In these tough times of record unemployment, terror alerts, oil spills, mortgage foreclosures and partisan politics that have torn a rent down the middle of this country, Americans have good reason to be living in fear.
Now, it turns out super heroes aren't immune either.
Marvel Comics announced Tuesday that it is launching "Fear Itself," a seven-issue mega-event series starting in April, which taps into all the malaise gripping the company's readers. In the fictional universe of Spider-Man and Iron Man, however, that panic is stoked by the villainous God of Fear instead of television pundits and Internet-savvy fundamentalist clerics.
"The climate in the world today was certainly the inspiration for this as we started to think about the bigger stories for the Marvel Universe," Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada said at a press conference at Midtown Comics in Manhattan. "You will absolutely see the real world inject itself into this story because it's undeniable that there's a certain something in the air right now…we tend to tap into that whether consciously or unconsciously and it effects all our stories."
The company had great sales success three years ago with its "Civil War" series, which similarly mined real world events to tell the story of a division in the ranks of super heroes in the battle between personal liberties and security.
That storyline ended in the death of Captain America -- as first reported by the New York Daily News – which many conservative commentators interpreted as a political shot aimed at the Bush Administration.
"My personal nervousness over the state of things today lies draped over "Fear Itself," like a great, anxious, quilt just a little bit too small," series writer Matt Fraction told the News. "And the punchline in the Marvel Universe is the same as it is for us in the real world: no heroes can help us; we're going to have to save ourselves.
"Which is of no comfort at all."
There is grumbling among some fans, however, in these scary economic times that last thing they want to do is spend more money on comic book tie-ins on big events that come like clock-work every summer from Marvel and rival publisher, DC Comics.
"Marvel has played the 'Law & Order', ripped from the headlines card for a while now," says Nick Purpura, manager at Jim Hanley's Universe comic store in Manhattan. "It's their jobs to keep [readers'] asses in seats if you would."
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