Fear Itself rages on as Thor is imprisoned by his father Odin, the ‘Hammers of the Worthy’ fall, and the Serpent unleashes his wave of terror across the world! If I could choose one word to describe this issue it would simply be: Chaos. Things are moving along at break neck speed and the heroes of the Marvel Universe are rushing to contain these newest attacks. Not much happened in the story department, aside from a few of the Worthy being revealed, but from the looks at the end of the issue we’ll have to pick up a few tie ins to see the others getting their hammers. If you haven’t read my review of the first issue I suggest you do that, but otherwise read onward into *spoiler* territory!
The issue starts off with Odin being a total jerk by imprisoning his son Thor while he prepares the Asgardians for war with the Serpent, while he is busy with Earth. Yeah Odin, you suck for being an Earth-hater. We immediately go to the Raft Maximum Security Prison for Meta Humans where Juggernaut is getting a daily workout. Things don’t end well for the staff of the Raft as one of the Serpent’s hammers falls straight into the prison, decimating it pretty badly. Juggernaut is of course unhurt as he spots the hammer which he seems drawn to, picking it up and being transformed into one of the Worthy known as Kuurth: Breaker of Stone.
Our next contestant is none other than Bruce Banner Aka The Incredible Hulk who is in Brazil with Red She Hulk better half Betty Ross. He grabs the next hammer that falls nearby being turned into Nul: Breaker of Worlds. It seems that Hulk is somewhat strong enough to fight the presence of Nul as he tells Betty to run.
In South Africa, The Absorbing Man and Titania have a diamond mining racket going on when the next hammer falls. Absorbing man is not meant for that one as the moron figures out he can’t absorb it, but Titania is drawn to like Hulk and Jugs were. It transforms her into Skirn: Breaker of Men. Titania as Skirn looks like a real crazy dominatrix with a big ass hammer. Frightening. She tells Crusher Creel they must go North to find his hammer so I can’t wait to see him in his Worthy form.
In Pacific there is another of the Worthy already tearing shit up, called Nerkkod: Breaker of Oceans. I’m not sure who this guy used to be because I’m not a Namor fan, but he looks Atlantean to me. But, as one of our faithful readers pointed out, it appears to be Attuma, who is a Namor villain.
At the end of the issue it is clear that Grey Gargoyle in Invincible Iron Man and Absorbing Man will be transformed in Iron Man 2.0 #5. I may end up having to pick up a lot more tie-ins than I planned throughout this whole shebang.
I give Fear Itself Book 2 a four out of five grizzlies. It loses the one star only because there is even more set-up and then tons of action without a whole lot of story development. The comic was still excellent despite this, I love when there are massive worldwide catastrophes in comics (Secret Invasion, Age of Apocalypse). But the next issue will be even better when we get to see the heroes fighting back. For God’s sake Sin/Skadi was attacking Washington DC with Nazi Mech Suits! This aggression will not stand man! I’ll be there for issue three and for a ton of the tie ins between, hopefully a lot of you will be too!
Grizzly Bomb 
The Breaker of Oceans seems to be Attuma, who I guess is an old-school Namor villain. Double-check me on that, but a google image search of that name shows a pretty clear match in appearance. So…Juggernaut, Titania, Hulk, this Attuma clown, Absorbing Man, Grey Gargoyle…that’s six of eight, yeah? Besides being super-strong, I don’t know what the connection among these characters is….
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I think you nailed that one, thanks! I’ll update the article with a thanks to you! And from the looks of the preview book I bought today and considering where on of the hammers landed, it looks like we may have a certain “rocky” hero becoming one of the worthy. I could be wrong though.
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It is not necessarily Attuma. Tyrak looks almost the same and is a lot more powerful.
Still, Hulk, Juggernaut, Absorbing Man, and Titania all make sense as powerhouses, but Grey Gargoyle and the Thing? Goliath/Atlas would have been a better call, and there are various Hulk or Thor villains such as Kurse or Mangog who would also work more smoothly.
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I’m pretty sure it’s Attuma.
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I’m loving this series so far!
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Great review…and I’m probably daft for asking this…but I may have missed something.
You say, “At the end of the issue it is clear that Grey Gargoyle in Invincible Iron Man and Absorbing Man will be transformed in Iron Man 2.0…” can you tell me what you’re reading that leads you to this conclusion?
Subtlety is lost on me, so sometimes I need stuff beat over my head with a hammer…yea, pun intended.
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It was actually the last page of the comic where it shows upcoming stuff. Nothing in the actual story, just what was hinted at by titania about absorbing man going with her to get his hammer. But it actually says it in the upcoming tie ins page.
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