Fear Itself #7 is a Steaming Pile of Shit
Spoiler AlertToday Fear Itself #7 came out and I read through it and it was a gigantic let down of epic proportions. There were 54 actual pages of comic in this $4.99 title and all of the epilogue stuff was 20 pages of preview material for titles coming out of this shitty event from Marvel. So, you really only got 34 pages from Fear Itself #7 and those pages where not worth the paper they were printed on. So, to recap the garbage that has come from Fear Itself I have complied a list of some of the things I found disappointing, dumb, or just in general bad with this Fear Itself event:
1) Bucky dies and we don't care. I definitely didn't and I had really come to like the Ed Brubaker take on who Bucky Barnes had become.
2) Fear Itself didn't actually have a solid story. It always seemed like each issue was just a solicitation for the Fear Itself cross over titles and mini-series, and it didn't have any solid content on its own, or if it did I didn't see it. I read one review that said Fear Itself was like a big giant puzzle where you didn't have the actual picture to see where to put the pieces. I would agree with that.
3) Captain America's shield is broken and then repaired, but it has a crack in it that Steve Rogers doesn't want covered up or buffed out, because he says it adds character to the shield. Cool except for the fact that Steve has been running around in the recently relaunched Captain America series, which happens after Fear Itself and he doesn't have a cracked shield. This is a huge inconsistency! So, huge that I find myself thinking, "I haven't really enjoyed this new relaunch of Captain America and I think this inconsistency just made this title ready for the chopping block!"
4) I hated the fact that I could sum up an issue with a few words that even when said out loud sounded as dumb as the content in Fear Itself. here are some examples:
Issue #1 - Asgardians are leaving and shit is falling from the sky.
Issue #2 - That shit that fell from the sky where hammers which when picked up turn the wielder into a Tron looking bad guy.
Issue #7 - Thor dies, Captain America's shield is fixed and the Asgardians left (well some of them)
5) Franklin Richards has a mega super power and doesn't use it because he promised his father he wouldn't. What?! If your kid can make a difference and stop the bad guys from destroying the world you let him do it! Smartest Man in the Marvel Universe my ass. Of course he was really busy trying to find a cure for those infected on Spider Island and couldn't be there to guide his son in using his powers to fix things.
6) Didn't Juggernaut lose his hammer or powers in the Uncanny X-Men: Fear Itself issues? I read them, but you can tell: 1) I didn't care enough to remember and 2) I'm not going to research this because I honestly don't care. But feel free to fill me in on why Juggernaut is in Fear Itself #7 when I thought he was beaten before.
7) The words "fear itself" are very powerful and invoke in people the old quotation from Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address:
This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
This excerpt sounds like what Marvel was attempting to do in Fear Itself, but failed miserably.
Overall, I think Fear Itself was way to choppy, a solicitation book for cross over titles instead of a story in itself and a complete waste of time.
Where did Marvel go wrong? I think Marvel has been the top dog in the comics industry for so long that they have lost sight of releasing a quality product that will stand the test of time, keep old fans engaged and excited while being creative enough to entice new readers, and to make reading a Marvel comic something enjoyable again. But as of now this is not the case it seems over at Marvel.
In the last five years or more it seems the only thing driving the bus at Marvel is the brand recognition of their characters and the idea that more titles means more sales. Marvel needs to take a moment and get back to being a comic publisher. That means having writer's that write good stories and artists that draw amazing panels that catch your eye. These are two of the basic components that I feel are the corner stone great comics. Marvel needs get back to this by wanting to release a great product that can market itself and not be what they are today; a marketing scheme aimed at pumping out garbage just to try and make a buck.
