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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!

Fear Itself: Deadpool #1
Writer: Christopher Hastings
Artist: Bong Dazo
Cover: Ryan Stegman

“The Chosenest”: This first issue is pretty damn crazy. It’s classic ‘Pool humor and it’s right up my alley. The first half, anyway.

Deadpool has just supervillain-proofed a couples’ house. Complete with a skull that shoots eye lasers and walls that not even Juggernaut could crash through. Until hammer-Juggernaut comes crashing through. Oops.

Deadpool’s two contractor guys inform him that they aren’t gonna stick around to repair the damage. They are heading to New Mexico. But then some kind of monkey operative explodes the contractors’ truck and Deadpool gets conked on the head with a sledgehammer from the debris. This gives ol’ Wade Wilson an idea. He Bedazzles the hammer with a hot-glue gun, and then does a pretty good job of convincing The Walrus (a supervillain who got beat up by Spider-Man, 15 years ago) that it is one of the magical hammers that everyone else is getting, and that The Walrus is one of the chosen to wield such a weapon and that he needs to take it to New Mexico. There, Deadpool will kick his butt and get paid a fortune.

Like I said, the first half was great. All kinds of funny. But two things ruined it. One, The Walrus is just as dopey as Deadpool, so there isn’t a break in the comic relief. Two, Deadpool uses Doctor Who’s “(Insert something here) are cool” way too much to where it gets worn out easily. Especially since it’s not his bit.

The art is clean, Deadpool-familiar art. I think Bong Dazo has done Deadpool a time or two. It’s okay to correct me if I’m wrong. And it’s just squirrely enough that it makes light of this “everybody has a hammer” situation, so I’m on board for the next issue. 3.5/5 – AW

Fear Itself: Spider-Man #2
Writer: Christopher Yost
Artist: Mike McKone
Cover: Marko Djurdjevic

Once I got over the disappointment that this issue wasn’t going to be a Spider-Man vs. Vermin tale, I started to see it for what it was. It’s Spider-Man’s internal struggle to overcome the fear that’s threatening to overtake him like it’s doing to rest of the city. So while he fights, he’s also fighting to save the people of New York and keep his promise that “no one dies” on his watch. Yost taps into that part of Peter that most people identify with since he’s among the “normal” superheroes with regular guy problems. It’s that element that makes this a pretty good story, and makes the scene where Jonah gives Spidey a verbal kick in the ass to get back out there and start saving the people of their city excellent. Even pointing out the fact that Spidey is on three different superhero teams, but what’s the point if he’s not doing something. McKone’s artwork keeps the mood dark and gives you that sense of foreboding throughout the issue as well.

A solid issue from these guys and it seems as if the next may have a more direct connection to the events in the core title, because we get a shot of Benn Grimm after his transformation. This may not be good news for the Web Head, because he’s been awake for almost two days attempting to keep the peace and he’s beat up and tired.   3/5 – IS

Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #1
Writer: Brandon Montclare
Artists: Michael Kaluta &  Ryan Bodenheim
Cover: Michael Kaluta

The premise for this issue is freakin’ perfect! “Fear Itself” has handed the writer the most amazing Man-Thing story on a silver platter! The ball was dropped, in my opinion.

Art wise the opening was good, but it just didn’t fit the story. The whole city is overrun with fear and Man-Thing is going crazy like a cat with catnip, because all who know fear burn at the Man-Thing’s touch! This is a truly terrifying situation and the art could have been a lot more horrifying. But it wasn’t. No offense to the artist, but, BOO, Marvel!

While we’re on the topic of art, that brings us to the Nighthawk segment. The art is total EEW! It looks like someone puked steel cut oatmeal all over my comic. And Nighthawk’s dialog is so cheesey that it constipated me. Then we cut back to the original artist where Nighthawk and Frankenstein join Howard the Duck and She-Hulk. They have to stop Man-Thing, and the art fits for this ragtag group. After that, it is Simon Bisley’s turn to draw and the story gets very, very weird! Bisley matches the weirdness, step-for-step.

The platoon art was very distracting and I can’t think of any reason for it. I also wanted the story to take the horror factor and run wild with it, but it didn’t. I was VERY disappointed. 2.5/5 – AW

Journey Into Mystery #624
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Doug Braithewaite
Cover: Stephanie Hans

Aside from Home Front, the tie-ins don’t get any better than this! Sure, there were a few that I enjoyed, but none of them have reached the story telling greatness that Journey Into Mystery has. Gillen keeps you on your toes and guessing what the hell is going to happen next as Loki continues his mission. I like the fact that only Loki has any idea what’s going on, as we are left to discover bits and pieces while playing the guessing game about where this story is headed. Even if you missed the last couple of issues there is a great recap that brings you up to speed so you’re not lost. We get to see the Serpent’s messenger, who is trying to recruit Hela to serve his master in the fight against Odin. We get to see why Loki needed the Hell Wolf, and he even pays a trip to Mephisto to help further his multi-layered plans. Then Braithewaite brings it all together with the killer artwork that I look forward to in every issue.

If you’re going to check out only one tie-in, this is the one you should be picking up every month without fail! It’s funny how the series I was least looking forward to ends up being the one that blows me away. 4.5/5 – IS

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net

Aron White
aron@comicattack.net