S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 – Review

By Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (artist), Christina Strain (colors)

Dear Jonathan Hickman,

I think I’m in love with you.

Being a recently divorced, heterosexual, thirty-something I don’t admit this easily to the Internet, but shit man, your stories excite me like a twenty-dollar hooker on a Friday night!!! You’ve had my attention ever since The Nightly News, but with S.H.I.E.L.D. you have earned my adoration and accolades, both of which I will gladly bestow upon you until the end of time provided you can continue to give me storytelling as glorious as what you’re offering on this comic. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a miraculous, confounding book: saturated with ideas and intelligence, it demands my respect even as I wonder what the hell it is trying to achieve. You know what, though? For the abundance of imagination you’re giving me, I will gladly wait every two months to find out where you’re taking this story, because it demands respect, and I will gladly give it.

The moment that best defines this issue, in my humble opinion, was that double splash page of Leonardo Da Vinci flying within hundreds of feet of the Sun, looking like an antiquated Icarus in his steampunk spacesuit. When I saw that and beheld its beauty, it occurred to me that this was a story about defying expectations and refusing to accept limitations. I rather like that. And then you had to go and have Leonardo and Isaac Newton have a cryptic conversation in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and later have Da Vinci witness the birth of a Celestial and have it speak to him in mathematics. Come on, man! Are you completely trying to blow my mind here!? Cuz if you are…. well done, sir. Every page of your bi-monthly epic forces me to pay attention, read closely, despise the end of every issue, and savor the arrival of the next issue after it, and while some readers may resent being strung along from issue to issue without fully understanding the scope of what you’re achieving here, I for one happen to love coming along for the ride and feel this continues to be some of the best comic entertainment I can buy.

This month’s issue was quite illuminating, and yet still as baffling as the three before it. There was such an epic quality to that first encounter between Newton and Da Vinci as they sized each other up it reminded me of two generals competing for control of the same army. A shot was fired somewhere in those first few pages, perhaps when Da Vinci exposed the mysterious Human Machine to the assembled brother of S.H.I.E.L.D., or perhaps even earlier than that when Newton so selfishly tortured Nostradamus in pursuit of his own self, yet still painfully elusive agenda. But then a thought occurred to me: Although Newton’s methods are a tad…extreme, we don’t know that he’s anymore of a bad guy than Da Vinci is a good guy. And if each man, theoretically, has his own vision of how S.H.I.E.L.D. should be ran, then why is the Night Machine going out of his way to fuck things up for everyone? These are the things I lay awake some nights thinking about, and it’s genuinely rare for me to care about twenty-two silly pieces of paper as much as I do when they’re the products of your imagination.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 – Review

By Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (artist), Christina Strain (colorist)

The Story: The secret history of High Council member Isaac Newton is revealed along with tantalizing clues regarding the development and significance of the Five-Fold Understanding.

The Good: This comic is really being published, right? I mean, this isn’t some strange spectre of an old hashish dream come back to haunt me is it? I sincerely hope not, because this comic is a tour de force of staggering imagination, and I need to believe that there is a place in the mainstream industry for comics this unique. Taking a slight breather from last month’s cliffhanger, this issue takes a step back in time to reveal the secret history of Isaac Newton and his rise through, and possible corruption of, the ranks of Shield. Newton, who I assumed would be a hero without fault in this complex web of intrigue, is here revealed to be an intellectual of such astounding innovation and vision that he is all too willing to travel down dark and seemingly unholy roads in his quest to quench his thirst for new knowledge. Newton’s journey to the Deviant City of Ashomia was especially unsettling and reminded me of something I should have read in a good Lovecraft story. His time in Ashomia, coupled with whatever dark insecurities may have already existed within him, seem to have corrupted Newton and his leadership of Shield, but to what end? What is Newton doing with this ancient order that Da Vinci and the Night Machine feel they must destroy? Hickman plays his hand obscenely close to his sleeve, choosing to play the long con with this story and slowly reveal the plot to the reader.

It’s funny: I actually complained that Secret Avengers was trying to do the same thing with its plot, but here on SHIELD I find that same storytelling technique to be an asset and a virtue; Hickman succeeds in being able to slow down the pace of the story while still keeping it engaging and damn intriguing. How is it Newton, Galileo, Nostradamus, and Da Vinci are still alive (Besides the fact that they all seemingly reside in the Immortal City, which I still think doesn’t quite explain it…)? What is the significance of the Five-Fold Understanding to Shield’s machinations? And what, oh what the hell is Da Vinci doing challenging the cabal he was once a member of? Hickman is careful to reveal just enough of these storylines to make us want to come back every two months to get the next few, precious kernels of story, and it’s a testament to his skills as a writer that I love letting him string me along like this. Hickman makes me want to unravel this mystery one issue at a time, and it’s stories like this where that journey is worth the price of admission.