After 9 issues of Secret Warriors, I was thinking about giving up on this series. Hickman and young gun artist Stefan Casselli did a good job on the first arc, but with the second arc God of War, God of Fear came a new, less impactful artist and storyline. The story just plodded along for me and with my pull list seemingly getting bigger each week I felt now was the time to cut this book, but then I saw the preview for issue 10.
This issue was a completely stand alone issue in the middle of the arc focusing on the God of War; Ares and his son the God of Fear; Phobos. Where Secret Warriors has failed in the past for me is the cast of Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors team. After 9 issues I would struggle to name any of them, the characteristics and personalities are very forgettable, all except for Phobos, the God of Fear stuck in the body of a 10 year old, and Hickman does wisely focusing on the boy in this issue. The story narrates Phobos’s troubled history with his father and his meeting with the elder Gods to decide, as he was born of a mortal woman, whether or not he is worthy the title of God of Fear.
Secret Warriors #10 is for fans of old mythology stories like those found in Incredible Hercules or the stand alone mythological tales of the recent Immortal Weapons mini series. There are some beautifully drawn fight sequences between the gods with a really fantastic pale colour palate to give it that ‘tale of old’ style. For me the writer and art team have done their job very well and left the story with a nice cliff hanger ending to keep Secret Warriors on my pull list, for the next issue at least.
4 out of 5
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