Fear Itself: The Home Front

Fear Itself #5

by Christos Gage, Peter Milligan (Text), Elia Bonetti (Illustrator)

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? Marvel's super agent Jimmy Woo confronts his deepest fears in an all-new, all action adventure!

FEAR THE HOME FRONT 1-7

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction, Ebooks

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 18, 2012

About the author

Chris N. Gage is a writer for comic books and television.

Reviews

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main story, about Speedball protecting people in Fear Itself is quite good. It actually treats Marvel continuity like continuity, with the past event (Civil War) influencing the current one, which is more refreshing than it should be. It's also got great characterization of Speedball, and a bunch of other very real/human characters. Beautiful art too.

But the rest of these issues are just a mishmash. The Agents of ATLAS is decently good because it's another character piece, but so long after it's really not obvious how it and the less-good Jr. Heroes story that follows fit, let alone all the single issue ones.

So, good theory, good foundation, sloppy additions.

[Big Chungus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a suprisingly good anthology of Z-list Marvel heroes dealing with the end of the world. Some really good character work and interesting stories in this one. Never got boring, and I want to read more about these characters. Shout out to Asbestos Man!

[J'aime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the crossover events include a "home front" collection, which usually has stories from the ground-eye view of regular people. These tend to be hit or miss for me. Here, it was mostly miss because that ground-eye view was from C and D-list characters, with one remarkable exception.

I would have given this collection only one star, if not for Speedball. Speedball's story runs throughout the book, but is unfortunately interrupted by various side stories. And those side stories were centered on characters I had no familiarity with and who were, frankly, just not interesting. The biggest of these was The Agents of Atlas and Johnny Woo, whose entire arc is about finding the castle that Sin went to for the book of spells and Woo's desire to live in the past. It has no impact on Fear Itself and was downright boring. Then we have quick interludes with Mr. Fear, Cardiac, Blue Marvel, the Great Lakes Avengers and some team that includes Wolverine's female clone. None of these stories had any weight or gave readers a reason to care. Thankfully, Speedball's story was not only action-packed, it was also emotionally-charged and compelling.

Robbie has been going to Stamford in disguise to help at Miriam Sharpe's foundation. But when he's discovered, some of the locals attack him. That's when all hell breaks loose with Fear Itself, and Miriam realizes that Robbie is not the enemy and his help is desperately needed. She convinces him to go and help in the places where the Avengers haven't been able to get to: the small towns with few police and just as many scared people. He agrees and what he sees and does, in conjunction with Miriam, may change the tide of the war. This story was so good, I got annoyed whenever the book broke away for another inconsequential story about a character few people have heard of. It got so I started skipping over them to get back to Speedball!

Though I can understand why these stories were all packaged together (where else would they go?), about half of this book was a waste for me. That said, Speedball's story worth the price of admission all on its own, just as his was in the Civil War homefront collection. Highly recommended.

[Scarred Wizard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh come on, guys! 3.2 for this good book? You guys are being difficult! That's the problem with you comic fans! I mean yes all of the one shots in between the main arc is a snooze fest with a boring artwork but with 100 pages containing the main story of Speedball with lots of action-packed of him using his full potential of power, i say this is such a great book!

And what makes the book even more interesting, it is drawn by the exceptionally good artist Mike Mayhew! Damn! He has such a gifted hand! All of his drawings looking very human-like! All those faces and body shape and muscle looking so realistic! So sick! This is the 2nd time i saw his drawing after the X-Men Origins Jean Grey. He is one of my favourite now. I hope he draws more in the future. Except for the fillers between the main event which is really unnecessary! And what makes it even more worse, the artwork is horrible, well except for one or two but that doesn't do the justice, cause its just too short! And like i said unnecessary fillers!

If you're a fan of Speedball and Mike Mayhew's gorgeous artwork, this book is definitely for you! I learn so much about Speedball in this book! Just skip the fillers. There is 7 issues of the main story. 100 pages of it, that's like almost half of the book! So it isn't a bad book. All of the reviews here, you guys are such a fussy reader!

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now THIS is more like it - Fear Itself is still a damp squib of an arc that demonstrates every inch of the cynicism of creating these things to shift a few more comics, and the Hulk mini series was mostly impenetrable blather but this... this is why I read mainstream comics. It tucks into Marvel history but is never overwhelmed by it, it’s character focused, it experiments a bit, it’s nice and loose... it’s not a classic by any means but it is a rather lovely demonstration that in the right context you can do significantly good things in mainstream comics: and particularly in the Milligan and Spurrier strips demonstrate you can smuggle in the weird if you pay attention to the genre beats your average reader wants. Very good

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better the 2nd time

[Fadzlee Abdul Rahman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read the Speedball's story arc. You can skip the rest

[Madeline Rossell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthology that would have been 5 stars if the Atlas arc was left out.

[Davy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the Front Line/Embedded tie-ins in Civil War/Secret Invasion/Siege. The views from the journalists sometimes gave another perspective on what happened to "normal" people, living outside the Super Hero-world. The Home Front still focuses on the effects of the Serpent's Blitzkrieg on the general public, but is different because the journalists are replaced by Speedball and Miriam Sharpe (the mother who lost one of her children in the Stamford incident and major activist for the Registration Act). In that way it's kind of an 'closure' for Civil War. Speedball tries to pay his debts by defending isolated towns from some of The Worthy: first Juggernaut and second Attuma (who was even to powerful for Namor). It's an original tie-in to Fear Itself, showns the rampage of Fear Itself and how normal people (have to) deal with it. In the end he and Miriam Sharp face the Sisters of Sin. Compared to the fight againt Attuma not such a strong ending.
Other stories in this issue are about The Agents of Atlas and Jimmy Woo, in probably a typical Agents of Atlas espionage-story.
Amadeus Cho gathers The Chosen, a group of superheroes who have similar powers to Thor/Wolverine/spider-man/iron fist and end up in a bit bizarre storyline going back to WWII.
Then there are a lot of very short storylines: for example Jonah Jameson, mayor of NY, about a Belgian girl visiting Paris and turning into stone, Cardiac facing a dilemma (and failing), the back-ground story of Rick (one of the people in Broxton who Captain America called to fight, doubts, retreats but finally picks up the fight. Some stories are nice, some are rubbish.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the main story for this a LOT. It reminded me of Marvels or probably more like Astro City, Vol. 1: Life in the Big City because I had never heard of the main character - Speedball. If you haven't read those two I just mentioned get to it, they're both great books. The idea is to show heroes as normal people. To focus on how much the same they are to your average Joe rather than how different they are. So there were a lot of touching, kind of 9/11 moments as the world seems to be ending and the story zooms in on small town America.

"The Agent of Atlas" thing was okay but I wasn't blown away, definitely some odd b-list heroes there.

I didn't really get "The Chosen". The characters were archetypes of Thor, Spider-man etc... Are they really heroes in the Marvel universe or was that just a kind of experiment. Seems like a cheap device to use familiar heroes without actually having them be the exact same hero. The same kind of thing as "young avengers" or whatever they have.

Some of the shorts were fun, I enjoyed the funny one with Asbestos Man and the one with Dr. Fear complaining because everyone was so scared already he was kind of useless.

[Ernest · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume contains stories set during Marvel’s Fear Itself crossover event from the perspective of regular people. As such, it doesn’t tell the main story and readers are expected to either have some idea of what is happening/had happened, or risk being lost in a story that is less narratively driven than it is reactionary story based. As a companion to the main storyline and in showing this perspective, it demonstrated Marvel’s willingness to show the greater interconnectedness universe. While there was nothing horribly wrong with any of the stories/moments (or the volume overall), I found it largely forgettable. In fact, the Speedball storyline seemed to resolve disappointingly clichéd.

If you run across the volume and don’t mind seeing the effects of Fear Itself played out on a wider, more intimate canvas, go for it. If you never manage to get around to reading it, I don’t think you’d regret missing anything.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confused collection around the Marvel Fear Itself storyline. Multiple threads told very unevenly - and if you don't already know what's going on, it never makes sense - and if you do - it still doesn't make much sense.

The Speedball storyline is actually pretty good. It shows him trying to make amends in Stamford and how that goes badly. The art and story here is pretty good.

The other storylines - not so much. X-23 in particular is written badly but drawn just plain awful.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing graphic novel. Lots of character based short stories about how people are coping with the 'Fear itself' tragedy. My favourite involves Speedball going back to Stamford, and how the people there help him back to being a real hero. Most of the stories are emotionally challenging, while some are just fun. A brilliant read. If you only buy one 'Fear itself' tie-in, get this one.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, because, there were a lot of cool ideas going on. First the integration of social media in the story was nice. Second, I like the redemption of Speedball, and that the regular people of the universe were invested as well, and a very important part of the story. What made it boring was the small side stories, although the one with X-23 and spider-girl was pretty funny.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked this one better than Fear Itself, despite the fact that it didn't have any of my favorite characters in it. The section with Speedball and Miriam Sharpe was not bad at all.

[Geoff Derks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with an anthology is that some stories really work, some are just there, and some fail a miserable death. That is why this is three stars.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individual issues on marvel unlimited

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a bunch of moderately interesting stories about C-list characters, and some completely uninteresting stories about E-list characters. Oh, and a GLA story!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Speedball story was good, and the art was fantastic. It ran as the main story over each individual comic issue. The problem was the short, pointless, silly stories and/or mediocre art that filled out the rest of the book.
Each issue had a 1-page Howard Chaykin story that pretty much conveyed nothing.
The Great Lakes Avengers story, while mildly amusing, added nothing the the Fear Itself story.
The New Young Junior (whatever) Avengers story had zero substance. Total silly junior high story that featured characters that should be beyond that by now.
The book ends on a Captain America cliffhanger.
There is no need to read this book as part of the Fear Itself overall story.