Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt

Fear Itself #8

by Sean McKeever, Mike Norton (Illustrator)

With a growing sense of uncertainty and despair gripping the nation - and the world - the remnants of the Initiative program are sworn in as federal agents charged with keeping the peace. Their ensuing actions, however, threaten to plunge America's young heroes into civil war! Featuring Avengers: the Initiative stars Thor Girl, Ultragirl, Cloud 9, Komodo and Hardball - plus Firestar, Gravity and some very cool surprises -youth in revolt brings the horror of Fear Itself to the doorstep of a generation!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Adventure, Ebooks, Graphic Novels Comics

168 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2012

About the author

After writing indie comics (such as the ensemble teen-drama The Waiting Place) for six years, Sean got his big break writing an issue of The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Comics in 2001. Since then, Sean has written hundreds of comics for Marvel, DC Comics and other publishers, including notable runs on Sentinel, Inhumans, Mystique, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Gravity, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans.

Best known for delivering introspective, character-driven work, Sean also wrote several weeks of the Funky Winkerbean syndicated comic strip, much of which has been reprinted in the celebrated collection, Lisa's story: the other shoe.

In 2005, Sean won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

Sean continues to write comic books; he also writes for the videogame and animation industries.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

A group of D-list young heroes - think the likes of Gravity, Komodo, and Prodigy but not the one from Young Avengers, the one from Slingers - tear strips off each other while the world goes to Hell. Fear Itself was, in case you've forgotten or were sensible enough not to care, the particularly low-concept crossover event where a bunch of characters who were already quite smashy got hammers that made them smashier, and this was meant to say something about our tendency to distrust each other in a crisis? Which is the sort of idea I could forgive a creator who'd come up with it whilst completely hammered (arf!), but Fraction is sober, so fuck knows. Anyway. At one point here two supposed heroes are smacking each other so hard that they cause an earthquake which levels chunks of Vegas - a city that, lest we forget, just got levelled again in another Marvel crossover, Secret Empire, and has now been resurrected (but with demons!) in yet another, Damnation. I'm sure there was a reason why I thought this might be worth reading, but right now it escapes me.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This follows the young heroes, including those who had been in the initative. It's problematic, especially when one happens to wield a hammer, and a lot of them just don't get on. Some nice character stuff but not essential reading for this comics event.

[Geoff Derks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to see some characters I haven't thought of since the Initiative was disbanded. Prodigy, Thor Girl, Frog-Man, and even Butterball are part of this series.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was really liking the story until the end when it felt like everyone was about to hold hands and start singing kumbaya. No subtlety here, just kept pounding the “We can all be Heroes” kool-aid. It’s too bad, because there was a good story here that kept getting pushed aside.

[Sean Toland · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute garbage. One of the heroes murders some homeless people and then levels a city and never suffers any consequences. They don’t even doubt they were right for doing it! Trash story, about garbage people, being stupid and awful to each other.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the best books I ever found in the cheap bin at a convention I want more thor girl

[Anthony Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really like these characters and the way the group communicate. i want to read more about the main characters.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the exception of Prodigy (I loved Slingers), I had little connection to the characters here. I had seen Gravity before in Beyond! but didn't really get to know him all that well. Despite not knowing most of the characters (and having apparently missed significant chunks of the ones I did know), this was an engaging read. Unlike some other readers, I don't have any particular issue with Thor Girl. It's not a great name, but when her defining characteristic is that she venerates and emulates Thor, it kind of makes sense. As someone who venerates Thor in real life, I don't find this particularly difficult to believe, and actually liked the one panel I noticed here where a group of heroes was defending what appeared to be a heathen temple (with real, live Asgardians walking around, I am surprised we don't see more heathens in the Marvel universe, honestly). Several characters had satisfying arcs here, and this was not just a throw away tie-in story, but worthwhile in its own right. It definitely helps if you have read the main event to explain some of what is going on, but if you are only going to read one or two tie-ins, this is rather high on the list.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was about a bunch of heroes I've never heard of so that was kind of fun. Unfortunately one was named "Thor Girl". So I spent sometime getting over that unfortunate fact and then enjoyed the rest. This was a little deeper than the X-Force/Deep story and more integrated with the Fear Itself event too. The characters had flaws and a history together.

So nothing earth-shattering but not bad.

[Gary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 221

3.5, rounded up to 4