It’s funny how our imagination can be sometimes. Anything is possible as long as we have the will to write it down. Weirdly, we seem to be a civilization that can’t handle how awesome real life people were. I mean figures like Leonardo Di Vinci, Nikola Tesla, and Issac Newton are men who will be remembered for all the amazing things they accomplished in their laughtime. I mention these guys because Jonathan Hickman has decided that no, these people aren’t excited unless some super cool powers are apart of their lives.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just funny how more ‘super’ Hickman had to make these guys. With this new “volume” of S.H.I.E.L.D. (he seems to be defining that word loosely) we get even more amazing sights of this secret world of the Marvel Universe. You know what though? Other then having Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards be co-players in this story it really feels like Hickman is telling his own secret history of our world.

I’m sort of going on and not getting to the point of this review. Well in a nutshell, I am glad this series is back but once again I am puzzled by this bizarre pacing Hickman has for this book. Yes it’s a shame Dustin Weaver has to work on a bi-monthly schedule, but it’s the price to pay for such gorgeous artwork. Seriously, there are some amazing pages in this and great attention to detail in each panel. But with this scheduling, Hickman seems to be moving at a snails pace. I just don’t understand why Hickman couldn’t condense this issue along with the first “volume” of issues. What’s here is good; I loved the reveal with Michelangelo having a sort of ‘Dr. Manhatten’ power and the reveals of Leonid childhood. But the stuff involving Newton and Di Vinci fighting each other doesn’t interest me as much. I’m realizing that Hickman is much more suited to telling a story and having fighting in short bursts and not showing us a grand battle in the making.

I have always been a Jonathan Hickman fan, so trying to find faults in this issue is giving me a bit of pain. (Not literally of course) There is a grand story being told here but it feels like that Hickman is purposely telling this story at a snails pace just to stretch this out to unbearable lengths. The art by Dustin Weaver makes up for the sub-par story with his amazing attention to detail. He also handles lighting like no one’s business especially with electricity ‘crackling’ at times. Since I’m a diehard Hickman fan I will continue to buy this series, but I hope there is going to be more then just ‘shocking’ reveals and using historical figures just because he can.