It doesn't help that a lot of these characters are clearly DC Comics archetypes that Hickman wants to play with, which makes them single-trait Captain Ersaztes, not single-trait originals.

It's also worth noting that Hickman has a poor track record for paying off his elaborate setups. Michael at these boards has noted that the "War of the Four Cities" in his FF never really happened, for example, and Secret Warriors ended with a set of last-minute twist that negated most of the plot up to that point. And the SHIELD series is apparently on long-term hiatus at issue #4 of the second mini, which was supposed to wrap everything up.

That said, I stand by my note that New Avenegrs was good; Secret Warriors got some great character stuff in as well, even after Bendis formally left the title. But yeah, other than those instances, both of which are otherwise swamped by the intricate yet hollow plotting, the majority of Hickman's Marvel work has been remarkably flat.