For 16 years, the SHIELD organization in Marvel Comics has been drastically different from what many fans remember, leading to storylines the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t explored. Traditionally, both in the comics and the MCU, SHIELD was a United Nations-backed peacekeeping and counter-terrorism agency dedicated to global protection. Led by Nick Fury since its inception, SHIELD operated as a spy network and provided support to military forces fighting threats like Hydra and AIM. But everything changed for the organization sixteen years ago in the comics.
In April 2010, Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver revamped the origins of SHIELD in the first issue of the SHIELD (Vol. 1) series. They revealed a surprisingly extensive history, showing that figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei had been members all along.
SHIELD Changed Completely Under Jonathan Hickman
Jonathan Hickman started a story about the history of SHIELD on April 7, 2010, and it took him eight years to complete. The story was initially very complex, and he introduced the Brotherhood of the Shield, revealing that SHIELD’s roots went back centuries to a secret society formed to protect Earth for over a thousand years.
The group’s initial saying was, “This is not how the world ends.” What set them apart was the incredible talent they brought together – some of history’s greatest thinkers – all working in a place called Immortal City to fiercely protect the Earth. This made them function more like the Illuminati from Marvel comics than today’s SHIELD organization.
This group’s members were incredibly powerful. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, could travel through time and space – he even rescued a Celestial being from the sun. Before Leonardo, Galileo Galilei led the Brotherhood of the Shield and famously fought off Galactus long before the Fantastic Four did. After killing Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton took charge, but his leadership led the Brotherhood down a dangerous path as he obsessively prepared for what he believed was humanity’s inevitable doom.
The story took a turn when Newton bribed all the members of the Brotherhood of the Shield with the Elixir of Life, promising them immortality. However, things shifted when Leonard di Vinci traveled through time and started drawing their allegiance to his side. Ultimately, Newton was banished to a desolate world where Earth had perished – a fate meant to both satisfy his relentless curiosity and eliminate the danger he posed. This conflict drew in a diverse group of historical figures, including Nostradamus, Nikola Tesla, Michelangelo, and many others.
Jonathan Hickman’s Brotherhood of the Shield took a very long time to complete. The first series, SHIELD, only lasted six issues, and it took ten months for those issues to be published. During this time, the rivalry between Newton and da Vinci began, with Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards caught in the middle. Hickman later returned to SHIELD for a second series of four issues, but publication was paused until 2018, when he finished the story with two final issues. The delays were largely due to Hickman’s work on Secret Wars and subsequent projects, ultimately taking seven years to conclude the entire narrative.
The MCU Never Could Have Told This SHIELD Story
The Marvel Cinematic Universe likely couldn’t pull off a story like “Brotherhood of the Shield.” While films like Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” successfully incorporate historical figures into new narratives, the sheer number of well-known figures involved in “Brotherhood”—and trying to fit them into the MCU—would be too ambitious for a movie.
The only characters most MCU fans would recognize are Howard Stark, portrayed by Dominic Cooper and John Slattery, and Nathaniel Richards, who is connected to Reed Richards but hasn’t appeared in the MCU yet. The story would largely focus on historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Nostradamus, Michelangelo, and Nikola Tesla. While it would have been interesting to see how SHIELD originated, it’s too late for that story now. SHIELD isn’t a significant part of the MCU anymore, and adapting this particular storyline from Jonathan Hickman would have been difficult to make popular with audiences anyway.
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2026-04-08 01:12