Fear Itself: Avengers HC – Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils: Chris Bachalo, John Romita Jr., and Mike Deodato, Ikners: Tim Townsend, Jaimie Mendoza, Al Vey, Wayne Faucher, Victor Olazaba, Mark Irwin, Klaus Janson. Colorists: Chris Bachalo (double duty), Dean White, Paul Mounts, and Rain Beredo.

Collecting Avengers #13-17 and New Avengers #14-16

The Story: The Avengers fight against FEAR ITS—I can’t do it. It was just such a horrendous event. Still, other writers tried their best in the tie-ins and some of them were MUCH better than the main event (like Avengers Academy).  So the first section of this review should really be…

Dealing with the Crap that was FEAR ITSELF: Bendis had two series to tie into Fear Itself, and did so in very similar ways. He must have known that Avengers and New Avengers would be collected together, as he used the same narrative technique in both series. The idea is that the Oral Histories of the Avengers are caught up, so the heroes are being interviewed about their most recent crisis: Crisis of Infinite Hemorrhoids—I mean Hammers. So we have a video interview-like thing going on with the heroes playing Monday morning quarterback, and then we get images from the event. Without Fear Itself, you’d almost think that something was happening in the world. There is some brutal fights in these tie-ins. The fight between Red Hulk and the Thing was ten times more exciting than the “brawl” in Fear Itself #5. Even Squirrel Girl’s story in New Avengers was more exciting and more dire than anything that happened in the main event. So in terms of making Fear Itself seem like an actual major crisis the heroes struggle to deal with, it’s successful. Crazy shit happens here. Daredevil takes on a brigade of Nazi Robots. Spider-Woman fights the Hulk while protecting a school filled of children. Protector hacks into Stark’s Iron Men suits (including Iron Patriot) and sets them on Sin. Every moment in the Avengers/New Avengers tie-ins would make you believe that this is one of the most important events in Marvel history. If only that were true.