Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #2 - So Jack remembered after all. Darn. I guess I could have told him I didn't order it, but that'd make me a filthy liar. Besides, it's right there on my pull list.
With all this Fear in the world, Man-Thing is going nuts. Somehow the four heroes on the cover have wound up working together to try and stop him, which isn't going terribly well. They get altered by M-T somehow tapping into the Nexus of All Realities (which he normally protects), and fight each other. That wears off and the give chase while Frankenstein's Monster explains that he was experimented on by some shadowy figure who wants him to capture M-T. Said shadowy figure turns out to be old FF foe Psycho-Man, who drubs the heroes fairly easily, but has a little more trouble with his target. Then the Fantastic Four show up. Yup, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and a Mr. Fixit Hulk. So they were tossed into an alternate reality by M-T as well? Hell if I know.
It's not a bad idea for a story, that all the fear would drive Man-Thing crazy, and that Psycho-Man would want to use all that fear for his own purposes. Manipulating emotions is what he does. The recap page was fairly useful. it's how I could tell you that bit about the Nexus, for example. I'm not sure what Montclare's doing with Nighthawk. Nighthawk's typically been impulsive and hot-headed, but he's more crazy in this, as Howard keeps mentioning. His Howard the Duck's also not what I'd expect. I wouldn't have figured him for eagerly teaming up. I can see him doing it out of necessity, but he's trying harder to keep them together than I'd expect, rather than using them to clear a path for him to do what he needs to do.
The book lists four artists: Simon Bisley, Ryan Bodenheim, Ray-Anthony Height, and Don Ho. I'm pretty sure Bisley did Frankenstein's flashback, and maybe the opening sequence. Not sure who's responsible for what amongst the rest. Maybe some of the guys listed are inkers, 'cause it doesn't look like four separate pencilers. Three, maybe. The Bisley stuff does look suitably different from the rest to stand out. Really emphasizes the strangeness of the changes they went through.
Flashpoint: Secret Seven #2 - I had a hard time caring about anyone in this book. Shade's supposed to be leading this team, but he doesn't seem to have control of his powers. Some of his teammates are planning to bring him down, one of them is going to reveal the existence of their group to the world, and one (maybe two) of them wind up dead.
I don't know, it just didn't work. What is it the Secret Seven do as a group? The world's on the brink of war, and they aren't doing anything. And they aren't much of a secret group considering the government had people approach Amethyst as they are concerned she or her teammates might do something. Why would the Seven drag America into a war? Because they have super-powers? The war's between Amazons and Atlanteans, right? So isn't it more of a royalty thing than a super-powers thing? How is Abra Kadabra can turns 50 VIPs into limos, but the idea of changing the color of a flower is something he never considered?
That's what I get for deciding to try a mini-series based on the artist. George Perez didn't even draw this issue. Swell. Pissed that 3 bucks down the drain.
Rocketeer Adventures #3 - We have a story about the Rocketeer crashing the premiere of the first movie with Betty's first speaking part by Ryan Sook. There's a prose story from Joe Lansdale and Bruce Timm with some of Timm's art interspersed, and Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards give us a story where Betty and a young girl get to be the heroes.
Sook's story certainly looked nice, since he's an excellent artist and all, but it seemed strange Betty would be so sad at the end because Cliff stopped everyone in the theater from being robbed and kind of ruined the movie. They can't do another premiere? Heck, the Rocketeer breaking up a heist at the premiere ought to crank up the buzz. Maybe she thinks he was late for the premiere because he'd been chasing these guys because he doesn't care, when it's really that he was late because he had car trouble.
At least that story didn't depict Betty as having any trouble with her co-starts or producers. Both "Heaven's Devils" and "The Junior Rocketeers" have Betty dealing with unpleasantness in her chosen career. In one, the star of the film is jealous of Betty's looks, and in the other, the leading man's trying to put the moves on her. Showbiz is an ugly business.
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