Leonardo da Vinci. Galileo Galilei. Sir Isaac Newton. The titans of history, they discovered the truth of reality in mathematics and the limits of possibility in science - and pushed past those limits with their boundless imaginations. And each has weighed the same question: What is man's destiny? For these men were also all members of the Brotherhood of the Shield, a secret organization that has been safeguarding humanity and shepherding the future for almost 5,000 years. They turned back the Brood in ancient Egypt . They kept a Celestial from destroying Earth in first-century China . They stopped Galactus the first time he visited our planet during the 16th century. And still they watch over us all. But during the late 1950s, the Brotherhood faced a test like none other: the Night Machine, a super-powered being driven to bring about the organization's utter destruction. His vicious attack on the High Council's Rome headquarters causes a line to be drawn between the members of the Shield, and the questions about man's destiny will be resolved once and for all! Collecting S.H.I.E.L.D. (2010) #1-6 and material from S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 DIRECTOR'S CUT.