhere? We get glimpses and hints, but it feels odd not to have somebody show up just in the nick of time. As with my review of Flashpoint yesterday, there’s a LOT going on with the crossover, and the main title is designed to show you the tip of the iceberg. For four bucks, lacking a central character like Flashpoint’s Barry Allen, this issue leaves you wanting in several major ways, resulting in Fear Itself #3 earning 2.5 out of 5 stars overall. It looks pretty amazing, and it reads well, but the a amount of content delivered and the price simply don’t jibe for me.
Faithful Spoilerite Question Of The Day: Have I done myself a disservice in not reading ALL of the first two issues worth of tie-ins?