Note: Marvel’s 2011 company-wide event is now available as one trade paper back in local stores and online. No spoilers below.
Fear Itself begins with rebuilding of Asgard on Earth with a backdrop of a particular real life political issue. The first book, written by Ed Brubaker, works to construct the idea of fear as a weapon which is coursing throughout America and the world. This fear is the general overarching message throughout the series. Sin, the daughter of Red Skull, is working to gain a weapon/power that she believes will help her not only kill Captain America, but rule the world. This weapon is something that her father was working on during the World War 2. She constantly berates her father’s memory let him know that she will achieve something he could never do.
Once Sin finds the weapon she seeks, she unleashes the Serpent. He is the brother of Odin and he is fueled by fear, much like Parallax in the Green Lantern comics. The Serpent has the ability to call upon magical weapons that are in the form of hammers. These hammers fall to earth and that’s when the fun starts. As the Marvel universe’s heroes and villains touch these hammers they become rampaging beasts who fight for the Serpent. Here is a breakdown of these beasts:
Kuurth: Breaker of Stone
Nul: Breaker of Worlds
Skirn: Breaker of Men
Nerkkod: Breaker of Oceans
Mokk: Breaker of Faith
Greithoth: Breaker of Wills
Angir: Breaker of Souls
Once these beasts have to go up against the rest of the Marvel heroes we get to see some great battles. Thor taking on The Hulk and The Thing was a personal favorite moment of mine.
The overall story of Fear Itself is great. I found it fairly captivating early on and really keep my interest. I thought the end was a tad weak. I found the ending had a lot of the same let down factor that Civil War had. Both were great stories, but the ending sort of fell of a cliff in a way. This is not to say I would not recommend it. It has some faults but overall it was a fun read.
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