***WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!! DO NOT READ THIS PREVIEW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE SPOILERS!***FEAR ITSELF #3, the next installment in the 7-part Marvel Event of the summer, is a slow-motion roller-coaster ride of emotion, story and confliction that left me
applauding one minute and
scratching my head the next.
In summary, Sin leads an attack on US soil, and it's up to many Marvel mainstays to defend the country. Meanwhile in Asgard, Thor's imprisonment appears to have come to an end. Plus, across the country, the new enhanced powered "
BREAKERS" are using their new mythical hammers to pummel everything in their path. This includes
THE THING, who, in a move very out of character in my opinion, reaches out to pick up one of the hammers and becomes a Breaker himself. You'd think after being in this business as long as he has and the company he has kept, Ben would know better than to do something that stupid.
"Oh look! A big-a$$ hammer in the middle of the street glowing and calling to me! I must have it!" He did have some interesting if not predictable dialogue with a stranger who berates him for being responsible for Johnny Storm's death. I didn't know Torch had such a following among truck drivers!
Moving on. The big shocker at the end of the book? The apparant second
death of Bucky Barnes (Steve Rogers' old partner and Captain America himself for the last few years) as Sin puts a hole in his chest where his heart should be.
Yeah, it's pretty brutal. Completely NOT a surprise either.
As readers get ready for a summer of Chris Evans as Captain America on July 22nd in the film "
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER", it looks like Marvel is making sure they put Steve back in the stars-and-stripes laden spandex before the launch of the film.
Holy marketing plan, Bucky!
Matt Fraction just up and iced you in one issue after
Ed Brubaker spent dozens of issues of Cap rebuilding you up as a decent character! Bendis' Bucky-Cap in AVENGERS is cardboard...as if Bendis doesn't know what to do with him. And now, in one issue, it doesn't matter. A meaningless death to a character that
might have had some potential at meaning something to fans.
But I digress. If this IS Bucky's death, it will sell. You might want to pick up a copy for yourself and add it to your Cap collection, if not for anything other than sheer morbidness.
Head on over to
ComicCollectorLive.com and snag a copy of
FEAR ITSELF #3.
The
1:25 variant is particularly brutal, if you like your Bucky-Cap's served
extra crispy.