Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Men & Journey Into Mystery vol. 2

Is this Kieron Gillen’s mutant ability?  To get good tie-in stories out of Marvel crossovers?

At long last, “Fear Itself:  Uncanny X-Men” has hit softcover and I can find out the story behind Piotr Rasputin’s transformation from sensitive long-time X-man Colossus into the unstoppable… “Juggerlossus?”  “Colossanaut?”  Nah, I like “Juggerlossus” better.  Anyway, the arc collected here has the Serpent-empowered Juggernaut, now known as Kuurth, Breaker of Stone, marching his way towards San Francisco with the intent of wiping it off the map.  The good news is that Cyclops has enough plans to deal with such a contingency that one of them has to work.  My money is on the one that has Colossus, his sister Illyana (who is said to have “most” of her soul back) and Kitty Pryde interceding with the demon Cyttorak, who gave Juggernaut his powers in the first place.

Though subsequent stories have effectively robbed the major development of this arc of any suspense, it still remains a well-done take on the “Nothing can stop the Juggernaut!” story that used to be the character’s stock-in-trade before he reformed a few years back.  Cyclops’ many plans for dealing with this are good fun, but Gillen also develops some interesting subplots regarding the character’s — and by extension the “X-Men’s” — relationship with the mayor and San Francisco itself and the simmering sexual tension between Emma Frost and Namor.  Still, the focus is on Colossus and his transformation, and not only does his choice feel like a natural extension of his character, the personality change it imparts also goes nicely against expectations.

The volume also collects the “last” regularly numbered issue of the series, #544, before it was relaunched with a new #1 the next month.  Mr. Sinister eulogizes the X-Men in the wake of “Schism” as Scott prepares to move on to the team’s next phase of existence.  It’s pointless to evaluate this as the “final” issue it was billed as; but, it does dovetail nicely into Gillen’s next arc.  On that level, it’s a success.

“Journey Into Mystery:  Fear Itself Fallout” has no such relaunch nuttiness to contend with and while it is the better of the two books, the margin isn’t as great as it could’ve been.  The first two issues are a fill-in from Rob Rodi and Pasqual Ferry, and a Mephisto-centric one which gives his unique perspective on recent events and serves to set up future storylines.  Though completely unnecessary, the Rodi/Ferry issue has Kid Loki finding out what the other Asgardians think of him and still manages to be decently amusing in the process.  Seeing Mephisto relate the events of his day to a second-rate bartender proves to be every bit as fun as you could expect from an account of Marvel’s stand-in for Satan himself (though he disputes any claim to being the one, true Prince of Darkness in the story) flitting amongst the universe’s divinities and making no end of trouble for the book’s main cast.

As for the issues that deal directly with “Fear Itself,” they prove to be a worthy payoff to the setup from the previous volume.  After Loki and his companions storm the Serpent’s “Dark Asgard” we find out what his master plan is, and it will certainly bring a smile to anyone familiar with the nature of mythology.  From there, we find out exactly what victory has cost the young trickster and what the new rulers of Asgard have in mind for him now.  Gillen delivers all this with just the right mix of wit and tragedy to give the story weight and and emotional heft that puts the event it ties into to shame.

I would have had little to complain about had Doug Braithwaite, artist of the previous volume, illustrated these issues as well.  For whatever reason he wasn’t available here, except to contribute another page to the Serpent’s origin.  Instead we get Rich Elson and Whilce Portacio, two artists with clashing styles.  I’m more partial to Elson’s clean linework, and he does a solid job with Mephisto’s story, and the Volstagg-centric issue where the most rotund of warriors recaps the events of the crossover and his larger-than-life role in them for his family.  The rest of the book is handled by Whilce Portacio, whose raw style is agreeable to the rough-and-tumble Asgardians.  Problem is that his style is “raw bordering on sloppy” and as an artist who came to fame in the 90’s, there’s still a lot of that era’s awkward character posing and expressions on display here.  It’s not enough to ruin the book, but it makes me miss Braithwaite’s presence all the more.

Even with the inconsistent art, I’d still take these two volumes of “Journey Into Mystery” over the “Fear Itself” crossover proper.  Loki’s supporting, and instrumental, role in the event had real craft displayed in its planning and execution which translated into an emotional involvement that the main story failed to deliver at all.  Gillen’s tenure on the title is wrapping up as we speak, and I’m looking forward to reading the whole of it in collected form in the future.  After these two volumes, though, it should be interesting to see if his tie-in work to the “Avengers vs. X-Men” winds up being better than that crossover as well.