Review – Fear Itself Book Two of Seven by Matt Fraction

Fear Itself

Book Two of Seven

Written by Matt Fraction

Art by Stuart Immonen

Cover by Steve McNiven

I'm a little late with this review, my fault I picked up a small glut of comics from Chucks Comics last Wednesday and its taken sometime  to get through them all. Finally though I've marshaled my thoughts on this dark issue.

First off, everything is really starting to fall apart and fall apart fast in this book. The hammers have fallen and the chosen ranks are starting to form now. The Avengers seemed to be stunned into inaction, or just so over extended they cannot fight all the fires cropping up across the globe. The Asgardians have finally come home and The Serpent starts its Blizkrieg.

Very busy issue, eh? A little too busy as the books seems to be devolving into a series of flashpoints as it struggles to bring the scope of this story into focus. Just like the Avengers the book suffers from not being able to dedicate enough time other than give a nod to what is going on.

I'm trying to understand the links between the chosen, apart from all of them being super-strong before they got their hands on the hammers.  I am sure over the remaining books we will see different characters wield the hammers as well.

The book is dark, and everything is really starting to fall apart. There is strong sense of uncertainty running throughout it, a good use of talking head dialog to ramp up the tension. The story is still be set up, but now you start to see that this is going to be a rough ride for everyone involved. Even Odin seems to be afraid, and rather fight defensively than take the battle direct to the Serpent while he is still weak… Is the Serpent more powerful than the All Father?

I do have a couple of questions, Sin who gained he power of a god when she grabbed her hammer is now using an exo-armor suit to attack Washington DC? Didn't she take on Serpents in the depth of the ocean with nothing than a hammer in her last book? The Avengers seems to be doing nothing more than looking at a large monitor screen, and it doesn't feel right seeing Steve Rodgers just sitting there.

I didn't like the spotty nature of the story, and I'm still a little even fatigued. I am though looking forward to seeing where this is going and I'm looking forward to Book Three.

3.5 thumbs up out of 5