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Secret Warriors Omnibus is basically a book of espionage featuring a diverse team of super-powered adolescents and young men/women lead by old war dog and super-spy Nick Fury, who sets out in a highly agressive mission to save the world from old threats of his past that go back to his World War II and Cold War years.
Jonathan Hickman does a magnicifent job at characterizing Nick Fury, breathing new life into him, showing him as an old, hard-as-nails, father of all bad-@sses, cynic man with his mind fully set in his "final mission", no matter what. If you love Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid saga, you will definitely love Fury. Hickman also does a commendable work with his troop of Caterpillars/"Secret Warriors" each of them with a very distinct personality.
Secret Warriors is a stand-alone series, so you can read this book on its own just fine. But at the same time it's rooted into the Marvel Universe continuity and some of its "events", so I'll give some background for readers who are not very familiarized with the current state of the Marvel Universe. In a sense, this Secret Warriors Omnibus is a sequel to the 2004/2005 "Secret War" 5-issues series that featured Nick Fury going underground after he caused a big mess with both the US government ad many Marvel heroes. You don't need to read Secret War in order to understand Secret Warriors, but it gives a nice background on the series and introduces Daisy Johnson, the field-leader of Fury's Caterpillars in Secret Warriors.
This Omnibus includes the following issues:
- Mighty Avengers #13 (Written by Brian Bendis, illustrated by Alex Maleev): this is a Secret Invasion stand-alone tie-in issue where we see Daisy Johnson recruiting Nick Fury's "Secret Warriors" team. Many major characters of the book are introduced in this issue for the first time.
- Mighty Avengers #18 (by Bendis & Stefano Caselli): another Secret Invasion stand-alone tie-in, where we see Fury training his new recruits.
***** NOTE: After this 2 comics comes Secret Invasion, an 8-issues limited series that involved the whole Marvel Universe. This series is NOT included in this Omnibus. But that's fine, you can read this book just fine without it, just know that the shape-shifting alien army of Skrulls targeted Earth for a full-scale invasion and Fury with his Warriors along the Avengers fight to stop them and finally repell the invasion. But not without consequences, as now the UN dissolves S.H.I.E.L.D. and assigns Norman Osborn with the creation and leadership of a new peace-keeping force: H.A.M.M.E.R., thus starting a "Dark Reign" in the Marvel Universe where Osborn and a Cabal of fellow villains secretly hold the reins of power. *****
- Dark Reign: New Nation (one-shot): this 8-pages story (by Jonathan Hickman, Bendis & Caselli) deals with the aftermath of the Secret Invasion and sets up the tone of the main series. Originally this one shot featured multiple short stories of different new series post Secret Invasion, only the Secret Warriors one is reprinted here.
- Secret Warriors #1 to 6 (by Hickman, Bendis & Caselli): the opening story arc entitled "Nick Fury: Agent Of Nothing" starts the personal war of Fury and his Caterpillars against Baron Von Strucker's HYDRA organization.
- Secret Warriors #7 to 10 (by Hickman & Alessandro Vitti) & Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors (one-shot by Hickman & Ed McGuinness): this second story arc focuses on Phobos, Nick Fury's youngest Caterpillar and the son of Ares, God of War, who is also a Dark Avenger for Norman Osborn. Then Dark Reign: The list one-shot introduces us "Leviathan", the other major faction involved in Fury's war.
- Secret Warriors #11 to 16 (by Hickman, Caselli & Gianluca Gugliotta): the third story arc, "Wake The Beast" digs deeper into the Fury/HYDRA/Leviathan war.
***** NOTE: After Wake The Beast takes place "Siege", another Marvel event (a 4-issues mini-series) that involves the main Marvel Universe. In Siege the Avengers, with Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors go to war against Norman Osborn. Siege is also NOT included in this Omnibus, but you can read this book just fine without it. *****
- Secret Warriors #17 to 19 (by Hickman & Vitti) & Siege: Secret Warriors (one shot, also by Hickman & Vitti): the fourth story arc is "The Last Ride Of The Howling Commandos", where we see Fury's war taking its toll.
- Secret Warriors #20 to 24 (by Hickman, Vitti, Mirko Colak & David Márquez): in this fifth story arc, "Night", it's all out war between Fury/HYDRA/Leviathan.
- Secret Warriors #25 to 28 (by Hickman & Vitti): the final story arc, "Wheels Within Wheels" is the conclusion to the series and Nick Fury's personal war.
Extras:
The book includes a cover gallery of all the main series issues, as well as the special one-shots and the main variant covers. The extras include the full script for issue #1 (29 pages long) as well as 5 pages of character designs by Stefano Caselli & Alessandro Vitti.
Negative aspects:
My only complaint is that Mighty Avengers #12 is not included in this Omnibus. This issue, written by Bendis and illustrated by Maleev, features Nick Fury just before the recruitment of his Caterpillars in Mighty Avengers #13 (which fortunately is included). While it doesn't hurt the understanding of the book, it's a great issue that righfully belonged to the Secret Warriors run, so it should have been reprinted here.
About the edition:
As usual with Marvel Omnibuses, it's excellent. You get your money's worth with a high quality hardcover sewn-binding, excellent paper stock and golden metal engravings printed on the front of the book and the spine that you can see when you remove the dust cover. The binding is really solid and allows to read the book confortably with no gutter loss at all. It's the kind of book that will last for a lifetime.
Conclusion:
This is just one of the best Marvel series you can pick up. It's amazing to see how Jonathan Hickman managed to write such a great series keeping at all times its focus and independence despite the Marvel "events" in between. My only (little) concern is that the conclusion can feel a bit rushed as the series was meant to be longer, but then again, Hickman manages to give Secret Warriors a great and proper ending. It's also very rewarding for Hickman's readers to see that some of the elements he introduced in his "S.H.I.E.L.D.: Architects Of Forever" mini-series are given light here in Secret Warriors, more specifically in the Wheels Within Wheels story-arc. Again, you don't need to read S.H.I.E.L.D. to understand this book, but I totally recommend it, as it's also an excellent book by the same author of this one.
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Top reviews from other countries
J. Miguel Carvalho
Brilliant spy epic!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2013
manuel1492
un des meilleurs marvel des annees 2000
Reviewed in France on July 15, 2013
The Lion's Share
This is a brilliant epic story of espionage
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2015