Fear Itself...Questions that need answers

[Bruce___Wayne]

So, i've recently decided to expand my collection and I stumbled across something called Fear Itself.

However, there seemed to be an array of issues and books and i've no idea where to start.

After some brief research is appears there is a prologue, then 7 core issues.

So here are the questions which I pose to you, my fellow readers and collectors;

1) Is Fear Itself worth reading?
2) Do I need to go beyond the prologue and the core issues?
3) If so, where do I begin and is there an order to the tie-in issues?
4) Do the core issues close the story line or should I read an epilogue?

Overall and apt summary would be, where do I begin and what should I go buy?!

Thank you for your help and input, hopefully this thread will be of use to other upcoming readers and collectors (dare I say it, fellow nerds)

Bruce

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

So, i've recently decided to expand my collection and I stumbled across something called Fear Itself.

However, there seemed to be an array of issues and books and i've no idea where to start.

After some brief research is appears there is a prologue, then 7 core issues.

So here are the questions which I pose to you, my fellow readers and collectors;

1) Is Fear Itself worth reading?
2) Do I need to go beyond the prologue and the core issues?
3) If so, where do I begin and is there an order to the tie-in issues?
4) Do the core issues close the story line or should I read an epilogue?

Overall and apt summary would be, where do I begin and what should I go buy?!

Thank you for your help and input, hopefully this thread will be of use to other upcoming readers and collectors (dare I say it, fellow nerds)

Bruce

1) Up to you. If you like Thor, Iron Man, or Captain America, it's probably "essential" reading (as far as short-lived events go). Beyond those books, probably not. Most everything tied into it, but most not to such an extent that you can't live without it.

2) Probably not? At the time, I was reading mostly Incredible and Red Hulk. Incredible Hulk never directly tied in--it ended at #635 and sort of led into Fear Itself, but neither book depended on the other. I also read the "Hulk vs. Dracula" series--though I was doing that as a Hulk reader anyway--which explains where the Hulk goes after FI #5. Not required; it just explains where Hulk is. Red Hulk tied in, but not critically. After the fact, I've been reading Journey Into Mystery--THAT's pretty dependent on FI, but not vice-versa.

3) You know, reading stuff in "chronological order" is a near impossibility these days. Tie-ins tend to overlap--for example, you kind of need to read FI and Journey Into Mystery at the EXACT SAME TIME to read them chronologically. Just accept that some books take place together and try to understand where they take place in relation to each other.

4) There were five--eight?--epilogues. There were three "point one" issues of Cap, Iron Man, and Thor that resolved (some would say "undid") events in FI. Then there were four follow-on series which each had a preview in FI #7: "Battle Scars" (doesn't really tie into FI, just uses it as a launching point); Defenders (starts out with the last of the Serpent's Worthy); Incredible Hulk (again, uses FI as a launching point); and "The Fearless." The last of these deals with the Red Skull's daughter and the Valkyrie trying to find the hammers from FI. In my opinion, it dealt with the plot of Fear Itself better than Fear Itself did. It's also a lead-in to the upcoming "Fearless Defenders" series.

[klinton]

It'as completely cohesive if you just read the core books. I didn't do many of the tie-ins (just the two Avengers titles, the Black Widow one shot, and the Cap 0.1 issue), and was able to enjoy it.

Def follow up with The Fearless though. That was a brilliant read!

[Bruce___Wayne]

Brilliant answers! This has been a big help. I'll off to buy the prologue, core issues 1-7, epilogue issues listed including The Fearless.

Feel free to keep the answers coming, and discuss the tie ins.

Bruce.

[WinterSoldier76]

The prologue entitled "Book of the Skull" written by Ed Brubaker, is IMO the best part of the event. After that, the event itself fell a little short story-wise. The artwork on the main story is beautiful!