Fear Itself

Review by Patrick Dunning, age 16

The Green Lantern hardcover, "Fear Itself" even the though it was delayed a week, was well worth the wait. This was an amazing book... I was blown away. The art was stupendous, and the story was captivating. Fear Itself was written by Ron Marz, and the art was done by Brad Parker. I must say, this book was more then worth the cover price($24.95 US $39.25 CAN) to me.

First, I gotta talk about this art. It was superb. As far as I know, the art style used in this book is new, if not very recent to comics. It's a photo- surrealistic style, meaning that they started with models in costumes, took pictures of them, fed them into a computer and manipulated the photos into a style that looks very much like a painted style. I must say I like this style, it makes the comic come alive.



The story involves the three main Green Lanterns through the ages. The golden age Alan Scott, the silver age Hal Jordan, and the modern age Kyle Rayner. It all starts with the Nazis (doesn't it all,) who in order to conquer the world, release a being in Washington. Alan Scott and the JSA fight it and the JSA is defeated through their own worst fears. Alan finally manages to stop it...for awhile.

Hal Jordan, while destroying a soviet sub, uncovers the thing. He and the JLA try to fight it, but as before, the heroes are defeated by their own worst fears, except Hal, cause he's fearless. Even though the Being Shows Hal some really bad things (ironically a blown up Coast City,) he manages to fight through and he manages to destroy it, or so he thinks.



Now, after a night spent chatting it up with John, Guy and Alan, Kyle goes to the museum and while he's there, there's a religious nut with a strange artifact. It comes alive, the being is there once again and starts absorbing all the energy all over the world. Most of the JLA is trapped on the moon, Alan tries to help but is defeated. Kyle is left alone against an immense power he can't even fight because it will feed off his energy. Kyle is left to fight his own way. Can Kyle fight through the fears of his own failures? And there are a lot of Kyle Rayner's failures.

This book is a must have for any GL fan, of any kind. Also a must have for any JSA fan or silver age JLA fan. It's great, trust me.

Other GL stuff to get that came out in April, is a 80-page giant with team ups from A (Aquaman) to Z (Zatanna). When Kyle takes Barda to an art museum, it's just goofy.


[Back to Collector Times]
[Prev.] [Return to Comics] [Disclaimer] [Next]


Review Copyright © 1999 Patrick Dunning

Green Lantern characters Copyright © DC Comics

About the Author