Tomorrow sees the release of Fear Itself #7, the giant-sized finale to one of the uber-events that’s been keeping the Marvel Universe busy over the last few months. And, because it’s the last event book to finish this year, following things like X-Men: Schism and DC’s Flashpoint, I have only one thought in mind about it: Please don’t suck.
I have no idea why, but this year feels like it’s the year when event books forgot how to finish. Flashpoint‘s final issue was a jumble of characters showing up for a final battle and then dying without reason, revelations about what’s going on that made little sense given what had come before (Seriously, Barry Allen changed the past? Even though he was the one talking about why he’d never do that, just three issues earlier? And he could remember everything about the old timeline, except for the part where he’d decided to change the past? Seriously?) and an out-of-nowhere introduction to the new timeline that the DCU would have the next month. Schism, in contrast, just… didn’t really try to surprise, or even end; the schism of the title being more like “two people had a fight that then turned into a mild disagreement and went off in a strop, taking people with them.” After two such high-profile misfires, it’s all on Fear Itself to be the one event book that doesn’t screw up in its final hours.
Weirdly, despite my not really loving the series to date, I’m hopeful that Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen can pull it off. They have extra pages to use to cram everything in, they’ve shown an at-times-ridiculous ambition to do “big” ideas and set pieces, meaning that they’ll avoid Schism‘s understatedness, but they also don’t have to pull any last-minute twists in order to bring things to satisfying conclusion, nor do they need to conclude an entire timeline, a la Flashpoint. Surprisingly, out of nowhere, I find myself pulling for Fear Itself to do this thing we can “finishing without a disaster,” and prove that the art of the event book isn’t (temporarily, pending a reboot, retcon or cosmic entity that can reanimate fallen heroes) dead.
No pressure, though.
October 18th, 2011 at 9:30 am
Don’t worry.
It will suck.
October 18th, 2011 at 9:39 am
You think event books can die? Seriously?? Oh wait, you said “art of the event book.” I don’t think that was ever a factor, was it?
October 18th, 2011 at 10:19 am
This is why I stopped buying Marvel books regularly after Civil War. The idea that the purpose of a final chapter is to be a prelude of the new status quo is unappealing to me (and Flashpoint was WAY guilty of that, too). Let individual titles make thier own directions, and let the final part of a story be its final part. A satisfying end does not make me want to stop reading. It’s just the opposite.
October 18th, 2011 at 10:53 am
The fact that there are Fear Itself 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 coming out next, I’d say hoping for a clear ending is hoping for too much.
October 18th, 2011 at 11:12 am
I have felt this way about the end of a lot of Bendis’ events/stories: a lot of build-up, then the last issue plays like a recap of how things ended. This always came across as a bit strange to me.
October 18th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Event books will never die they will just call something else. They use to be called crossover and then that came out of style.
When it comes to event endings Marvel hasn’t had a good track record lately. Seige, Chaos War, Secret Invasion all had lame endings. SI didn’t even fix all marvel problems they could have. They just skipped it just to do Dark stuff that failed epically.
October 19th, 2011 at 7:52 am
Okay, anyone who disses Chaos War is looking for a world of Herc.
October 19th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
Too late. Just read the final issue and yeah, it pretty much sucked. There was no real ending and what there was, was confusing. Somebody care to explain what happened in the final panels? I feel like I got punked.
I bought the series and all I got in the end was a kick to the nut sack. It was no fun.
October 20th, 2011 at 3:28 am
This whole big event leading to a new status quo thing has really started to get annoying. I remember when they used to do a big event and the only thing they had to worry about afterward was a new costume or team member or new villian.
Now’adays it’s just a big rush into something to start the next “big” thing.
I’m still waiting for them to explain what happened to all those armies of aliens that were lurking around NY during WWH. It ended, Hulk was in custody and everything went back to normal. No reprucustions against the Illuminati, no explanations about what happened to the Hulk’s armies, no nothing. Just a bunch of Hulk themed new series and the next set-up for the next next big summer event.
DC’s track record is just about as worse if not confusing. Countdown/Final Crisis is 52 done right?…maybe to a stoner.
October 20th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Well, so much for that.
I have to admit, seeing the previews with the Avengers wielding Odin-enhanced weaponry got me excited. And The Worthy had, over the past few months (thanks to the tie-in stories), finally started to feel like a real threat. So I was hoping for a real universe-shattering showdown.
Instead we got Fear Itself #7. Thanks, Marvel.