chrisissnowie:

I’m currently sat in bed, midway through my second sitting of Marvel’s 2011 event Fear Itself. And I’m struggling. I’m really, really struggling.

As a Marvel comic book fan, I follow Spider-man’s exploits, Thor’s tales and the most recent version of The Avengers. So when an event rolls around with them all involved, I sure as hell want to read it. Enter Fear Itself, the story of Odin’s banished brother ‘The Serpent’ turning heroes and villains alike into his own personal army, with the sole purpose of reeking havoc and spreading terror across the world in an attempt to reach Asgard.

At least I think that’s what it’s about. So far it’s not making much sense. And for the pillar book of the series - y’know, the one you should be able to read as a casual comic book fan and get all of the story that you need to enjoy it - it’s a pretty poor experience.

Now Stuart Immonen is doing his damnedest to make the book visually interesting (as a huge Ultimate Spider-man fan, I’m always delighted to see his work), but all of his effort is overshadowed by the master of soulless dialogue Matt Fraction. I described my previous encounter with his work and my various nitpicks over his style and technique in an older Tumblr blog about his work on Iron Man, but here he commits a much more severe crime against literature - he simply doesn’t care.

He’s not writing characters; he’s writing lines and giving them to characters. He’s not building suspense; he’s throwing a bunch of action into a few frames simply to put it out there. And worst of all, he’s leaving the reader’s in the dark about why we should even care what’s happening to our heroes. *SPOILER ALERT* Midway through the arc, Captain America II, our beloved Bucky, dies at the hands of Sin/Skadi/Red Skull’s daughter but with a pony tail. It should be a gut-wrenching “holy crap I didn’t see that coming a mile off I can’t believe Bucky’s dead no one is safe from this evil” moment. Instead it’s a couple of panels, which are swept under the rug as the issue immediately continues.

So here I am, not even into the penultimate ‘Book Six’, and I’m thinking of stopping here, just so I can swiftly move along into Fear Itself: The Avengers & Fear Itself: Journey into Mystery, with Fear Itself: Spider-man arriving in the mail next month. Why? Coz I’d rather not waste any more time in Fraction’s world and instead move on to other, more character-considerate writer’s portrayals of the Fear Itself saga. And perhaps, unlike this hardcover, I won’t regret making those purchases in the first place.

If you need any further proof of how detached from their established characters the players in this story seem, just look below - Captain America’s shield is destroyed by The Seprent’s bare hands, which should be a truly frightening, jaw-dropping moment. Immonen does this justice, but Fraction? Well just read Cap’s ‘quip’ and try not to throw up.

Now look down into the bucket you have just filled, and take a good long sniff. That’s the exact same sensation I’m getting from reading this book.

It’s moments like these where I just want to read Spider Island one more time to remind myself that comics can still be frickin’ awesome when written with much more care.

Snowie, out.