Fearless #3 // Review
Marvel’s all-woman anthology mini-series Fearless continues this month with the third part of writer Seanan McGuire and artist Claire Roe’s “Campfire Song,” serial. And a couple of one-shots with a couple of characters who haven’t been seen that much lately. Talented writer Zoë Quinn writes a smart, little story featuring Patsy Waker. Marika Cresta handles the art for the story. Alyssa Wong pens the return to a classy ’90s-inspired era of the X-Men in a story featuring Jubilee and Wolverine that’s drawn by Alti Firmansyah. With breezily brief components coming together to full a 20+ page comic book, the third issue of Fearless echoes the appeal of earlier chapters in a thoroughly enjoyable experiment for Marvel.
Seanan McGuire shows a very deft sense of characterization in a brief chapter. That juggles four different heroes, who wouldn’t usually be found sharing the same book. Captain Marvel, Storm, Invisible Woman and Ms. Marvel all assemble quite well in a girl’s summer camp. As a science fair presentation leads to something dark and dangerous. In a chapter that comes to the page with deftly subtle bits of personality. Defining each of the heroes as brought to the page by Claire Roe.
It was disappointing to see Zoë Quinn’s Goddess Mode come to a close with DC’s Vertigo imprint. This issue some of the spirit of Quinn’s storytelling style resonates in a story that features a text message conversation between Patsy Walker Hellcat and She-Hulk. Aided by Jessica Jones, Walker is launched into an encounter with a real-life demon cat from Hell. Marika Cresta’s art lends the script a pleasantly cartoonish finish that in no way compromises the gravity of the action in a story that’s over all-too-quickly.
Alti Firmansyah’s art for the final story of the issue borrows a cell-based cartoon feel from the 1990s X-Men cartoon show. As a classically costumed Jubilee accompanies Wolverine on a break-in to a high-tech lab to take a few DNA samples and escape. Naturally, things get a little complicated as Jubilee’s lack of focus gets in the way. It’s always very satisfying to see a single standalone story from a world that’s as hopelessly convoluted as Marvel’s mutants. Marvel and DC tend to go for the lazy marketing scheme of trying to advertise major things with the continuity like they have some profound meaning for the future of the characters. Just tell a good story in a coherent way (or in this case halfway good story in an acceptable way), and the creative team is effectively reaching an audience.
There’s only one issue left to go in the mini-series experiment. The anthology series was a major staple format for comics in their early days. It works strikingly well, especially in an era of high-priced individual comics. $5 for 20+ pages might appeal to more people if the issues in question had more than a single chapter to offer potential readers.
