The Marvel U's Greatest Fears Will be Revealed in 2011's 'Fear Itself'

After a week of teasers, Marvel Entertainment held a press conference last week to announce next year’s line-wide crossover event: Fear Itself.

“Look, times are tough,” said Marvel Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada opening the press conference. “All you need to do is turn on the TV, computer, radio and you’re sure to find a pundit or politician or prophet who’s out there ready to tell you what you should be afraid of, who’s responsible, and why you should be afraid of them.”

“Today more than ever,” Quesada continued, “fear above all else seems to be the great motivator. And there’s no shortage of charlatans, tyrants, or despots ready to stoke the flames. All they need is the spark.

“Now here’s the good news: we’re talking about the Marvel Universe.”

With that, Quesada introduced the trailer for Fear Itself (below). The fantastic teasers have been appearing daily on all of the comic book websites over the course of the week prior to last Wednesday’s press conference.

Written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Stuart Immonen, Fear Itself will be the first major crossover event since 2009’s Secret Invasion. If that doesn’t seem like so long ago, just remember that Marvel had been putting fans through the mega-crossover events on a near-yearly basis with House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion. The reprieve has been  nice.

“We took last year off of doing any big huge events because most of you guys told us that you needed a break to catch your breath and settle things down,” said Tom Brevoort, Executive Editor. “It’s not as if we haven’t done exciting stories since then, but nothing quite to the scale of Fear Itself in quite some time.”

Fear Itself will begin in April 2011 and will run for seven issues. The book will feature all of the Marvel heavy hitters: Spider-Man, the Avengers, Steve Rogers, the X-Men, Hulk, the Fantastic Four (or the FF to be more precise), as well as Dracula, Deadpool, and many others who have yet to be identified.

“There are some fan favorite characters who will be using [Fear Itself] as a springboard,” said Axel Alonso, Executive Editor. “They’ll answer the call of duty and get involved.” Ed Brubaker will write a Fear Itself prologue, with artwork by Scott Eaton, featuring the original Captain America and the Invaders on a mission set in World War II which sets the stage for the mini-series.

Brevoort showed the audience a picture of the God of Fear. “There is a secret—a concealed act at the heart of the Marvel Universe—that happened years ago. Once it is uncovered it will change everything. It will change the way our characters look at each other, the way they look at their place in the world, and will unleash something unspeakable that’s been passed down for decades and for hundreds of years and now will be free to flourish and cast its shadow across the world. That in essence is what Fear Itself is all about.”

The editors promised that this, as with their big events of the past will have reverberations that are felt for some time to come. If there is anything Marvel knows how to do, it’s to present a logical aftermath to the conclusions of their big events. The X-Men continue to deal with the near extinction of all mutants in the pages of House of M, the status quo for Spider-Man, the Avengers, and Captain America were dramatically altered after Civil War, and Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign lasted about a year after Secret Invasion concluded. When Marvel promises that their events will change things, they have the record to prove it.

“It’s an extinction level event that will involve the entire Marvel Universe,” promised Alonso.  “Just like Civil War there’ll be a core story that you can read in one full sitting and get the full story. Expect to see interesting developments—pacts between characters, alliances you wouldn’t have expected, instances where heroes and villains find themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines in ways you wouldn’t expect.”

One audience member asked if Marvel was worried about a darker thematic tone considering the Heroic Age seemed to promise stories with lighter themes.

“Our characters have always battled the darkness around us,” said Brevoort. “The villainy and the threats that they’ve faced, at any given point, have not been a game of tiddlywinks. While over the course of the last year there’s been a renewed vigor and a renewed heroism, [Fear Itself] is just a major challenge that these characters have to face. Ultimately I think that is more interesting. Putting our characters into situations where it’s easy to triumph is not terribly fulfilling. It doesn’t get the best out of them and it doesn’t give you the best reading experience.”

One of the more important subjects to come out of the press conference: does the reader need to buy every tie-in?

“Fear Itself will function as most of our event stories have tended to function, said Brevoort. “If you’re just buying the central core title, you’ll be able to get a full and complete story and it will be wonderful. But the outgrowth of that story will feed throughout the Marvel Universe. It’s going to involve characters as diverse as the line itself.”

As has been rumored, Marvel has been dropping subtle Fear Itself-related hints, clues, and Easter Eggs for at least a year in some of their major titles that will come to fruition in the pages of the mini.

“We’ve been setting up dominoes sort of covertly for awhile now,” said Brevoort. “Some that you know and recognize and have chatted about on the internet, and some that you may have glossed right over and may not have realized their significance. The tapestry and the pattern of all of this will become apparent as we get into April.”

The editors admitted that Brian Michael Bendis included some Fear Itself references in the Time Map from the first arc of his recently relaunched Avengers book (specifically issue #5, above).

“If you go back to that map you will see,” said Brevoort, “certainly a couple of references and portents; once you get through the Fear Itself story a few more that will make more sense. There is a little bit of a Rosetta Stone there if you want to try and decipher it. It won’t be easy but it might be rewarding.”

As the teasers have hinted at, especially the Spider-Man teaser, Fear Itself has one foot steeped in reality.

“As any die hard Marvel fan can tell you,” said Quesada, “Marvel Comics has always used the real world as the canvas in which we write and draw our stories and in which our characters live. From World War II, to Apollo 11, to September 11^th, the events that shaped our world have shaped the Marvel Universe. When we were at our best is when we’ve taken stock of the world we live in—in the era in which we are a part of—and said something about it.”

Official Trailer:


Announcement from Matt Fraction: