For a line of books called Fear Itself, this event hasn't been especially scary. No doubt it's terrifying for people in the Marvel Universe -- I'd be shaken up if glowing dudes with hammers showed up on my block -- but it's just violence. Yawn. Otherwise, nothing has been too horrifying, too unsettling.

Until this issue. Three words: Aurora, stab, "UNITY!" And, suddenly, we're in slasher horror territory.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier's split personality is one of the most compelling and under-appreciated mental illnesses in Marvel, and Pak and Van Lente are milking it for all the creepy potential it has to offer. First she's literally battling her inner demons in the skies over Ottawa, and then -- stab. "UNITY!" Eaglesham handles the acting spectacularly in these scenes, and conveys the violence better by not showing it -- we get a close-up of her mouth, a drop of blood spraying across the lip, and then "UNITY!"

Meanwhile, the larger plot is briskly moving forward, and now the promised Alpha-Flight-vs.-the-government story is under way. The brainwashed Heather Hudson is putting together a team of Alpha Flight's friends and foes alike, and it looks as if, in addition to getting the team back together, Pack and Van Lente are reassembling a real Alpha Flight rogues gallery.

If you need a bit more fear in your Fear Itself, now's a good time to give this miniseries a try.

Take a stab at it, as it were.