Greg Burgas is the main reviewer for one of comicdom’s best and most read cites, Comics Should be Good, where he writes his What I Bought Capsule review column weekly, while adding other strongly opinionated features semi-regularly. This week, among his legion of comics, he tackled Secret Warriors #15 and here’s what he had to say:
Hickman’s work on Secret Warriors has been oddly inconsistent, but it’s still better than what he’s doing on Fantastic Four, and I’m not entirely sure why. He’s done some of the same stuff – building a long-term story and occasionally sacrificing the drama of individual issues for that, but it seems to work better here. I think it’s because the villains in this series are more compelling than the bad guys so far in FF, which have really been absent. The machinations of Hydra and their allies and enemies are part of the fun of this series, and the fact that Nick’s group is very, very raw makes it interesting, as well, even though I’m still having trouble with the characters. The final page, for instance, much like the one a few issues ago (when the dude got fired), doesn’t have as much impact because we just don’t feel enough for the young guns yet. But that’s okay – we get a cool scene in which Nick and the Countessa turn over their cards, and we also get a brief history of Viper, who gets a bit of a makeover in this issue – sure, a creepy one, but a makeover nevertheless! Hickman’s long-term plan seems to work better in this series, which is why I’ve stuck with it. And Caselli’s art seems much better this issue. Weird. I was digging it before, but it seems much better this time. I don’t know – I’ll have to look at the previous few issues. And his revamped Viper is freaky-deaky, man!”
Well, here’s a review that I just do notagree with. Ignoring Fantastic Four for the moment, since it’s really not the point of the discussion, it’s hard to believe it’s fair in characterizing Hickman’s work on this book as “inconsistent.” Due to Nick Fury’s longstanding relationship with the Marvel Universe, the plot is forced to move slow. Simply put, there’s some kind of event that demands Nick Fury’s involvement and slows the progress of this book every 4-5 issues. Whether it was Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, The List, or, currently, Seige, the main Hydra feud was constantly derailed by editiorial mandate. What this has allowed, however, is a greater context for the book and the world it takes place in, as well as great development for Daisy and Phobos along with some good depth to the other cast members. While this may seem scattershot, it pays to remember that despite the title, this is a story about Nick Fury’s role and people’s reaction to him. Fury is building an army and, in doing so, supressing the individuality of his team. What’s most important to the plot is their bursts of rebelliousness and, more to the point, how they react when Fury turns out to either be right or just overpower them time and again. This steady progression is adding much of the drama to the book that the plot’s inability (again due to editorial mandate) to move forward would otherwise counterbalance.
The cast’s plans, actions and reactions here are expanded to include the Hydra inner circle and the as yet mysterious Leviathan threat. The storytelling decision here that impresses me is that with the use of two antagonists, we get the developed, well-reasoned (if not sympathetic) villians who we are invested in with Hydra, will still having the mysterious big bad looming in Leviathan without forcing a mystery onto the former villians for the sake of drama. Where Fury’s team haven’t been active as plot protagonists, the manuevering of Hydra and Leviathan have kept this from being just a talking heads comic.
The best part of the talking heads is Nick Fury and Contessa’s relationship. Anyone who didn’t get from their initial reactions that they were playing eachother is misguided, but the adding of the depth to their relationship, the subtle hurt each suffers at the others hands, is just extermely well handled. It is certainly heavy handed for this to immediately play into Daisy’s relationship, but it does offer us rare insight into how Fury got to be such a hard bastard in the first place.
Finally, I’d assume this initial arc gets to the point, removing either Hydra, Leviathan or both as the main threats around issue #25. This series has been clearly taking a slow build, suggesting Hickman knows he’s on the title for the long haul and that Bendis’s early involvement would stave off cancellation (and the fact that Hickman is ridiculously talented doesn’t hurt). With that in mind, he’s taking a long-range view of the plot, reminiscent of great runs of the past like Miller’s Daredevil or Simonson on Thor, where the payoffs for long simmering undercurrents are especially worth it for those who get emotionally invested early. While I’m not suggesting that this book is or will ever be near those runs (though I’d put Hickman’s Nightly News and Pax Romana up there with Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again), the intent is clearly in the same vein and should be regarded as such.
