As I mentioned in my review of the previous issue, the tease for this one piqued my interest. This issue, unfortunately, didn’t do much to address that, giving us a teaser of “The Hammer That Fell on Yancy Street” and conveniently pointing us to a completely different title for, as Paul Harvey would call it, “the rest of the story.”

Yup. This book has succumbed to eventual eventism. It seems as though more is happening outside this book regarding this event than is actually happening in this book. For example, in the previous issue, the Absorbing Man was trying to find a hammer to call his own so he could hammer in the morning, hammer in the evening, and hammer to his heart’s content alongside his gal pal, Titania, who claimed the hammer of Skirn. In this issue, ol’ Crusher Creel is kicking ass in Dubai, wielding the hammer of Greithoth, breaker of wills. For. One. Panel. How he got it and when, well, I suppose I should have dialed up “Iron Man 2.0” #5 as the final page of “Fear Itself” #2 recommended.

Nonetheless, there is still a great deal going on in this comic, from Sin/Skadi ripping off Bucky Cap’s arm (which at one point looks like his right arm, look at the hand, specifically the position of the thumb in the first panel where she holds it) to Odin and Thor having another shouting match. Stuart Immonen’s art is still stunningly gorgeous, but there are a few scenes where his storytelling makes a few leaps that would have been prevented with an extra panel or two. Still, it is a beautiful looking book between Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Laura Martin, and Larry Molinar.

Matt Fraction really throws a great deal into this book, in terms of events, characters, and clashes. It just doesn’t feel like anything is accomplished in this issue. It feels more as though this issue is a moving billboard shilling the rest of the line of Marvel Comics bearing the “Fear Itself” trade dress.

The one thing that does happen in this issue is this: a hero falls. This is, after all, an event book. It wouldn’t really have any meaning if someone didn’t die, would it? At least that much was reserved for this issue, instead of being farmed out to other titles. I’d like to see a little more of this story contained within the covers of the “Fear Itself” title. Or maybe I’d rather see a little less happening elsewhere and simply being teased here. Whichever the case, I sincerely hope next issue brings a little more of what the first two issues provided.