Fear Itself 1

Written by Matt Fraction
Penciled by Stuart Immonen

Review by currentcomicguy

Marvel’s biggest event since the Civil War hits the ground rolling.  Fear Itself is said to alter the face of the Marvel Universe forever.  Those changes are already set in motion in the first of the seven issue limited series.

This issue laughs in the face of any Fear Itself nay-sayers as far as I am concerned.  The heavily hyped series goes above and beyond expectations.  Matt Fraction once again proves why he is one of the top writers by combining Nazis and Norse mythology.

The Red Skull’s daughter, Sin, has obtained an ancient Norse weapon that is apparently from before the time of the All Father, Odin.  As the weapon transforms her into a goddess, the newly resurrected Odin becomes aware of how big a threat Sin has become.  A visibly shaken Odin realizes that Uatu has appeared to further Odin’s fears. The Odin and Uatu scene, as well as Thor and Odin’s argument, show why Fear has been chosen as the theme.  Fraction’s dark and ominous tone dominates the story from the first page.

Stuart Immonen does a great job with the scale of this book.  The writing provides a wide variety of subjects for Immonen to pencil: rioting, the Avengers, Nazis, dinner parties, Norse Gods, and even deep sea monsters.  The visual story telling is just as impressive as the written story.  Plus, Immonen’s Watcher doesn’t look like he ate McDonalds for a year straight.  My only complaint, and this is me nit-picking, is the Red Hulk’s receding hairline.

Fans of Marvel should be reading this.  Fans of other stuff looking to get into Marvel should also give it a try; the story is fresh and easy to follow unlike other large scale events.