S.H.I.E.L.D. by Hickman & Weaver: The Human Machine

This is the second half of a two-book set, and while the first part wasn't bad for what it was, this over-extended conclusion undoes what limited value there was. So overall, probably not something to invest in.It seems pretty clear Mr Hickman has one Big Idea which he recycles relentlessly, much to the perplexing sales revenue benefit of print-form Marvel. Essentially, he trades on other people's pre-conceived Big Ideas, can't really write character, and drives every story with an omnipotent deux ex machina character who engineers a literally world-shattering event. On the bright side, you can get it all over with in less that 300 pages here, rather than wade through the same plot across 1,000s of slightly better drawn pages of The Avengers.Here we have (yet-another) world-shattering intervention, this time involving yet-another version of Jack Kirby's celestials, yet-another version of (Warren Ellis's version of) the White Event (which, let's face it, is Mr Ellis himself's own apparent retirement plan) and Doctor Manhattan with the serial numbers filed off.There's some not exactly world class storytelling. The battle between Historical S.H.E.I.L.D. factions kicked off at the end of the fist volume grinds on across a couple of issues in this one. This includes the not-entirely-original idea of an issue without dialogue, which always begs the question, then why is there a writer in this writer-artist partnership? The so-so use of non-linear storytelling in the first part just goes off the rails here at the end. Double-page after double page of more and more minute panels tell three separate, parallel, and equally unsatisfactory versions of an incomprehensible set of events that eventually lead ... nowhere.Plus, there's the truly unanswerable conspiracy theory behind why so many post-millennial genre writers bought into the secret pact to crow-bar Nikola Tesla into everything? At least they injected some camp value into the one in Sanctuary.If you feel you need to get a handle on the emperor's new clothes quality of Jonathan Hickman's oeuvre, and preview what's almost certainly about to happen over again in X-Men now that Disney has a renewed IP interest in promoting the comic, you might want to see if you can find a library copy. Otherwise, since it adds nothing to any other past or current Marvel continuity, you can safely give this whole series a miss.

O que mais impressiona nessa HQ não é a história em si, mas sim as ideias em larga escala. Hickman reescreve toda a história antiga do universo Marvel. Tem muitos conceitos legais que poderiam ser trabalhados por anos se a editora quisesse. Mas eu aposto que dentro da Marvel não tem ninguém que saiba trabalhar o potencial dessa história, o que só deixa ainda mais evidente o quanto Hickman está em outra rotação comparado com o resto da indústria.Enfim, aproveite a genialidade desse escritor nessa HQ que muda tudo o que você pode pensar sobre as fundações do universo Marvel. Tudo isso com a arte soberba de Dustin Weaver. Não tem erro!

Great conclusion!

Para quienes sigan la carrera de Hickman desde hace poco este tomo les puede llamar la atención porque algunos conceptos se repiten.Hickman cierra una historia que podría haber durado muchos números mas pero, parece, Marvel no apostó.No es muy diferente la batalla en varios tiempos de este tomo a lo que sucede en House of X. O los científicos y pensadores reunidos en una comunidad secreta que parece Manhattan Projects.Hickman es uno de los mejores escritores de ciencia ficción que tiene el comic hoy.Y los dibujos de Weaver son el complemente perfecto.

An Excellent read.a fitting end to one of the best comics written by Johnathan Hickman.The only thing I did not like about it was that MARVEL skimped on the binding in comparison to the Leather binding and gold embossed printing they did for the first part - architects of forever.

0 for story. nothing enlightening for mature audience & too complicated for younger audience.