Marvel Comics recently posted a sketchbook of designs and commentary for Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver's upcoming ongoing "S.H.I.E.L.D.", and short of Bruce Wayne clubbing neanderthals in the head with a stoneaxe I'm looking forward to this quirky-looking, imaginative title more than anything else in 2010.

Hickman, who's been gaining a lot of critical cachet for his Marvel work on titles like "Fantastic Four" and "Secret Warriors" and indie work like "Nightly News" and "Pax Romana", is going to recontextualize world history within the Marvel Universe, featuring numerous historical figures in... trippier forms.

So if you haven't checked out the sketchbook, I highly recommend it -- the ideas and designs contained within are more imaginative and carefully thought out than most actual comics. It's my fervent prayer this title doesn't get thrown on the funeral pyre with "S.W.O.R.D.," "Captain Britain" and "The Order," so give both the sketchbook and the first issue (available in both color and black & white variants on April 7) a look. Marvel has a whole truckload of exciting-looking product hitting as part of the Heroic Age, but this is the winner for me.

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