When I first decided to start buying comics again, not knowing any of the status quo or who Johnathan Hickman was at the time, I picked up the first 2 issues of Secret Warriors as the ongoing series I wanted to follow. Few truly established characters, rave reviews on the internet and Nick Fury front and center – this was going to be the series I was gonna cut my teeth on.

And for 22 issues, it’s been mostly great. Some arcs are better than others, some issues are better than others – but the writing has almost always been on point. As the series that sort of introduced Hickman to the Marvel U, he quickly established himself as one of the company’s top talent here, especially how different the tone of this book is from Fantastic Four.

The thing that has always held this book back for me is the art. It’s a different style than most all other Marvel work and while it’s not typically terrible, there are often some really questionable design elements and the colors are just a bit more dull than I’m accustomed to. Lately, it’s been really distracting and this issue is more of the same in tat regard. Apart from the opening two page spread with Gorgon and Phobos, the art is really underwhelming.

This issue really moves things forward in the SW’s world, with Fury making a decision that I can only imagine is going to bite him in the ass soon (though he always comes out on top) and the team in seeming disarray. They lost their strongest member (and that is an emotional last couple pages) and also lost their “rebel”, who has proven himself to save the team quite often.

The series is getting close to ending, I’m aware of that and I think that will fit. I hope it can go out with a bang, really bring the house down because this is a book that deserves to be much more important in the Marvel U.