Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Our story opens in New York in 1953 as Leonid is walking home from High School. 2 men meet him and tell him to get into their car. His father always told him to expect such a thing so he obeys. In the car they say they know what he is so he can stop hiding it, and we see a universe of stars and galaxies show in his face.
The men fly Leonid to Rome and take him to an old door with a symbol in the stone above (which to us Marvelites looks somewhat similar to the emblem of S.H.I.E.L.D.). They are greeted by a man in armour and a cloak with a strange helmet that leaves his face uncovered and curves back from his head. (It reminds me of the head of Alien on backwards or the Vorlon from Babylon 5 or the Ultimate Universe Reed Richards/Maker.) They descend a quarter of a mile in a lift to an underground city which their guide calls the Immortal City, home of the immortals of the High Council Of The Shield. And Leonid is brought before the Council, all attired like his guide.
We see a flash of a man speaking into a clunky apparatus which is typing his words on paper headed S.H.I.E.L.D. with the S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem. He says "Everything begins with an idea."
But the leader of the Council says instead "Everything begins with an image." He relates how the Shield began in Egypt in 2620 BC when Pharaoh Khasekhemwy (wearing a less dramatic version of the Council's helmets) saw a great light in the sky which landed nearby and disgorged what we recognise as Brood aliens who killed him and ended the 2nd Dynasty. (Apart from the Brood this is somewhat historically correct.) The Brood were opposed and killed by an army (including a young En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse and a Knight Of Khonshu) led by a hero named Imhotep (not so accurate) with his spear and shield and the inspirational cry "This is not how the world ends!". The shield and its design have been passed down through the millennia as the symbol of the Shield.
The Shield protect humanity from dire threats which would stop them achieving their destiny. The Council ask Leonid if he knows 'the final fate of Man', which our boy says no-one can know. The Council members reel off what seems like a mantra:- The greater science, the quiet math, the silent truth, the hidden arts, the secret alchemy. And they tell Leonid he must become 1 of those who stand in the gap.
We now see another piece of history, this time 114 AD in Han Dynasty China. Zhang Heng (again a historical character) bears the Spear of Imhotep. He reminds his companion that the Spear resides in the East while the Shield is in the West. And the Spear may only be wood and metal but it is the *idea* of the Spear which is powerful. Nonetheless he leaves the Spear with the other man, saying "This is not how the world ends", while he ascends a very tall pagoda to converse with a female Celestial.
The Council say they are also Engineers Of Change, which leads to another historical scene. In Florence in 1495 Leonardo da Vinci's telescope detects a dark shape within the Sun. As a member of the Shield it is up to him to investigate. It takes him until 1503 to build a winged spacesuit. Meanwhile the Sun has grown weaker, but he also produces a golden ball which he says will save them all. He too says "This is not how the world ends" before seemingly flying off to the Sun.
The Council claim to be a driving force behind progress, to ensure the evolution and survival of man. Cut to Rome 1582 and Galileo Galilei who has built a machine to stop Galactus (and an unknown Herald), saying of course "This is not how the world ends". When I 1st read this issue I thought the Council were saying that they will continue to put off the end of mankind until they fail, and *that* will be the final fate of Man. But later we learn that actually they believe Man has a destined fate on a certain date, and it is up them to make sure mankind doesn't end before then.
And again they ask Leonid to join them.
3 years later he's still with them. Leonid remembers how his father, the Night Machine, used to visit him at twilight, but not since he moved here to the Immortal City. But now he appears in his dark costume crackling with energy, accompanied by his white pigeon. The man claims to have died and come back and is surprised to find his son here. Now he's come to destroy the place.
An alarm sounds and Night Machine comments that they're getting quicker at detecting him. He hurriedly takes Leonid to what the boy knows as Iter (the way), the door that can't be opened. But NM produces the key and sends his son up the stairs behind the door to what his bird says is "a higher calling"
Night Machine shuts the door and turns to face approaching guards. He deals with them with blasts of electricity. They are followed by the 2 men we met at the beginning, who he refers to as Agent Richards and Agent Stark. It turns out *they* were the authors of his previous death, and he invites them to try again. The 2 men have guns which appear to hover as disconnected pieces and he has his electricity. Battle commences.
Leonid hears the sounds of battle as he reaches the top of the winding staircase and finds himself in a planetarium with constellations picked out. But the dome splits and opens to reveal the real stars in the sky. And then Leonardo da Vinci lands before him in his spacesuit. The golden globe in his hand is now glowing with energy. He announces himself and tells the boy to wake everyone because he has brought "hope and the rescue of all things".
There is an addendum describing the Human Machine with a diagram, similar to but simpler than the Sephiroth of the Jewish Kabbalah, overlayed on Leonardo's journal page containing the Vitruvian Man drawing. It lists the elements as:-
Section 1, containing 1 circle, The Anchor described as:- The sacrifice. The man left behind. The builder.
Section 2, containing 1 circle, The Engine described as:- The drive. Total illumination. The agent of destiny.
Section 3, containing 3 circles, The Navigator described as:- What is, what has come before, and what will be. The last Caliphate.
Section 4, containing 1 circle, The Source described as:- The water in the well. The generator. Hope.
Section 5, containing 1 circle, The Mechanism described as:- The short end of all possibility. Practical application. The work.
(5 and 6 are on the same level.)
Section 6, containing 1 circle, The Conduit described as:- The change medium. The measurement of progress.
Section 7, containing 1 circle, The Path described as:- The death of chaos. The single portion. Tomorrow.
And section 4 is highlighted which may be related to Leonardo bringing Hope but more directly next issue Leonardo will refer to Leonid as the Source of the Machine and the Eternal Dynamo (generator?).