So, I’m mainly using this list from @ComicBookHerald (along with this graphic I found online) for my Jonathan Hickman Marvel read-through. It starts with a load of suggestions for back up reading, stories that informed what he does across his run. https://www.comicbookherald.com/jonathan-hickman-marvel-universe-reading-order-2008-to-2016/

I’ve just read Secret War, Mighty Avengers, Secret Invasion, and Dark Avengers, which it recommends prior to starting Secret Warriors, so first on my list, to prep for Hickman’s Fantastic Four run, is the Millar/Hitch run on that book, which I’ve had for years and never finished.

I’ve soured on Millar over the years, but this is a great first issue. It’s packed with the family stuff that make the FF what they are, but doesn’t skimp on the big bold ideas either. Also, Hitch is at his absolute best here. Having just read AoU the difference is marked!

I feel like the ‘argument about the graffiti’ is an accidental metaphor for something so much bigger here ...

Well, this first arc was a lot of fun, and it ends on a classic cliffhanger, but one that I can’t help be drawn in by.

It’s a prelude, & I hadn’t intended to get too deep into this, but I’m really enjoying this run already. I love seeing Valeria ‘rising’, & I’m a sucker for a whole new team of unidentified villains (?) ... oh, & smart Hulk ... awesome ... weirdly prescient of the Ruffalo version.

This is great stuff. Hitch is doing some sublime work, the humanity he gives Ben is inspiring, the dynamism of his fight scenes, and these big reveal splash pages have every ounce of pop to carry the heavy beats. Wonderful comics.

Epic stuff, big ideas, played across the format they could really survive in, all couched in a genuine humanity. What happened to this Millar?

And the hits just keep coming ... half way through this issue, and I don’t know what I love more, the perfect way they handle Sue’s funeral (and credit for the clever trailing of ‘death of the invisible woman’ for months leading up to this ...

... or the revelation of Valeria’s intellect, and the impact on Franklin here.

The Christmas issue is exceptional. Hitch turns family warmth into ominous foreboding at the drop of a shadow ...

It would be easy to acuse this run of only being able to think in the biggest of terms, so the Christmas/ Scotland arc is a nice diversion. Millar goes back to the well with Masters of Doom though, and two pages into the second issue and ‘we’re going to need a bigger comic’ ...

Out of left field would be a massive understatement ... had @Hughes87n not told me to go and read 1985 before this arc, I would be absolutely lost here ... what a weird choice ...

When comics become self-aware ...

Hmmm don’t know that I’m sold on that ending ... and it’s a shame to lose Hitch with a single issue to go, but Immonen does a great job here of stepping in.

Next up in background reading ... and I can’t believe I’m actually diving into this, Fall of the Hulks. It’s kind of a mess, but I am a weird obsessive completist it seems ...

STill deep in background reading, and this is trash, but ... somehow ... I don’t know, I’ve bought worse comics ... did they really manage to sell this many Hulk books regularly!?!

Convoluted mess ... and I’m sure the only reason I was supposed to read this was to see how Doom ended up with his intelligence reduced ... ugh ... ok, well, ‘I’m for a penny’ ...

Well, that was certainly a choice for spending a Sunday. Look, it’s not terrible, but it says a lot that a repeated thought while reading it was that this is Hulk’s version of The Clone Saga ... next on the background reading list, War of Kings ... it can’t be worse ...

So, I’m ploughing through this, because my broken completist brain says I have to ... and I’m trying to consider what it is about the ‘cosmic’ stuff that so thoroughly fails to engage me ... and I’m drawing blanks. I mean, I like sci-fi generally, just not in comics it seems ...

I think this Guardians of the Galaxy issue might be the first time I’ve actually sat up and paid any real attention ... this story is dragging its ass big time ...

Yep, GotG continues to be the highlight here, but barely. Christopher Powell/ Darkhawk is an insanely dull character, matched only by the truly one-note disaster of a ‘big bad’ that is Vulcan. The Inhumans, and Adam Warlock are a little bit more interesting, but not a lot

Yeah, GotG is the only bit of this overlong story that is landing at all. I’d forgotten about the Nova sections, I can decide if that’s more or less dull than the Darkhawk bit ...

I don’t even know what I’m reading anymore ...

I need to learn a lesson from how little I enjoyed reading this ... but I bet I won’t ... anyway, done with background reading (for now), and finally onto the Hickman era proper!

And we’re off, with a Bendis/ Hickman co-written and Caselli illustrated prologue, setting our premise rather efficiently.

This is such a lovely first issue. Nick sneaking into the White House to warm the president is so much fun, and would have been my highlight had I not flicked to the back to be confronted with page after page of Hickman’s trademark charts! I’m in hogs heaven!

Issue 2 is all mood ... there’s a storm gathering, and along with Fury, Phobos is the only one that really sees it coming ...

I’m falling for these characters hard. Phobos just exudes pathos. Daisy is everything I want from a field commander, loyalty, duty, heart. Caselli makes me believe in them so much here. I might need to go back to there Mighty Avengers intros and give that a bit more time ...

Worth saying, the trade dress, coupled with Cheung and Ponsor’s beautiful artwork, really gives this book a sense of personality. It stands out as something fresh, and new on the shelf, that exists in something of its own secret world somehow.

So, I doubled back a bit to see where this all started. Might Avengers 12 reintroduces Nick after a period of absence, and in 13 he recruits Daisy, and she recruits the team. It’s lovely stuff. Everyone gets their own moment.

We see a spark of everyone’s personality start to emerge, and Maleev is a towering force of nature here ...

A few issues later, Mighty Avengers 18, Caselli gets his first run out, and we watch Fury train, torture, and test the team for the first time. Everyone’s powers get a moment, and they are dragged kicking and screaming into Secret Invasion.

Back to the book in question, we close the first arc out with a bang, the team come up against their first real threat and come out on top, and Fury reveals an ace up his sleeve. Right now this book has everything, it’s dynamic, intriguing, and unraveling at just the right pacez

All action for these issues, but good god, I love this scene where Alex hands Norman Osborne his ass ...

Oh, is this a Yoyo break out moment, because I’ve been waiting for that ...

Ummm, yeah it is!?! Holy forking shirt balls! She beats the heck out of Bullseye!

This is a great paradigm-shift issue! Also, Fury is nowhere near as funny as he thinks he is, but that is funny in itself

And I must have been good, because I get ... CHARTS!

This is a great issue, full of humanity (ironically), and pathos. Alessandro Vitti and Sunny Gho work wonders with the mood here, and really help lift this story into something epic.

Hickman’s pacing is exceptional. This is the first book of a new arc, and we get it all here, with Yo-yo returning home, a growing, looming threat in The Gorgon’s origin and maturation, and Daisy’s world (and that of the Secret Warriors as a force) gets bigger ... “hell’s comin’”

Pieces are moving, betrayals, intrigue, even some romance (I hate JT though), tensions rising and the pace is escalating. This is a good book, but it will absolutely need to stick that landing to be a great book.

Scenes like this are essential. There’s some underwritten (or at least under-utilised) characters in here. The ‘family’ moments are what makes this feel like a cohesive team. That make me invested in their story.

Yep, well played Hickman. This issue is brimming over with emotion. Daisy is the fulcrum here, but the broken lives of Viper, Valentina, and even Fury himself here get powerful, lingering moments that left me reeling.

Shocking. What a dick.

Great issue and another good launch to a new story arc.Using the UN hearing as a framing device to jump the story forward works beautifully, and damn, Hickman knows panels like this one of The Black Team, just leave me desperately wanting to know more about them all.

This is a powerful end to some pretty dramatic issues. I guess if you’re going to have a character cut to the heart of it all, Steve Rogers is pretty much the man for the job every time ...

We’re closing in on the end of Secret Warriors, and I’m struck again by these covers, and how much, everything about them feels in tune with the story, it’s pace, it’s mood, everything. Cheung, in many ways, is the visual equivalent of a general for the whole book.

Having said that, credit to Mark Colak (whom I’d never heard of before now), for an incredibly powerful debut in the first pages of this issue

*Mirko sorry. Well, this is a stunning issue, with that big moment Alex has been building up to since we introduced him. And it lands like a bomb going off ... which is incredibly well played given the way the same issue opens up ...

Holy *** now THAT is a heart-stopping moment!!!

Another wonderful issue. So much to pick over here. I have a momentary sense of how grateful I am to have a way to escape every day. And the efforts people put into creating that opportunity for me ... sorry, that’s random ...

This is rough ... I mean, I saw it coming, but that Sebastian’s whole arc basically comes down to ‘it’s bad to be fat’, kinda sucks.

Oh man ... I fell hook, line, and sinker for this shit ... spent an issue building a team, and making me excited to get to know these new characters, and then wipe the whole lot of them out before we even close out the issue. That’s a mean trick :-(

How are you not even going to let me get to know these guys ... you couldn’t at least have spares Sandra Murphy? Dick move ...

Ahh, here it is, the big one, the issue that pulls back the curtain, and wow, it’s a good one.

‘Wheels within wheels’, ok, yeah, I get it. #mindblown

Ah, annoying. I read this completely out of order. It’s good though ...

Some big beats here as we close in on the end ... so glad to hear Daisy say this ... I thought it was just me. For what it’s worth, I hugely miss Cheung’s covers ...

Essentially we get a two-issue epilogue here, but it is VERY lovingly crafted. And it ends well (ish). I liked this book, I loved bits of it, I feel like there were missed opportunities too, but it always punched above its weight. I’m going to miss it, that’s worth a lot.

The next step on the Hickman reading list is S.H.I.E.L.D. People have set my expectations pretty high for this one, and I feel like there have been bits of it woven into SW these last few issues. I have time for maybe one issue right now ... wish me luck.

Well, good god, that is amazing. That is a super dense comic, that immediately feels like it deserves a re-read. Dustin Weaver and Christina Strain work absolute miracles here, and I am spoilt by choices of images that knocked me socks off.

Just a really excellent introduction to something that seems like it is going to be utterly, utterly unique and new ... and soooo exciting! I’m really looking forward to this one.

Oh, and I must have been good because I get a CHART!!!

And issue two does not rest on its laurel. I’m finding a joy in reading each issue carefully, and then re-reading it straight after. It feels so dense it’s worth it. And Weaver is phenomenal here, but look at the moods Christina Strain is so deftly creating too. Amazing stuff.

Just a beautiful comic. Big ideas rendered big and bright (or softly lit when it’s more appropriate ;-). Just an excellent marriage of ideas, words, art and light.

You start to feel the threads Hickman is deftly weaving come together here, he’s just starting to pull on them and the sensation as a reader is visceral!

Another stunning issue. This sequence with the pregnant celestial, and then the birth, is just brilliant.

That we also get this immense scene with Nostradamus is just crazily generous for a comic. This is a far cry from the work Hickman was doing in Secret Warriors. This feels much more like a writer set free, and learning who they are as a storyteller.

Tremendous! It actually doesn’t massively bother me here, but to be balanced, Hickman does go to the well for cliffhangers of revealing characters to be famous historical figures A LOT in this series ... but I can’t deny gasping a little every time. I really do love this comic.

I love this sequence. The storytelling covering four years in four spreads, the lighting that takes us across a variety of scenes clearly identified as unique, the clever layouts ... it’s all a wonderful example of what comics can do that no other medium can.

Ok, to be fair, this final issue could be stronger ... but it’s clear it’s the first arc in truth, so I can forgive. And there’s more than enough to make me want to come back for volume II quickly.

Also, it’s only a little less great than the other issues, which as a whole I loved so much I read each issue twice. I don’t know that I’ve done that since Bone ...

S.H.I.E.L.D. Infinity is a fine interlude between volumes I and II. It fills in some back story, elaborates on motivations, and makes the world of the main series seen a little more complete. A job well done.

It also, rather neatly, links in to Secret Warriors 25 ...