Fear Itself Prologue: Book Of The Skull

Using the clever story-telling technique of switching from the present to the past, writer Ed Brubaker draws readers into his story of the Red Skull’s, and his daughter Sin’s, plans for world conquest.

The present: Baron Zemo and Sin fly over the barren desserts of Egypt in Zemo’s hovercraft looking for a long lost site once occupied by the Red Skull.


They soon find a booby-trapped, hidden conclave beneath the dessert sands. Using his teleportation device, Baron Zemo and Sin materialize in a vast underground Nazi complex-complete with dangerous robot sentinels.


They quickly dispatch them and Sin enters an adjacent room. A large book bound in the blue skin of Atlanteans sits on a table in front of a Swastika flag. Sin grasps it and the scene suddenly switches to the Red Skull and his minions in Germany during 1942.


They are performing a black arts ritual using the blood of Atlanteans to open a dimensional rift that promises to hold great power. They do, only to watch the mystical lightning streak across the sky and land far away. The Red Skull follows and what they find promises to make the Red Skull’s plans for world domination come true.


If not for the timely interference of Captain America, Namor and Bucky the Skull’s plans would have come to fruition. Switch to the present.


Having obtained what she came looking for, Sin damages Baron’s Zemo’s transporter disc and steals his hovercraft. Whatever she is up to she has just made another powerful enemy.


I have to admit, I am intrigued. I’m excited to see what Marvel Comics’ new Fear Itself series has in store. If early hints are any indication, the Marvel Universe is about to experience major and far-reaching changes.