Secret Warriors #28 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Alessandro Vitti (art), IFS (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: 27 issues have led to this, the final issue of Secret Warriors.  Who’s left standing?

What’s Good:  As a final issue that came over 30 issues to soon, Hickman plays this one well.  There aren’t any other slam-bang events of climactic moments in this final outing.  Indeed, it’s important to recall that this was actually a “bonus issue,” and it certainly feels that way.  This functions as a sort of epilogue to Secret Warriors, and I’m really happy that it is, as were Secret Warriors to have ended last month, it would have been a disservice to the series.

In fact, this issue made me all the grumpier about Secret Warriors abbreviated run and consequently overly compressed story.  The series would have been a lot better served if it had more issues like this one.  You get strong character moments and time for the characters to reflect on and soak in recent events.  Instead of crazily rushing through big events, here we have characters able to outline the gravity of everything that’s happened.

The end result is that in retrospect, Secret Warriors ends up feeling less haphazard than it often was.  This epilogue manages to cast the series in better light, one that almost lured me into re-reading the entire run to see if it holds together better in such a format.  Hickman manages to retroactively inject more emotion into his story and its characters than we’ve often gotten.  It’s unfortunate, but in this epilogue, Secret Warriors is allowed to truly breathe for the first time in a while, and it’s elegant and affecting.

Secret Warriors #26 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Alessandro Vitti (art), IFS (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Trapped in each other’s company and facing certain death, Nick Fury and Baron Strucker have an important conversation, one that leads to a few very big surprises.

The Review:  The biggest problem I have with this issue of Secret Warriors sort of has more to do with how Hickman’s brand of storytelling in some ways makes the single-issue format into an obstacle.  With so many bits of information and important scenes having been haphazardly spread across two years worth of issues, it can be difficult to fully appreciate an issue like this one, one that draws upon moments spread across the series’ run.  Frankly, it can be hard to fully remember everything that this issue recollects, which in all honest does rob the major reveals of some of their impact.  I almost feel like once this series ends, I need to re-read the entire thing to get the full effect of Hickman’s work.

That said, the reveal this month is substantial enough to pack a mighty wallop nonetheless.  It comes right out of left field and it changes the ball-game entirely as the series heads to its conclusion.  It also shows just how damn good a spy Nick Fury actually is and seeing Strucker gasping in disbelief is so, so awesome.  Many of Hickman’s best moments in Secret Warriors have involved showing Nick Fury for the cunning badass that he is, and certainly, this is one of those moments.

It’s also hard to have a bad issue when the entirety involves Fury and Strucker locked in a room together, attempting one up each other while throwing the occasional verbal barb.  These are two great characters and scenes like these allow them to cement that fact.  The character dynamic and the conflict of personalities here is a treat to watch.  Certainly, Strucker’s quick and vaguely slimy attempt at cooperation and Fury’s steadfast and grizzled, stubborn resolve makes the conversation all the more appealing.  Of course, having a story play out with such a small cast and environment also forces Hickman to sharpen his narrative focus, which is also a good thing.

Secret Warriors #25 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Alessandro Vitti (art), IFS (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: The origins of Leviathan are revealed in a team-up of epic proportions.

The Review: Secret Warriors #25 is a very interesting issue, if for no other reason that it once again points to Jonathan Hickman carving his own little corner in the Marvel Universe.  His idiosyncratic SHIELD series bleeds over into Secret Warriors this month, and the result is that much of what makes that series good bleeds over.  That and, at a more basic level, it’s just pretty damned cool seeing Hickman’s hidden city and Leonardo Da Vinci in Secret Warriors.  It even threatens to make SHIELD feel less cryptic and inaccessible in a way, but I digress.  The presence of Da Vinci in particular (though he’s never actually named as such) makes everything seem way heavier and more significant and given the scope of SHIELD, it raises the game, and the stakes, as far as Secret Warriors is concerned.  Given that we’re heading to the series conclusion, that’s definitely a good thing.

As far as the plot goes, this is an issue that really lives up to the “Wheels Within Wheels” moniker.  Seeing all the power players of the Marvel spy-world working together under Da Vinci, regardless of what side they may be on, is damned cool.   Seeing Kraken, Baron Strucker, Fury, and hand ninjas all the same team is awesome and makes their shared goals seem all the more important.  Oh, and you even get to see who’s behind Kraken’s mask.

Unlike what has often been the case with the series, the story is still very large this month, but it’s also focused enough to feel excited about.  The characters are easy to root for, if for nothing but name value, and seeing the birth of Leviathan feels important.  And that’s the meat of it really: this issue feels important, not tangential or digressive.  That’s no small feat given that many of the series characters play no role this month and almost the entire issue is a flashback.  It’s an issue that feels vital and exciting and fully comprehensible, despite the massive and largely unfamiliar cast and the non-linear nature of it.

Secret Warriors #24 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), David Marquez & Alessandro Vitti (art), IFS (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: We learn the unfortunate fate of Mikel Fury’s team.

The Review: This month, we meet the other team that Nick’s gathered, that led by his son Mikel.  Amazingly, in the little space we have to meet each member of the team, Hickman gives us cool characters with equally concepts and personalities.  Despite these being brand-spanking new characters with a mere two-page scene a-piece, each feels and looks unique.  That’s no small feat.  Either way, it’s hard not to read this issue and think that this team could’ve made for one heck of a fun series in their own right.  They’re a lot of fun and the histories, banter, and dynamics feel far from throw away.

But really, why the hell are we meeting these characters for the first time this close to the series conclusion?

It’s a really strange choice for Jonathan Hickman and he’s ultimately fighting a losing battle, especially how he ends this issue.  As we already knew, this team would eventually meet their demise but the fact that Hickman decides to show their introduction and their end in 22 pages is an impossible endeavor.  I’m not even quite sure why he attempted it.  While each of the characters is cool, we have nowhere near the attachment or understanding of any of them to really give much of a crap about their ultimate fate.  To introduce them and end them in one issue and expect us to care, or get anything out of it, is kind of ludicrous.

And frankly, these characters, new as they are, deserved better.  Thought and work clearly went into them and it sucks to see them dealt with like this, as no more than disposable narrative furniture.  Quite frankly, the story Hickman has on his hands for this issue is a good one, but it’s one that should’ve been spread over a full story-arc at the very least, not a single issue.  I mean, we don’t even meet two of the team’s members.  Hickman ran out of space to even get through all the introductions, so the last two characters are just quickly mentioned in a couple lines of dialogue.  That should’ve sent alarm bells off.