Marvel Fear Itself

Marvel held a Press Conference earlier this week in which Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and editors Tom Brevoort and Axel Alonso--with a special appearance from writer Matt Fraction holed up in a bunker ;)--talked about the Marvel Universe's next big event: Fear Itself.

You can check out the conference video here, as well as the Fear Itself trailer and Fraction's broadcast--both pulled from the half-hour-plus conference.

The conference event was designed just to light the touch paper for Fear Itself and understandably didn't give much away; the main thing I took away from it was just how many times they said 'Fear Itself;' there is no-one that watches that conference that will forget the name of the crossover; and in the spirit of that--and getting this blog high up in a Google search for Fear Itself--I'm gonna be slipping that name in as many times as I can here. ;)

So what did they give away in the Fear Itself Press Conference? Well, the crossover is going to tap into the anxieties felt in the current climate of the real world and is going to kick off with a Fear Itself Prologue one-shot in March, written by Ed Brubaker (Captain America) and illustrated by Scott Eaton (X-Men). Similarly to Secret Invasion's retcon wherein The Illuminati (a secret cabal of Marvel's big brains, including Mr. Fantastic and Professor X) pissed off the Skrulls and effectively caused the Invasion, here in Fear Itself Prologue, Captain America and The Invaders, back in the day, are going to do something that produces a dark secret and introduces a big gun character that will play a huge role in Fear Itself.

The main Fear Itself event will be a 7-issue mini-series written by Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man) and illustrated by Stuart Immonen (New Avengers), crossing over into a number of books but, like Civil War, you'll be able to comfortably enjoy Fear Itself from the main mini-series alone.

It was stated that all the Marvel big gun characters will be involved, with the X-Men playing a key role--and that a bunch of heroes will be chosen as 'The Worthy' to take on the main villain. The image above teases that Fear Itself will see some characters' worst fears become reality; whether the character that debuts in Fear Itself Prologue will cause this remains to be seen, but it was stated that the villain in Fear Itself will feed off--and become stronger from--fear (itself).

It's been awhile now since Marvel did a big crossover--though, as they stated in the Fear Itself conference, after going straight from Civil War to Secret Invasion to Dark Reign to SIEGE, we did need a break before having another one. Having said that, and much as many people, including my favorite podcasters Mike Hoffert Jnr. and friends (check out their always entertaining It Came From the Longbox podcast), have been digging the current Marvel Heroic Age, personally I've felt it to be lacklustre, and I'm looking forward to Fear Itself.

Also, though obviously he won't be the big bad, I hope Norman Osborn will have a role to play in Fear Itself; with his Richard Nixon-like qualities, he seems a shoe-in and I really dug him in Dark Reign--my favorite of Marvel's most recent crossovers--and I was disappointed with SIEGE when we didn't get to see him turning batshit-crazy Green Goblin--instead the climax becoming all about The Sentry.

Maybe Fear Itself will rectify that.

What are your thoughts on this one? A No-Prize for whoever mentions Fear Itself legitimately most--not just writing Fear Itself Fear Itself Fear Itself--in your comments.

;)