Summer Event Fever Part 1 - Fear Itself

Summer Event Fever Part 1

In the next few installments I will be discussing the Spring/Summer Events from both DC and Marvel Comics including Age of X (soon!) Flashpoint and War of the Green Lanterns, just to name of few. But today, the Fear Itself prologue came out today, called Book of the Skull. From what has been told, Fear Itself, came from the want of Marvel to do a mini-event like Age of X, or Sinestro Corps War from DC between Captain America and Thor, capitalizing on their respective summer movies. However, it sprang out of there, and Thor’s writer Matt Fraction took controls with Cap’s writer Ed Brubaker taking the idea from the original story pitch involving a WWII story with the Red Skull plan for power never coming to fruition thanks to Captain America, Bucky and Namor. In the present, the current Baron Zemo helps Sin, the original Red Skull’s daughter and current Red Skull to find a artifact from that adventure in order to find exactly what the original Skull brought to Earth during WWII. It turns out it was a hammer, a hammer connected to an ancient Asgardian who turns out to be Odin’s dirty secret (Odin being Thor’s father and the king of the Asgardian Gods.) and who is alluded to be the actual All-Father of the Asgardians. He is called the Serpent and is the Asgardian God of Fear. It seems the Serpent gives the new Red Skull a hammer, and will bestow 8 hammers on other super powered beings (some heroes and some villains) to take over the world. From what we know the cover to Fear Itself #2 - it looks like Absorbing Man and the Grey Gargoyle (two Avengers and Thor villains) will get hammers as well as the Juggernaut (who has battled pretty much everyone, especially the X-Men). The Questions is who else could be the Worthy - those who receive hammers?

First let’s examine three factors: a.) the first set of teasers by Marvel for the event, b.) the 2nd set of teasers that dealt with the Worthy and c.) what books are tying in to the event as well as miniseries.

The first set of teasers included- Spider-Man in front a set of TV’s talking about the real world factors that make us afraid, Steve Rogers as Captain America in front of a shattered shield, Odin standing atop of a defeated Thor, the Hulk standing remorseful after slaughtering the earth’s heroes, Cyclops dressed up as Magneto and Iron Man looking on the military in stark war suits.

The second set of teasers- three sets of heroes/villains standing around different types of hammers much like Thor’s. The Grey Gargoyle, Iron Man and Bucky Barnes as Captain America around one, Storm, Dracula and Sin the Red Skull around another, a depowered Hercules, Juggernaut and a young Loki around a third, Giant-Man, Ms. Marvel and the Absorbing Man around a fourth, and the Hulk, Thing and Colossus around a fifth.

The books tying-in and the mini series: Invincible Iron Man has I.M. dealing with the Grey Gargoyle in Paris, Iron Man 2.0 has War Machine teaming up with Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons (the champions of the seven cities of Heaven- mystical kung-fu warriors), Avengers seem to be up against the Serpent, the Secret Avengers seeing the war from Steve Rogers perspective as the general of earth’s forces, Herc with a de-powered Hercules fighting against an army of villains, and Journey into Mystery with a young Loki using his mischief powers to a.) not become his older self and b.) create an Asgardian black ops team in the war and the new Alpha Flight series where the team is declared outlaws by Canada, Thunderbolts dealing with the Juggernaut, Avengers Academy most likely battling the Absorbing Man and a Spider-Girl issue. The Minis will deal with Spider-Man in a fear crazy NYC, Black Widow in Paris, Homefront featuring Speedball in Stamford where he was party to the accidental deaths of over 600 people and the Agents of Atlas going to Europe, Youth in Revolt counting about the marshalizing of former Initiative members and other young heroes from teams like the Young Allies, Fearsome Four with She-Hulk, Nighthawk, Frankestein’s Monster, Howard the Duck versus the Man-Thing, a Dracula one-shot, and a Deadpool mini and a digital mini about the Worthy.

So from that here are my picks after the Red Skull, Absorbing Man, Juggernaut and Grey Gargoyle:

1. A Hulk Character- sure the Juggernaut has faced the Hulk, but Marvel has made it a point to make sure the Hulks are included in the Fear Itself preview images -so I would not be surprised to see a Hulk character- maybe Red She-Hulk or a Hulk supporting character like the Brood Queen as one of the chosen.
2. An X-Men Character / Mutant - again the Juggernaut is rumored to attack Utopia (man he loves islands -1st Thunderbolts, now Utopia) - but I would not be surprised to see another mutant - maybe Magneto, maybe Archangel or Gambit, maybe a villain like Exodus or a former X-Man like Forge. I’d bet a lot on one of these characters.
3. A Hickman Character : Someone from a Hickman book: FF, Secret Warriors or S.H.I.E.L.D. - the obvious list is son of Ares, Phobos- the 12 year Alex who was part of one of Nick Fury’s caterpillar teams who was recently killed by the Gorgon. I’d also wouldn’t be surprised if maybe Newton or Da Vinci from S.H.I.E.L.D. to show or even a villain from the four cities from the FF.
4. A Spider-Man villain - it would make sense even if Spidey is not one of the bigger characters in the event (Marvel has basically said that) it would still be not unsurprising to find someone like the Rhino would fit perfectly in a fear based group of villains. The Lizard as well.
5. Another Captain America villain - the prologue as Baron Zemo(though pretty pissed at Sin) and other villains in Sin’s entourage have been Crossbones (who has new powers) and a new Master Man. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them as part of the worthy.
6. An Iron Man villain - even though it seems like Iron Man like Spidey are taking a back seat to Thor, Bucky as Cap and Steve Rogers - I still would be surprised not see a villain becoming one of the Worthy.

However, Marvel has said that heroes will become seduces the by the power of the Serpent in hammers, and many have suggested characters like Bucky who once was the Winter Soldier, would be an ideal choice as well as many other powerful heroes. Also heroes like the Punisher who instills Fear or Daredevil, the man without fear would also make sense. In the end, I’m very excited for this event - while it hasn’t been a Marvel event that has been building for a while unlike many of the Bendis events, it still looks to be a very exciting event.