Fear Itself: The Home Front #5-7

Previously it was revealed that X-23 would be appearing in Fear Itself: The Home Front issues 5-7.  I've been reading Home Front anyway for the tie-in into the main event, and even enjoyed many of the stories in it.  It has been a great comic with some thought provoking shorts provided by many writers and artists.  Since this blog focuses solely on X-23 (though I do tend to go on tangents occasionally for material that's worthy), I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach this mini.

It is well worth picking up for the stories it tells and how they are told.  The X-23 story in particular (The Chosen) isn't exactly award worthy, but it is a fun romp with some mild in-jokes and comedic moments.  One of the ending panels in particular made the entire 3 part story well worth reading.  It does make one mistake in the 3rd part of the story with the dialogue, but that can happen with team stories when there are more characters than the writer is familiar with entirely.  The lone goof is in the line where X-23 says "The name they gave me.  It's Laura."  There is no they.  The name the facility gave her is X-23.  Laura is the name her mother gave her once X-23 escaped the Facility.  So there would be no 'they,' it should be singular or refer solely to her mother.  That being said, it can be interpreted as a meta-commentary reference towards those who originally wrote her first appearance in any medium.  That would be a 'they' as it was two writers. Only one of which gets the sole-credit for her creation as his idea (it's complicated almost as much as Wolverine's own canonical history).

One of the best shorts in my honest opinion, was the final one Home Front Lines.  This story truly speaks to the nature of just doing what's right because you just do, and not taking credit for it.  It stuck out to me in particular for various reasons.  This story truly speaks to what a good person is, does, and how sometimes it's the simple things that can make us a hero even if we don't see it.  The man in the story doesn't think himself a hero. Far from it.  He thinks himself a coward, and decides to change that at the end, but the entire story is full of heroic acts he's doing, and lives he's helping.  Showing once again it's not how one sees themselves or even what they say about themselves, but what they do and how they act that defines who they are.  A lesson all should learn and keep close to their heart(in other words stop professing you're a good person, and just be a good person).

All 7 issues are worth picking up if you can find them. The X-23 three part story is a decent read. The last two panels themselves make this particular story highly memorable, while the other shorts provide some curious and thought-provoking commentary on human nature.