Comic Books

> > 7-of-7
FEAR ITSELF #7 (OF 7)

Tony Stark returns from the depths with a last-chance arsenal that will transform the Avengers from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…into Earth’s Last Hope!

It’s THOR’S DAY– the day that everything ends!

Double sized finale with a little something extra for the keen eye.

Story by Matt Fraction
Art by Stuart Immonen
Cover by Steve McNiven, Stuart Immonen, & Billy Tan

Price: $4.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.0%

Reviews

UserAddedSpoilers
KenOchalek10/23/11YesRead Review
Invasionforce10/22/11YesRead Review
blkassassin10610/22/11YesRead Review
Batcaptain10/22/11YesRead Review
Jaredan10/20/11YesRead Review
Kamilo10/20/11YesRead Review
Rbigley10/19/11YesRead Review
909
Pulls
Avg Rating: 2.6
 
Users who pulled this comic:
 

Comments

  1. Avatar photo jackietam says:
    October 17, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Oh thank god, it’s finally over..oh wait nevermind there’s going to be four to five more epilogue issues.

  2. Avatar photo Nordh says:
    October 17, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    I’ve actually been having a good time reading Fear Itself. /shrug

    The price point is fine for a double sized issue imho.

  3. Avatar photo tomistommy says:
    October 17, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    I would say our long national nightmare is over, but, what, we have like 6 more months of this garbage? Sense when does your crappy event comic need like 3 issues and a 12 issue maxi-series to sum up what happened? This book will not die!

  4. Avatar photo misterckent says:
    October 17, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    This mini is over and I’m good with that. The art was great.

  5. Avatar photo Neeks says:
    October 17, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    Im really glad this is the last issue of this after 4 issues in i didnt see the point in stopping hoping that they may at least wrap this up nicely not with 50 other spin off titles and 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3.

    Im done with this after this issue aint getting played into buying the rest of that garbage they have already raped me for 30 bucks on this mini

  6. Avatar photo party says:
    October 17, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    The real villain is this book, and it feeds on boredom.

  7. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 17, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    Next time don’t buy it at all and stop the bitching.

    I’m interested to see how it wraps up, though I haven’t enjoyed this as much as I was hoping to.

  8. Avatar photo Toadmeister says:
    October 17, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    Very disappointed i’n this “Big Event”.

  9. Kmanifesto says:
    October 17, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    If Marvel had a piano, they would play the same note over and over.

  10. Avatar photo Noto says:
    October 17, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    Glad it’s over. I’ve had enough.

  11. matthewAskirble says:
    October 18, 2011 at 12:44 am

    I havent rrly hated or liked this it was ok i only like it cuz Matt Fraction dispite everyones opinion i love his Mighty Thor

  12. loki2486 says:
    October 18, 2011 at 12:47 am

    Infinity gems would more than equalize the field…

    All 5 Infinity gems are in possession of 5 marvel heroes on earth…

    Millions of people are dying (getting turned into stone in France), it appeared that the entire infrastructure of countries are crumpling..

    Why would Tony Stark, who have one of the gems, elected to give up his sobriety and go to craft weapons in Asgard instead of just using his gem?

    • edward says:
      October 18, 2011 at 2:00 am

      Good point, loki2486. where were you 7 months ago?

    • Avatar photo DarthDuck says:
      October 19, 2011 at 8:55 pm

      Wisdom beyond your years, sir!

    • Avatar photo CrazyK says:
      October 20, 2011 at 3:20 am

      Don’t forget that Franklin Richards uses his REALITY ALTERING mutant power to save Ben… But let’s a couple of million others, and Bucky, and Thor, and the reader’s souls, die in agony… If you aren’t going to use his power to save the world, don’t remind the reader that he has it!

    • Avatar photo cosmo says:
      October 21, 2011 at 12:42 pm

      I agree regarding both Tony Stark & Franklin Richards — one of the problems with this story is that all of the various details do not seem to have been thought out that deeply . . .

  13. Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
    October 18, 2011 at 7:13 am

    Look, I’m not gonna say the Fear Itself haters are wrong. I haven’t loved this series, and I’m hoping it feels better when I re-read the whole thing this weekend, but I’m genuinely curious…

    WHY are you STILL hating on Fear Itself?

    It’s been more than half a year for some of you….ISN’T THAT EXHAUSTING?!

    • Kmanifesto says:
      October 18, 2011 at 8:33 am

      I’m new to the ‘Fear Itself’ hating – at least give me a couple of books to catch up!

    • edward says:
      October 18, 2011 at 9:02 am

      um… because hate fuels our mystic overlords

    • Avatar photo CaseyJustice says:
      October 18, 2011 at 12:33 pm

      Because, as has been proven in three separate studies, haters gonna hate. Plus, it’s fun to get together with a group of people (on the internet) and talk trash about something that can’t hit you.

    • Avatar photo cahubble09 says:
      October 20, 2011 at 11:07 am

      Couldn’t agree more. There really is no point in carrying on and on and on with banal, insipid, poisonous commentary. I can’t say that Fear Itself was the greatest book I ever read–but it wasn’t the worst either. And it does move the Marvel universe and its characters somewhere (can’t say forward). And it has been the germinating seed for some OTHER quite fantastic stories this summer and fall (read JIM in case you’re wondering). This book hasn’t been any better or worse than Flashpoint (and I will resist launching on the “New 52” … aside from arguing that the best of that failed reboot was a book we’ve been waiting for nearly two years–AND it has utterly failed and bringing NEW readers into the industry).

      I find it hard to believe that the folks who can’t seem to resist mentally laxating on Fear Itself comment sections don’t have other books on their pull lists which they actually enjoy and about which they could find far greater satisfaction in writing laudatory comments. It truly is hilarious that so many of these folks think they have so little constructive to do with their time besides flaming on a Fear Itself comment board.

  14. LakeFToy says:
    October 18, 2011 at 9:01 am

    I haven’t minded the mini, but it’s weird that the crossovers just kind of stopped a month or two early and continued on as if nothing happened…almost like Marvel’s telling us that nothing lasting comes from this.

  15. edward says:
    October 18, 2011 at 9:04 am

    If i was Neil Hamburger i would say “why did god create Fear Itself? to punish humanity for the holocaust!”

  16. Avatar photo comicBOOKchris says:
    October 18, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Story-wise, I think Fear Itself really hit its stride in issue #6. Yeah, it’s the second to last issue, but regardless, I finally felt somewhat invested in the story.

    • Avatar photo cahubble09 says:
      October 20, 2011 at 11:09 am

      This was definitely a slow burn story … and I think folks underestimate its long-term implications for the characters involved and the Marvel universe as a whole (although I haven’t read #7 yet, so don’t really know how it ends).

  17. Avatar photo Urthona says:
    October 18, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    I hate myself for never having jumped off. What a stupid Wednesday it will be. Buy book. Read book. Throw all my issues in the recycle bin. 🙁

  18. Jdudley says:
    October 18, 2011 at 2:56 pm

    This event has been very bland and even sup par when compared to many recent events that were hardly memorable themselves, but Fear Itself has hardly been as horrendously awful as many seem to make it out to be. At the very least, it will be comprehensible when read in trade (Unlike Flashpoint, cough, cough) and has a somewhat fun big action movie feel to it—the art certainly drives this home.
    But the good news is that this “event” resulted in the biggest, most action-packed and “event”ful book currently being published at Marvel: Gillen and Braitwaithe’s Journey Into Mystery!!!

  19. Avatar photo ABirdseysView says:
    October 18, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    well I’m liking it.

  20. Avatar photo blkassassin106 says:
    October 18, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    The comic shop sold out of the final issue of X-Men: Schism and when I bought X-Men: Regenisis I felt ashamed. If that happens with this issue I will raise hell at Sci-Fi City.

  21. Avatar photo yyzKyle says:
    October 18, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    I am surprised that Marvel didn’t put out a Fear Itself 4.1 of 7 out. Or a POINT ONE issue at some point. Man marvel has frustrated me in the last 6 months. I was excited about the “heroic age” and now I have no marvel books on my pull list. I will very likely buy trades of Ultimate Spiderman ( Bendis is really good on that book ).

    • Avatar photo elfrawg says:
      October 19, 2011 at 10:27 am

      Agreed! The Iron Man issues were especially good. Terrifying stuff in there. Great concept and executed well. Lotta undeserved hate.

    • Avatar photo darknite125 says:
      October 23, 2011 at 1:58 am

      I’m in the exact same boat, my Marvel pull list has dwindled down to just Daredevil after just a few months of the Heroic Age which started out great. Hopefully once this is all over with (eventually…maybe) I can go back to picking up Marvel titles because I fell in love with Avengers Academy and when it tied into Fear Itself I had no idea what was going on.

  22. Avatar photo stubbleupdate says:
    October 19, 2011 at 11:33 am

    I read this first. Big mistake. It put me in a bad mood for the rest of my buy pile.

    • Avatar photo cahubble09 says:
      October 20, 2011 at 11:12 am

      If one book put me in such a bad mood that the rest of my buy pile couldn’t left me out of it, then I’d be revamping my pull list post haste.

  23. WookieLoveMachine says:
    October 19, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    With that my Marvel pull lists comes to an end. I’m not even sure I should read my copy. Why tempt ,myself into buying the Aftermath.

  24. Avatar photo malloc says:
    October 19, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    I went into “fear it self” optimistically, but it just kept getting worse and worse, some interesting action here and there, but the plot is so so so bad, and the end did not redeem it. I can’t believe that now that it’s finally done they are trying 12 issues of “the fearless” plus the 7.1, 7,2, 7.3 “fear it self”s, not to mention that this new “shattered heroes” crossover tag seems to be more comics dealing with the aftermath of fear it self. I am finding it harder and harder to be a Marvel fan.

    Let it end, let it end …

    • StoreGuy says:
      October 19, 2011 at 7:47 pm

      I enjoyed that most of the other Marvel books seem to have already told readers “This doesn’t do anything major, so we’ll just get on with the 616 and let the misery train roll into the station.”

  25. Avatar photo PraxJarvin says:
    October 19, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Jumping back into the convo to see if this thing ended up in a better place at all. Judging by the (admittedly early!) 2.5 aggregate score, I’m guessing no?

    • Avatar photo jonny says:
      October 19, 2011 at 4:03 pm

      It wasn’t that it was a bad comic, it just had horrible build-up and it’s over-priced. Marvel fucked this one up just by letting Fraction hold a pen.

    • MisterJ says:
      October 19, 2011 at 4:28 pm

      This is probably the first event I ever quit on and the $5 charge sealed it. That is 2 digi issues of DC!

    • StoreGuy says:
      October 19, 2011 at 7:46 pm

      It’s got a 2.6.

      But it’s pretty bad. Avoid it. Pretty much all my customers are telling me the same thing, guys. Avoid this crap like’s it’s plague.

  26. Avatar photo Ainslo says:
    October 19, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    When i was reading this it felt like i had missed a couple of issues. They threw everything they could at this and it just made it a bit of a joke. Caps shield gets broken and mended, the avengers get Asgardian weapons, Cap wields Mjolnir, the asgardians get evicted or yeah, and Thor dies! all things that should be mile stone events all wasted on this. Poor

  27. loki2486 says:
    October 19, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    Thor ‘dies’ AGAIN… didn’t he and the entire asgardian mythos just un-died about 2 years ago. What is Marvel going to do, revive him again when the Thor 2 movie is about to be released?

  28. Avatar photo jackietam says:
    October 19, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    I can’t decide on what’s worst: 1) Five bad issues of Fear Itself (I like the first two) or 2) We got Mike Deodato on New Avengers cause Stuart Immonen had to draw this event.

  29. Avatar photo glwarm76 says:
    October 19, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    I’m all for the different strokes for different folks concept, but the current 2.6 average rating here indicates that this event is objectively a huge disappointment.

  30. Avatar photo party says:
    October 19, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    They could have done much better by splitting the events of this one into several issues and getting rid of the middle garbage.

  31. StoreGuy says:
    October 19, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    Yeesh. What a steaming pile. I heard from another retailer/buddy that the topic of Fear Itself was avoided at Marvel’s NYCC panels. Could it be they’re embarrassed of the almost universal critical failure of this book?

    • Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
      October 19, 2011 at 9:14 pm

      @StoreGuy Well it would only make sense if they didn’t hype the minis and .1 issues coming out after this event.

    • Avatar photo ABirdseysView says:
      October 20, 2011 at 7:42 pm

      avoided? it was a main topic at the Avengers panel. two fans got to read #7 on stage, and another got to read Fearless #1. they were super-stoked about it and promoted the hell out of the ending and the aftermath. your retailer/buddy needs to check his sources.

  32. kcekada says:
    October 19, 2011 at 8:37 pm

    Had some good elements, but should have been contained to Thor and Captain America books — or a 4-part mini. Just wasn’t enough there for a good 7-part series. Immomen’s art was the only reason I bothered.

  33. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 19, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    Still love Fraction cuz of Mighy Thor and Invincible Iron Man.

    Didn’t love this 1/5

  34. davidpentecost says:
    October 19, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    Ugh. I was enjoying this series but the last issue left me cold. There is no emotion in it. Thor is dead? It almost seemed like a joke…in the next scene is Spidey being sarcastic about the funeral pyre? I am really disappointed. The art was great as usual even though the inking on the last few pages did not look that great and lost all the crispness.

    I wish their could have been less 2 and 3 panel pages and given more room to telling the personal side of the story. I feel like we saw characters blasted with white light enough.

    Marvel has lost me on any Fear itself, Fearless or Battle scars stuff. I will read brubakers 7.1 but that is it.

    Anyone know what Immomen is doing next?

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      October 19, 2011 at 10:50 pm

      Seeing as this weak finale and the lackluster previews have me totally disinterested in anything from Marvel that isn’t an X-title or Ultimate Spider-man, I’m pulling for Immonen to show up on an X-Book or whatever the next rotating Ultimate mini-series will be after Hawkeye.

    • Avatar photo thompsonlive says:
      October 20, 2011 at 10:31 am

      @KenOchalek If they put Immonen on an Ultimate Mini I will pee my pants with excitement.

  35. doomwad says:
    October 19, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    This was not my cup of tea. One of the worst stories I’ve read in 30 years. On par with Sentry: Fallen Son for me. I wonder how much of the story was editorial driven?

  36. Avatar photo TheRealVenom says:
    October 19, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    Matt Fraction… you have let me down for the last time.

  37. Avatar photo TheRealVenom says:
    October 19, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    We all should try and get #FIREJOEQUESADA trending on Twitter. This guy is KILLING marvel.

  38. loki2486 says:
    October 20, 2011 at 12:25 am

    To me the major problem with this Fear Itself event is that the marvel characters are being written without that essence that define who they are. It’s almost like some else is playing their part.

    I mean… Spiderman would never abandon a fight and go home… peter has never given up regardless of how powerful the villain… didn’t he punch-out FireLord?

    The hulk easily got enslaved… is this the same hulk that numerous people in the past had tried to mind-control or possessed only to find that they were no match for his rage.

    Iron Man-Tony Stark known for using technology to edge out his opponents… he decided to get drunk and go all mystical.

    Captain America known for his leadership and battle tactics… he just grab gonna some guns and lead a charge against an almost omnipotent god standing on a flying mountain… really?

    Thor known for his nobility, hit and almost killed the possessed Thing through the back with his hammer…

    • Avatar photo Urthona says:
      October 21, 2011 at 4:40 pm

      Right on, Loki. Especially the Hulk bit. It’s not that had to figure out, Hulk gets too-pissed off to be mind controlled. I hated how he just got enslaved without even seeming to put up a fight, and smash Betty too!?!

  39. Avatar photo CrazyK says:
    October 20, 2011 at 3:31 am

    Ok, this is not great, and it is not on the right side of the “Good” border, and it is easily the worst of the Marvel Yearly Event books since they started with House Of M, but the book does read better altogether. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a mess, with just snippets of important plot points that happen in other books (the Tony Stark storyline particularly), Odin and Spidey and Cap acting completely out of character, and nothing happening between the attack on DC and the release of the mystic weapons to the Avengers… and really, all that build up for ten pages to waste the big bad guy? So, it’s still got it’s problems and I want it to be over (and I don’t get that wish), but I am not abandoning Marvel over it. Especially with Waid’s Daredevil and Parker’s Thunderbolts being two of the best books in existence right now.

  40. Avatar photo Book says:
    October 20, 2011 at 7:27 am

    Very bad book. So bad, that I had to log in and post this scathing comment to help ease my anger.

  41. Avatar photo thompsonlive says:
    October 20, 2011 at 10:28 am

    ZOMG! I want this god awful event erased from the marvel history books! Not only did it waste 7 months of the fans time but it wasted 7 months of beautiful art by Immonen that could have been on a good book. Seriously what editor let Matt Fraction shit all over Stuart Immonen’s art with this horrible excuse for an “event”. Never again matt fraction, if your name is on a book I will not buy it!

  42. Avatar photo RoiVampire says:
    October 20, 2011 at 10:47 am

    For real? That’s how it ended? the storytelling from Fraction and Immonen was so off this issue i didn’t even realize Thor was dead until the issue was over. It also doesn’t help that they launched a new Thor book a few months ago so we know he’ll be back probably next month.

    • MisterJ says:
      October 20, 2011 at 11:10 am

      I read my buddy’s copy and I honestly thought that Thor just passed out. I do not even know how he died. (Obviously in the battle, but it did not look as if he was suffering grievous injuries) If this issue had been three or four times as long, it could have been good. But so much just was not earned.

    • Avatar photo ABirdseysView says:
      October 20, 2011 at 7:36 pm

      that book will be The Mighty Tanarus, so not necessarily.

  43. Avatar photo chop360 says:
    October 20, 2011 at 11:08 am

    well since i am in the minority group i really enjoyed this event. Is it the best no but it isn’t the worst either. Is it bad enough to leave Marvel, Hell to the no, not every comic book will be a grand slam homerun all companies have there ups and there downs. For me i enjoy a story that can take me away from the daily bull-shit and add a little enjoyment in the day.

    • Avatar photo cahubble09 says:
      October 20, 2011 at 11:27 am

      Of course, with the DC reboot underway, the sales numbers during Fear Itself will seem to repudiate those of us who actually enjoyed this book and who appreciate where Marvel seems to be heading with all these characters. I contend that in the long run the DC “New 52” will have clearly failed to bring new readers/customers into the industry and will most certainly have failed to launch a new digital market (if Ultimate Spider-Man #1 broke digital sales records then the day/date launch of “New 52” titles must have been abysmal).

      I guarantee that in six months most folks will be praising the story-telling of the Marvel titles following Fear Itself and will be lamenting the utterly pitiful state of the DC crop (Bat books aside).

    • Avatar photo Conor Kilpatrick">Conor Kilpatrick (@cskilpatrick) says:
      October 20, 2011 at 11:49 am

      @cahubble09: Marvel announced that ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-Man set a digital sales record. That means that it’s the best selling *Marvel* book, digitally. They would have no access to DC’s sales numbers.

    • Avatar photo cahubble09 says:
      October 20, 2011 at 10:51 pm

      @Conor: Thanks … duh … Marvel sales record … thanks for the redirect. But my other point remains cogent. The point of the DC reboot as I understood it was not just to revitalize sales, but to bring NEW READERS into the industry and to do that by building a DIGITAL market. I’ll be very curious to see DC’s sales in six months (of course, we’ll likely never be privy to their digital sales numbers). Frankly, I don’t see how the “New 52” will accomplish that … particularly the content of some of their books (esp. hypersexualization of Catwoman and Starfire) won’t fly very far with young readers engaging via digital platforms. And on the basis of conversations I’ve had with owners at one LCS in Denver, they’re not seeing NEW readers coming into their store, but OLD’ish readers who are returning to the fold. How long will that last? What does it say about the entire reboot when arguably the best of the “New 52” was one we’ve been waiting nearly two years to read?

  44. Avatar photo party says:
    October 20, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    I will say, this book was damn gorgeous. Immonen did a great job throughout, too bad the script was really weak.

  45. Avatar photo chewie810 says:
    October 20, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    The problem that I had with Fear Itself is that I was never surprised. Marvel gave away almost everything in teasers. With Flashpoint there was still surprises despite the marketing around it. When Barry was burned by the lightening at the end of the first issue, or when Billy Batson was killed I was genuinely surprised. Who the Worthy were, who got Iron Man’s weapons, and Thor’s death were all given away by the teaser campaign, and for me this really hurt the story. Even Bucky’s death felt telegraphed for me. I think if some of this had been discovered in the story itself then I would have enjoyed it more. I know they need to market the events to help drum up excitement, but I think Marvel went too far on this one and gave too much away to the point where it hurt the story.

  46. edward says:
    October 20, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    If you liked this, just remember people like AVATAR when it came out too

  47. loki2486 says:
    October 20, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Whatever happened to the-I’m paraphrasing- “Whoever picks up Thor’s hammer will get the power of Thor?” Isn’t that like one of the core standards of the marvel universe?

    This whole event makes absolutely no sense and the story has no flow… Iron Man came back with weapons that will equalize the field, but no explanations were given why a particular weapon was given to that specific character… Hawkeye got a bow (anyone thought about that ’90 Dungeons and Dragons cartoon?) and Logan got spikes and glowing claws… why did Ms.Marvel get a battle axe?

    The climax of the series only covered a few pages, and the aftermath was soooo cheesy… yeah… on par with Sentry: Fallen Son.

    • loki2486 says:
      October 20, 2011 at 3:22 pm

      And oh… while Captain America was making his ‘final stand’ shooting at gods with machine gun… the rest of the team were just standing around?

  48. Avatar photo yyzKyle says:
    October 20, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    This was not very good.

  49. Avatar photo WaltKellysGhost says:
    October 21, 2011 at 1:05 am

    Why are people buying this if they hate it? You would figure with all the damning of this book that most of the hate reaction would have resulted in “drops” a few issues ago. I see people talking about hating every issue as it comes out. Why are you buying it? This thread should just have just dropped down to only the happy minority by now.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      October 21, 2011 at 6:48 am

      I think there have been a lot of people who begrudgingly stuck with this because it’s Marvels Event Title, but I also think there are many people who HAVE dropped it, but felt compelled to continue hating on it after the effect.

      I stuck with it because I kept seeing the potential for the story. Even as my interest waned somewhere after issue 3 or 4, I hung around because I’ve never been the kind of guy that could bail on a bad movie after an hour.

      For my patience, I end up leaving extremely disappointed because the potential I saw in those early issues was not fulfilled at all!

      Most of the time, the real ending of a story is ten times better than my meager guesses….this ending felt (and in particular the execution of the ending) fell short in a big way.

      I’m gonna re-read it all in one afternoon this weekend, but I don’t think it’s going to hold together any better.

      I’m not going to completely write off Matt Fraction or abuse him personally (like a lot of people seem to like to do almost reflexively), but he’s done better work. Even Immonen was off his game in the final issue.

      One word review: disappointing.

    • Avatar photo cosmo says:
      October 21, 2011 at 12:57 pm

      I borrowed it from a friend, so I didn’t have to pay money for it. If borrowing had not been an option, I probably would have dropped the series after 4 (that’s when the heroes just “gave up’, right?).

    • Avatar photo wallythegreenmonster says:
      October 21, 2011 at 2:05 pm

      totally agree and i think Ken is onto something. Personally, I’m not going to spend my money on something i know i won’t like just so i can have ammo for internet ramblings. Thats so “comic shop guy.”

    • Avatar photo Urthona says:
      October 21, 2011 at 5:23 pm

      The art. Re-read the comments. Immonen kept alot of us around.

    • Avatar photo Invasionforce says:
      October 22, 2011 at 6:41 pm

      You never know whether the ending of a story will redeem a poor start. I hated, hated, hated “The Maltese Falcon” until literally the last 15 pages, which made the novel worthwhile for me.

    • Avatar photo darknite125 says:
      October 23, 2011 at 2:07 am

      I read the first issue and did not care for it so I dropped it with the plan of picking up the series again if I heard good things about it, but as is obvious at this point I have not really heard good things about it. Thanks Marvel for saving me money I guess and I didn’t make the same mistake I did with Secret Invasion by buying every issue in the vain attempt it would pick up.

  50. Avatar photo Eadge says:
    October 21, 2011 at 2:20 am

    5 stars for Immonen and 1 for a story I didn’t care about. I hate that we lost Bucky Cap and Thor (2 of my favorite characters) over this “event”.

  51. Avatar photo Neeks says:
    October 21, 2011 at 7:29 am

    This was just bad…. not much more to say then that

  52. Avatar photo cosmo says:
    October 21, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    I think that one of the main problems with this event is that the story pretty much came out of nowhere. Say what you will about Secret Invasion, Siege and Blackest Night, but prep work was done in regular titles befoe the event exploded. The reader had a sense of what set the narrative in motion. For Fear Itself, we got an one-shot or two? The Serpent was never really developed as a character. We were told that he has a gudge against Odin, that he feels cheated out of his true inheritence, but we never get the details. Indeed, his character never developes beyond the level of “I hate you, and I’m going to kill you now.” Ok, next week, we get a flashback to the early days of Odin and the Serpent, but why coukln’t we have been this earlier in the story? Maybe Loki was onto something in Journey into Mystery when he suggests that The Serpent needs a humanizes element added to his character. We sure didn’t get one in the main book . . .

    I’ve been bothered since issue #1 with Fraction’s protrayal of Odin, though to be honest, I didn’t like his story arc in Thor before it became Journey. Personally, I don’t think that he should be writing Asgard books . . .

    Thor seems to average a death a decade (90s, 00s, now the 10s). I’m giving this on until the spring when Marvel heads into hyper drive for the Avengers film.

    Does anyone know if Marvel has said who will sit on Asgard’s thorne now? Odin is gone, Thor is dead, Balder’s in limbo, and Loki’s a teenager. Volstagg your moment is now! More realistically, how about Sif?

    So overall, I wouldn’t say that the series was trash, but I was severly disappointed. I also find it interesting that this issue had about 800 pulls last I saw and Fearless had about 200. Marvel may feel a hit to their sales from all this after all . . .

  53. Avatar photo kineAg62 says:
    October 21, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    While I agree that this issue (2/5 for me) and event was a disappointment, I really think the condemning of Fraction needs to stop. The man had a bad event. Oh well. He still writes the hell out of Invincible Iron Man and Casanova and I’m damn excited for Defenders. Nobody likes over exaggeraters.

    • Avatar photo glwarm76 says:
      October 22, 2011 at 7:55 am

      Invincible Iron-man was one of the best Marvel titles for a long time, but I dropped it in the spring after the quality of the title dropped significantly. I can’t comment on the current quality of the title but I haven’t seen rave reviews or significant buzz on the title for a while, so it’s safe to assume it’s not as great as it once was. You failed to mention Fraction’s complete failure on Uncanny X-men and his current mediocre Thor run, which at best has received a mixed response and is generally considered inferior to JIM. I agree that Casanova is still going strong but that doesn’t erase Fraction’s track record of failures at Marvel. I was a huge fan of Fraction and still hope that he turns it around with Defenders but I can’t ignore his recent failures.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      October 22, 2011 at 5:10 pm

      I’m also not a fan of the Fraction-bashing even though I was severely disappointed with the ending of Fear Itself.

      One of the things I’ve been wondering about is this: with so many fans claiming “event fatigue” over the last year or so, did Fear Itself ever *really* have a chance at being successful?

    • Avatar photo adrianrigter says:
      October 23, 2011 at 1:02 pm

      well, in the end DC’s Flashpoint event was OK. not great, but not bad by any strech. Fear Itself on the other hand was terrible. nice art but everything else about it was woeful.

    • Avatar photo kineAg62 says:
      October 24, 2011 at 3:00 pm

      I thourougly enjoyed Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men run and while his Thor run hasn’t been the best, I can say that it is at least entertaining enough to buy a copy every month. The only reason that Invincible Iron Man hasn’t been as good recently is because it was tieing into FI. With that ordeal over, it’s time for the Mandarin, Stane, and Hammer Industries to strike. So excited for future Iron Man issues by Fraction.

  54. Avatar photo Ruo21 says:
    October 22, 2011 at 1:46 am

    Is this the first time an event book has received 0% of the POTW percentage. First time I’ve seen it.

  55. Avatar photo Gomiboy1975 says:
    October 22, 2011 at 5:24 am

    Don’t think I can add any new perspective, only reinforce the consensus that this event has been dire. Plagued by poor and uncharacteristic dialogue, missed opportunities, baffling editing, which made no sense, flat characters who seemingly had their personalities collectively erased by a writer who clearly wasn’t up to the task. The only redeeming aspect of the whole run was Stuart Immonen’s exceptional art work. But even that was hampered at times by Fraction’s writing.

    Hopefully Marvel will recover from this soon rather than later. One thing is for sure – Matt Fraction should be relegated to the fringes after failing spectacularly on this high-profile event book.

  56. Avatar photo blkassassin106 says:
    October 22, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    This was like the series finale of Lost. It left more questions than answers. For example: how did Wolverine get flaming adamantum claws?

  57. Avatar photo Natebot says:
    October 22, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    I really didn’t think this was as bad as everyone else did. This event wasn’t great as a whole but it was hardly the worst thing ever, at least in my opinion.

  58. rrrafa says:
    October 23, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    I feel ripped off. After buying all 7 issues… I WANT MY MONEY BACK! What a horrible piece of crap this series turned out to be in the end.

    • Avatar photo adrianrigter says:
      October 23, 2011 at 12:58 pm

      err…perhaps you should not have bought all seven issues then, stop buying when a book gets bad, in the case of Fear Itself, that would have been around issue two.

  59. Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
    October 23, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    I just finished re-reading the whole thing in as close to one sitting as I could and I’m left with the same feeling I’ve had after seeing a Michael Bay Transformers film.

    Big things happened, and they looked cool, but ultimately left me feeling nothing.

    I feel like something got lost on the road from Fraction’s outline to his script. All the beats of a decent story occur, but some beats are glossed over (the transformations of The Mighty, for one) while others should have been downplayed or omitted entirely (Spidey leaving to check on Aunt May). I feel like the leisurely pace of the early issues forced the story to race through its third act. And it was never terribly clear what effect The Serpent was having on our characters (does his ability to inspire fear explain Spidey’s departure or Cap’s defeated attitude? I’m not sure.)

    Personally, I wish we had seen the Asgardians enter the fray earlier, and just destroy everything in trying to save Midgard and stop The Serpent and his forces. Thor and Bucky’s deaths might have had a little more weight to them (since we’d actually see hordes of warriors fighting all over the planet). And I would have liked to have a little bit better understanding of how The Worthy and The Mighty were chosen.

    This is the first Marvel event I read as it came out, so I have nothing to compare the experience to, but I can say Fear Itself, while not all that good, DID read better in one sitting. Immonen elevates the story in a lot of cases, and the coloring is FANTASTIC, so overall, I’ll give it a C+.

    • Avatar photo wallythegreenmonster says:
      October 23, 2011 at 4:52 pm

      interesting take. I was initially going to pass, but then the press conf and early review of #1 really convinced me to give it a shot. After issue 2 i just did not see anything to keep my interest and justify the purchase.

      Thanks for doing a mini wrap up review though. Post it as an official review just for posterity or whatever.

  60. Avatar photo ResurrectionFlan says:
    October 24, 2011 at 2:27 am

    I think the main problem is that in older event books the heroes had to be clever to defeat the enemies but in this, Siege and Blackest night they just randomly have enough power at the end to bop them on the heads. Wow. Just do that at the start! PUNCH THEM HARDER TO START WITH.

    Oh for the days of an Ultimate Nullifier or a logical conundrum.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      October 24, 2011 at 6:48 am

      That’s an interesting point. I guess if you look at event comics like an arms race – in that each one has to raise the stakes higher than the last – Marvel’s reached the point where they’ve got so many “nukes” (I don’t know exactly what it stands for in the simile yet, just go with me) they can destroy the planet many times over if anything goes wrong.

      Therefore, Fear Itself is kind of like a Cuban Missle Crisis moment. Depending on your perspective, Marvel is now on the brink of nuclear war, or preparing for their first nuclear winter. I think the it’s the former, but time will tell.

      It’s probably not unlike what DC went through with Final Crisis — things had gotten so amped up that there was nowhere left to go. It took a few years, but they’ve recovered. I have no doubt Marvel can do the same.

  61. Avatar photo Flash923 says:
    October 24, 2011 at 8:05 am

    I am very glad this is over as well; and like everyone else it seems Marvel can not just let it die! Of course; there are readers like me that start a series lose intrest and then still buy the damn books because; I for one am afraid I might mis something. That is pretty damn stupid, right? For me that seems to be my weakness and I do it with on going titles as well like; Blue Beetle, Omac, and a couple of others. I will be stopping this starting next month I promise, I hope; maybe…see what I mean DAMN IT!
    Lets recap a little. the artwork in this series had its ups and downs, the story was a bad rip off of Darkest Night and now here comes there version of Brightest Day and all of that crap. Hammers instead of rings, all of the darkness and sadness and fear to me as I read this series I could feel the similarities but none of the intrest. Maybe I am way off here however; that is the way I saw it.
    The only good thing that came from this was Alpha Flight mini and then made into an ongoing and then they change their minds and go back to ending in 8. Great job Marvel; please remember no matter how succesful your movies are it is the comic book readers that go to see the movies two or three times as well as buy your books and you need to bring the quality back not the quantity.

    Just sayin’,
    K

  62. Avatar photo Flash923 says:
    October 24, 2011 at 8:10 am

    Oh sorry I gave this issue a 0.5 out of for what I read, stopped and started it was just awful and made it difficult to read.
    The whole series I give a 2 only because I am being generous due to some of the artwork and some of the banter between characters thru out.

    Just sayin’.

    K

  63. Avatar photo cahubble09 says:
    November 5, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    I still don’t get why so many people have their collective panties in a twist over this. Taken rationally, this series deserves at least 3 or 4 stars out of five. The art has been stellar. The story has been more cerebral, but that doesn’t mean it has been a BAD story. It just hasn’t been in most readers’ wheelhouses. It moved several characters and the Marvel universe forward. Thor being dead makes sense, even if it has been done before. Cap’s shield being healed with a crack in it is incredibly evocative imagery, in my opinion. It evokes the Liberty Bell and only adds to the character’s gravitas. With that said, Journey Into Mystery felt like the main book to me … and Home Front stunk to high heaven (except for the Speedball mini).

    Story = 3 / Art = 5 / Overall = 4

  64. Avatar photo Anxy says:
    November 6, 2011 at 9:09 am

    No idea what this event was about, or what it was supposed to accomplish. If Marvel thinks we believe Bucky and Thor are dead, they really need to re-establish their perception of their readership. This was a bloated, useless, cliched mess which only points that the age of event crossover projects are most certainly going the way of the dinosaur. It wasn’t even entertainingly awful…it was just bleak. Some nice art, I suppose. But overall, a big fail.

  65. mattfox7669 says:
    November 7, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    Just got my DCBS order and read this what a load of crap. Nice epilogues errrrrrrr advertisements for more new crapy books. And maybe this has been answered already but what caused Thor to die? He was not even really struck by the serpent. I guess u can’t win them all but this was really a poor effort.

Leave a Comment