Posts tagged Jonathan Hickman

Summertime has long been known as a season to lounge, enjoy barbecues, hang out with friends and blow stuff up.  This summer is going to be especially enjoyable with not only loud explosions on the big screen but in the world of comics.  For the past couple of months, I’ve been reading Marvel Comics “Secret Warriors” starring the living legend, Nick Fury and it has not disappointed me in this regard.

Co-written by Brian Bendis and Jonathan Hickman, this duo are spinning an intricate and engrossing story that brings you back to when men were full of grit, iron guts and balls of steel.  Villians who are a true threat and a world that doesn’t know it needs saving.  As part of Marvel’s “Dark Reign” this writing team looks to upend the status quo and put everything you (as the reader) know to the test.

After Earth survives a secret invasion by shape-shifting aliens, known as Skrulls, Norman Osborn, aka The Green Goblin, is placed in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. and quickly dismantles it and renames it H.A.M.M.E.R.  Prior to all of this, Nick Fury went MIA and resurfaces with a new team of heroes but without a sanctioned government organization to back him up.  As a result, Fury decides that having a mad man in power is not going to settle well in his gut and he begins to remind the world why he is “the worlds greatest spy.”

The art is top notch and the characters are given a real life appearance by Stefano Caselli.  Caselli draws Fury as a man that, despite being battered by forces larger than him, will not break and bow down to the despot that is Norman Osborn.  Characters are drawn with a fairly believable physique for being super-heroes and super-villains.

By issue #4 of the series, old Nick Fury fans will be pleased because the “Howling Commandos” finally make an appearance, with old favorites like Dum Dum Dugan taking center stage.  At this point, old foes in the form of HYDRA have once again come to the forefront as well to renew their own bid for world dominance.

I’m looking forward to keeping this on my summer reading list as it keeps the pulse pounding and me wishing that I was as cool as Nick Fury.

I give it a unicorn rating of:

4/5 - Nearly classic!

The Ballad of the Green Berets-Sgt. Barry Sadler