Trade Waiting - Secret Warriors Vol 1, Nick Fury: Agent of Nothing

I first heard about Jonathan Hickman when it was announced that he was going to be co-writing Secret Warriors with Brian Bendis. Since Secret Invasion hadn't turned into a massive disappointment when I learned of this, I went ahead and checked what little of his creator-owned work was out and was blown away by it (you can check out my earlier reviews of The Nightly News and Pax Romana). 

By the time Secret Warriors was out in trade though, I had lost most of my interest in the title because I had been constantly disappointed by the Marvel output of several up and coming creators who impressed with their earlier work, mostly writers like Matt Fraction or Rick Remender, so I initially passed up on the title. Eventually, I did get my hands on a copy so hit the jump to see my review for the first volume of Secret Warriors.

SECRET WARRIORS Vol 1, NICK FURY: AGENT OF NOTHING

Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman

Art by Stefano Caselli

Collects Secret Warriors #1-6 and material from Dark Reign: New Nation

Secret Warriors Vol 1 was a frustrating read at times because while the concept behind the series is mostly good, it is still plagued by the many problems that generally afflict superhero comics as a whole and it's a let down to see that Hickman fell into those traps.

The basic concept behind Secret Warriors is that the world has been turned upside down and Nick Fury believes it is his responsibility to correct it and do it all on his own. This is a pretty good idea to base a series on since it works well with the past few years of stories in the Marvel Universe but it's undercut by the big twist revealed at the end of the first issue that Hydra has been secretly controlling  S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning. This pretty much highlights what is wrong with Secret Warriors - for every good idea Hickman has, there is bad one to go with it that weights it down.

The Hydra reveal doesn't work for me on a couple of levels. First, Marvel's decades old characters, teams, organizations and groups have accrued reputations, as it were, over their existence and, like every other overused villainous organizations in the Marvel Universe, Hydra's is that of a punching bag, a group that simply exists so that heroes have some faceless minions to wail on when needed. The idea that they could be secretly in charge of  S.H.I.E.L.D. is just absurd on about every level and requires the reader to basically ignore everything that has ever happened with Hydra.

The other main reason why I dislike it is because it's a massive retcon and the kind of retcon I have a specific hatred for - the "secret history" retcon. I hate it because it is something that should have come up a thousand times before but hasn't since no one has used it before. To me, it signals a lack of creativity on the part of the writers since they can't think of anything new and have to tamper with the past in order to do something and if that's all you've got to base the story on, then you shouldn't even bother. There are a lot of other little things as well that bug me. A supporting cast that screams "cannon fodder," resurrections, WWII vets that don't look a day over 50, and some other similar stuff that usually clogs up superhero comics. But, as I said earlier, Hickman does enough good things to balance it all out.

One of the better things Hickman does is that he never focuses on the Hydra reveal and mostly uses it as a launching pad for his story. It is still the foundation of the series's though and, after the second issue, it's never brought up again since the story focuses on the escalating war between Fury and Hydra as lead by Baron Strucker.

Hickman also introduces a couple of new Hydra characters (Kraken, The Hive and a new Madame Hydra) which helps to alleviate the whole Hydra/punching bag problem since they are new characters and Hickman can characterize them however he wants. The Gorgon, from Mark Millar's and John Romita Jr.'s Wolverine: Enemy of the State, is resurrected (his second for those keeping track) and added to Baron Strucker's inner circle as well, which also helps with Hydra/punching bag problem since he was a legitimate threat when he was originally introduced. This does help make Hydra actually feel like an actual threat but the fact Hydra has rarely been portrayed as one still lurks in the background.

The best thing about the comic though is the war between Fury and Strucker and when Hickman focuses on that, the potential of the series does shrine through. Fury's part of the story is one of the rare times I've enjoyed anything resembling the black and white morality of superhero comics combined with a worldview that is less so. Hickman portrays Fury as someone who does believe in absolute right and absolute wrong but doesn't carry the self-righteous and hypocritical baggage that often accompanies such characterization. Hickman makes it work because he writes Fury as a pragmatic idealist rather than a naive optimist. There are two particularly effective scenes that work together in this regard. The first is the opening sequence in the collection, which is from Dark Reign: New Nation, and lays out Fury's worldview where there is absolute good and absolute evil with a flashback to World War II. The other is at the end of issue #5 when he is talking with the Howling Commandos. In it he is asked about what he'll feel when killing all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who stuck with H.A.M.M.E.R. because they needed the jobs and gives a chilling response  but one that fits the character.

Hickman's Baron Strucker was an enjoyable take on the character as well. He's played as a megalomaniac bent on world domination but Hickman characterizes him as someone who is enjoying it as well. It's a nice change of pace from the average villain in most superhero comics who tend be gratuitously evil for no particular reason. The rest of Hydra's inner circle isn't particularly well developed though given that they are supporting characters in an ensemble book. Hickman gives you the basics for them though but the reveal of who the new Madame Hydra is was actually a nice surprise and a strong way for Hickman to end the arc, especially since the opening reveal is so weak.

The collection has a curious relationship to Millar's and JRJR's Enemy of the State arc. It's obvious that Hickman read the arc since he not only resurrected Gorgon but borrows a couple lines of dialog from it as well. One of the weird things about it is that Strucker is actually killed in Enemy of the State but is not only alive and well but missing an eye. Now, I'm not a "continuity matters" kind of reader, I'm very much a "light it on fire and throw it off a cliff" reader when it comes to continuity, and he could have been resurrected sometime after Enemy of the State, but if you are going do something like this it would be nice to inform the readers about the character's changes. It's not essential or anything and doesn't come anywhere close to ruining the story but I thought it was odd that it went unexplained.

The oddest thing about the two stories though is how the portrayal of Hydra works for Millar but not for Hickman. Millar's style tends toward the over-the-top and bombastic so when he presents a group like Hydra, and the Hand, as a serious threat it seems kind of silly but it works for him because it cancels out the more "serious business" aspect of his stories and makes it easier to kick back and enjoy them. With Hickman though, he has a more straight forward style so when he presents Hydra as a serious threat it's hard to take serious since his writing lacks that over-the-top quality that Millar has.

The art by Caselli is the best thing about the collection, given Hickman's weaker efforts. Like a lot of artists whose Marvel work that I like right now he puts more effort into making the characters "act" by focusing on things like facial expressions and body language instead of having them pose or show off. This is a nice change from the usual kind of art you would find in an average superhero comic. He also handles the action focused parts of the story perfectly fine and manages to keep them clean and uncluttered despite the large number of characters that usually populate them. The coloring, by Danielle Rudoni, deserves special mention as well. Many of the scenes look like they were put through a color filter and are tinted. As a basic example, most the Hydra scenes have a green hue to them. Rudoni uses this to also give some scenes a specific tone or mood, which helps out Hickman's script, in addition to just giving the art a distinctive look from most other Marvel or DC comics. Overall, the art team put together some very strong work that definitely overshadowed much of the writing.

Verdict - Check It. An uneven collection where the bad is balanced out by the good and visa versa. Hickman's idea are weighed down by his lackluster execution but never overwhelmed by it which does allow the more intriguing ideas to possibly entice a curious reader into checking out further volumes.

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