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With the overflowing amount of cross over events from various comic companies flooding the shelves, the people have cried out for help in keeping up with the many-issued madness! Well, that call has been answered by two guys who have answered a call or two in their lives! Infinite Man and Aron Fist are here to save your sanity, and hopefully save you from picking up that really crappy tie-in book that has absolutely NO REASON to exist! So sit back and check us out as we give you SCARED S#!@LESS: THE FEAR ITSELF EDITION on just about everything pertaining to this event, while we also try to figure out what the hell everyone is so afraid of!

Journey Into Mystery #622
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Doug Braithwaite
Cover: Stephanie Hans

We all know Loki brought the destruction of Asgard. We all know Loki flipped a 180 and sacrificed himself to stop The Void. Nobody knows why. That is the mystery we’re about to journey into.

Thor found the reincarnated spirit of his brother, Loki, in a young boy and brought him home. With the people of Asgard angry at Loki, Thor charged the Warriors Three with his protection. After exploding a magpie that had a message for him, and later exploding a demon, he finds the spirit of “old Loki” and learns the mystery of “Why?” The younger Loki then vanquishes the older spirit and becomes the only Loki.

As with any incarnation of Loki (I was fond of the female, for obvious reasons), he’s got something up his sleeve. That’s what you do when you’re the god of mischief. That’s what this newly old-titled series seems to be about. It is Loki’s playground. The story is intriguing and, well, mysterious. The art is pretty artsy, but not fartsy, and I think I like it. I’m going to go out on an early limb and call Journey into Mystery a great Fear Itself tie-in. You wouldn’t hate me if you picked this one up. 4/5 – AW.

Fear Itself: Sin’s Past #1
Writer: Jim McCann & Mark Gruenwald
Artist: Stephano Landini
Cover: Stephanie Hans

I’m pretty sure this issue was put out to help anyone unfamiliar with the character of Sin get better acquainted. However, Marvel dropped the ball like a one-armed wide receiver with this one, and at no point does anyone recover the fumble. We start out with Steve Rogers attempting to find out Sin’s motives after her attack on the Statue of Liberty. This serves as the flash back point where the bulk of the issue turns into reprints of Captain America #355-357. Now, for an origin story this wasn’t the strongest arc to go back to, especially when you consider how strong of a set up McCann gives in the beginning of the book. Also, at the end of Sin’s Past there are many other books that Marvel suggests you read for more on Sin’s background. Several of these would have been better choices to serve as a look into the twisted mind of the daughter of the Red Skull.

Several years ago Brubaker reintroduced Sin in his current Captain America run and conveyed her origin a lot better, and it didn’t cost five bucks either.If you’re really into paying five bucks for three old Cap stories, then by all means run out and snatch this book up. I’d actually only suggest this for die hard Cap enthusiasts who would appreciate the nostalgia of reading old Cap stories. Other than that, save your hard earned money and pick up something else. Shame on you, Marvel. IS – 1/5

Invincible Iron Man #503
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Salvador Larocca
Cover: Salvador Larocca

So we enter yet another Fear Itself tie-in, though I’m not sure if Invincible Iron Man #503 qualifies as such. First off, this issue is the third act of an already ongoing story arc involving Doc Ock and Iron Man. Tony has very little time to disarm a device that Doctor Octopus has led him to believe will destroy Manhattan, while Pepper is handling Electro and Sandman. While Tony and Otto banter back and forth, we come to realize that all Otto really wants is for Tony to be knocked down a peg or two. Pepper, on the other hand, is fighting for her life against two very deadly enemies, and with the help of some great advice she’s able to succeed. Now, the only part of this that has any relevance to Fear Itself is that it takes place before and during the first issue, and we get to see Tony’s proposal to Thor and the Asgardians to rebuild Asgard. You know what was more enjoyable then the entire issue? Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin’s backup story showing how Tony’s parents met. I don’t mean that in jest either; it was a fun and fast paced tale which shows that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree when it comes to Tony and his dad. Larocca’s artwork helped carry the issue, though seeing Tony give Doc Ock’s tentacle a smooch was a bit disturbing. The parts that stood out were mainly dealing with Pepper’s scuffle with Sandman and Electro, which looked fantastic for the brief time it took place.

Since this had an actual story, it’s nowhere near as bad as Sin’s Past, but when you only get a couple of pages that actually deal with the event advertised on the cover, then I still feel it’s a bit of a rip. Did Invincible Iron Man #503 need the Fear Itself banner? Nope. Did it help it to sell a few more copies? Probably so. For some reason the main story seemed a bit rushed and a bit of a let down just to squeeze in the little bit of content we got pertaining to Fear Itself.  IS – 2/5

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net

Aron White
aron@comicattack.net