Jonathan Hickman is a writer with a few recurring themes, quirks and plot structures. That's fine, every writer has them: Chris Claremont introduces plot elements months before using them, Brian Michael Bendis likes to make everybody Jewish, and Frank Miller produces hate-filled garbage about how great fascism is. In Hickman's case, almost everything he's ever written involves a bunch of smart people making a big plan, and then the plan going wrong. At which case they execute a series of sub-plans, because they had planned for failure, and then it's just plans and failures all the way down to the very bottom. That's the case with his creator-owned projects like Manhattan Projects and East Of West, it was the case with Fantastic Four, New Avengers and Avengers, and it's totally what's happening in Secret Wars right now. It's something he does well, especially with all his deference to game theory, military strategy, following your head not your heart and the like. It's just that, when Secret Wars is such a huge thing and so much bigger than anything he's ever done, it might be nice if he took the chance to do something new. Maybe it's too big a risk. Maybe that's the whole problem.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
