Part 2:
FEAR ITSELF #2: This is the issue in Marvel's latest annual "event" mini series in which Matt Fraction reveals the minions of his big villain, who are called "the Worthy". This would be an incredible surprise, had Marvel chosen not to reveal who all of them were two weeks ago across the Internet. If you have avoided the Internet for the past few weeks, then the revelations of this issue might be a surprise. If not, then the fact that Juggernaut, Hulk, Titania, and Attuma have become "Worthy" alongside Sin/Skadi will be old news. The Thing is set to become "Worthy" in the next issue, and subsequent cross overs with IRON MAN 2.0 and INVINCIBLE IRON MAN will have Absorbing Man and Grey Gargoyle step into their pre-determined, already-revealed roles. In the effort to promote their big stories, Marvel has decided to reveal critical details to them weeks in advance - therefore asking the reader to invest $3.99 in a story in which they already know the key details, which the issue will treat as a surprise. And Marvel wonder why internet piracy is a scourge?
While the last issue offered 44 pages of story for $3.99, this one manages only 23. The ancient Norse adversary - the former Highfather of the gods who Odin calls "the Serpent" - has thrown his hammers around the world to summon his "Worthy", who just so happen to all be established characters who mostly are either villains or have battled Thor before. Odin has ordered all of the Asgardians to march from Broxton, Oklahoma back to the realm of Asgard, with Thor in chains for disagreeing with abandoning humanity to the Serpent. No longer is Odin a wise and mysterious father figure - he is now an aggressive, petty, judging character who seems to have little regard for mortals. Odin's logic seems to be to abandon the Earth to the Serpent so that he may properly rebuild Asgard IN Asgard and ready his people for the inevitable war with it and the Worthy - however, even disregarding Odin's sudden transformation into a rampaging jerk, this is tactical lunacy. Odin himself states that "the earth shall be it's fuel", as in the panic and fear that the Serpent sows on earth will literally make it stronger once it gets to Asgard. So, wouldn't it make sound tactical judgment to fight it on earth and defend the mortals, like Thor suggests? Isn't it better to fight an enemy at it's weakest than wait for it to reach full strength and then be in awe about how powerful it is, which is the DRAGON BALL Z approach to fighting? Or does the Odinpower allow the Highfather to avoid the perils of Fractionplotholes? Is this the point Thor and the mortal heroes will eventually make, and we just have to wait five more issues for this to happen because Fraction paces like he's in a Writersleep?
In one fell swoop, the premise behind THUNDERBOLTS is ripped from it's writer (Jeff Parker) as Juggernaut's hammer causes an explosion that frees all of the criminals from the Raft. The Serpent continues to sow panic among the mortals with it's evil godly presence, and Fraction displays this by having snippets of news reports give vaguely disturbing sound bites about events - a narrative gimmick that Frank Miller ran into the ground in 1987. Steve Rogers orders the Avengers to split up across the globe to investigate the fallen hammers, but little of that actually happens in this issue. The Future Foundation come across one in New York that Thing is destined to wield. Becoming "Worthy" makes the subject a pawn of the Serpent, although certain figures seem to display more free will than others. Sin, as Skadi, has enough of her old self to assemble an army of Nazi robots (in her continuing quest to duplicate her father the Red Skull), while Hulk, as Nul, tries to warn Betty/Red She-Hulk to flee before his rampage. Juggernaut, as Kuurth, seems to be a slave to the Serpent and no longer needs eye holes to reign destruction. Given that "X-MEN 3" came out in 2006, the fact that Marvel waited at least 4 years to have Juggernaut duplicate his helmet's design from that film is either a case of sluggish momentum or genius beyond mortal reasoning.
The artwork by Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger (inks) and Laura Martin (colors) is brilliant, with a sequence in which Odin literally remakes Asgard with every step of himself and the Asgardians being the highlight of the issue. The downfall remains Fraction's writing; it isn't that it is exceptionally horrendous, but is absurdly average. The summery is an ancient evil guy has awoken, is throwing down Mjolnir imitation hammers to earth to recruit minions for himself and sow chaos, and the heroes will have to fight him. That is literally it, dragged out to seven issues at $4 a pop. The similarities between this and DC's "throw Lantern rings around" events is uncanny - perhaps this is FEAR ITSELF because THOREST NIGHT or THOREST DAY would have been too obvious. Marvel's answer to every franchise that has experienced popularity in either comics, an upcoming film or both is to stretch it to it's breaking point and beat it flat. This has been done with Venom, Ghost Rider and Punisher in the 90's and has been done to Wolverine, Deadpool, and the Hulk recently. Is this a sign that it is now Thor's turn to be Thored out? Perhaps the biggest hurdle is this is a story that is fit for a Saturday morning cartoon that insists it be taken seriously because society is in a paranoid mood lately, thus "paranoid society" signs are stuck atop the script beats. It is akin to Skeletor unleashing a monster on Eternia and the audience of "HE-MAN" having to deal with seven episodes of woe because that made the Eternian stock market crash. The Achilles Heel of all of Marvel's line wide crossover events of recent years have been dodgy stories drawn by great artists, and so far FEAR ITSELF remains little exception.
FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #2: This secondary spin off to the major event continues as an anthology and continues to be a mixed bag. In theory these stories are meant to showcase the fact that the presence of the Serpent is sowing fear and chaos in the world and making people panic. In practice, it seems like a return to a lot of the bleak tones from CIVIL WAR and DARK REIGN, which some readers (especially on the Internet) are clearly tired of.
The main strip is the Speedball one by Christos Gage (AVENGERS ACADEMY) and Mike Mayhew (who did the Justice/Firestar story in I AM AN AVENGER), with colors by Rain Beredo (not to be confused with the purple ninja Rain from MORTAL KOMBAT, who was himself inspired by "Purple Rain" from Prince). This strip seeks to make up for Speedball not usually getting much focus in ACADEMY by getting it here. However, in practice, this strip continues to cement the unintentional moral that the citizens of Stamford, Connecticut are not worth protecting. Not just now, but before. The true crime of Stamford wasn't the "reckless" New Warrior raid, but the fact that they were bothering to try to rid Stamford of four escaped cons on the run. The fictional Stamford would have been better off with Colbolt Man, Coldheart, Speed-Freak and Nitro living amongst them. In the last issue, we learned that Robbie Baldwin was seeking to make penance for that incident that parked CW by volunteering for the charity run by Miriam Sharpe. Unfortunately, he was ultimately recognized and attacked - which one could say was an inevitable conclusion, and he really should have picked another charity. Everything that Speedball does or doesn't do is misconstrued here. When he is laying on a street, being beaten by a mob, and one of the goons hits HIMSELF with HIS OWN CROWBAR because of Speedball's kinetic powers, that is somehow SPEEDBALL's fault and he takes, and acknowledges, blame for it. After the Raft is blown up and a group of super-villains ride through Stamford blasting everything in sight with their powers, including murdering at least two pedestrians (and threatening a few more), Speedball tries to defend them. After the villains beat him down in the street and flee, the mob comes back and tries to suffocate him with a plastic bag. I have literally seen mafia henchmen in comic books who were more merciful and less opportunistic, despite the penalty of murder by their boss, than the citizens of Marvel Stamford.
However, this story is perhaps an attempt to salvage the minor character of Miriam Sharpe. She was initially created as being inspired by Cindy Sheehan. But after CW she faded from view, and with the end of the SHRA one would think she had no reason to exist. While she still holds Speedball personally responsible for her son's death, and initially feels he is there to "con" them, she also sees that many of her fellow Stamford citizens are acting like "morons" - at least 5 out of every 6 of them. Part of me wonders if the end result of this strip is to have Baldwin and Sharpe come to an understanding and get some closure together, despite coming at each other from polar angles. On the plus side, I did like seeing newer villains like Aftershock and Ember from YOUNG ALLIES show up again, and the in-joke about fruit cakes and Icemaster (a villain originally made for Hostess ads until he turned up as an actual villain in THUNDERBOLTS).
My solution to this story is simple; Speedball explains how he is lynched by people he just saved to other heroes and the Avengers hold a press conference, calling the bluff that "Stamford doesn't need super heroes" by vowing never, under any circumstances, will any masked hero enter Stamford, Connecticut again. Then a week later when the town is ruled by the Wrecking Crew and the Sinister Six, I'd probably smile. But, Gage is a bigger man than me so I expect some eventual understanding and healing between Baldwin and Sharpe.
The other strips this week made less of an impression. Peter Milligan's JIMMY WOO & THE AGENTS OF ATLAS strip with Elia Bonetti with John Raunch on colors isn't clicking so well. It isn't terrible but he hasn't imitated Jeff Parker's voice. The Agents are investigating the Thrule Society, who hid Skadi's hammer for Red Skull. Jimmy stumbles upon evidence of Atlantians being tortured in the 40's and dreads having to tell Namora about it. His romance with her seems very random, yet Milligan treats it like kismet.
Howard Chaykin has another one page strip, this time showing Purple Man as one of the many villains escaping the Raft. Ho-hum.
The last story is about Liz Allen and Normie Osborn heading into NY from NJ and being caught up in the aftermath of a robbery by Tiger Shark below the NJT rail. It's by a creative team I have never heard of before, and wasn't as memorable as Jim McCann's story last month. It wasn't bad, but seemed a little random. I am looking forward to the next issue, which will have a Cardiac story. The dilemma will be the awkward Milligan story and the bleak Speedball story.
HEROES FOR HIRE #6: This is the start of the second story line from writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, collectively called DnA (dont ask). Unless the sales figures improve, it could also be their last; in March, sales were just under 22,000 copies sold, making this title one of Marvels lowest selling ongoing series that is not a literature adaptation, a kids comic, a Max title, or hasnt already been announced as canceled. HEROES FOR HIRE will double ship this month, which hopefully will stem the bleeding. Perhaps as a sign of the bumpy road, Spider-Man is the guest star of the next two issues as his franchise is healthier in terms of sales than Wolverine or Deadpool, he is now making the rounds as A-list guest star to try to boost a floundering titles sales for a month. It hasnt worked since the 90s, but the people who run the comic industry are glacially slow with changing tactics, perhaps because they have no tactics to change to. Ironically, as Deadpool is a mercenary for hire, this is one series where his guest appearance would actually make sense.
At any rate, this issue continues the subplot from the opening arc, while also providing a fresh slate. The premise is that Misty Knight, as Control, is running a new version of the business initially launched by Luke Cage in the 70s which has been expanded into full teams in the late 90s and post-Civil War in 2007. Because she has to take things easy for medical reasons following a miscarriage, Misty instead steers other heroes that she hires with instructions for missions, which often involve tactical missions against organized crime (like the mob or drug cartels). Since very few heroes actually work for money, Misty instead offers things like information or a favor as payment. This premise was originally set up by the Puppet Master, the old Fantastic Four villain who has had a creepy streak of late and was manipulating Misty into gaining control of street heroes. The villains been defeated, and Misty is seeking to utilize that premise properly. Her only hero on staff is the mercenary Paladin, who actually does work for a fee. The catch is this time, Paladin has legitimate personal reasons for wanting to pursue this endeavor he has fallen in love with Misty.
As such, this is a comic in which the only real starring characters are Misty Knight and Paladin, two C-List characters who have usually never starred for long, if ever, in their own titles. Misty Knight is one half of the Daughters Of The Dragon, who were usually hangers-on for Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Paladin is a character who often crosses paths with teams of characters, although he was in the last version of HEROES FOR HIRE as well as, going farther back, SILVER SABLEs Wild Pack in the 90s. The other characters who appear are guest heroes hired on a case by case basis. This is a format that would probably struggle to attract readers even in better times, but it has proven to be an interesting one.
In this issue, Paladin is the only hero for hire and is keeping an eye on a shipment of the Atlantian drug Hook, which was introduced back in HEROES FOR HIRE #1 last year. Unfortunately for him, a group of ninja and Spider-Man ultimately butt in, preventing him from easily tracking the truck. While Misty is eager to allow Spider-Man to help out, Paladin feels he is annoying and unprofessional and he resents being seen as a super hero prostitute because he works for a fee. It actually is odd that Spider-Man gets high and mighty about it, since for most of his existence he has been paid to take photographs of his own battles and sell them to a newspaper or magazine. True, he is paid for the photographs, not for the act of crime fighting itself, and Peter usually rationalized it that if he didnt get paid for Spider-photos, someone else would. But the line between that and being a mercenary isnt as vast as it seems (especially since Peter had to routinely lie about how he got such great pictures). At any rate, another professional mercenary, Batroc the Leaper, appears. He is a villain who has been much maligned but has been the subject of some rehabilitation in some Ed Brubaker issues of CAPTAIN AMERICA and especially Kieron Gillens CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BATROC THE LEAPER one shot from a few weeks back. He may seem like a laughable villain with his costume and accent, but he is actually an exceptional fighter capable of challenging even super-soldiers, and that comes through in this issue.
Brad Walker returns on art after a two issue break, and is back to rare form. His panels seem to explode with detail, yet not too much that his work ever seems stiff or static. His expressions and mannerisms with Spider-Man are more dynamic than some artists who draw AMAZING SPIDER-MAN proper. He is naturally aided by top notch inks by Drew Hennessy and colors by Jay David Ramos. The fight sequences are kinetic, and DnA add a great flair for dialogue.
HEROES FOR HIRE has been a title that has struggled to connect with audiences or be relaunched properly, but this go of it has actually been very good. This is the best work DnA have done for Marvel that wasnt a space book (and even ANNIHILATORS hasnt met their high standards). Enjoy this while you can; it may not last much longer.
