All about Fear itself to Shattered Heroes

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Update Thursday, 12/16: The Hulk has blood on his hands - literally - in Thursday morning's new Marvel "Do You Fear..." teaser image. And apparently the blood is the Avengers'.

What "fear" will Friday morning bring?

Update Wednesday, 12/15: As expected, there is a new morning entry in Marvel's newest teaser campaign - "Do You Fear ... A Loss of Faith", featuring what appears to be the Steve Rogers-Captain America (note the costume, the blond hair) holding his shattered shield.

Are these perhaps teasing a alternative reality/universe story of some kind?

Expect a new entry Thursday morning...

Update Tuesday, 12/14: It looks like another series of teasers (definitely the "it" marketing campaign of 2010) from Marvel, these asking the question: "Do You Fear..?"

Today's shows the X-Men's leader Cyclops, apparently asking if the mantle of leadership post-House of M is turning him into man he's fought against most of his career with the team - Magneto, a fair an astute question given some of Cyclops actions and decisions the last several years.

You can probably look for a new teaser Wednesday morning..

"Do You Fear... Tomorrow?"

That's the question asked by Marvel's latest teaser image, sent to press with no further comment or indication if this is the mainstream Marvel Universe or Ultimate Universe version of Spider-Man. Promoting a project coming in April, the image shows Spider-Man confronted by a variety of current societal issues: unemployment, national security, war and the recession.

Marvel's March solicitations debut this month, which means it might be a while before we learn what this is all about — but these days, teaser images frequently come in a series, so keep reading this week to see if more might be coming.
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credits : newsarama.com

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Update Friday, 12/17: Friday afternoon brings the fifth (and presumably final) "Do You Fear..." teaser of the week from Marvel, before the publisher reveals the mystery project behind the teasers next week via a live press conference at Noon Eastern on December 21st.

This time it's Odin holding his son Thor at spearpoint, accompanied by the text "Do You Fear... Family Secrets?"

Well, looks like this is tied to whatever the next big Marvel Universe event might be. Until next week, feel free to speculate on what's making the heroes of the Marvel Universe so... fearful.?

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credits : newsarama.com

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FEAR ITSELF: PROLOGUE
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Pencils by SCOT EATON
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
Variant Cover by Joe Quesada

All the Red Skull's terrible secrets and plans are in the hands of his evil daughter, Sin, who's intent on outdoing her father... Now find out about the Skull's most-dangerous World War II mission, that he risked everything for...and how it's going to tear the Marvel Universe apart today. FEAR ITSELF starts here...in the darkest secrets of the past.

In stores Mar 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

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The details of what exactly will be announced are still unknown, but here's what we've pieced together: it's a 2011 "event," involving those "Do you fear..." teasesrs unveiled last week (and one today), and is most likely helmed by Thor, Invincible Iron Man and Uncanny X-Men writer Matt Fraction. For further speculation, check out our post on Blog@Newsarama — might it involve Ares' son, Phobos, who shares a name with Greek mythology's embodiment of fear?
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credits : newsarama.com

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On Dec. 21, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and vice president-executive editors Axel Alonso and Tom Brevoort announced Fear Itself, Marvel's latest company-wide crossover "event," starting in earnest in April, with a prologue issue in March.

Here's what we know so far: The comic was preceded by the "Do You Fear..." teaser campaign, the main series is seven issues by Invincible Iron Man, Thor and Uncanny X-Men writer Matt Fraction and New Avengers artist Stuart Immonen, and there will be, as these things go, plenty of tie-ins along the way. It depicts Marvel's heroes facing their greatest fears, touches on real-life issues, and fittingly, involves the God of Fear.

Other than that, not much else was revealed at the press conference — so in their first interview following the announcement, Newsarama talked with both Fraction and Brevoort about Fear Itself, learning more about who it involves, how it got started and what kind of work goes into constructing an event like this.

Newsarama: Matt, let’s start at the beginning and the conception of Fear Itself. For a major crossover like this one, does the idea come first, and then you come on board, or was it your story all along?

Matt Fraction: The cart and the horse very rarely get in front of each other. Maybe before somebody has said, “we need an event, figure it out, come up with a multi-part epic!” but I’ve never been told that. What happened actually was that Tom contacted me and [Ed] Brubaker, saying, “We’ve got this Captain America and Thor thing happening this summer, so we’re wondering if maybe there’s a Cap/Thor series that could capitalize on that?”

As Ed and I started to talk and I kind of got into it and he kind of got out of it, we came up with this story, but we kept having trouble figuring out, “how do you make this work for a movie audience? How do you start part one in May, and then have part three in July, and still have it make sense, and not have somebody have to go back, and buy two parts?” Just getting wrapped up in the logic of it all during a retreat. Joe [Quesada] just said, “F*ck it, what’s you story?” That kind of freed me to not worry about marketing and scheduling in my pitch — I had the core of the story, but I couldn’t figure out where it all fell. Once Joe said that, I was like, “Oh, great, well, here’s the story,” and I started to tell what I thought was a good, interesting, satisfying, Cap and Thor story. As we started to talk, Joe — it sounds like such a whore-y line — got a little sparkle in his eye, and said, “This sounds like it could be an event.”

Then I really started pitching, and really going for it. It just kind of got everybody more and more excited, and we realized that not only was this a great Cap and Thor story — and by great, I mean, big, I don’t mean, like, “this is so good, let me tell you how brilliant” — we realized we had a big, massive, Brando-sized story. We started to realize how modular it was, and that this really did work as an event, because people could connect their books where they chose to. It was a big enough and a broad enough idea that it could be very specific, and very explicit, and very literal, or it could be very oblique. For all the pyrotechnics and all the top-level stuff, it’s still very character-driven in its nature. It’s a bad guy that affects everybody differently on a one-on-one kind of level. That gives you all kinds of ground to tell stories. It started off as a very simple, “maybe we can find a miniseries or something to do,” and it became this big thing.

Nrama: So would you say Cap and Thor are still the main characters of Fear Itself?

Fraction: Absolutely. It’s still very much about the two of them. There’s an alliance between Sin and this guy, the Serpent, the God of Fear — this fellow that Odin banished millennia ago. You’ve got a big nightmare for Thor, which is basically a monstrous problem of his dad’s, and then with Cap you’ve got the Red Skull’s daughter — she’s sort of like the ultimate trust fund kid, she’s earned nothing but been given everything, which makes her completely lethal and completely horrible to deal with.

You’ve got Cap and Thor dealing with their worst nightmares come true simultaneously. It irradiates and touches everybody else outside of that, but it starts and ends with Cap and Thor.

Nrama: And it looks like Brubaker is still pretty heavily involved, given that he’s writing the prologue.

Fraction: Yeah — the connection between the Red Skull and Sin is one of those things where Ed and I could get on the phone 430,000 times because it coordinates with stories that he’s telling, or he could just do it. So it was like, “Why don’t you just do it? Here’s how it needs to end. Get us to this point and we’ll be fine.” And off Ed went. He’s going to end where I need it to end, and it’s a nice little piece of back story if you’re the kind of person who wants to know about the connection between Red Skull, the second World War, Captain America and how all of that kerfuffle set up what happens in the modern day.

Nrama: And given that it’s you who’s writing the main story, and Cap and Thor are the main characters, I’m guessing Iron Man also plays a big role?

Fraction: It’s not the role that people will expect. He is a part of the story, it’s very much about the big three and their relationship to one another, but Iron Man takes a path that I hope surprises people; that he thwarts your basic assumption.

Nrama: You’ve also been writing Uncanny X-Men for a few years at this point, and Cyclops was in one of the teasers...

Fraction: That’s the other thing, trying to find a front and center position for the X-Men in the middle of all this, too. They tend to take the sideline during these things for one reason or another — the opportunity to get them on the main stage is very exciting.

Nrama: A major way Fear Itself has been initially promoted is that it reflects, to an extent, on real world fears and concerns — albeit, obviously, though the lens of epic-scale superhero action.

Fraction: Nobody wants to see Spider-Man punch a recession.

Nrama: At what point did incorporating a degree of real-life relevancy become an important part of the story?

Fraction: I think that kind of came with that spark in Joe’s eye, where Joe saw it as being a thing that we could go deep on. “Look at how this resonates to where we are right now.” It came organically out of the idea — the idea was together, and then it was like, “oh, look, you can talk about it like this, and you can look at it like that.” That was how I found my way in. Suddenly, I knew what the story was about, and where it was going, and it just all kind of fit together.

It’s modular in terms of how people are going to come to it. You can handle it very literally — Cap’s worst fear is Sin being a better Red Skull than her father. That’s it on one level, but what if it happens at a time when Captain America is kind of an ironic joke? A time when people have lost faith in Cap, and in America, and he’s not the symbol of our greatest potential that he once was, but rather this kind of weird relic. That kind of puts it in a different space; that makes it a different story to talk about. We found the echoes once we found the core direction of everything else.

Nrama: Rather than just saying “let’s do a story that touches on real world issues!”


Fraction: Like I said, nobody wants to see Spider-Man punch a recession. We got the story, and when the story was there, the rest of it revealed itself. It very easily becomes a look at where we are now, just by pulling out a little bit, and widening your focus just a little bit, and you can fit all this other stuff in the frame — you can talk about that general, free-floating anxiety that’s in the air, you can talk about all of the fear that soaks through every thing we do these days.

Nrama: It seems that that’s something you’d probably gravitate towards to as a writer anyway — after all, every story aims to work on more than just one surface level.

Fraction: You would hope. I hope, anyway.

When you invest the time and energy that this has taken so far, just to get it up off the ground, you kind of have to be into it. You have to love the story, there has to be something for you to take a bite out of — for me, anyway. I need something more than just fight scenes. That we have this really versatile character that lets us tell all these different stories, and all these different perspectives, is a great blessing to my sanity.

Tom Brevoort: I think people don’t really realize — maybe because we make it look so easy — what a massive undertaking one of these things is, and the enormous mental drain and drain on time of putting it together. Not even just the core story, but all of the other connectivity through the assorted tie-in books and so forth. Certainly, with a story that massive, that’s going to take up a thousand pages of pulp paper —

Fraction: And eight months of publication time.

Brevoort: And probably at least double that of our lives, if not the readers’ lives — you hope that it has something to say about something. And something universal enough that all the various writers and artists who get to contribute to it in and around the edges, all the way up to the center, can find their own statement or their own insight into whatever the question is, beyond just toeing one single line.

I think that’s one of the things that made Civil War so effective, is that the central premise of it was fairly universal. Certainly, not all of the creators involved agreed politically on exactly where things should be along that spectrum. Some guys were more conservative, some guys were more liberal, some guys were more whatever, and that point of view tended to come out in the stories — sometimes even if the same character was talking. On Monday, Iron Man would say, “we should kill them all!” and on Tuesday, he would say, “Well, probably we shouldn’t kill all of them.” Even that little inconsistency that would show up every now and again, which would sometimes vex some of our more continuity-minded fans, I think is good, because it speaks to creators responding to an issue genuinely, trying to put forward an idea — their position, their perspective on where the world is, and to represent truth as they see it. Which is a pretty lofty thing to do when you’re talking about guys in tights flying around and thwacking each other.

Fraction: Again, but if you’re going to be talking about it this long, you’ve got to be doing more than just fight scenes. Maybe some folks can, but I would go crazy.

Nrama: That speaks to something I’ve always been curious about, when constructing these big events. It seems that since there are always a lot of moving parts, so many characters and creators involved, and certain benchmarks fans expect to see in a Marvel event comic — lots of heroes gathered, big battles...

Fraction: What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa — slow down. We have a lot of talking. We have a lot of Ingmar Bergman-style close ups.

Brevoort: There’s a brunch in issue #3 that’s phenomenal. “Infinity Brunch.”

Nrama: But is it perhaps a challenge in all that to retain your own style and voice?

Fraction: I think this is very much me. It feels very much me. It’s a story that I’m really into. It’s a story that if nobody bought it in the room, it would have ended up in Thor. The exact nature of the catastrophe, as it is revealed, is a very personal thing, and it plays with that kind of faux-Shakespearean familial dynamic that so peppers the Thor stories that I love.

And that I can plug into this anxiety that I feel is just sort of therapeutic, if nothing else. I don’t think many creators do well with marching orders. I’ve walked away from stuff when it didn’t feel right for me, so this has felt nothing but right. It’s been big, and it’s been intimidating, and thrilling, all that other stuff, but making it feel like me — very early on, Tom said, “the first issue of this is going to be more read than anything you’ve ever done.” Meaning, editorially. And he’s right — every single office has read it, there’s been all kinds of notes, all sorts of stuff. I don’t remember how many drafts it went through before finally they were like, “Alright, it’s drawable.” But it always made it stronger. Just by nature of my own inexperience — this is my first rodeo, but everyone else is pretty seasoned, so everyone was very nurturing, for lack of a better word. Now that Stuart is cranking on the pages, and we’re getting art in daily, I’m very proud of this. This feels right.

Brevoort: If you want to live through a dark night of the soul as a comic book creator, you want to write the first issue of one of these big event stories. It ultimately doesn’t even matter how many times you’ve done it — Brian [Michael Bendis] I think has done maybe three of these, and it’s exactly the same every time. I’m sure there’s some point, after getting an e-mail, or getting off the phone with me or whomever, he walks around going, “I don’t know if I know how to do this.”

It is the most demanding, the most draining challenge that a creator can have, because it’s such a big story, it’s such a big part of our publishing plan, and so many people are going to weigh in on it. You’re going to get more feedback than anything else, particularly on the first one.

Fraction: Right now, it is a very intensive, all hands-on-deck experience. It would be one thing if it was just one series that was being looked at by a lot of people, but I finished the script, and it didn’t just go to all the editors, it goes to all the other writers, who are now presented with, “OK, guys, this is our event. Do you have anything to say about this?” You get notes from all over. You get notes from your colleagues, and your friends. That’s where it gets really scary. When I found out that it got sent out to other writers, I was like, “Oh, Jesus.” That was when I really got nervous. It was fine when it was just going to editorial, editorial’s used to watching me whiff it. It’s so weird to say that, but that’s what I was really bracing for, getting sh*t from other writers. They have all been pretty polite so far, though. I’m sure there’s still time.

My jumping in at Marvel was in the middle of Civil War doing Punisher [War Journal], and it was in the middle of Mark [Millar]’s health issues. I was getting every revision that Mark was doing, and things were changing on a daily basis. It was a crazy way to start a career at Marvel Comics. I wrote the issues all out of order, it was just bonkers, just because of the nature of the beast. Having lived through a real force majeure sort of catastrophe with that stuff, I just became very aware what this does to other people. What these documents do to someone’s life. I’m very acutely aware of what my colleagues are going to go through and be doing. I was trying to keep my own experience in mind when going forward and planning it, and trying to make it as modular and accessible as possible. And as inoffensive, most importantly, and unobtrusive as possible.

credits: newsarama.com

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In the first part of our Fear Itself conversation with writer Matt Fraction and newly minted Marvel Comics senior vice president of publishing Tom Brevoort, we talked about the origins of the April-debuting crossover event, and the main characters — Captain America and Thor.

Getting further into the seven-issue series, we chat more with Fraction and Brevoort about coordinating the tie-ins of an event this size, what ancillary characters may be seen, and past crossovers that Fraction is taking some inspirational cues from. (We also talk about the musical Chicago, but only a little bit.)

And, yep, there's even more coming, so check back here on Friday for the third and final installment of our Fear Itself interview, devling into, among other things, the role of series artist Stuart Immonen.

Newsarama: Matt, as the main writer of an event series like this, how much do you have to worry about interacting with the authors of all the tie-ins, and make sure everything matches up timeline-wise and all that? Or is that all an editorial thing?

Matt Fraction: That is mostly Tom’s nervous breakdown to have. I kind of throw in my two cents as we go, and suggest series as we go. There were a lot of — are tributaries like the little rivers that flow into the big rivers? — tributary characters that got cut away. That stuff sort of organically develops as you go, and I’ll jot down a note, and off it goes to Tom, and Tom has to worry about it. I don’t know how you manage it.

Tom Brevoort: It’s the division of labor, which amounts to, no one person can deal with all of this. It does become a full-time job. Understanding the broad strokes and the gist of the story, and where we’re going, and our themes and so forth — if there’s something that somebody presents for a tie-in book that I think has bearing, or has impact, or is questionable, or doesn’t necessarily fit, I’ll typically consult with Matt. I’ll send it over to him, and say, “Hey, take a look at this, and let me see what you think, we’ll see how this fits in with everything else that we’re doing.” I try to do that as little as possible, because at any given point that Matt is reading somebody else’s pitch, he is not actually working on the mountainous amount of stuff that he has to do for this directly. And yet, there are plenty of situations that need Matt’s awareness, or I need to get a sense of what he’s thinking so we can advise the other editors and the other creators appropriately.

Fraction: It got to a point where we were really close to having a finished draft of the first issue, and Tom and I had just been living in it for so long we had adapted a shorthand. It was all we had been talking about. Now you have to loop in 30 other people. Getting everybody caught up without drowning everyone in needless volumes of confusion. Let’s keep this contained. It’s kind of like herding cats, I guess. Or understanding the nature of cats so to best herd them.

Brevoort: Yes, it is exactly like that.

Fraction: I don’t want anyone to curse my name and slam a phone down in anger because I’ve done something to cause them to waste time, or even worse, lose work. So that is my mission.

Brevoort: The worst situations like that tend to come on the other side. We have a lot of incredibly creative people, and you present them a challenge, or you present them the broad strokes of something, and inevitably they’ll come back with something you didn’t think of before. Quite often on a project like this, these are good ideas, but they don’t necessarily fit in with the rest of the structure.

To put kind of a pedantic example together, if Thor is in Asgard thwacking away at a problem over here, he can’t be in North Carolina hanging out with Ghost Rider. No matter how good that Ghost Rider idea is, the story requires Thor to be in Asgard, thwacking away at whatever, and there’s no give there. Those are the most difficult things to dice around, because you spend two days trying to figure out, “Could we get him to North Carolina, and get him back on time? Is there some way to kind of bend this, and make it all work?” Inevitably, what it means is that somebody goes away slightly unsatisfied and having to rethink what they’re doing.

Fraction: Suddenly Volstagg makes it out to North Carolina.

Brevoort: There’s a tremendous amount of interaction and compromise. It’s certainly a lot easier if you’re just writing your comic, and, “Ghost Rider’s in North Carolina, yay!” Once you’re doing something sizable, the amount of interaction for everybody just gets exponentially bigger, and you’re not necessarily king of the hill even in your own story. By doing — and I’m using Ghost Rider for no apparent reason — a Ghost Rider story and saying, “I want to be part of this larger thing,” you’ve abdicated to some degree your position at the head of the table, because the story you’re telling is not your story. It’s your story, and Ghost Rider’s story, within the context of this larger super-story, but you don’t necessarily get to control every single element of that. Waking up one day and saying, “It would be much better for me if the villain was this guy rather than that guy,” you don’t have the ability to control that unilaterally that you do if you were just writing Ghost Rider.

Nrama: Even though Fear Itself will have a lot of tie-ins, it seems that — and I could be wrong — the actual main story focuses in on only a few characters. We’ve established that Captain America and Thor are the stars, and there’s been talk about eight characters being “the worthy.” Is it fair to say, then, that the main story isn’t quite as sprawling, maybe a little bit more zoomed in?

Brevoort: I make this point all the time: For all that Civil War was a big, sprawling story with dozens of superheroes colliding over this issue, Civil War is really a story about three characters. It’s really about Cap on one side of the argument, Iron Man on the other side of the argument, and Spider-Man caught in the middle. And every issue of Civil War is really about one of those three pieces, and where they are, and how these things develop — with dozens of other characters arrayed around them. Going into a big story like this, you can have a cast of thousands, but they can’t all be stars. You need to know who your stars are and who your main focal point characters are, and then boil your way down to your co-stars, and your bit players, and your cameos, and your scene-stealers — some of whom will get more play in ancillary books than they will in the core books, simply due to the fact that that’s an issue of Ghost Rider, and so you have 22 pages to devote to Ghost Rider, whereas in the main book he may just be a co-star, or a bit player, or a cameo.

We have certainly boiled it down to the characters that we think it’s genuinely about. There were scenes and sequences and ideas for other characters, that just as we continued to boil this away, had to fall by the wayside, simply because the story wasn’t big enough to contain them all at the center.

Fraction: And that was Tom’s most consistent note to me. I got to a point where just to keep myself straight, I was making charts that just tracked the main characters in each issue. “What is their big win here, and what is their big loss here?” Every issue had a plus and a minus for these guys, just to keep my head in the game and to keep focused on everything. I said this to Tom a million times, “I keep losing the lawn for all the blades of grass.” You get down on your hands and knees all day in the dirt, it’s really easy to do.

I think that had a big thing to do with what attracted Joe [Quesda] to the story. When we kind of really laid down the railroad tracks, I think Joe saw very early on — maybe even before I did — how this was a character story. We had a retreat where that just kind of was his mantra: “Where are the characters, where are the characters?” That was what Joe wanted us to keep the optics on. You’re a fan, you know what it’s like — you just kind of start daydreaming,. “Oh, and this would be cool, this would be cool!” and suddenly you’ve got the greatest Volstagg/Ghost Rider tie-in of all time, and Captain America hasn’t been here for 50 pages.

In a thing with this many moving parts, it’s really easy to lose track. “Oh yeah, we’re making a watch, we’re not polishing cogs.” That sounds like a really dismissive way to... I just called somebody’s favorite character a cog, and not a watch.

Brevoort: They can’t all be watches.

Nrama: If they were all watches, than the cogs wouldn’t seem as useful or special. Or something.

Matt, given that this is your first time writing a big event story, are there any in the past that you really liked and are maybe taking inspirational cues from?

Fraction: The original Secret Wars — which, granted, dates very poorly, I think, in a lot of ways — came out right when I started reading Marvel books. It was very early in my nascent Marvel-dom as I kind of realized, “Oh, there’s DC and there’s Marvel!” Secret Wars is kind of my touchstone, and I think the best lesson to take from that is how it was like Ocean’s 11 — it was just everybody you loved. The best good guys and the worst bad guys fighting. It was so pure, on some level — y’know, because it was on some level an advertisement for toys — but it works. You go back and look at it now, it’s like, “some of this is silly,” but I still can recreate in my mind, panel for panel, the Dr. Doom/Beyond fight. I gasped when Doom’s leg just gets blown off like a thing of tube sand out of the back of a pickup truck.

On one level, just that kind of very simple, like, razzle-dazzle — I can’t remember what musical that’s from — make it huge, and epic, and big, and exciting, and pure.

Brevoort: That’s the promise of these. That’s what attracts the audience, and always has, on the most 8-year-old level imaginable. It’s a big story, with all of your favorite superhero characters, fighting all of the worst villains, in the biggest, craziest, most dramatic story ever, where crazy sh*t happens. It’s everything you like about an ordinary comic, but multiplied a million times.

Fraction: It’s the IMAX version of the same sh*t we do month in and month out. It’s tough in this era when our sales cycles are so nakedly exposed, and our promotional cycles are so out there, and everything is always hyped as, “The end of everything, in Muffin Man #17!” You know it’s not really the end of everything, but hyperbole has become our default mode of communication, I think. That’s a big part of it. “What is the simple epic of it all? Oh right, it’s everything you love, all at once, happening on a scale way bigger than you can imagine.” That’s one of the brilliant things about Brian [Michael Bendis]’s Avengers relaunch. That Kang story — every month something else would come out, it was just like, “Goddamn it, I don’t know how you top this.” That open was so robust.

The other one I think has to be Civil War. Like or dislike, that it was so nakedly about the zeitgeist at the time, whether by design or by accident, I think was fantastic, because that’s what Marvel heroes always were. Marvel guys were always the blue-collar. working-class; hustling to get Aunt May’s prescription. It was like the real world. I think we can reflect some of that. Like I said earlier, no one wants to hear Spider-Man punch a recession, but to see Spider-Man worried about the same sh*t that I’m worried about means something to me. That resonates. I think that’s why Marvel is Marvel. I think it’s relatable in a way that DC never is. So that is another important thing to me, keeping an eye on the real world, and understanding that we’re not going to solve any of these problems, but we can look at them, we can think about them, we can talk about them through the lens of these Marvel heroes. If you can combine the marquee, epic, smash-‘em-up purity of Secret Wars, with the relevancy of something like Civil War — which was also not lacking in the smash-‘em-up department — I think that is a pretty terrific combination.

I slept like two-and-a-half hours last night. That sounded pretty good, right?

Nrama: I'm not even sure know what to add, other than that it was Chicago that had the “Razzle Dazzle” song.

Fraction: That's it.

That’s even more dangerous, just as fans, when you lose blades of grass in the lawn. You might love Ghost Rider and Volstagg, and suddenly you’re writing for stuff for you as a fan, because there is this scenario that invites all of these characters to smash together. Suddenly, it’s very easy, just as a fan, to like, “I’ve always wanted to see what would happen if Ghost Rider and Volstagg went to North Carolina.” It’s easy to lose focus. You get to sleep over in Toys R Us all night long.

Brevoort: Everybody here has a love and a fondness for so many of these characters, and so many of these things — or sees potential, or sees interesting things in them — that when suddenly your assignment is, “Write a story that’s about all of them,” it’s very easy to get lost in, “And this guy and this guy and this guy!” When you look up and you go, “Well, I have 22 pages and I have 54 scenes,” clearly you’re trying to put 10 pounds of sand into a two-pound bag. It just doesn’t work. But it’s exactly the process that every single person goes through on this, because it’s such an attractive thing. “Look at all this stuff!”

Fraction: There’s a phone call that I made to you — I remember calling and asking, “So, can we have 44 pages every issue?”

Brevoort: That one happens, too, every single time. “Can there be a few more?” I think we want Stuart to live through this, so probably we want to have a little moderation.

credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Starting this April, Fear Itself: The Home Front gives you a front row seat to the biggest comic event of 2011, Fear Itself! By some of Marvel’s top creators, including Christos Gage, Peter Milligan, Mike Mayhew, Howard Chaykin and many more, Fear Itself: The Home Front pits the heralded heroes and unsung champions of the Marvel Universe against their own worst nightmares! The Marvel Universe is on the brink of being ripped apart and when all hope is lost, it’s up to Marvel’s greatest and bravest heroes to make a stand. Catch Fear Itself from every angle and join the fight as Marvel’s top talents take you on a series of globespanning, action packed adventures that will test the mettle of hero, citizen and villain alike!

“Building directly out of the global tide of fear and chaos of Fear Itself: The Home Front will feature stories both large and small of superhumans to regular joes as these momentous events divide friends, unite enemies and tear up the foundations of the Marvel Universe itself,” said series editor Lauren Sankovitch.

This spring, every denizen of the planet will be forced to face the same soul-shaking question: What Do You Fear? Even as a throng of gods and heroes battle the very personification of terror, a cast of thousands will confront the cosmic horror behind 2011's most anticipated comics event, only in Fear Itself: The Home Front!

FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #1 (of 7)
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE, PETER MILLIGAN & MORE
Penciled by MIKE MAYHEW, ELIA BONETTI & MORE
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
ON SALE IN APRIL
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #1 (of 7)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils & Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Covers by STEVE McNIVEN & STUART IMMONEN
Fantastic Four Anniversary Variant by PAOLO RIVERA
Blank Variant Cover Also Available

DO YOU FEAR...TOMORROW?
In this time of global anxiety, of economic turmoil and mass hysteria, Sin, the new Red Skull, has made an awesome discovery...a shameful secret that will rock the foundations of the Marvel Universe! A revelation that will divide father and son, turn friend against friend, and herald the rise of Fear personified. HE IS RETURNING...and the world has nothing to fear but FEAR ITSELF. Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen bring fans the biggest Marvel the biggest Marvel event since CIVIL WAR!

In stores Apr 2011
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FEAR ITSELF: SIN'S PAST #1
Written by MARK GRUENWALD & JIM McCANN
Penciled by RICH BUCKLER, AL MILGROM & STEFANO LANDINI
Cover by STEPHANIE HANS

The Origin of Sin, daughter of the Red Skull — and some of the quirkiest Cap stories ever told! Captain America, regressed to a 98-pound weakling, vs. a teenage death cult and the Sisters of Sin! Battle Star and the Falcon, together against the Serpent Society! Featuring a special guest-appearance by the voluptuous Sersi! Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA #355-356 and material from #357, fully remastered with modern coloring. Plus: an all-new framing sequence by Jim McCann (HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD) and Stefano Landini.

In stores Apr 2011
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============================

FEAR ITSELF SPOTLIGHT
Written by JOHN RHETT THOMAS
Cover by STUART IMMONEN

The only thing you have to fear is...FEAR ITSELF! Starting in April, Marvel lifts the lid on a plot that might undo the Heroic Age just as it’s getting started — with a universe-shattering attack from an unexpected quarter! In this issue of SPOTLIGHT, we dig deep with the creators behind FEAR ITSELF, including Matt Fraction (THOR, UNCANNY X-MEN) and Stuart Immonen (NEW AVENGERS) as they provide insight into the main event and the characters most affected by it! Plus: Take a look back at some of Marvel’s biggest blockbusters through the years — from old-school epics like the Avengers/Defenders War and SECRET WARS to contemporary crossovers like CIVIL WAR and SIEGE!

In stores Apr 2011
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EFEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #1 (of 7)
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE, PeTER milligan & More!
Penciled by MIKE MAYHEW, ELIA BONETTI & More!
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC

Terror has gripped the globe and now all the world is the front line for the next superhuman conflict! America blamed Speedball for the deaths of six hundred people in Stamford, Connecticut - the event that sparked the super hero Civil War. And while some have forgiven him, he hasn't forgiven himself. But a new crisis has arisen...fear is spreading throughout the populace...and, while doing charity work in disguise, Robbie Baldwin's true identity is exposed to the people of Stamford. With the world falling apart around him, can Speedball rally the population against the new danger...or will this survivor of an old war be the casualty of a new one? PLUS: Marvel’s super agent Jimmy Woo confronts his deepest fears in an all-new, all-action adventure! Join the fight as Marvel’s top talents take you on a series of globe-spanning adventures that will test the mettle of hero, citizen and villain alike!

In stores Apr 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Marvel released the cover of April's Fear Itself #1 Friday afternoon, featuring a shadowed figure holding Thor's hammer standing over a fallen God of Thunder, plus Avengers members Steve Rogers, Spider-Man, Iron Man and Wolverine.

The cover is illustrated by Steve McNiven, who illustrated the main section of the 2006 Marvel crossover series Civil War. Fear Itself, written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Stuart Immonen, features the Marvel heroes confonting their greatest fears.

Marvel's full press release follows:

Marvel is proud to debut the sensational cover to Fear Itself #1 (of 7), from superstar artist Steve McNiven! Prepare to fear tomorrow as comic luminaries Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen deliver the most anticipated event of 2011, kicking off in a colossal 56 page first issue! From the halls of Avengers Tower to the spires of Asgard, the entire Marvel Universe is about to enter a waking nightmare and no show of force, no attempt to reason, not even unconditional surrender can ever undo the damage done. As Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Iron Man and the rest of Earth’s mightiest heroes find themselves drafted into an eons-old war, will they have the combined resolve to combat their own worst fears personified? Can their loved ones and teammates escape from under the boot heel of Sin, the new Red Skull? And just what secret do her perverse plans share with the endless abyss beneath the Rainbow Bridge? Extinguish all hope because, this April, the Marvel Universe changes forever, only in Fear Itself #1 (of 7)!

http://i.newsarama.com/images/FEARITSELF_1_COVER_02.jpg

credits : newsarama.com

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Marvel Teaser-First Look: FEAR ITSELF: BOOK OF THE SKULLhttp://i.newsarama.com/images/FI_BOOKOFTHESKULL_02.jpg

credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Who Are The Worthy?" Marvel is asking Monday morning, teasing the April release of their big 2011 event Fear Itself.

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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #2 (of 7)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Cover by STEVE McNIVEN

The Mighty Thor--imprisoned by his own father! As Odin and the Asgardians leave the Earth to fend for itself against the God of Fear, the Avengers and the world's remaining heroes battle the unstoppable tide of terror! And then-- the Serpent’s Hammers fall! Who are the Worthy? Who shall rise up and join the Serpent as living avatars of his evil? And how can the Avengers respond...to fear itself?

In stores May 2011
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==========================

FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #2 (of 7)
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE, PETER MILLIGAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN & MORE!
Penciled by MIKE MAYHEW, ELIA BONETTI, HOWARD CHAYKIN & MORE!
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC

FEAR ITSELF TIE-IN
As the effects of The Serpent spread among the populace, Speedball is in the most hostile territory imaginable...Stamford, Connecticut, whose people blame him for six hundred deaths. And it's about to get worse, as he must go up against one of the Serpent's elite vanguard alone! Jimmy Woo’s journey to uncover an international conspiracy takes him and the Agents of Atlas to Europe and a descent into universal intrigue where if the voyage doesn’t kill them, what they find there will! More explosive and heart-wrenching tales from across the globe as the entire Marvel Universe quakes from Fear Itself!

In stores May 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Update Feb. 18: A power trio of heroes are the latest to sign up for tryouts...
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Marvel Unveils Steve McNiven’s Cover To FEAR ITSELF #2!

Marvel is proud to debut the breathtaking cover to Fear Itself #2 (of 7), from superstar artist Steve McNiven! Prepare to fear tomorrow as Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen deliver the most anticipated event of 2011 kicking off this April with an extra sized debut issue! With the entire world paralyzed fear, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the rest of Earth’s Mightiest heroes must battle an unstoppable tide of terror that will send shockwaves throughout the entire Marvel Universe. From the halls of Avengers Tower to the spires of Asgard, the entire Marvel Universe is about to enter a waking nightmare and no show of force, no attempt to reason, not even unconditional surrender can ever undo the damage done.

Don’t forget to get your first look into how Fear Itself begins when an age old secret forged by the Red Skull sets all the wheels in motion, this March, in Fear Itself: Book Of The Skull #1!

The mysterious Worthy have arrived to serve the unforgiving God of Fear. Who are they and what do they mean for the survival of the Marvel Universe? Extinguish all hope because this April the Marvel Universe is rocked to its core, only in Fear Itself!
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credits : newsarama.com

[[soundwave]]

Will wait for the TPB. :hello:

[MSth08]

;163589']Will wait for the TPB. :hello:

8 mths later....

[MSth08]

Marvel sent another teaser promoting Fear Itself, this one with the tagline "Iron Breaks. Soldiers Fall. Gods Die," and featuring Iron Man, former Captain America/current Super Soldier Steve Rogers and Thor.

In the background, is what looks to be their Avengers teammates, including Spider-Man, Wolverine and Ms. Marvel.

Fear Itself starts with a prologue, Fear Itself: Book of the Skull, out on March 16. Fear Itself #1 is in stores April 6.
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #3 (of 7)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Cover by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI

The blockbuster Marvel event of the year continues!
Sin leads the most audacious attack on American soil the world has ever seen as global panic sets in and we fall sway to the power of fear itself. On Asgard, Loki hatches the scheme to end all schemes. And everywhere, the Serpent's presence is felt...never moreso than when a major Marvel hero falls at his hands. The shock ending to end all shock endings...as the cycle of evil stretching millennia is at last completed.

In stores Jun-2011
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=======================

FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #3 (of 7)
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE, PETER MILLIGAN, HOWARD
CHAYKIN & MORE!
Penciled by MIKE MAYHEW, ELIA BONETTI, HOWARD CHAYKIN & MORE!
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC

FEAR ITSELF TIE-IN
In the devastating aftermath of his battle with the escaped super-criminals, Speedball has to flee for his life from angry mobs in the grip of the Serpent's fear...but now that he knows there are pockets of resistance around the world, Speedball begins the most dangerous mission of all: to unite them. PLUS: Jimmy Woo and Atlas’ adventure continues as they trek through ruins of a Nazi’s war torn fortress. Anxieties are heightened as the agents are about to uncover their most perplexing mission yet!

In stores Jun-2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

dear itself issue 1 trailer :
lAuCwkE1bTk

[MSth08]

Teaser for issue 2, in stores May-2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

preview of issue 2 :
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #4 (of 7)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Cover by TERRY DODSON

The blockbuster Marvel event of the year continues!
AFTERMATH: the heroes reel in the wake of last issue's shocking finale. Thor finds himself unwelcome in two homes. Steve Rogers makes the decision of a lifetime. And Iron Man prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice. Every move the heroes make just serves to make The Serpent stronger-- and the feat he accomplishes in this issue will rock the Avengers.

In stores Jul 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

review of issue 3 of 7 :
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #5 (of 7)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Cover by BILLY TAN

The blockbuster Marvel event of the year continues!
Thor. Hulk. Thing. The fight to end all fights. And while it rages, the Serpent's forces deal Captain America a blow not even he can withstand.

In stores Aug 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

issue 4 teaser :
http://i.newsarama.com/images/fear_itself_4_teaser1_02.jpg

credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #6 (of 7)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Cover by MIKE McKONE
Marvel Architects Variant also available
Marvel Architects Sketch Variant also available

The penultimate chapter of the apocalypse is here! Captain
America, Thor, and Iron Man scramble to make Earth's last stand against the relentless Serpent and his army of world-shattering avatars--all while amongst unbelievable chaos and destruction, Spider-Man makes the choice of a lifetime! Dark Asgard has risen and all of Earth's forces converge on the World Tree as the globe shudders in the shadow of FEAR ITSELF!

In stores Sept 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

preview of issue 4 of 7:
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF #7 (of 7)

Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STEVE McNIVEN
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Variant Cover by BILLY TAN (to be revealed after the events in Fear Itself #6)
• Tony Stark returns from the depths with a last-chance arsenal that will transform the Avengers from Earth's Mightiest Heroes...into Earth's Last Hope!
• It’s THOR'S DAY-- the day that everything ends!
• Double sized Finale with a little something extra for keen eye

56 PGS./Rated T+ ...$4.99
In stores Oct 2011
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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Marvel's latest "Next Big Thing" Friday afternoon call focuses on Shattered Heroes — the aftermath of their current event series, Fear Itself.

On the line will be writers (and Marvel Architects) Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker, along with Marvel's senior vice president of publishing, Tom Brevoort.

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credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Marvel has take the Fear Itself: The Mighty teaser, first released all the way back in July, out of the shadows (although the shadows didn't exactly obscure the characters much anyway).

"Behold! The Mighty!" says Marvel. "Assembling in Fear Itself #7, out next month!"

http://i.newsarama.com/images/BeholdTheMighty_02.jpg

credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

Fear Itself #7 wraps up the summer event series, and Marvel's latest teaser highlights what the last issue strongly hinted at — The Worthy vs. The Mighty — with a two-page spread from the book.

THIS IS IT! This year’s blockbuster comics event from Marvel Architects Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, comes to its cataclysmic finale in Fear Itself #7! Left defenseless and on their own, Earth’s Mightiest must dig deep for one last assault on the Serpent, and the Worthy! Luckily, from the depths of Asgard, Iron Man returns with a last-chance arsenal that will transform the Avengers into the Mighty! Earth’s last hope has arrived – but not everyone will make it out alive. Catch the action packed, double-sized conclusion of Fear Itself this October – filled with extras that no fan can miss!

http://i.newsarama.com/images/FearItself_7_CoverVar_02.jpg

http://i.newsarama.com/images/FearItself_7_Preview1_02.jpg

credits : newsarama.com

[MSth08]

FEAR ITSELF: THE FEARLESS #4 & #5 (of 12)
Written by Cullen Bunn, MATT FRaction & christopher yost
Penciled by MARK BAGLEY & Paul Pelletier
Cover by Arthur Adams

Guest-starring the Thing and the FF, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Thunderbolts and more!

The Serpent’s hammers could be the most dangerous artifacts in the world – vfm knows this all too well as she lays siege to the impenetrable headquarters of the FF...where the Thing stands guard over his own hammer of power! Meanwhile Sin and Crossbones pursue the weapons of mass destruction, from the depths of the seas to claim one from the undersea vault of the Sub-Mariner...to the shores of the island prison called the Raft to confront the Thunderbolts!

In stores Dec 2011
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credits : newsarama.com