New Shield comic

Sounds interesting, but I will be very surprised if it lasts more than 12 issues. [Link]

"But you'll notice, though, that the title of this new series, "Shield," is not an acronym. In this new series, there will be a single plot line that does deal directly with the history of the organization, S.H.I.E.L.D., but this book is about so much more than that. It's more fantastic; there's a larger scope. in many ways, it's more ambitious."

The story of "Shield" begins in what would be the '50s and '60s of the Marvel Universe. "This is, of course, relative to Marvel's sliding scale time line. When doing something like this, we have to wink at some of the previous stories from that time period, and sometimes we have to massage some of the others and try to make it all work (the perfect example of this being Sharon Carter from "Captain America," who started out as the little sister of Steve Roger's WWII girlfriend and later had to be changed to her niece - the story just doesn't work anymore if you don't fudge it)," Hickman explained. "Anyway, we start with a normal guy, just like you and me, who's snatched out of his daily life and swept up into something bizarre and wonderful, what is essentially a whole new reality. We'll then, of course, find out that he's much more than a simple boy. Blah, blah, blah... Joseph Campbell mixed with my own special blend of dysfunctional weirdness, and we're off."

The Golden Age of the Marvel Universe is just where the story of "Shield" starts. Early on in the book, the action will flash back to ancient times. "We jump back through time and see the first alien invasion that happens on the planet. I'm not talking about the Celestials or any of that stuff. This is more along the lines of a straight up, 'humans repel alien invaders' event that happens. We see what gets born out of that, how it transforms society, and how that evolves through the history of man," Hickman revealed. "We start our flashbacks in the third dynasty of ancient Egypt with a man called Imhotep. He's considered the world's first polymath, which is another word for what's commonly referred to as a 'Renaissance man'. We never state this in 'Shield,' but that kind of becomes the requirement for somebody to be part of the organization. That's the type of men and women that the Shield is looking for. It's only natural that Renaissance men big guns, like da Vinci and Galileo, feature and feature prominently"