S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
I have to say this issue was not at all what I expected; nor was it as good as I had hoped it would be. That is not to say that it was horrible or without merit. Before I go any farther, let me tell you that even though it is not labeled as such this series must be a what if or elseworlds type story; if it isn’t then the history of the Marvel universe just underwent a total rewrite. Since, I haven’t heard anything about the history of the Marvel universe getting rewritten and since I don’t believe the editors at Marvel would be looking to do something like that, at this time, I’m just going to treat this series as an elseworlds until I find out differently.
As for this particular issue, when I said it was not without merit you just have to look at a couple pages of Dustin Weaver’s art to see that. The book looks fabulous. The artwork is clean, straightforward and full of marvelous details without being cluttered. I would defiantly call Dustin Weaver’s artwork top notch and the highlight of this issue.
SPOILER WARNING Unfortunately, Jonathan Hickman’s story did not live up to the quality of the artwork. Yes, Hickman gives us a lot of intriguing little scenes, I mean come on, who wouldn’t want to see Galileo take on Galactus in 16th century Rome but that is all we get, of the interesting stuff, short scenes. Instead, we get a lot of things like “The Immortal City” and “The High Council Of The Shield” mixed in with some actual historical names and places. END SPOILER WARNING Very quickly, I got the feeling I was reading one of those bad historical conspiracy novels. I mean Hickman could have just as easily called them Masons or Templars or the Illuminati but I guess those names have been over used a bit. Now, if you like that kind of fiction you probably will like S.H.I.E.L.D. if you’re like me and are not a fan of that kind of story then you probably will have a difficult time liking this issue. SPOILER WARNING The story did pick up for me somewhat about three quarters of the way through the issue when The Night Machine shows up. END SPOILER WARNING That characters actions piqued my interest a little and when combined with the quality art; maybe just enough to get me to read another issue but I was not 100% sold on this series. In fact, I think a full story about the Brood in ancient Egypt or Galileo vs Galactus would have made for a much better issue.
Keith Forney