Is It Summer Already?

Today sees the end of one company crossover and the beginning of another. IDW’s Infestation concludes with the second bookend issue of Infestation, while Marvel launches it’s mega-super-duper, will change the status quo as we know it (again), crossover; so big it touches every title AND requires a comprehensive set of limited series as well.

Oh, and it’s an allegory for the recession apparently. How’s that work then?

I am hoping for great things from Infestation#2. I enjoyed the first issue immensely, feeling it opened a lot of potential to get diverse characters together. I mean, come on, who hasn’t wanted to hear Spock’s reaction as he looked over Optimus Prime’s form? Each of the crossover minis were rather self contained, much to my disappointment. I enjoyed the Transformers chapter immensely, although the I found the Star Trek series rather standard fare, and as for G.I. Joe and the Ghostbusters series, I lost interest. Then again, neither of the latter two are titles I regular read, and my investment in these characters is minimal. Transformers (and to a point Star Trek) were my gateway to these other titles; and on that level, the crossover failed.

It did give me the Covert Vampire Operations however, which has sent me digging through the back-issue bins; and reawakened my love for Zombies vs. Robots, a radically different zombie to the rest of them out there.

Maybe I am suffering zombie-fatigue. This is certain true looking at Marvel Zombies Supreme, which has really missed the spot for me, even though it reintroduced Battlestar, a character who should get a lot more exposure if you ask me. Marvel Zombies series are supposed to be special events, yet if you excuse the pun, the concept had a limited lifespan, and it has long since expired. Thankfully The Walking Dead continues to deliver a quality read, but then again, that’s a title about people, not zombies. The zombies are merely a backdrop.

According to Wikipedia, Fear Itself is “the first company-wide crossover event since 2008’s Secret Invasion”. Really? So Dark Reign, Siege and the Chaos War were just minor events? I agree Chaos War was as self-contained as a maxi-series, seven spin-offs and a Hulk crossover can possibly be, but my wallet didn’t recognise that.

Having said that, now I have learnt what Fear Itself is actually about, I’m actually quite pumped for this. When I first heard about it, my eyes rose heavenward, but then Marvel would be stupid not to capitalise on the Captain America and Thor movies released this year. I doubt I am revealing a secret when I say it centres around the revelation that Odin is not the All-Father after all, that was revealed at C2E2 by Matt Fraction, but I really had to dig for that snippet. Some amorphous God of Fear? Yawn. The predicament is cool, the set up sound not so much. But a secret All-Father and an Asgardian conspiracy? Yeah. I’m sold.