That's How You Spread Fear

I've read on the Internet in a few places that the Dire Wraiths in Rom really did a much better job of a "secret invasion" than the Skrulls did in, well, Secret Invasion. I've only read bits and pieces of both, but I wouldn't doubt it. By the same token, and adjusting for the fact I've only read about Fear Itself on the Internet, I think Liss and Zircher's Mystery Men has done a much better job with a story about supernatural forces spreading fear for their own dark purposes.

Nox feeds on fear, but it isn't as simple as, to pick a totally random strategy, having Nazis attack Washington D.C. in mechs. Nox isn't strong enough yet to engineer a showy display like that, and it might be rather tricky for the General to manage, either.

Instead they've built it gradually. The General uses the Board, it's greed, it's disdain for all the other people in the world, to their advantage. The Board uses the Depression, even helps it along in places to line their own pockets, to help push the world towards a war they can reap outrageous profits from. None of them realize that's a side effect. The true goal is to spark fear and unease in the people, and it's working. People are scared they won't find a job, won't be able to hold onto the job they have, won't be able to make ends meet even if they keep a job. Most of all, people are scared things will never get any better, because they can't see what caused this or how to fix it.

The Board most likely sees this as some meaningless effect of their plans. At most, they might regard the spreading fear and uncertainty as useful for the spread of totalitarianism they're hoping will spark that war. None of the Board realizes the fear is the real goal of their leader. The whole thing is a snowball rolling downhill, growing in size as it goes. As the fear grows, Nox gains strength, which enables it to communicate more frequently with the General, to guide him, aid him with gifts or warnings. Which makes the General all the more effective at ramping up the fear. Which increases Nox' power even more, and so on.

Eventually it reaches the point where he can have an entire town massacred, which enables Nox to manifest its own physical body (rather than possessing and burning out other bodies), while simultaneously no doubt terrifying people and increasing Nox' power still more. Still, Nox hasn't announced her presence to the world. Hasn't made a showy display with a giant hammer, for another totally random example. The Mystery Men have seen her, but they don't truly understand what she is, and no one else is aware of her.

Nox (or writer David Liss) understands it's what you can't see that can scare you the most. If the world knew who was behind everything, they might be frightened, but they might also rally together now that they knew their foe. As it stands, there's nothing to fight. The economy is in shambles, Europe's being overrun by dictators, children are being abducted, entire towns slaughtered, and no one knows what's causing it. Is it all coming from the same source, or are they entirely unrelated events? Who is to blame, how can it be set right? No one knows, and the uncertainty is terrifying. It's such an effective way to heighten the fear.

I think the difference between the strategies in the two books is akin to that saying I've seen attributed to Hitchcock about surprise versus suspense. Paraphrasing, A bomb goes off under a table, that's surprise. We know there's a bomb under the table, but it doesn't go off, that's suspense. Fear Itself feels like surprise, where big things are happening but there isn't much of a build up. Mystery Men is more suspense, where we know the clock's ticking down towards the big moment, but the heroes don't know precisely what's happening, and there's a question of whether they can get their acts together in time to stop it.