Fear Itself 7

This main event ends in this issue and it ends with a bang. With the stakes are high on both sides, the serpent wants to conquer the world and the avengers wants to prevent the razing of the world by Odin. Ironman and Thor arrived just in time with the enchanted weapons for the avengers just as serpent is unleashing its final attack. All the avengers wields a new weapon and Wolverine has the overall nicest looking weapon and costume. Too bad not many pages are dedicated to his awesome new outfit.


The main boss fight is between Thor and the serpent and countless of page is dedicated to this as both battled to the death. The rest of avengers takes on the other minions and the fight is more balanced now. Captain America even managed to pickup Thor's Mjolnir after it was disposesed during Thor's battle with serpent. Predictably it all comes down to Thor delivering the fatal blow to the serpent by stabbing it on the head just as Odin's armies is marching to earth to raze it. It takes so much from Thor that he died from it just as the prophecy predicted. Meanwhile the serpent's minions including Skadi/Sin lost their powerful hammers and returned to their normal self. In the aftermath, the avengers starts rebuilding and Thor's body is returned back to Asgard for final rites. But it all doesn't end there as the repercussion from the war spins of a few storylines involving Sin and Hulk. There's plenty enough of battle action here but the story is predictable enough though the art work more than make up for it.

Fear itself 6

Thor is down for the count after the fight with the Thing and Hulk in the previous issue. The avengers scrambled to revive Thor by bringing Thor back to asgard to seek help from Odin. A pissed of Captain America who witnessed the carnage brought upon by the god of fear unleash a tirade against Odin as he seek Odin's help to restore Thor. Odin annoyed by Cap's behavior effortlessly teleported the avengers back to earth and attends to Thor. Thor heals with the help of Odin and gains a Odin's powerful armor and the Ragnarok sword that can kill the Serpent. Meanwhile Ironman is in the final stages of forging superweapons capable of defeating the serpent.

The avengers by now are a helpless bunch unable to stop the Serpent. Captain America as always decide to do the honorable thing by being the last line of defense against the Serpent and its minions from getting to the world tree which would ultimately force Odin to raze the entire earth of its living beings. The story ends with both party facing a standoff that only one will survive. An epic battle is waiting to happen next to compensate the lack of action in this issue. Not much notable events here and this issue could be skipped and not miss the plot. It will be interesting to see Ironman's new weapons and how effective it is against the serpent.

Fear Itself 5

The ultimate action is all in this issue alone. The multiple action scene itself makes this issue a worthwhile read. Thor squares off straight away with the Thing and Hulk. Thor uses his mjnonir trick to outmaneuver Hulk and Thing but still gets a bashing. Thor strikes down the on rushing Thing by commanding mjolnir and the hammer strikes through the body of the Thing leaving him incapacitated but not dead. With the Thing out of the picture, that leaves Thor and Hulk to slug it out.


Meanwhile in the capital city, Captain America is battling Skadi/Sin. Serpent finally arrives at the capital city signalling his intent on world domination. The avengers arrives at the scene just in time to face off with the Serpent. Spiderman has the best line here calling the Serpent Beardo suck it. But as expected the avengers is no match against a god as all fall in one blast. The penultimate of the fight happens when Serpent breaks the unbreakable shield of Captain America easily. After getting a hammering by the Serpent the avengers are left to regroup to fight another day of losing battle.

Thor's fight with Hulk is not over yet in downtown New York. Thor knowing he can't beat the Hulk uses his wits instead by sending the Hulk far far away in a bolt of thunder and lightning that screams to be heard in the page itself. At the end, Hulk was hovering in mid space and entering atmosphere hurling towards earth once more. On a losing battle the avengers will be most hopeful on Ironman to create god like weapons in a deal with Odin.

Uncanny X-men 541

The rampaging Juggernaut continues in this issue. The Juggernaut in this issue is the most beautifully rendered ever as there are many close shots of juggernaut and the color is richly textured. There are a lot of nice close up shots of the X-men taking on Juggernaut. The story kicks off with Cyclops and the mayor planning on action to stop Juggernaut as he moves towards San Francisco.



The X-men plan is to remove Juggernaut's helmet so that Emma can penetrate and attack his mind. Cyclop's optic blast has no effect on Juggernaut and Colossus's tackle proves futile as Juggernaut whacks him into oblivion. Next is Magneto's turn and Juggernaut hurls his hammer at him. Magneto's magnetic power unable to stop the hammer and only the timely intervention by Kitty Pryde helped Magneto to phase through the hammer without hitting him.

Cyclops as a last resort decided to use Hope's power to harness all the mutant's powers at her disposal to take off Juggernaut's helmet. Hope succeeds in melting the helmet and taking it off, but Emma Frost is stunned that instead of her entering the mind of Juggernaut, it was hers that gets penetrated. Juggernaut's message of chaos and destruction is passed through one of his followers to both Cyclops and the mayor. Looks like there is no stopping Juggernaut from flattening the city of San Francisco.

Uncanny X-men 540

The starting issueof storyline tie in to the fear itself event. Great to see Greg Land's art work on x-men characters again. Brillaiant and awesome. Been a fan since he did the artwork for crossgen's Sojourn. The new look Juggernaut on the cover page is excellently depicted and you marvel at it all day long . Really worth money getting this. As for the storyline Juggernaut finally arrives in San Francisco the base of the x-men. Apparenly Juggernaut's power is not merely destruction but also converting humans to his cause and purpose. Here he uses his hammer to brand a tattoo to a human and he is a fellow converted before he knows it.

Meanwhile Cyclops, leader of the x-men meets up with the mayor to discuss about the chaos caused by the fear god and why it hasn't happened to San Francisco yet. Even the mayor is hotly depicted here in this issue. The other side story in this issue is Colossus tried to meets up with his sister that is locked because of the crimes she committed in the previous issues. But she is unrepentant and corrupted and seems there's nothing Colossus can do to ease the situation.

Interestingly Emma Frost also gets a visit from Namor. Namor is has seek the allies to help in his battle to regain Atlantis that is devastated by one of the minions of the fear god. He wants to see Emma for one last time and gets her to bed before departing for battle. Now it is known that Namor and Emma Frost has a relationship long before. But Emma rejects and Namor departs without batting and eyelid. On the other end Cyclops and the mayor receives news of the ongoing carnage Juggernaut is unleashing as he is nearing to the city. There is a two page spread of the terrifying Juggernaut on his way which is definitely a gem to look at. Next issue should be on how are the x-men going to match up against the new unstoppable Juggernaut. More action is expected.

Fear Itself 4

The world is still gripped in fear as the serpent is scheming to reclaim his throne from Odin. The more fear is sow among humans by unleashing his minions, the more powerful he becomes. Continuing from the previous issue, Thor is back at earth after being released by Odin. Thor makes his way to reunite with the other avengers namely Captain America Steve Rogers and Ironman. There they planned on how to stop the serpent, with Thor revealing that there is a prophecy of him slaying the serpent for the price of his own life.

Meanwhile the serpent has gained enough power and raised up his palace in Antartica. Something like superman's fortress of solitude. Not only that, the serpent gets rejuvenated and become young again and raise up more of his minions from the dead. Thor raced to Antartica to faced off with serpent, while captain america parachuted in DC to confront Sin/Skadi and the Nazi hordes. Ironman went to seek out Odin only to later curse the fellow and have a drink of his best wine. Looks like Stark is losing it. Thor is busy dispatching of more Serpent's minions and Captain America has his hands full with the Nazis.

Surely enough, Thor unable to reason with the Serpent and before he knows it, he was transported back to down town New York. The gods always like to teleport objects as if its fun. Thor doesn't have a scratch as always but what unfolds next is set to be the main event in the next issue. Thor is to have a show down brawl with both Hulk and the Thing with hammers. Its going to be a a hell of a hammer fight.

Fear Itself 3

There's a lot of action in this issue as the wielders of the hammers starts break havoc around the world. It starts with Sin/Skadi and her troops of nazi robots bombing Washington. The avengers with Captain America which is still Bucky, black widow and Falcon is there to intercept. The avengers are unable to stop the new threat with Cap getting a hammering by Skadi. While they are busy duking it out, Thor escaped from his cell after being imprisoned by Odin in the previous issue. Odin on finding out about Thor's request to rejoin the avengers on the fight against fear grant him the wish and sends him back to earth.

Meanwhile in Brazil the Hulk is terrorizing everyone after being possessed by the hammer as Betty tries to rescue everyone from its menacing rampage.  But the avengers arrived just in time led by spiderwoman and miss marvel to stop the hulk.

There is the final hammer that lands in new york and mr fantastic and the thing is on site to investigate. Only to end up the thing is worthy of lifting the hammer. So another superhero gets possessed by the hammer with the name Angrir breaker of soul and starts wreaking damage in downtown new york.
But this is the issue will best be remembered for the death of Bucky/Captain America at the hands of Sin/Skadi. As Skadi lands the killing blow leaving a hole in Bucky's chest. His final words were about the serpent is here and we gotta save em. So long Bucky.

Main event: The death of Captain America

Fear Itself 2

The action is thick and fast in this issue. Odin is all anxious and try to galvanize all his forces in asgard but in the process chain up Thor in a prison for his disobedience. Odin is making earth the final battle ground with the Serpent. The unidentified objects which are hammers similar to Thor's summoned by the Serpent arrived and crash on earth on different parts of the continent.

Juggernaut possessed the first one and the hammer transformed him into a more enhanced version plus a new look armor suit with the name Kurth breaker of stone. In the process his mind is possesed by the hammer as well and is doing the bidding of the Serpent. Then the Bruce Banner hulk got the other hammer in Brazil and was also transformed by it into Nul breaker of world with an enhanced costume suit as well. Hulk is going to be most powerful and hard to stop of all the hammer wielders.

In South Africa absorbing man is trying to pick up the hammer recently crashed into a diamond mine there but to no avail. Until his companion titania comes along and easily holds it up and transformed in Skirn breaker of men. I wonder will she breaks only men. As all the hammer wielders started to bring chaos around the world the avengers are no where to be found. There's also a blitzkrieg of Washington depicted on a 2 page full spread where Sin with her armies of nazi robots bombs the capitol hill. Will the avengers strikes back in the next issue but then how and why are they taking so long.

Fear Itself 1

The first book of this year's major event gives an introduction on the main players in this event. The avengers seems oblivious about what major event is about to happen. Only Odin knows and he commands all asgardian to go back to asgard. His intention is not revealed here. Thor and Odin had a fight where Odin wins easily enough. Now the avengers are left without the gods. The watcher/witness also makes an appearance here which could only mean something big is going about to go down.

The daughter of red skull, Sin meanwhile strikes into an old base of Hitler where a hammer weapon is still kept secretly which nobody is able to wield. Sin is successful in wielding it and soon is on her way to the deep sea. On the way she fights off a few dragons that is guarding an underwater cave. Later it is revealed the place is where the main villain the Serpent is imprisoned long ago by Odin. Now that he is free he summoned the worthy which are weapons. The weapons in the shape of unknown objects from space heads to earth and lands on different parts of the world.
Next issue should be highlighting the villains worthy enough to wield those weapons.

Main events: The asgardians left and the serpent is back.