S.H.I.E.L.D. VOL. 2 #3 (OF 6)
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Art by Dustin Weaver
Colors by Sonia Oback
Letters by Todd Klein
Cover by Gerald Parel, Dustin Weaver & Sonia Oback
Size: 0 pages
Price: 2.99
Alright I gotta level with you guys on this issue: I am totally undecided on whether to drop this or not. It has been a year and a half now with nine issues to its credit and I don’t know what the point is. Jonathan Hickman is a man with a ton of ideas and his creativity is what got me to be a fan in the first place. But after this issue, it’s clear as day that there is no story here. This entire issue, sans one panel and a final page, there is no dialogue in this. The Celestial Baby, which has been an obscure part of this entire run so far, has grown to Godzilla like proportions and is now wrecking havoc in the hidden city. While I’ll get to the incredible art in a minute, the issue overall reeks of laziness. We presumably only have three more issues to go before this entire story ends and Hickman only gives us this massive fight scene. It’s frustrating because I still have no idea why I should care about anything in this book. From the pointless main character whose name I don’t even remember (even the solict doesn’t bother to mention him) to the more bizarre mathematical portion at the end; nothing makes sense. Why did we have to spend an entire issue on this predicament when bigger things are obviously dire right now?
The only thing that justifies this issue, and makes me uncertain on my future on the book, is the art by Dustin Weaver. Good lord did he knock it out of the park with this issue. I can certainly see why a bi-monthly schedule is needed when Weaver is doing wonderful stuff like this. The detail in the destruction in each page is staggering. You can see individual cracks in buildings, debris falling everywhere, and energy particles just scream ‘Kirby’ in each panel. Sonia Oback’s color really helps with this issue because the energy wouldn’t be there without the bright colors. Lots of oranges, blues, and purples to indicate who is shooting what and we never lose track of what is going on. Well in a staging sense it might be a bit confusing; but I lay that more on Hickman because his definition on what the forgettable main character’s powers are. I really am starting to think that this series is still around because of the art. Because it obviously isn’t for the wealth of story being offered each issue.
I just find it amazing that people are enjoying the story out of this series. Now I don’t mean that you can’t like this comic, because lord knows there is one massive thing to like about this series. The title wouldn’t be even 3/4ths the comic it is without Dustin Weaver’s brilliant layouts and detail and this issue is no different. He certainly is trying to go for the Eisner with this issue that’s for sure. But to like the story, more specifically the writing, baffles me. There is no story here! It’s just a collection of half baked ideas somehow being mixed into a two volume series. The fact that nothing really happens in this issue expect for a long fight scene is pretty frustrating. When you put the poor storytelling on one hand and put it up against the brilliant artwork; you can see why I am torn on dropping this or not. I guess maybe my sickness for Hickman in general might keep this in my pile just to see it how it ends. But like all sicknesses, it’s going to take a lot of medication to bare with it.
Art: 5 - Excellent
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THere absolutely is a story here.
It’s all about belief. It’s all about determinism vs. free will. Leonid – that’s the character whose name you couldn’t remember – has chosen, for all of the Shield, free will. It’s implied that Newton knows – or thinks he knows – something we don’t because of the Quiet Math and he’s decided on determinism. He believes knows how the world ends. The Star Child read the Quiet Math last issue and – judging by his complete destruction of the Immortal City and all Shield is at this time – he seems now insanely compelled to agree with Newton.
There is definitely something going on that we don’t know yet, but that doesn’t mean there is ‘no’ story.
Although admittedly this issue is entirely about a beautifully depicted fight scene. A fight scene that needed to happen – the Immortal City was obviously going to be ruined at some time – and that several commenters have asked for – claiming the book needed some action. Lots of comics are just huge fight scenes. That doesn’t mean there’s no story. We see Tesla, Tesla’s dove/woman/friend/lover/thing, Leonardo, Leonid, Nostradamus, Stark and Richards all fight desperately for their belief. They’re willing to fight an indomitable foe for what they believe. That’s their part in the story. Michaelangelo, meanwhile, realizes that fighting is pointless and uses logic/math to somehow convince the Star Child to leave and find Newton. I don’t quite understand how, but then I don’t speak crazy celestial like Michaelangelo does…
So now the stage is set for the final battle. They follow Newton into the future and continue to pit their belief against his. Newton thinks he knows how this all ends and our heroes are convinced they can prove him wrong. They believe they can.
Or that’s my take on it anyway… Not the best issue of the run, but I would definitely say that counts as a story.
*slow clap*
Hmm … I’m sure I’ve seen countless movies in which many minutes might go by before any character speaks a single word of dialogue. How long was the opening scene depicting the storming of Omaha Beach at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Fifteen? It is a narrative device, plain and simple.
To say there is “no story” is hyperbolic and nonsensical. So it didn’t work for you. Fine. But lazy? Hickman? Please! We both know how talented he is. I guarantee there is a method to (t)his madness. Sheesh! He’s put Weaver front and center and for that we should be giving him a standing O.
I’d encourage you to stick it out, because if you’ve come this far, you might as well go all in (especially if there are only three issues left). My bet is the last three issues will be impactful. We already know there is a larger context that this fits into, because the Immortal City showed up near the end of Secret Warriors.
It is at the very least, in my view, intriguing how two people can have such divergent reactions to the same work. You opened and ‘read’ this book and cried, “BS!” I opened the book and saw pages with no word balloons and, when I figured out that would be the case for the entire issue, said, “now THAT is FREAKIN’ cool. I have to ‘read’ this just a tad bit differently to figure out what is going on.” Often, I have to work very hard to pay attention to the artwork because I’m very much a text-based person, cognitively speaking. In this book, we were forced to pay incredibly close attention to the artwork in order to discern what was going on. My gut tells me I appreciated the artwork all the more because of the LACK of word balloons.
This was a BRILLIANT issue … absolutely BRILLIANT!