I am not getting too excited. Siege started quite promising, as did Secret Invasion, and even the horrible Shadowlands trainwreck had an alright first issue. Then they platter out into nothing more than a ridiculously powered-up punch-fest, devoid of plot, character development, and just about everything else crucial to a good narrative. So. I am not going to get excited just to GET BURNT AGAIN, MARVEL!

That disclaimer aside, isn’t Fear Itself looking kind of good?

Mini-boss Sin, Red Skull’s daughter, awoke the Asgardian God of Fear* and now, they plan on wrecking havoc the World/World-Tree and becoming Queen/All-Father. We haven’t learned yet how powerful he might be, and I think that in part is the appeal. How powerful is Fear? The opening scene had Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter failing to contain a riot over 9/11 Mosque. Steve suspects supervillian foul play, and I did too—seriously, the event is called Fear Itself, and there you go, fear manifested. Turns out, that’s just how things are in the world. Tony Stark sharply reminds Steve—“Captain America doesn’t come with the same cache as it once did. And you’re not even that anymore.”

Which is to say: It isn’t the Golden Age, it isn’t the Silver Ages, it’s not even the Dark Ages where heroes can just get a bit tougher and meaner—and the hero, and how he is perceived as changed. People have not felt secure for a while now and they do not trust authority figures to serve and protect. So here lies the challenge, how will the superheroes protect the people from Fear, when they are already afraid? Fraction has proven himself quite clever in his ability to tie in politics, culture, technology and other dressings of the modern life. I think he could write a smart series that address how superheroes might confront the changes in the world in a way that’s true to their character, and remain superheroes.

And. I think Fraction can do this while writing an entertaining book. Fraction leans towards a thinky-talky book and is not always that great with boom-pow, but given a roster of heavy hitters (this is an Avengers book, folks) and a dangerous situation, the book should automate generate a nice amount conflict and action. Between the good guys alone, we should be able to see different view points emerge and clash. The first issue already gave us a great confrontation between Thor and Odin.

The bad guys aren’t too shabby either. We don’t know that much about the God of Fear yet, but I have enjoyed the mini-boss. Reviewers have criticized Sin as a drag to read, and admittedly, she really isn’t that deep a character—but I find her really funny. She is constantly talking to her dead father, and shooting Nazis librarians, and she literally stated that she wants to be “Queen of the World”—does no one else find this funny?

Did I mention the art is wonderful? Stuart Immonen has this clean, legible art style—with just that tad bit of fantasy and exaggeration to make characters look spectacular. He does a great job with the characters, and with creatures and weapons and castles ruins. And his layouts manage to be dynamic without being complicated—the book moves fast and reads easily. And there’s a certain cleverness in his drawing, I love the panel where Odin shouts at the Watcher for overlooking the All-Father. The positioning, the gestures, the proportions all support the idea of a little-big king shouting at inevitability.

This is not to say that I am sold on the book. For one, I am not loving is the neon-green and black bar that proclaim FEAR ITSELF on all the covers. Marvel has continuously churned out ugly headers—remember the gaudy Heroic Age—and this one is really raising the bar. It’s kind 1999, guys. Let’s try for subtle gradients, maybe some cleaner fonts? And let us not forget Marvel events’ ability to go horrible awry. But for now, I remain optimistic. Perhaps we can read ourselves another Civil War.

* Not Alex Aaron, aka Phobos, Ares’s son, & deceased Secret Warrior. Different pantheon altogether. In case anyone else was confused.

Midtown Comics Monday Podcast: Matt Fraction

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As always, email us your questions or comments at pcs@popcultureshock.com or give us a call at 1-888-817-5766 and we’ll address your feedback on the next show.

The following review is excerpted from Comic Book Revolution (click here to read CBR’s full review)

Art: 8/10
Story: 3/10
Overall: 5.5/10

The Good

I will say that this was probably the best issue that we have gotten since Fraction has come aboard Uncanny X-Men. Of course, that really is not saying very much.

Despite the lame super-Nazi storyline and the accompanying Nazi Rule violation, I still like the addition of Dr. Nemesis. He is a rather neat character and his haughty and abrasive personality should give Fraction a character to have a little fun with. It will be interesting to see how Dr. Nemesis meshes with the other X-Men.

I found the plotline involving the tattooed man and Colossus to be mildly interesting. I do like Colossus so any plotline designed to give Peter a bit of the spotlight is always a good thing. Hopefully, Fraction can make this into something that is actually interesting and entertaining.

The best aspect of Uncanny X-Men #504 is that Marvel is finally getting around to addressing the various dangling plotlines from the Messiah Complex. I was beginning to think that Marvel was never going to get around to addressing the fallout in the pages of Uncanny X-Men.

I liked that the Beast has had his sense of hope renewed by the birth of the first mutant child since the end of the House of M event. This plotline builds off of Brubaker’s Endangered Species storyline where the Beast embarked on a journey where he visited some of the most brilliant minds in the 616 universe for a way to return ex-mutants their mutant genes.

Beast is an incredibly optimistic character and I am glad that he is once again trying to assemble a team of brilliant scientist in hopes of saving mutantkind. And that this time it appears that Beast is having much more success in enlisting the help he needs. This is an interesting plotline that has some potential.

Fraction delivers a solid hook ending that picks up where Messiah Complex left off. We see that the Purifiers have set about trying to paint their slaughtering of the town in Alaska as the work of a terrorist group. And that the birth of a mutant was the direct source for the town being wiped out. This sets the stage for what should be a rather compelling story. I enjoyed Messiah Complex and am looking forward to seeing Fraction deal with the various plotlines that spun out of it.

Terry and Rachel Dodson did a quality job with the artwork in Uncanny X-Men #504. It was a breath of fresh air to have someone other than Land doing the art on this title. This was not the best work that I have seen from Terry Dodson, but it was still a good effort and I am thrilled that Dodson is now the regular artist for Uncanny X-Men.

The Bad

It seems that all we have gotten on this title since Fraction came on with issue #500 has been nothing but set-up. He continues this trend by laying the foundation for the Madelyn Pryor plotline, the Colossus plotline and the Purifiers plotline.

The character work also continues to be a serious weakness on this title. None of the various X-Men have a developed or unique personality. Fraction also displays a poor feel for the established personalities of the various X-Men. I found it odd that Nightcrawler would ever refer to Emma as a “filthy girl.” That just did not sound like Kurt at all.

I found it strange that Fraction would have Colossus regress back into a depressed and mopey state over Kitty’s death. I thought that the purpose of Brubaker having Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Colossus travelling to Europe together was to help Peter move past Kitty’s death. And I also got the impression that Brubaker had Colossus grieve and finally come to terms with Kitty’s death and ready to move on and rejoin his fellow X-Men.

Fraction’s move to have Colossus regress back into his depressed and mopey state lacked internal logic and was largely unnecessary. Again, Fraction continues to display a lack of knowledge of stories that occur on a title prior to his arrival. It takes some work and effort, but professional writers always make sure they perform some research before taking over a specific title. And usually that includes reading up on at least the most recent story arcs on the title that they are taking over.

I also found Fraction’s version of Colossus to be incredibly wimpy. Fraction has Colossus turn tail and run and then throw up outside of the restaurant at the site of the tattooed thug. I am sure that seeing the tattooed man was jarring and clearly a childhood nightmare, but I found Colossus’ reaction to be out of character and unbelievable.

Colossus is a longtime X-Man who has faced numerous incredibly deadly and vicious villains with nothing but bravery in his heart. Colossus even sacrificed his own life in order to cure the Legacy virus. I just have a hard time reconciling how Colossus has been written up to this point and how much of a newbie coward he appears to be in this issue.

I found Scott’s mind being a massive hotel full of every single woman that he ever thought was attractive during his entire life to be an incredibly odd move by Fraction. Scott has largely been presented as level-headed and happy being in monogamous relationships with incredibly attractive women like Jean, Madelyn and Emma. This was just another example of how Fraction feels compelled to inject sexual themes where there really is no point and purpose for them. In the end, this issue only served to make Scott look like a creepy letch.

Fraction performs a little plot progression on Madelyn Pryor’s plotline by giving us a quick scene where Maddie enlists Sliver into her “sisterhood.” I am vaguely curious to see if Pryor can truly raise the dead or if she is simply preying up the weaknesses of these women. However, for the most part, Fraction has failed to hook my interest in Pryor’s plotline at all. Of course, I should disclose the fact that I have never found Pryor to be an interesting character and I definitely feel that Pryor should have remained dead.

Overall

The Revolution continues to be summarily unimpressed with Uncanny X-Men ever since Matt Fraction came aboard. However as I mentioned at the start, Uncanny X-Men #504 is probably the best issue that we have gotten since his arrival.

Despite all the negatives, I do feel that Fraction has several plotlines in place that have the potential to be rather interesting. I think that die-hard X-Men fans will enjoy this issue as will any reader who is a fan of Fraction’s style of writing. Outside of those two groups, I would be hesitant to recommend that you spend you hard earned cash on Uncanny X-Men at this point.

For more reviews, scans, story recaps and news visit Comic Book Revolution!

Saturday, November 15, from 2:00 to 4:00PM
Midtown Comics Times Square location
200 W. 40th Street, Corner 7th Avenue, NYC

MIDTOWNCOMICS.COM
NYC Store Locations:
Times Square: 200 W. 40th Street, corner 7th Avenue.
Grand Central: 459 Lexington Avenue, corner 45th Street.
Contact: Gerry Gladston
gerry@midtowncomics.com

New York, NY, USA, November 5, 2008- Midtown Comics in New York City is proud to announce a signing event with acclaimed comic book writer Matt Fraction, author of some of Marvel Comics’ hottest titles including Invincible Iron Man, The Immortal Iron Fist, Punisher War Journal, and The Uncanny X-Men, just to name a few.

Matt Fraction got his start working on projects such as Last of The Independents (AiT/PlanetLar), 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales (IDW Publishing) and The Five Fists of Science (Image Comics), before creating the mind-bending spy series Casanova (Image Comics). Along the way he has collaborated with some of the most talented creators in the business, penning scripts for artists like Ben Templesmith, Barry Kitson, Alan Davis, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon, Ariel Olivetti, Salvador Larroca, Terry Dodson, and Greg Land, as well as coauthoring comics with Ed Brubaker.

Mr. Fraction has been nominated for two Eisner awards: one for his work on the Sensational Spider-Man Annual Vol. 2 #1, and another that he shares with Ed Brubaker and David Aja for their work on The Immortal Iron Fist. He’s also won the 2007 Eagle Award for “Favourite Newcomer Writer”.

As an advocate for the decidedly non-mainstream, Mr. Fraction, along with his wife Kelly Sue DeConnick, were co-founders and staff writers for Warren Ellis’ Artbomb.net, a treasured source of alternative comics, graphic novels, news and reviews.

Midtown Comics opened its first store in 1997, and is now the industry’s leading retailer of comic books, graphic novels and Manga, with its online store as well as two landmark NYC locations in Times Square and Grand Central.

More information available online at: http://www.midtowncomics.com

PCS will be doing video interviews at both events, natch ;)