I’m not afraid of Fear Itself… Just terrified of the tie-in price tag! As Joe already touched upon in his review of Journey into Mystery HERE, the main book should do the job of telling the story just fine, but Marvel wants to hook you enough into buying these tie-in comics, and I’ve got to say I took the bait. Fear Itself: The Home Front is comprised of four stories each taking place (with the exception off Milligan’s The Age of Anxiety) in the aftermath of, or proceeding a major event from Fear Itself #1, all unified by a common narrative theme; the tide is turning and a wave of fear and anxiety is washing over the 616. In fact, there is so much fear and anxiety contained in this, the book should come with a warning sticker stating ‘this comic may cause high levels of anxiety, paranoia and fear’.
Christo Gage’s lead story begins in the aftermath of the riots that began in Fear Itself #1. Picking up on Speedball as he grapples with the immense guilt he still feels over the Stamford disaster… The one that triggered Civil War. Gage relies heavily on public opinion in the form of snapshot text windows from twitter and internet chat rooms to move the story forward. Though I enjoyed these, it was a bit overly expositional at first and slowed the action down quite a bit. Gage waits until the end of part 1 to make his point, as Speedball is about to be beaten down by an angry crowd in Stamford. So we now know that it’s not just non-powered humans that feel fear and powerlessness, but even superheroes! GOSH! – ED
Milligan’s second story feels like a slight breath of fresh air after the first, just some simple neo-Nazi action to take our minds away from all that fear and loathing! Although this story has no direct tie in to Fear Itself, the mention of the Red Skull near the end perked my ears and could be a possible link to his daughter. Milligan tackles The Home Front’s major theme through Jimmy Woo (move over Mark Lemar, we have the original 50’s throwback!) as a man torn apart, retreating from a world increasingly going wrong.
Chaykin’s third story is a simple one page, voice over led meet and greet with an un-happy J. Jonah Jameson, and I’ll give you 3 guesses as to who he blames for the riots! Finally Jim McCann’s fourth story There’s No Place Like Homeless takes us somewhere we haven’t been yet, to the common man on the streets of Broxton. We see the negative effect of all that has happened in this once sleepy, American town as an old man has to serve coffee to tourists to make ends meet. Apart from an awful pun title I quite enjoyed this segment, the lack of action leaves room for McCann to let his characters open up and we really come to see the state of contemporary Broxton. The story finishes with the tourists stampeding out to watch the gods leaving earth, ignoring an old man’s final heroic stand. If he was a little younger, he might just have headed to an internet chat room and ended up as a snapshot text window in Gage’s story.
The Home Front suffers from the fact that Fear Itself #1 didn’t begin with a wiz bang, but slowly built to a major event. Therefore, all this comic can do is give us a snapshot of the current state of affairs and the general mood of the public; whether that’s people on twitter sharing their views, or an old man serving coffee in a diner. Non-essential reading? Yes… But as Fear Itself gathers pace, some small gems might soon be contained in these pages.
Will Pond.
