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

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.