Fear Itself: The Home Front #1Ever since Civil War, Marvel always offered a supplement book to their events subtitled “Homefront”. With a new event out now, Marvel keeps up their tradition with Fear Itself: The Home Front #1. This time it’s a bit different. Instead of the story following intrepid reporter Ben Urich’s coverage of the event, this title uses a revolving set of writers and shorts revolving around other characters in the Marvel Universe that won’t be getting too much exposure with the main title or the tie-ins. So, what’s this book got for us?
First, we have a story from Christos Gage and Mike Mayhew starring Speedball and the Avengers Academy gang. It’s the anniversary of the Stamford tragedy. Speedball is off to Stamford to volunteer for Damien’s Gift, a non-profit set up by a grieving mother, who’s hardly a fan of Speedball. When his identity is found out, the mother leads an angry mob against poor Robbie. The second story surrounds the Agents of Atlas by Peter Milligan. In this tale, Jimmy Woo, the leader of Atlas is struggling with a mindset that constantly wants to escape to 1958, and a romantic affair with Namora. When the escalating bad feelings start causing hate groups to come out, Atlantis fights back in a more aggressive, skull-cracking way with Jimmy, in particular, growing darker and more disconnected. The third and fourth stories are a little more light hearted with Howard Chaykin’s J. Jonah Jameson’s public address to New York City following the riots seen in Fear Itself #1 (guess what group of people he blames that on!), and Jim McCann’s slightly more realistic view of life in Broxton since Norman Osborn laid waste to Asgard.
The two best stories by default are Gage and Mayhew’s Speedball and Milligan’s Atlas stories. These are multi-part stories that tie directly into the mood of the parent title. They feature recognizable characters. I mean, yeah, Jameson is a pretty recognizable character, but Chaykin obviously was going for more comedic affair. From a critical standpoint, McCann’s Broxton story has the most emotional impact and definitely fits much more into the “Home Front” idea. We learn that Broxton, while a tourist attraction for anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of a true god, the small town is hurting bad as a result of Osborn’s Siege. Some are optimistic, some are scared, and some are just rolling up their sleeves just because that’s what they know best to do in tough times. As a one off story, it’s actually riveting. In just a few pages, I was pretty invested.
The art all around is pretty good. How can you not love Howard Chaykin drawing a JJJ short? Elia Bonetti’s art on the Atlas story just has a cool to it that I dare say fits the team and the story itself. If I felt there was one critique I had it was Mike Mayhew’s photo-realistic visuals. Frame by frame, it makes sense. It speaks as much as a photo would (at least I hope it would), but there’s a bit too much uncanny valley going on there. At times, it was unsettling to see Lauren Graham (I mean it, look at Miriam Sharpe and tell me that’s not Lauren Graham) hating on Robbie Baldwin and slapping him and leading an angry mob against him. I think if I were to look at these pictures without the word bubbles or captions, I would have an easier time. It’s a little too much for a comic.
Ultimately, it’s a good book. If I miss anything from a Home Front title, it’s the (how should I put this?)… liberal angle. Ben Urich sought truth and was a bit of a hero from doing so. These are just extra Fear Itself stories, not really anything with a punch, or anything that made you hate the obvious, conservative blow hard, or hating on the trampling of personal rights and privileges.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATINGProsConsThe four stories are technically good. We get some nice work from Christos Gage, Peter Milligan, Howard Chaykin, and Jim McCann in one book.Lacks the punch the other Home Front books gave us during the other events. Mike Mayhew's photo-realistic art style was a bit overload for a comic. Rating70% You might also like...
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This post was added on 6 Apr 2011, 18:23 by Geoff Arbuckle who has contributed 370 posts to this blog.
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