It’s funny how I’ve been enjoying this series more so since the Fear Itself tie-ins started. I’m not sure why that is but it might have to do with the fact that Jeff Parker is going full out on the story since the event started. He’s juggling so many characters and so much plot into each issue it’s amazing to see it actually work and not be confusing to follow. I’m not sure if this is the final Fear Itself tie-in issue but it certainly feels like a solid end of an arc and Parker even puts more craziness on the pages.

Let’s get to the elephant in the room though and say that the change in artists is a bit of a shame here. Declan Shalvey was doing some of his best work during this arc and it’s weird to not see him do this issue. I guess since he’s doing the .1 issue coming up this month he didn’t have time to do this. Instead we get Valentine de Landro and Matthew Southworth to do the pages and to be fair they do a pretty good job here. It’s difficult to figure out who’s doing what page though since I’m not familiar with their work. Sometimes it’s obvious to see a drastic change in the pencils. For example, I’m sure most of the pages is by Lando until Man-Thing becomes huge by the end. The character models completely change by that point. But give credit to colorists Frank Martin and Fabio D’Auria to make it look consistent with the change. There are some great pages in this though from Songbird putting a barrier up, to Thunderbolts tower firing on the monsters, to Satana putting everything in her way on fire. However there are points where I get completely confused on what’s going on and the story does get lost at some points. But it’s not frequent enough to be a deal breaker.

I’m excited to see where this story is gonna go now. Jeff Parker just wrote himself a huge revelation here and I’m curious to see where it goes from here. Also, how in the hell are they going to get Man-Thing back to normal? It’s stuff like that, that makes me interested to keep reading in one of the most hectic comic books printed right now. But Jeff Parker continues to write a great story with some great artists helping him out. If it wasn’t for some of the poor storytelling choices with the art in these pages this could be a strong contender for best title at Marvel. Still, it’s one hell of a ride to read each issue.