Most of Marvel’s recent1 crossover events, if nothing else, have all had a good, simple byline for curious readers. House of M: “the Scarlet Witch changes reality and then there is a big fight.” Civil War: “Marvel’s heroes pick sides and have a big fight.” Secret Invasion: “Skrulls invade and there is a big fight.” Siege: “Norman Osborn invades Asgard and there is a big fight.” And so on and so forth. There may be twists and turns, but generally after one issue you know the basic reason as to why there is going to be a big fight, and that is the important thing.
Fear Itself boldly goes a different direction: its first issue reads like a #0 issue. There is a bit of Odin beating the hell out of Thor, but barely that. There is a bit of Sin fighting some Nazis, but villains beating up nameless flunky losers is never really that interesting to begin with. There is a riot so vague that you have to wonder if its vagueness is a plot point (seriously, at one point Captain America – er, Steve Rogers – is asked about “the issue” in a way that makes it seem quite possible that they intended to insert one but just forgot and then at some point a typesetter removed the brackets from “[ISSUE]”). It seems to be referring to the Ground Zero mosque debate from last year, sort of, but a Marvel Universe equivalent thereof where nobody ever says anything specific.2
And then the gods of Asgard go… back to Asgard. Presumably this is meant to be dramatic somehow, but I’m not sure why the gods of Asgard going back to Asgard is a big deal at this point. I don’t read Thor – to be perfectly honest it’s the one Marvel property I have never been able to really get into, regardless of who was writing or drawing it – but I know that the gods of Asgard are traditionally in Asgard, and that making this be a Big Deal seems wrong, much as it would be silly to make it be a Big Deal when Spider-Man starts wearing his regular costume again or when Steve Rogers becomes Captain America again. That doesn’t mean writers won’t try, but status-quo-restoring events are almost always less enthralling than disruptive ones: Captain America Reborn wasn’t as good as The Death of Captain America, Knightsend wasn’t as good as Knightfall, and so on.3
Equally silly is having Odin ruminate about a “final prophecy.” Never mind that it’s obviously bull in an ongoing comics universe to have a “final prophecy” be a plot element to begin with – after all, what’s the next writer going to do, except say “well, there’s actually a final-er prophecy.” But I know enough about Thor in the Marvel Universe to know that the reason the gods are on Earth right now (and, presumably, the reason Thor has a new costume) is because Ragnarok already happened in the Marvel Universe. It was the whole reason JMS had to write how Loki was a chick for a while. Come to think, it’s the reason the gods of Asgard are on Earth in the first place. How does a Norse pantheon get more final than frigging Ragnarok? Is this Ragnarok II: Pseudo-Norse Boogaloo?
Other than that, the issue’s big reveal is that there’s another Norse deity with another hammer and another Odin, or at least someone who suggests that the Odin that’s beating up Thor is a replacement Odin, like a Norse equivalent of Dick Whitman pretending to be Don Draper. All of this feels kind of repetitive, because it’s kind of repetitive: at present it feels like the same old “hey, what if there was another version of [HERO]” that’s basically been the same story over and over again in Green Lantern for the past four or five years.4
(Granted, “another version of something” has been a comic storytelling tool since writers first decided there could be more than one type of Kryptonite. But ultimately, the problem with it is that it’s only as useful as the property you’re re-versioning is popular. I was mildly interested in Green Lantern, so different coloured and themed Lanterns was mildly interesting to me; I don’t really give much of a damn about Thor, so I am not Fear Itself’s target market, and my dissatisfaction with the book therefore comes with a huge caveat.)
That having been said, I have a lot of faith in Matt Fraction’s storytelling abilities; the man has written a bunch of my favorite superhero comics of the past five years, including two (Immortal Iron Fist and Invincible Iron Man) that would make my top five. So I’m willing to give him time to rebound from what’s ultimately a lackluster beginning. But a lackluster beginning it unfortunately is.
- Okay, I know that going back to 2005 stretches the definition of “recent,” but you know where I’m going with this. [↩]
- Maybe they’ll get Doctor Doom to cry again. [↩]
- Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds is the rare exception of a status-quo-restoring event that’s generally better than what disrupted the status quo, but this is mostly because those disruptive comics were so incredibly shitty that a basically okay comic book was able to seem like spun gold in comparison. [↩]
- It doesn’t help that Skadi doesn’t actually appear to be associated with a hammer in traditional Norse mythology, making her feel somewhat shoehorned into the role of Anti-Thor. [↩]
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I don’t think Ragnarok comes up as often in Thor as it feels like; but it still seems like there’s a sign above Odin’s throne: “Days without Ragnarok: 3”
But for most writers, Odin (and Zeus too, if you’re a Herc fan) has like three roles plotwise: dead, asleep, or dick. Otherwise, he becomes the very definition of deus ex machina: even if the Absorbing Man gets the best of Thor, he can’t just have his dad help him without sucking all the drama out of the book.
Still, you’re never quite sure why Odin is being a dick. Is it tough love for Thor, to teach him a lesson? Or part of some big godly master plan? Or good old-fashioned dickery?
I think my problem with Odin in the first issue was that there was no reason given for why he couldn’t just pull Thor aside and explain the situation to him, rather than beating the snot out of him and putting him in chains. I know it’s supposed to heighten the dramatic tension and all, but there was no justificaton for it.
I’m also tired of people being afraid of/hating superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Like we jsut had a year where folks got over that shit, do we really need to go back to it so soon?
Speaking of Matt Fraction’s Iron Man, I’m kinda curious what MGK thought of his Mandarin story based loosely off of Kim Jong Il’s kidnapping of director Shin Sang-ok.
Thankfully, the Fear Itself ministory tie-in comic brings back Miriam Sharpe – the answer to the question nobody wanted asked – to explain that the Shadowland crossover and the X-plague (which lasted, what, four issues?) mean that being afraid of superheroes is back, baby!
I thought it was a great comic that didn’t quite manage the trick of doing what needed to be done, which is explain why the Mandarin is Iron Man’s #1 villain. The Mandarin should be Iron Man’s archenemy, for a variety of reasons, but the comic didn’t give me a good feeling as for why that should be the case on its own.
One of these days you’re going to have to write an article about the Mandarin then, because I was always under the impression he sort of became Tony’s nemesis by default and that he generally didn’t fit that well.
So, and this is just me randomly guessing, but isn’t it possible that everybody is acting so weird and out of character (Odin, the protesters about ‘the issue’, Bob) not because of lazy event writing but because we’re supposed to understand that whatever Sin did not only unleashed Skadi but also upset some fundamental balance in the Marvel U and now fear itself (in the primal emotional sense) is running wild like Hulk Hogan after he shakes his head a whole bunch and points at a guy?
Anyone have a running count of Ragnaroks? I remember Simonson had one in the 80s, Jennings in the 90s and then the whole Disassembled thing in the 00s. And I’m not even a big Thor fan.
I believe Oeming’s Ragnorock (he wrote the Dissassembled one) said it was a cyclical thing.
I often feel like the Asgardians suffer from a problem very similar to one plaguing Doctor Strange: A lack of rules governing their cosmology. MGK’s point is a very good one–Norse mythology has a fixed endpoint. Anything prophesied in the past SHOULD have occurred by Ragnarok. That was the brilliance of having Ragnarok over and done with, as now the Asgardians aren’t limited by the mythology any longer (assuming you ignore the mythological accounts of post-Ragnarok Asgard). Is it possible Odin was actually aware of at least the potential for events outside of the Ragnarok cycle? It’s probably too much to hope for in an event comic, but I’d love to see a coherent explanation of Asgardian metaphysics.
Thor: Disassembled pretty much hit ‘recurring Ragnarock cycle’ over the head with a big hammer. *cymbal crash* Essentially it established that there were some meta-gods formatted after the ol’ Greek fate weavers who were feeding on the recurring rebirth cycle of the Norse gods. As this was a Thor comic, their feeding got pre-empted by Hammertime.
I forget if Odin was implied to be aware, but in that comic, Thor was to have made himself more perceptive than Odin (hilariously).
An alt Thor? Okay, damnit, this has got to be a fourth damn evil alt Thor in the last ten years.
I mean, let’s see… Red Norvall got killed and resurrected by Set as evil. There was the Heroes Reborn universe were Thor was a rapist and then 616 Thor laid some hammertime. Then we had Thor-borg/Ragnarok/Hank’s-worse-idea-ever. And now this?
Unless this is going to climax is a battle between the Thor Corps and the Anti Thor Corps, one of my favorite characters is starting to sound a little too much like the Teen Titans.
I mean, they could bring back the Thor Corps. Dargo’s not around anymore, but I think he’s easily replaced by Thor Girl.
…I’m just saying.
…….that’d be awesome.
If there were a battle between the Thor and Anti-Thor Corps, then I guess whichever side got defeated would become…
(puts on sunglasses)
…a bunch of Thor Losers.
YYYYEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
The trouble is that the title promises an asgardian Abraham Lincoln based conflict, probably culminating in an olde english rap battle between Thor and Lincoln that will shake the heavens themselves… and will not deliver on that promise at all, because it’ll just be loki with a fear demon on a stick or something.
I disagree about Legion of Three Worlds. It didn’t re-establish the status quo, but created a new one. The current Legion does bare some similarities to the original one, but the writers choose and ignore what they feel like.
“Still, you’re never quite sure why Odin is being a dick. Is it tough love for Thor, to teach him a lesson? Or part of some big godly master plan? Or good old-fashioned dickery?”
I’m reminded of Hercules’ comment in Incredible Herc to the effect that “Zeus tells me I’m his favorite son but all he ever seems to do is banish me.”
I think the first Ragnarok was Roy Thomas’s in the late seventies. Which was specifically set up to fulfill the prophecies without actually triggering Ragnarok, thereby negating them. Yeah, see how well that worked?
And now I remember the Egyptian Seth mocking Odin (“Every other pantheon thinks you’re a laughing stock! All your power, and all you do is stand around whining about destiny!”). Guess he had a point.
I think the evidence will show that there already has been an olde English rap battle between Lincoln and the God of Thunder…
(puts on sunglasses)
…Thorscore and seven years ago.
YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you!
I’m glad someone else feels that anyone caring that the Asgardians go back to asgard is just dumb.
I mean, it’s not like they’ve been useful or helpful to this point…
Norse mythology had the Norns, their own trinity of fate-spinning women, pretty much identical to the Fates.
if anything, there’s still howard the duck in this event. god do i miss that duck, albert camus in a duckman body