Post by jakefury on Jul 23, 2011 22:51:43 GMT -5
Writer: David Liss
Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Fear Itself comes to Hell's Kitchen and the pages of Black Panther. The story opens with an average, American guy named Josh Glenn who feels like he's been the victim of immigrants in his own country. Over the course of several months, he slowly succumbs to his hate filled thoughts. These thoughts and beliefs cost him his job, his wife and eventually he's living on the streets of NYC. He begins following the doctrine of the former FF villain the Hate-Monger, going so far as to don his cowl.
When the Hammers of the Serpent fall to Earth we see the Hate-Monger's essence re-awakened and it returns to Earth. It senses the great hate in Josh's heart and attaches itself to his psyche. This leads to a series of marches against the residents of NYC that don't have American heritage.
At the same time, we see T'Challa using his diner as a refugee center for the people that can't get out of the city during Fear Itself. He's doing what he can to tend for the wounded and we also see him meet with Foggy Nelson regarding him helping T'Challa with his citizenship.
The Hate-Monger arrives at the diner and uses his abilities to inspire the crowd into a near frenzy against T'Challa for not being American. He also unveils his protege in the form of the American Panther. I haven't been following this for the last few issues but it is someone that T'Challa recognizes. After realizing a battle with the American Panther will endanger the injured staying in his diner he makes a strategic withdrawal.
As he's leaving the diner he's approached by someone from Homeland Security that has some questions for him. We also see Foggy, who's apparently lost his license as a result of assisting T'Challa....
Thoughts:
Wow, I haven't been following this series for the last few issues and I feel like I've been missing out. Liss crafts a very powerful story here that's very politically based and it delivers. I'll definitely be keeping up with this one based on this issues. The art is a little unusual but fits the tone of the story.
8.5/10
This issues ties in with Fear Itself on a completely different level of fear. Whereas the other issues I've read seem to be slugfests and clash of the titan type issues this one is deeply emotional and definitely plays into the psychological side of things. It's a completely different take on Marvel's big event and one I definitely enjoyed.