Jonathan Hickman - Review

S.H.I.E.L.D. 1

I take it much of this stuff was set up in a previous S.H.I.E.L.D. series – we’re thrown right in the middle here – but the first thing to do is to dismiss all thoughts that it has any discernible connection to S.H.I.E.L.D.. No Nick Fury or helicarriers or secret agents or anything like that. We have instead the Brotherhood of the Shield, a secret mystic/scientific organisation that has existed for thousands of years. We get 20 pages of story, one intro page, and at the back ten pages of mostly Marvel Handbook style background material (useful when I looked back at the otherwise information-free final splash, since the backup material tells me who these people are). I still don’t have much idea of what is going on.

FF 1

I buy a lot of things just to review, including lots of first issues. It’s a while since I’ve enjoyed any of them as much as this.

Fantastic Four 588

So here it is, the final ever issue of the Fantastic Four. Johnny Storm’s dead, Spider-Man’s waiting in the wings to become the new fourth member, there are new costumes, a new direction, it’s the end of an era, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.