Again, I’ve decided to compare the two largest comic book publishers’ cross over event comic books. Fear Itself and Flashpoint are two very different comics, but they are the comic book reader’s annual event to look forward to, and since they malign schedules, dump cross over plotlines into other books, and wreak havoc on our reading they deserve a little bit of attention.

Fear Itself #3

Written by Matt Fraction

Illustrated by Stuart Immonen

Published by Marvel Comics

Fear Itself still has the follow characteristics from the previous two issues:

• Thor Incarcerated
• Hammers fall from the sky for heroes and villains to pick up
• The good guys are spread thin to deal with the mayhem
• Famous landmarks are destroyed

Not too bad. It’s what you want in a event book. You want something different, something that deserves the entire world’s attention, and we also want collateral damage. Unfortunately the following characteristics have carried over from the previous issues:

• The story feels dicey, and chopped up. As if it has been edited to death.
• The heroes are either clueless or act foolishly
• Major landmarks are destroyed with no reprisals
• We don’t know the Serpent’s true motives

But hey, Bucky-Cap dies. So there’s something you pay to see. My main issue is that I feel this book is incomplete. I don’t think it’s Fraction’s fault at this point. It feels more like it has been edited to a point of incoherency. Scenes that should hold weight and be explained are incredibly short, and other scenes feel like they are catching up from another cross over book, but there isn’t any material there. It’s frustrating!

Another frustration is the artwork, Immonen draws a fantastic book, but this artwork is on par with a Green Lantern Corps book, or an Avengers Academy. It doesn’t have the “wow” factor of an Event book. It doesn’t blow me away, and there aren’t any two-page spreads that I can quickly recall in my head as a classic, blockbuster moment. It simply told the story, and a majority of the panels had no backgrounds. Where was the time spent? Are they desperate to have an event book actually come out on time?

At the halfway mark the book hasn’t put its hooks in me, and certainly hasn’t given me reason to see it through. Things are changing in the book, and consequences have been delivered, but I continually find it harder and harder to care about the Marvel books when their central events don’t seem to give me any reason to keep reading.

Flashpoint #2

Written by Geoff Johns

Illustrated by Andy Kubert

Published by DC Comics

As far as cross over events the news lately has been drenched with the consequence of the aftermath of Flashpoint. But Flashpoint continues to dive deeper into the weird world that Barry Allen finds himself in. Batman beats the hell out of Barry, and then Barry’s memories begin to pull a Back to the Future rewriting trick. Meanwhile we find Paris sunk, and Wonder Woman decides to choke out Captain Trevor. The maligned sense of this shattered world continues to draw parallels to the world we know as Barry ties to recreate his accident that made him The Flash, and ultimately regain his speed.

Much like my review of Fear Itself, I’m having issues with this cross over event as well. Mainly, we have had some progress in the plotting, and it doesn’t feel as disconnected, but I don’t feel like we have made any progress in two issues. And as a Flash reader, I must say I’m having a problem with Barry trying to get his powers back. We just spend quite a few issues on the Speedforce, only to fall back on the 1960’s chemical accident. Why? Perhaps my questions will be answered, and they are waiting for me in a future issue, but “This World is Vastly Different” hammer they keep hitting me with is beginning to get annoying.

Kubert’s art is fantastic. He breaks the traditional guttered layouts, and the inker and colorists aren’t undoing any careful details he’s put into the illustrations. I still don’t get the cinematic event feel I’d like to have in the book, but at least the panels have backgrounds and detailed depth that I can enjoy.

Will I pick up issue three when it comes out next month. Well, probably. I don’t feel like I’m wasting time yet, and frankly, a lot of other books (52 of them) are hinging on the outcome of this event. I enjoy seeing the different sides to these Elseworlds characters, and there is enough intrigue there to make me want to keep reading. I’m not anxious for the next issue, but I will be picking it up.