Fear Itself: The Fearless

Today saw the release of the first issue of my first major project for Marvel. I've done a few one shots here and there, a couple of tie-ins to Fear Itself, and a mini-series featuring the old school Defenders. But this is something a little different. Fear Itself: The Fearless is a pretty big undertaking–12 issues published twice a  month. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out, and I hope you will be, too. A few things to keep in mind about the series:

I'm working with two other writers–Matt Fraction and Chris Yost. We plotted the initial beats of this beast together, and now I'm scripting the series. As of this post, I've turned in scripts through issue 10, and I'll probably turn in issue 11 tomorrow.
Two artists–Mark Bagley and Paul Pellitier–are handling art chores on the series… and they're rocking on it.
Art Adams is doing the covers.
The protagonist of the story is Valkyrie, a character who is a lot of fun to write. She's seemed a little under-utilized to me, so my goal here is to make her a major player and give readers a better understanding of what makes her tick.
The bad guys are Sin and Crossbones, the new Red Skull and her Neo-Nazi boy toy. Yeah, they're a sweet couple. There are some other villains that show up in the third issue that I'm hoping get some more play once this series is finished.
There are more guest stars in the series than I can list here, but I'll name a few. Captain America, War Machine, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Thunderbolts, Namor, and a couple of surprises.
The story revolves around Valkyrie's quest to obtain the 8 hammers of the Serpent. Her reasons for collecting the hammers will be revealed over the course of the series. This, of course, puts her at odds with Sin… and everyone else in the Marvel Universe, hero and villain alike.
Even though this is a spin-off of Fear Itself, I don't think you have to read that series to enjoy this one. I think it might add to your enjoyment, but I tried to write this so someone could come into it without knowing any continuity and enjoy it.
There is, however, a 4-page epilogue at the end of Fear Itself that ties into The Fearless directly.
Valkyrie breaks a lot of stuff and beats up on a lot of people (and monsters… and robots… and vampires) in this series.

As you can imagine, I'm pretty anxious about the book. I'm definitely interested in what you think about it. I've heard reports from a few comic book shops that the book is selling well and selling out. That's good news! If your shop doesn't have it, they should be able to re-order it. Ask them to hold future copies for you. It's gonna be a wild ride.