Direction of Marvel stories (rant)

Civil War resulted from a direct super-human conflict of young, inexperienced heroes. Fear Itself, there wasn't even heroes present in the remote areas the Worthy attacked, so it's not a direct correlation.

Now, if you're taking a "theory of escalation" approach, where some politician in the Marvel Universe posits that villains wouldn't exists without heroes, that's a different story; one that could only be told for a month before any random megalomaniac holds the capital hostage. It's a story with only one inevitable conclusion, so I don't see Marvel jumping to tell it.

Besides, the big anti-superhero proponent since Civil War was Miriam Sharpe with her campaign in the name of her son, Damien (I can remember his name, but not her initiative; figures). In the pages of Fear Itself, she's been working with the former scapegoat, Speedball, and made a public announcement calling for unified support behind the heroes who were risking their lives across the world.

While I think it's possible, I don't think it's likely. Besides, was Secret Invasion filled with many casualties? Siege was built on the Volstagg-gut-induced tragedy at a baseball stadium, but IIRC, the Skrulls didn't arrive guns blazing since they wanted to claim Earth for themselves.

I have to say, I was surprised when there wasn't a magical "it's all fixed now" at the end of Fear Itself. It seems like those cities really were devastated and those people really were killed - unless there's a crossover somewhere that I missed that restores them.

However, as ChrisMoses has already said, it really would not make sense to outlaw the super powered in response to the events in Fear Itself. It would be like outlawing superheroes because Galactus attacked.

As for clamping down on groups like AIM and Hydra... aren't they already doing that? I mean, the last couple arcs in Secret Warriors if you want an explicit example, but I think it's assumed that terrorist super villain organizations are always a high priority.

I actually enjoyed Fear Itself more than most of their recent big events. I mean, it was almost the same story as Chaos War, but executed much more skillfully. There was no deus ex machina, no "it was all a dream" ending, and although it hit all the usual beats, it was still compelling. So I say well done on that.

The one complaint I have is that the events in the Journey Into Mystery crossover didn't play a more important role in the story. I really liked that whole arc up until it turns out Loki's whole plan is some nonsense about making him remember a girl. I think Loki could have played a much bigger role as a trickster hero.

But I really don't think this even signals any big change for Marvel. They just happened to write a good event where a lot of people get killed. Expect the next few to be not as good, and then another good one at some point. That's how most things go.