All gripes about pacing aside, Secret Warriors remains an excellent young series with one of the most exciting creative teams to come along in quite some time. I adore Stefano Caselli's art, and Hickman's dialogue continues to impress. Together, they're crafting one hell of a debut story arc. Now if we could just get the plot moving a little faster… Read Full Review

While a little bit slow, Secret Warriors #4 lights the fuse that promises to give the series an explosive future. Read Full Review

There's a lot more to enjoy in this title as well. I like that there's a growing gap between Fury and the young superhumans he's recruited. There's also a clear, long-term plan at play that's in keeping with everything Bendis has done with Fury in the past few years. Caselli's artwork is another strength. His thoroughly expressive characters drive home the drama or the goofiness of the various moments in the story incredibly well. He also reinforces the chasm between Fury and his young soldiers by convincingly capturing the disparate ages of those characters. His designs for the various Hydra villains are deliciously detailed and unsettlingly organic. Read Full Review

The good news is, all hell is about to break loose. The bad news is, this issue is more of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering, so there's no real action on display. But be patient, readers - next issue is the payoff, and should tell the tale about this series - whether or not it lives up to the build-up. Read Full Review

Hickman's doing a lot of nice things on this series, and it's an excellent look at the secret side of the Marvel Universe. The look of the comic will just take some getting used to. Read Full Review

Regardless of whether or not all that comes into play beyond the merely symbolic, the level of detail and textured scripting that Hickman is bringing to this comic is impressive. When combined with Caselli's distinctively meaty and expressive figure-work and innovative character/set designs, Secret Warriors becomes one of Marvel's most promising new titles. It, like Remender and Opena's work on the relaunched Punisher or Parker's new Agents of Atlas, is spearheading a new front of "Dark Reign" inspired comics that are walking the artistic walk and talking the storytelling talk. Read Full Review

That sequence bothered me greatly, actually, in that Nick Fury (while always a soldier) seemed to be a soldier with a conscience, the kind of man who wouldn't kill agents of SHIELD just because they made a bad work decision, but this is the new tougher-than-a-two-dollar-steak Nick for the brave new Dark Reign world. This book is really difficult for me to like, simply because of the greytones of the morality involved. I do tend to like the big heroic icon guys with the clear-cut sense of right and wrong, but this isn't the book for that. Still and all, it's an intriguing premise, well executed with terribly effective art from Caselli, and some nice touches by Bendis, only undermined by what feels like a lack of depth in Nick's tough-guy facade. Secret Warriors #4 earns a more-good-than-bad 2 out of 5 stars, and has at least made itself welcome on my pull list for more than the requisite 6 issue tryout stint. Depending on where it goes, this could become the flagship title of Read Full Review