Everything You Need To Know About Hickman and Weaver's S.H.I.E.L.D. Part 2

This contains spoilers for S.H.I.E.L.D. volume 1 #1-6 and S.H.I.E.L.D. vol 2 #1-4. Story and all dialogue by Jonathan Hickman, lettered by Todd Keith, and all line art by Dustin Weaver, with colors by Christina Strain, Justin Ponsor, Sonia Oback, and Rachelle Rosenberg, (unless otherwise noted).

Click here for Part 1

Nikola Tesla, the Night Machine, helped raise Newton’s son, Leonid, along with Mina, though when or how this worked is unclear. However, what is clear is that the Night Machine clashed with Brotherhood, attracting the attention of two of Newton’s agents, Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards.

Stark and Richards, in 1953, found Leonid and brought him to the Immortal City and his biological father. Leonid lived there for many years, studying with the Brotherhood.

During this time, Stark and Richards catch up to the Night Machine and engage him in combat, killing him. However, while their backs are momentarily turned, the body is taken by Michelangelo, who fuses Tesla with his own technology, keeping him alive. He then sends Tesla to the Zagros Mountains to find the Last Caliphate, three men who are remnants of the Umayyad Caliphate. He returns to the Sinkhole and tells Mina, who says that, based on what Michelangelo told her, she was to give him the Key to the Iter.

The Night Machine then visits Leonid in the Immortal City, guiding him to the Iter and unlocking it with the Key. He then sends Leonid up the stairs to what Michelangelo called the “Seeing Place.” On that platform, Leonid is stunned by the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci, who has time traveled there.

At the same time, the Night Machine engages with the Brotherhood, eventually clashing with Richards and Stark. Stark’s weapon damages the Night Machine’s core, which begins building to critical mass. Richards attempts to move the core through time, but the interaction with Tesla’s technology causes an unintended reaction that echoes across the Multiverse, and Stark, Richards, Mina and the Night Machine are sent forward in time.

Newton is with Nostradamus, attempting to get a new prophecy from him. Nostradamus delivers, but his message unsettles the Master of the Shield. He goes to his council, only to find that da Vinci and Leonid have arrived there as well.

Newton is skeptical that da Vinci is who he claims, since, as far as Newton knows, da Vinci died centuries earlier. Da Vinci is unbothered by Newton’s doubt, and presents the Human Machine to the Brotherhood. Newton clears the room, including Leonid, and grills da Vinci, only to find out that he’s the genuine article. Newton fears the challenge to his power da Vinci represents and tries to get information from da Vinci about his intent, but da Vinci provides little to alleviate his fears, and leaves Newton. He returns to the Seeing Place at the top of the Iter, and advises Leonid to keep his guard up around Newton. He then instructs Leonid to find a door with an eye on it. Then he uses his flying machine to head off to become the first man in space.

Leonid follows da Vinci’s instructions and finds the door, finding a shackled Nostradamus behind it. Nostradamus reveals that Leonid’s arrival was foretold to him (by Michelangelo).

Da Vinci travels to the Sun and extracts the Celestial baby, the Star Child, who speaks in math. They return to the Immortal City, and, over the next four years, both Leonid and Star Child learn while da Vinci’s influence over the Brotherhood increases.

At the end of time, Stark awakens alone under a shattered moon. He is able to reach Richards, and both find some structures, including a Sphinx with the head of Immortus, the final form of Kang the Conqueror. They spot Mina near one of the structures, who flees when she sees them. They give chase, and she leads them back to the Night Machine, who is dying from the wounds they inflicted.

She begs for their help, and they give it, stabilizing him and bringing him back to consciousness. Of course, he’s hardly happy to see his mortal enemies, but Mina is able to cool him off and convince him that they need Stark and Richards to get back home. Determining that it was Richards’ powers that sent them to the future, they power him up with the Night Machine’s energy and head for the past.

The tensions between Newton and da Vinci come to a head in 1960, sparking a war in the Immortal City for control of the Brotherhood of the Shield, with one side representing fate and the other representing free will. Leonid feels caught in the middle, just wanting to stop the bloodshed. Michelangelo comes to him and offers him a third choice, wrapped in an understanding that both sides are failing to understand that they are both right and wrong.

Michelangelo points out to the battlefield--just as Richards, Stark, the Night Machine, and Mina return to the “present.” Their arrival stops the battle, but Newton uses the lull to attack da Vinci directly. His attack is thwarted by Stark, who, having been far past Newton’s predicted end of the world in 2060, no longer believes in his vision for the Brotherhood. When Newton decries his betrayal, Michelangelo names him the true betrayer, revealing that Newton has not only been manipulating the Brotherhood with the Infinity Formula, but also that the formula is almost gone. Support for Newton wavers and his loyalists call a council. Da Vinci nominates Leonid to judge.

Once the council has formed, the Night Machine and Stark work together to extract the truth from da Vinci and Newton. While da Vinci expresses reasonable doubt of the choices he’s made, Newton reveals his murderous past and his intention to murder anyone else who stops him from his goal, to “race god to end man.” Leonid, horrified by his father, sides with da Vinci. Newton, however, was prepared to lose; one of his remaining loyalists has procured da Vinci’s flying time machine, and he throws it to Newton, who uses it to disappear into the future. While the rest of the Brotherhood is stunned by this turn of events, Michelangelo says that this was always going to happen, and that they know where he’s gone.

The Brotherhood tries to determine their next course of action, as Stark builds a device to make a record of everything that has led to the war within Shield.

In Newton’s office, Nostradamus searches for some hidden stash of the Infinity Formula, while the Star Child, now grown to man-size and doing much more advanced math, rifles through Newton’s notes. There he finds the equation for the Quiet Math, which drives him insane. He grows to full size in an instant, and begins destroying the Immortal City. The Brotherhood attempts to hold him at bay, but he’s too powerful for them. Michelangelo engages him with equations, and drives home Newton’s “Silent Truth,” sending the Star Child to the future as well.

The Brotherhood prepares to follow Newton and the Star Child to the future. To that end, the Night Machine takes Stark and Richards to the Zagros Mountains to release the Last Caliphate. Joining them as part of the Human Machine, the Brotherhood travels to the future, leaving da Vinci behind, “the Anchor” called to create the next incarnation of the Shield.

The Human Machine travels past the Marvel age and many familiar Marvel futures, arriving in 2060, or, more accurately, three different alternate 2060s:

“The Rebirth of Man,”

“The Height of Modernity,”

“The End of the World.”

Each plays out identically to each other, with the Brotherhood zeroing in on Newton’s location and engaging him in battle.

However, across all three timelines, Michelangelo works together with his alternate selves to prepare the Human Machine for its true purpose.

What might come next:

Ultimates (2013) #5, written by Al Ewing,  art by Kenneth Rocafort and Dan Brown, lettering by VC's Joe Sabino

• Ties to Hickman’s other work: If there is one thing, other than intricate stories, that Jonathan Hickman has become known for in his Marvel work, it’s the connections between his stories with the publisher. And with a number of mysteries still surrounding his run on Fantastic Four and his event, Secret Wars, it would hardly be a shock if there aren’t some connections to those stories in the conclusion for S.H.I.E.L.D. Will Hickman finally reveal the origin of the Mad Celestials from his Fantastic Four stories? Will there be a tie to the fate of Nathaniel Richards in Fantastic Four, within the ruins of the Council of Reeds with the future Valeria? Or will some element of the conclusion cast the conclusion of Secret Wars in a whole new light, adding more of an understanding of Marvel metaphysics and how Hickman sees them that alters the takeaway of the Prime Earth’s formation? Any of these are possible, though it wouldn’t be surprising if none of these questions are answered.

• A retcon to the start of the Marvel Age: Much as Original Sin vastly recontextualized the history of Nick Fury, the conclusion of S.H.I.E.L.D. could fundamentally alter the currently-understood events of the genesis of the foundational tales of the Marvel universe. Could the events surrounding the formation of the Fantastic Four have been affected by something tied to S.H.I.E.L.D’s conclusion? Or the origin of Iron Man? Or could it be something even more grandiose, something that sheds light on elements at the core of the universe and its stories? To that end...

• A new explanation for the Sliding Timescale: The 1950s are a unique period in the Marvel universe’s history. These years are the last ones not affected by Marvel’s “sliding timescale.” For those unfamiliar with the concept, the sliding timescale is the way that major characters in the Marvel universe have become removed from the time period their stories were published in. Events from the early 60s in Marvel comics slide forward in time, so that characters age’s are tied the present instead of the past. This is how Peter Parker is still in his late 20s, active for just shy of 15 years, despite the fact that his initial stories were published nearly 60 years ago and took place in the present at that time. This effect has been directly articulated in the comics, visually represented in a scene from Ultimates #5 in 2016. The extraordinary characters of the Marvel Universe are pulled forward in time by some unknown force, altering the topical references of the stories, like the fashion, slang, or even the named date, while retaining the fundamental elements of the stories. Could S.H.I.E.L.D. provide an actual explanation for this effect? Could the Human Machine cause some kind of break in the metaphysics of the Marvel Universe back in 1960? Hickman has chosen to butt this story right up against the line where this effect is seen. How likely is it that this is a coincidence?

Only the final issues can answer these questions.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 is in stores May 23. #6 is in stores May 30.