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S.H.I.E.L.D. #3: Review

Aug 2010
Jonathan Hickman, Dustin Weaver

Story Name:

The theory of eternal life

Review & Comments

Rating:
4.5 stars

S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 Review by (February 19, 2019)
Gerald Parel paints the cover again. And Justin Ponsor joins Christina Strain on the colours.

Last issue's title was "Newton's theory of eternal life" and this issue is just "The theory of eternal life". I can't help feeling there's a mistake somewhere, and last issue's title really belongs on this 1.

At last the Shield organisation is called a Brotherhood. Repeatedly. Just as we discover it no longer really is 1.

Newton's 1956 actions in this issue run in parallel to the mostly non-Newton 1956 events in #1-2.

Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan Al Azdi (~721-~815) is another real polymath known in the West as Geber. His death date suggests he himself didn't die here in 750 along with the other 1,000 of the Brotherhood, and in this issue he is depicted as a man in his prime.
However 750 *is* the date of the end of the Ummayad Caliphate to be replaced by the Abbasid Caliphate. Jabir's father Hayyan was a supporter of the Abbasid revolution and Jabir's career flourished under the Abbasids. Also a little problem is that the site of the action here, Baghdad, wasn't built until 762 by the Abbasids.

Newton refers to the 750 event ushering in the "darkest of ages" until the 1582 event began the Renaissance. The term Dark Ages has been applied to the period in the West between the decline of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. But learning continued to flourish in the Islamic world for the early part of this period. And while the Caliphate expanded all the way into Spain up to and including the Ummayads, it shrank down to just Iraq under the Abbasids. Learning continued in the Islamic Golden Age almost to the time of the Renaissance. But the limited area would I suppose make the rest of the West darker overall.

So we know why Hickman chose 1582 for the Galactus event, so that it could be hidden by the changeover to the Gregorian Calendar. 4th Oct 1582 on the old Julian Calendar was immediately followed by the Gregorian 15th Oct 1582. Many people complained that their lives had been shortened by 10 days and demanded the days back.
Hickman goes the other way and says the 10 days actually existed but they've been expunged from the records. This of course would mean that the Gregorian Calendar reform never achieved its other objective of bringing the Calendar year back into line with the seasons. The 10 day discrepancy would still exist, the introduction of leap years would only stop it getting worse.

Newton says that the surviving Brotherhood after 1582 began a true renaissance, the Age Of Reason. He shouldn't be referring to the Renaissance which had been going for a couple of centuries. Or to the Enlightenment which is 2 centuries later and is what is normally called the Age Of Reason. A better clue is the Greater Science, ie the rise of empirical mathematical science pioneered by the likes of Galileo and Francis Bacon which could be said to start about this time.

The Marvel apps of Galileo are all in this title. The dates quoted range from 1582 (the Galactus incident) to 1642 when Newton kills him. His historical lifetime is 1564-1642 so we're OK.
It's interesting that this issue has the Pope knowing about the Brotherhood and the mysteries they have knowledge of, and conniving with them to keep the masses ignorant. Historically Pope Gregory used Copernicus' heliocentric theory in the creation of his Calendar. When Galileo later clashed with the Church over the heliocentric theory it was probably more to do with the fact that he was more openly discussing it, plus some Vatican politics.

The Marvel apps of Nostradamus are also only in this title so there can't be any contradictory claims. But the dates used here do clash with accepted history where he lived 1503-1566. Dates used in this series are 1645 and 1652 (when Newton takes him away and keeps him alive for centuries).
Hickman needs Nostradamus around from 1652 onwards to interact with Newton. It has to be after the events of 1642 so Nostradamus has to be alive long after his historical death date (even to overlap with Hickman's earlier life for Newton). Nothing is ever said about when Nostradamus was born, but he didn't have a life-prolonging potion so it is unlikely that he faked his death in 1566 and lasted so much longer.
There is a strange statement in this issue where Newton says he's had him captive for nearly 500 years. I amended it in my synopsis to "over 300 years" which corresponds to 1652-1956. Nearly 500 years would mean he's been imprisoned since about 1460, before he was historically born. Coincidentally(?) adding nearly 500 years to his historical death date 1566 could get us to 2060 when Newton believes the world will end. Maybe Hickman's messing with us?

Isaac Newton's dates are also wrong but I think there may be a bigger game here. History says he was born 1642 (in December, but coincidentally the same year as Galileo's death in January) but this issue has him inducted into the Brotherhood some time before he goes to Ashomia in 1625. In 1642 he discovers the Quiet Math and the Silent Truth and kills Galileo to take over the Brotherhood. I'm suggesting that he considers this the year of his true 'birth'. In 1652 he became agelessly immortal, and he could later have used the power of his position to alter records to make his life seem to have begun in 1642 (and chose Christmas Day for symbolic reasons to feed his ego?) so that he could continue to appear in public as Newton for some decades more.

The events after 1625 in Ashomia suggest that the Deviant woman Morda with whom Newton breeds is the 'monster' woman who gave a baby to the Forever Man in #2. Vol 2 #1 will confirm this and that Newton is Leonid's birth father.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
This issue tells the Marvel life story of Isaac Newton.

His journal (translated by the magic of comics into pictures) begins with him as a youngish adult working on something mathematical when someone calls on him to take him away in a carriage. (But this 1st section is interrupted by another panel of Howard Stark's 1960 'typewriter' continuing his ongoing document with "This is a record of consequences".) Newton is transported by ship to Rome where he is taken to the Immortal City being built below Rome to be inducted into the Brotherhood Of The Shield by an aged Galileo Galilei who says "Some men call me Master, you will call me Brother". (This is presumably a few years before his next episode in 1625).

But now we switch to much older Newton doing some chemistry and talking to someone. We will learn later in the issue that it is 1956 and he's talking to Nostradamus. In this bit he mentions how Galileo knew the price that had to be paid to advance the world. And he offers to explain the secrets of the organisation - the 5-fold understanding. 1st is the Greater Science. (Remember the Council's mantra in #1:- The greater science, the quiet math, the silent truth, the hidden arts, the secret alchemy.)

But we cut to Rome in 1582 where in #1 we saw young Galileo building a machine to defeat Galactus. Now we learn that the glowing Forever Man helped in the design. Galileo remarks that FM refuses to join the Brotherhood but still keeps interfering in its business. And Galileo is worried because the Brotherhood tried something similar before and it failed disastrously ...

... and we skip back to Baghdad in 750 where young Newton's journal tells us of Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan Al Azdi, the latest heir of Imhotep and Brother of the Shield, who had a dream. After the fall of the Ummayad Caliphate he linked the minds of 1,000 of the Brotherhood to his, intending to become the Second Man. With such power he could create a new Earth if ever the original was destroyed. But all the 1,000 died. And a panel has 1956 Newton saying that without Shield to watch over them humanity sank into a Dark Age.

But Galileo and the Forever Man are trying again with much improved machinery. FM says "That's the necessity of the Engine. There must be a Mechanism to align soul, mind and body. A Machine to focus man." (And the capitalised words take us back to the cryptic description of the Human Machine in #1.) But he adds that there will still be a price.

Young Newton's journal tells us that Galactus was driven off (by creating a 2nd world for him to consume), but 2/3 of the Brotherhood Of The Shield were lost. However the remaining 1/3 were enough to usher in the Age Of Reason and the Greater Science. And it was after this that he himself was recruited to bring a fresh new way of thinking.

The journal continues by describing how in 1625 Galileo sends Newton to Ashomia, city of the Deviants, in the mountains of Japan to seek new knowledge. He is captured and brought before their leader and asks to be allowed to learn from them. The leader somehow detects an interesting uniqueness in Newton's DNA and breeds him with the Deviant Morda, after which he is allowed to study their lore, especially a certain holy book (which in a 1965 panel Isaac says contained the Hidden Arts). This book was unique because it was forbidden to copy it. It contained something other than science, "something sideways, something bent, refracted, something alien and devout". And somehow he transferred the words from that book onto his own skin. And fled the city leaving it in flames behind him.

And in 1956 Newton tells his companion that the Hidden Arts were the 2nd of the 5-Fold Understanding (#4 of the mantra). And the 3rd part that companion himself knows well ...

... It's France in 1652 and Nostradamus is enjoying many pleasures in his home. But when Newton arrives he sends his women away and takes a last draw on his hookah. Isaac tells him he has found what he sought and now they will have all of time to discuss his prophecies. Nostradamus claims he is *not* a prophet. He *knows* the future and so is cursed to know what will happen to him next. Newton tells his men to chain him ...

... and now at last in 1956 we see that it is Nostradamus, chained to a wall, who Newton has been talking to. The 3rd Understanding was the Secret Alchemy (#5 of the mantra) which he found here in the Well Of The World (in the Immortal City below Rome) where the Elixir Of Life flows.

Back to young Newton's journal. He says that with immortality came the clarity of thought to discover the Quiet Math (#2 of the mantra). We see a page of strange equations with 2060 as the answer (not 42, then). And the journal says it led to the 5th Understanding ...

... which 1956 Newton names the Silent Truth (#3 of the mantra). This changed the very purpose of the Brotherhood. It justified everything that he did. And the old had to make way for the new ...

... and young Newton's journal shows us Isaac killing Galileo - the price that must be paid.

And we return for the last time to the current Isaac Newton with Nostradamus who's been chained to the wall for over 300 years. Nostradamus promises to finally give Isaac what he needs. Newton puts on his High Council helmet and we now discover their conversation is taking place in 1956 as we get a word-for-word replay of their opening scene in #2. Newton allows his prisoner to drink the water of eternal life. And Nostradamus utters a cryptic prophecy as they hear the explosion that ended the Night Machine/Richards/Stark battle. (Next issue we will learn that Newton originally gave Nostradamus a weaker version of the Elixir Of Life which keeps him alive but not without his body and mind getting weaker. Now Nostradamus' promise gets him a drink of the real thing.)

(It is strictly speaking only at this point that we are shown that Newton is a member of the Council and that the Well Of The World is below the Immortal City.)

Now the scene continues as Newton races up from the dungeon to the Council Chamber. This is overlaid by words from younger Newton's journal:- He describes the Brotherhood's old rallying cry "This is not how the world ends" as a thing of defiance and hope. They would not *let* it end like that, they would save it so man could live to reach his infinite potential. But now the Quiet Math has revealed to him the Silent Truth. He now knows *when* the world will end (2060). And the rallying cry now means it doesn't end yet.

He reaches the Council Chamber in time for the final scene of #2 as Leonardo da Vinci and Leonid rise up through the floor. And the journal words "Some men call me Brother, you will call me Master" suggest that the Brotherhood has been changed to a dictatorship and Newton is the top dog.


This issue ends with an appendix from the secret Vatican archives. It is correspondence between Galileo and Pope Gregory XIII after the attack by Galactus in 1582. (But all mentions of the word Galactus have been redacted.)

Galileo explains that the Brotherhood saved Earth from Galactus by creating a 2nd Earth (remember Abu Musa's plan) which Galactus ate instead. The Pope is grateful but can't allow the general populace to have the ideas of godlike beings from space, and man having the ability to create worlds. Galileo reminds him of the well-known problem of the Julian Calendar being out of step with the seasons (due to not allowing for leap years). He proposes changing to a new Gregorian Calendar which will require an initial skipping of 10 days. And they agree to place those 10 days around the invasion of Galactus so that officially it never happened.



Dustin Weaver
Dustin Weaver
Christina Strain
Gerald Parel (Cover Penciler)
Gerald Parel (Cover Inker)
Gerald Parel (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Todd Klein.
Editor: Nick Filardi. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.


Brotherhood Of The Shield, Howard Stark, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Leonid, Nostradamus.

> S.H.I.E.L.D.: Book info and issue index

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