Fear Itself: Secret Avengers

Secret Avengers (2010) (Collected Editions) #3

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Cullen Bunn, Scot Eaton (Illustrator)

With Sin tightening her grip on the Eastern seaboard, Steve Rogers' black-ops Avengers take to the front lines of Fear Itself! War Machine, Ant-Man and Beast defend Washington D.C., the immortal Valkyrie leads a squad of mortal soldiers and Black Widow fights for the honor of Bucky Barnes.

Collecting: Secret Avengers 12.1, 13-15 & Fear Itself: Black Widow

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Science Fiction

120 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Nick Spencer is a comic book writer known for his creator-owned titles at Image Comics (Existence 2.0/3.0, Forgetless, Shuddertown, Morning Glories), his work at DC Comics (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), and for his current work at Marvel Comics (Iron Man 2.0, Ultimate Comics: X-Men).

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remember back in grade school when your mom packed you an apple in your lunch: a delicious, nutritious apple. It usually ended up in the trash. What I really wanted was either a mini-pie or butter scotch krimpets.

The stories contained in this volume are for the most part apples. Decent little stories about mortality, love and patriotism, but what I was looking for was more guys getting punched in the face.

The first story had (I think) one of those old time Captain Americas who mixed super soldier serum and crack. He stole and revealed a list of all double agents who helped against HYDRA. Not a good situation for those on the list. Not at all.

I have four words for the second story: Night at the Museum! Talk about pulling a plot line out of their rear ends. A screaming line drive to the collective groin of Marvel editors on this one.

Story three: Valkyrie in a studded, leather outfit somewhat redeems Marvel here. Somewhat.

Story four: At gunpoint, Black Widow discusses the finer points of super hero mortality with some slimy editors of a internet news website. Smexy*.

Story five: Black Widow teams up with a crappy French superhero. I guess Aunt May was busy. Boiteux!!

Next up: Fear Itself: Squirrel Girl

* You owe me, Anne!

[Relstuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mishmash of stories and not enough characterization or depth. The first story tried to be a Edward Snowden (starring US Agent) facing off with Cap after releasing a bunch of secret intel about people that have tipped off the Feds about bad guys over time. The story didn't make sense and they could have made this a really thought-provoking story but the details were strained so that US Agent just looked like a very stupid person getting people killed that had tried to do the right thing at some point.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 Stars

Individual issues rated below -

Secret Avengers #12.1: 2/5
Secret Avengers #13: 2.5/5
Secret Avengers #14: 3/5
Secret Avengers #15: 2/5
Fear Itself: Black Widow: 3/5

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Five stand-alone tales, four of them tying-in to the Fear Itself event. I don't see the point of this series: "Secret" Avengers? What for? Is this supposed to be a tamer version - in a sense - of the balls-to-the-wall Uncanny X-Force? Covert operations for the overall good/stability of the Marvel U? For that, you need to read Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World by Warren Ellis. This book? Just your standard tie-in stories: "okay but forgettable". And sadly, that's how the whole book feels, except maybe for #13, in which a mutant brings to life monuments, including the Abraham Lincoln memorial, in order to help repel the invading forces of Sin.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fear Itself was a pretty limp event but the Fear Itself spinoffs made it much worse. The Secret Avengers issues during Fear Itself were pretty terrible. Most of the stories concentrate on the characters inner conflicts and how they overcame fear; this concept may sound alright but it's execution was horrible and sometimes I found it funny. Each character comes across someone they know or a situation that reminds them of the past and usually it's a boring dialogue-heavy story with no action. The funniest had to have been Beast's story where he meets a Senator who won't leave the Senate because has the floor; ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I laughed pretty hard and cringed at the ending which was very cliched. A truly boring spinoff, leave this one on the shelf.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second mystery book of the year from Zavvi’s Threads box.

For a 2 star review this graphic novel isn’t completely awful, but I certainly wouldn’t have gone out of my way to read it, if I hadn’t received it in the mystery box.

The story itself is meant to be part of the Secret Avengers team and a tie in to the Fear Itself event, which I read a few years ago. The team itself consists of Steve Rogers aka the original Captain America, War Machine, Black Widow, Beast, Moon Knight, Valkyrie, an Ant-Man, and Sharon Carter. Unfortunately we don’t get to spend much time with many members of the team.

Beast, War Machine and Ant-Man have an ok story trying to save a US Senator during the events of Fear Itself. Steve has a fight with US Agent over the leaking of confidential files. Valkyrie gets a flash back and origin story whilst dealing with a battle.

However most of this book deals with Black Widow. One story being labelled as Secret Avengers, the other a Black Widow story. Both though are very much focused on Widow. In itself not a bad thing. One of these stories is very meta and deals with the media and how they present the death of celebrities but also acts as a commentary on the death of superheroes in comics. To be honest this was probably the highlight of the graphic novel for me. The other Black Widow story involves her going on a covert mission to stop some terrorists.

Overall this is just not an engaging or mind blowing graphic novel. If there was more focus on the team, that would have been great. Also the stories didn’t directly seem to tie in or have much bearing on the events of Fear Itself, a common problem with events and additional material.

Not an easy graphic novel to recommend. It’s not awful, but definitely not the place to start if you are looking at getting into the Avengers, more for completists. I personally would be interested in checking out more of the Secret Avengers material as they are meant to be the under the radar covert/black ops Avenger squad.

[Sineala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Possibly I should have read Fear Itself first. This was just some very disparate character-focused stories about various members of the Secret Avengers team, with a lot of punching and also Natasha being sad that Bucky was "dead" and the Secret Avengers failing to save a bunch of spies after they were all compromised. Woo, grimdarkness?

[Emmett Spain · Rating 2 out of 5]

An utterly superfluous tie-in to a limp and dull event. The only issue worth reading was the one where Black Widow had a big old talk about superheroes and death with a junk internet newsroom. Better than it sounds, but not enough to elevate this above 2-stars.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another rather typical volume of rather uninspired tie-in adventures that attempt to work into the crossover framework, but just end up going no where special.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty much an entire TPB that has no value except as a fill-in. I’m pretty astounded that Spencer could do such a crappy job, but he does. First, he subverts the entire idea of a group by … not actually having the members act as a group. Then he tries to make the stories not even about the protagonists, so we get touching character pieces that are actually pretty boring. Spencer’s last issue is actually the best, but only because it’s an interesting meta-commentary on death in comics — which means it would have been great on a discussion board, not so much in a comic.

The Cullen Black Widow one-off isn’t any better, especially not with its big plot cheat.

There’s no value in picking up this trade. It’s not important to Secret Avengers continuity (if there is such a thing any more!) and it’s not much fun to read either.

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the weakest volume of Secret Avengers yet, but it is a tie in to an event so that isn't too surprising. Except for 12.1, each issue explores one of the characters in the team. I liked the Valkyrie and Black Widow issues best because they have some depth to the characters or showed another side of them that I wouldn't have initially thought about. Nick Spencer is a very wordy writer and that made these issues a little bit of a chore to get through however. He has some big ideas and I think if he can pare down his dialogue, he could be a strong writer for Marvel (or any other company for that matter). I'm looking forward to the next volume and see what Warren Ellis brings to this book.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

m'eh, the colors are nice, but when you really take a long look at the artwork, it`s all pretty much rushed and, well, typical Marvel SH-Tuff.

This was my first ever foray into the Fear Itself story-line, and it didn`t seem to make much sense. The back cover blurb says something about a giant Asgardian Serpent... but it`s nowhere to be seen in this collection of short and un-inspiring stories.

This book was given to me by fellow Goodreads reader, Martin - Thanks Martin... I'm sure the nièces and nephews will get a kick out of it when I pass it on to them.

[Joe Sergi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows how tie in issues should work. They don't retell the story, but instead expand it. The Black Widow issue was especially powerful. (too bad it was slightly inconsistent with the end of the story)

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor writing, bad art, no real addition to the Fear Itself storyline. Don't bother.

[Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty disappointing overall. Each issue here follows one character with no connecting themes. I don't have much exposure to Nick Spencer, but I wasn't a fan of his writing. He often uses humor in places where it doesn't belong and tries a little too hard to be deep, but it generally comes across pretty forced. The only issue of his I enjoyed was the last one (#15), where he explored what it means for a superhero to die. I thought that, while the debate itself was a bit forced, a lot of the points brought up by both sides were fairly interesting, and I enjoyed seeing the concept of heroes' uncertain death in the Marvel Universe explored. As for Scot Eaton's art, I thought it was pretty bad, and the coloring certainly didn't help. It's utterly uninspired. As for "Fear Itself: Black Widow", the issue written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Peter Nguyen, I actually really enjoyed it. Bunn wrote a pretty by the books spy story, and it worked fairly well. The art was actually pretty good, and the colors by Veronica Gandini suited the atmosphere well.

Overall, it was okay, but I was bored shitless until the last two issues. This gets 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 because this is just very meh and served very little purpose. And I doubt reading the main event Fear Itself would help much, as this didn't seem to have much to do with that. Completely skippable if you're reading Secret Avengers from Brubaker to Ellis to Remender.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secret Avengers issues #12.1, #13-15, and Fear Itself: Black Widow #1

This is mostly a throw-away volume of "Secret Avengers" because these issues take place during a large Marvel crossover event called "Fear Itself." The things that happen in this collection don't really have ramifications on the main event, but we still get some quiet, nice one-shot stories. The first issue in this collection features US Agent, and I'm a long-time fan of that character. Issue #15 in this collection is a Black Widow story that I really enjoyed. The story gets meta when civilian characters talk to Black Widow about that fact that death to them is real because when their family members die, they stay dead. Black Widow has recently lost her boyfriend, Bucky Barnes, and everyone assumes that since he is a superhero, he will eventually come back to life. In the world of superheroes, dead isn't dead forever. Another interesting moment comes when a woman that looks older than Black Widow asserts that she knows Black Widow is older than her although you couldn't tell by looking at the two women. Black Widow confirms that this is true, and it is almost as if Black Widow is acknowledging to the reading audience that some parts of time and continuity don't make any sense in the world of superheroes.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bueno, ya comenté que el inicio de Vengadores Secretos con Bru y Deodato me había parecido una maravilla y que la serie prometía mucho, pero es verdad que en cuanto los dos dejaron la serie, esta comenzó a perder calidad a toda velocidad. Y la primera prueba la tenemos en los crossover relacionados con Miedo Encarnado, con guión de Nick Spencer y dibujo de Scott Eaton, a modo de interinidad mientras llegaba el que se suponía que iba a relanzar la serie hasta las estrellas, Warren Ellis.

Así que, sin formar parte de las historias principales, creo que Nick Spencer tuvo poco margen de maniobra y se limitó a contar un par de historias independientes con Valquiria, Máquina de Guerra y Viuda Negra como protagonistas, pero historias que aportan poco o nada ni a la historia del crossover ni a la de los propios Vengadores Secretos.

[Jdetrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

These aren't necessarily bad comics, but they're not really Avengers comics. It feels more like a Bendis written comic, with each issue focusing on almost solo missions of one member of the team. And most of them seem to be low on action and high on Spencer using the characters to talk about issues that matter to him. There are some good ideas here, but I'm not sure they belong in an Avengers book.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fear Itself is one of my leave favorite crossover events in recent Marvel history and this tie-in with the Secret Avengers title not only barely connected to the main story but ended up as an odd anthology of disconnected stories that just felt weird. It didn't really feel like they played to the whole forcing heroes to live with their truths like what other such crossover books ended up doing. This was just sad.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

best one of the series so far. really loved the way the flashbacks were interwoven with present day, and the cross-cutting between different settings/times (is cross-cutting even the right word? that's a film word and i don't know what the comics word is)

i've only just noticed the red stripe down the leg on cap's stealth suit. was that always there?

[Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's just because I came into the Fear Itself crossover event for only a couple issues, but I found them to be super slow. The story wasn't as interesting as I was hoping, and it seemed completely unconnected with the other storyline, as well as with each other.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good little stories.
Didn't really feel like they were a part of the big picture.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. Not just a tie-in, but a tie-in to Fear Itself. And just side stories with no importance. I wish I had known this was skippable before I started!

[Gomezmr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is so fantastic.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked these stories quotw a bit. probably 3.5.
one off tales set during fear itself focusing on different characters. tie ins worth your time.

[J'aime · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing I can say about this Fear Itself crossover tie-in is that it made me want to read the Secret Avengers series with these characters. This group is an eclectic and interesting mix.

The book opens with Steve Rogers briefing the team on the extraction for an informant after a massive leak reveals the names of all informants (outright villains & otherwise). They can't save them all, so he has chosen this one person who seemed to act out of conscience. The mission does not go as planned. This story really had nothing to do with Fear Itself, but it was an intriguing look at this "secret" black ops team that has peaked my interest in reading the series. Next up, Beast finds himself helping a Congressmen get a message of hope out to the people during the crisis in DC. And lastly, Valkyrie leads a (human) military mission which calls to mind what her true purpose is.

The book also contains two Black Widow stories. Now, I always enjoy her character, but again the stories aren't necessary and do little to expand on the event. The first story has Natasha confronting an online tabloid about reporting that Bucky Barnes is not really dead. This story would be a total throwaway if not for its revealing look at how regular people view the heroes and their seeming immortality - "this isn't the first time Captain America has died." It was a cool idea that worked well in this brief story. Natasha's second mission is against a terrorist organization that is unhappy that the Serpent has upstaged them with his message of fear. They want to prove themselves. This story was heavy on the action, with an ending that fits perfectly with Widow's character. I liked it.

Overall, the stories in this collection were worth reading but are not worth the retail (or even discounted) price of the book. If you can get a cheap used copy, definitely pick it up.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no secret that I didn't like Ed Brubaker's Secret Avengers. It felt like a Captain America spinoff title rather than a proper Avengers book, focusing on Steve and Sharon to the point of ignoring everyone else.

Nick Spencer's four issues are very different, with his first showing how enjoyable a longer run of his could have been: he showcases each member well and tells a great story to boot.

His other three issues focus on Beast, Valkyrie, and Black Widow in turn. Each issue brings something new to the table. Both Beast and Valkyrie's issues are shining lights in the doom and gloom of Fear Itself, while Black Widow's issue manages to be relevant as well as examining the idea of comic book deaths, both in terms of the characters in-universe and the effect it can have on the reader - this was easily my favourite. Scott Eaton's art is perfect for these issues, clea and crisp and a great choice to follow Deodato.

Bringing up the rear is a one-shot by Cullen Bunn and Peter Nguyen focused on Black Widow again that is passable, but easily forgotten and has no effect on anything - in fact, it's difficult to pinpoint when it takes place during Fear Itself. This is a poor way to end the collection, which would have earned 5 stars without it, but loses one as a result.

[Melissa Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, demoted a bit from 3 stars because now that I've slept on it, this collection seems even more underwhelming. I'm fond of the Secret Avengers title and a lot of the characters — Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter working together, Black Widow, Beast. Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady here, who wasn't the best guy before this title apparently but I don't know him from then) and War Machine have a fun opposites relationship that provides regularly entertaining banter, and Valkyrie's back story here was promising and satisfying in its parallel of the current situation, though even her issue didn't quite fulfill its potential. I appreciate any unexpected cameos from Bucky-as-Cap, but the Black Widow stuff in this selection was pretty weak and provided almost zero insight into her character. A discussion about superhero mortality is actually a really interesting idea, but the execution was too talky and long.

[Silas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not particularly strong. The stories focus mostly on individual characters in vignettes that are tangentially related to the Fear Itself storyline. They... are not the best stories I have read. The Steve Rogers one is preachy, but you expect that from Steve Rogers. The one with Beast has a weird "Night at the Museum" quality, and focuses more on civil rights, which is not bad, but not a great fit for the event. The Black Widow stories have the "Our Gods Wear Spandex" angle, and is not particularly compelling... particularly when I would tend to think that instead of confronting the people, Black Widow would take care of that behind the scenes and destroy the paper, but I digress. Unless you are being a completest for either the Fear Itself event or the run of Secret Avengers, I would pass on this.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this volume, which is broken up through several different stories connected with The Fear Itself crossovers, the character finally arrives. Unfortunately it comes at the expense of the overall arc of the series--but that would have happened anyway as soon as a crossover took over the book, so I guess this is the best possible outcome.

The Valkyrie and Black Widow stories (the Secret Avengers issue that happens to be a Black Widow story, definitely not the Fear Itself: Black Widow story which was the worst part of hte volume) were particularly strong and insightful, plenty of action for the protagonist and some legitimate character insight in the Valkyrie issue, and a fantastic in world discussion of superhero mortality in the Black Widow issue. Those two were the two single best issues of the series so far in my opinion.