User blog:GrnMarvl14/Fear Itself: The Home Front 2 Review by GrnMarvl14

The second issue in this Fear Itself tie-in is out and...it's not bad. Two really strong stories, one that wasn't bad, and one that...well...read on.

First off, we had Scapegoat, part 2. Featuring the further adventures of Speedball in Stamford, where his efforts to make up for his past mistakes took a wrong turn and ended with him being attacked by a mob. Helped by the unlikely Miriam Sharpe, the woman who led a personal crusade against heroes, leading to the drafting of the Initiative legislation, it's nice to see a character scarred by violence who doesn't turn to violence herself. I'm glad to see Gage not turning her into a new villain, or even a new reluctant hero (well...not a reluctant super-hero at least). And the choice of villains for this issue (recent Raft escapees Icemaster, Ember, Aftershock, Whirlwind, and the infamous Icemaster) was random, and well done (with a nice nod to Icemaster's first appearance). The Stamford residents learning from their mistakes (not that Speedball's a hero, but that they shouldn't try to beat him up, they should strangle him) was a nice turn, with Sharpe making the save again certainly setting up for an interesting...something...down the line.

The second story, Age of Anxiety, part 2, featuring the Agents of Atlas...was just bad. Things were figured out far too easily, confrontations were cut far too short, and too many things happened purely to move the plot along...not because they made any sense (the villain being killed, and his death just happens to reveal a map that, apparently, no one thought to look too hard at before. Woo says they need to burn the Atlanteans corpses they find so as not to upset Namora...but then is surprised when the very loud noises M-11 makes attracts her attention). So much of this story just feels contrived and half-thought. The artwork, while nice, is lacking in places (if the villain was shot in the chest, then shouldn't there be blood on him when they open up his short? Not just burn marks? It seems that only his shirt bled). And Namora's little aside to Venus as Jimmy faces giant Nazi robots seems fairly stupid, as does their apparent complete lack in helping to take down the robots. Just...a bad story for some of my favorite characters.

A Moment with Purple Man was a nice read. I'm liking these Howard Chaykin one-pagers. They don't do a lot, don't have much of a plot, but they're a nice distraction.

Between Stations, starring Liz Allan, was a nice little story, and the second in the non-super hero-centric stories from this series. It didn't really do anything but provide a nice, short read, but I don't think it's meant to be anything more than that. It did its job. Not great. Not amazing. But it wasn't bad.

All in all...I'd give this a 2.5 out of 5, with the Speedball story earning most of that. And the very presence of the Agents of Atlas earning most of the rest...even if it was lacking in sense.

GrnMarvl14 21:27, May 4, 2011 (UTC)