NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD 12
cover by BARRY SMITH
Synopsis:
Alone, Fury is pursued by armored men with stun blasters; he uses a gun that fires Tony Stark's "repulsor ray" to knock them out. We then discover it's SHIELD agents who are after him... In flashback, Fury is angered by "Intelligence" man Rickard, who feels Fury is too old for his job. Fury & Val grab some private time, but 2 days later when they return, both are taken into custody. Rickard now had "evidence", photos showing Fury associating with enemy agents, and he claims Val does not support Fury's story! Back in the "present", we find Rickard is really an agent of HYDRA out to discredit Fury and destroy SHIELD. 2 HYDRA goons in a stolen SHIELD aircraft try to take Fury out, but only succeed in getting themselves blown to atoms. "No SHIELD agent would pull a crazy stunt like that!", says Fury. Fury sneaks into Val's apartment, only to be cornered by Rickard. Fury clobbers him and escapes, but Val mysteriously doesn't explain her actions. On a rooftop, Fury's cornered by Gabe, who philosophically asks, "Whatever happned to that loveable sergeant I knew of old? Why did you throw down your pet howitzer and take up the wicked ways of espionage?" Fury replies, "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time..." Fury clobbers his old friend, changes outfits with him, tricks Jimmy and steals his helicopter. He tracks down Rickard, confronts him, gets into a fight-- and winds up killing him in self-defense! At which point, Dugan finally shows up, arresting him for Rickard's murder!!
Indexer notes:
Part 1 of 3. 1st new appearance of HYDRA in a SHIELD story since the death of Baron Strucker and the destruction of Hydra Island in STRANGE TALES #158 (July 1967). Another branch of HYDRA was taken out this month in CAPTAIN AMERICA #113 (May 1969). Val last appeared in NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD #5 (October 1968). Val's last appearance in the series; as a result, her actions in this story were never adequately explained. Despite shaky illustration, this issue returns the series to both solid storytelling and characterization. This episode, re-written, formed the basis of Bob Harras' NICK FURY VS. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (June 1988). Not counting covers, this was Barry Smith's 5th story for Marvel; he was replaced in the next issue, apparently, because his green card ran out and he was forced at short notice to return to England. Smith's next Marvel work was in THE AVENGERS #66-67 (July-August 1969).
(9-15-2007)
Nick is on the run from SHIELD after being accused of consorting with enemy agents while out of the country for 2 days. A "security" man, Agent Rickard, says he doesn't like what he sees and suggests Fury oughta be replaced. Next thing, Fury's a wanted man. Rickard turns out to be an "agent" alright-- of HYDRA! With Fury out of the way, they figure SHIELD will be in chaos. They send a couple of killers in a helicopter with SHIELD markings on it to take Fury out, but only wind up splattered all over the landscape themselves, which tells Fury somebody else is involved and playing very dirty. Val won't say why she supposedly didn't back up Fury's story, and he accuses her of running "as soon as things got too serious" between them. Gabe catches up with Fury, but after some friendly info exchange, Fury gets the drop on him. He finally catches up with Rickard, who decides to kill Fury outright, but gets it instead. It's clearly self-defense-- but Dugan shows up arresting Fury for Rickard's MURDER!
The first time I read this, this became my FAVORITE post-Steranko SHIELD issue. Barry Smith, who did such an awful job on X-MEN #53, is still very raw here. The layouts are dodgy (but creative), the drawing is rough, and the inks (by both Smith himself and Sid Greene-- but I can't tell who did what) don't help. But the writing is what grabs me. Steve Parkhouse-- who contributed to that KA-ZAR story, and years later teamed with Dave Gibbons on some incredible DOCTOR WHO stories-- brings back the "human" feeling for Fury, Val, Gabe, etc. that Steranko occasionally hinted at in between his hi-tech antics, and which almost every writer since seemed to have completely forgotten in their mad dash to imitate Steranko's WORST stylistic excesses! That something that looks THIS bad, this AMATEURISH-- we're talking FANZINE-level quality here, folks!-- should read THIS GOOD is really saying something about the potential of the people involved, and the possible future of this book-- had they stayed.
Tragically... Barry Smith's green card ran out right after this, and he had to skip the country back to England! He did wind up doing a LOT of work for Marvel before too long... but the deadline on this book apparently couldn't wait, and the next issue, NOBODY involved with this one came back to continue what started out as such a really GREAT story. (Strangely enough, the basic plot of this would be redone as the 1st issue of NICK FURY VS. SHIELD in the late 80's by Bob Harras & Paul Neary-- but Harras would use about 10 times as many words and not do one-TENTH as good of a job. Man, I HATED that mini-series with a passion!!! It was an INSULT to the memory of everything Kirby, Steranko and others had done back here in the 60's.)
You know, it just hit me that Smith, Parkhouse & Greene-- all 3-- worked in some capaticy on MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #19 and NICK FURY #12. I wonder if Parkhouse-- as a writer-- may have been responsible for that? Ever since I learned about the "de facto editor" thing, where writers put together their own art teams-- I begin to notice more stuff like this.
(6-21-2008)
DR. STRANGE 180
cover by STEVE DITKO and Gene Colan & Tom Palmer
Doc, not knowing where he is or how he got there-- is confronted by an image of "Eternity", who says of course he wasn't destroyed by that clash with Dormammu back when. (In an editorial footnote, "ye editor" gets the issue # WRONG. Man, he was REALLY SLIPPING around this time!!) In the vision, Eternity changes into Nightmare (him again-- and so soon?), who threatens to eliminate the gap between reality and his dream plane of existence. Doc is abruptly woken up by Wong, who reminds him he has a date with Clea. The two meets, and she gets her first experience with "snow". The pair heads to Times' Square to celebrate the new year, running into a "journalist" friend of Doc's, Tom Wolfe, when they arrive. As the clock strikes midnight, a pterodactyl appears and crashes, followed by several other dinosaurs, each much larger than any real dinos ever were. Doing his best to save the crowd, Doc finds it's the work of Nightmare-- who has, somehow, actually imprisoned Etrernity, the "embodiment of time itself". Nightmare challenges Strange to a "final" battle, to the death-- and Doc accepts! To be continued.
Another extremely well-done, mind-blowing issue, about a third of which is made up of full-page panels. Man, are Gene Colan & Tom Palmer on a roll!! Page 2 of this story was turned into a day-glo black-light poster, which I've had on my wall for a lot of years now. The only "excess" of Roy's this time is Wolfe's cameo (it's almost as annoying as when celebrities appear as themselves on sitcoms) but for the most part, a terrific, solid issue. I've seen the cover Gene drew for this issue that went unused-- it was a bit too confusing, I think. "Ye editor" replaced it with a collage, made up of a STEVE DITKO Eternity (from STRANGE TALES #146), a Gene Colan Doc (a panel from a recent issue), and a photo of Manhattan. COOL cover!!! Something odd that struck me was, I've read "ye editor" preferred not having 2 covers with the same basic color scheme in the same month, or 2 months in a row. Both DR. STRANGE and NICK FURY this month had white backgrounds. Though, I doubt anyone ever confused the two.
(6-21-2208)
FANTASTIC FOUR 86
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
As his killer robots are about to wipe out the entire helpless village, Doom announces that they have gone "temporarily out of control", and any villages who might accidentally get killed will be considered "heroes of the country" afterwards. WHAT A BASTARD!!! Meanwhile, he thinks on how when he designed the robots (which actually are out-of-control) he built into them a weakness, which only he knows-- but he wants the FF to die before Reed can figure out what that weakness is. The brain-washing slowly wears off, and their powers return, but hardly soon enough. Infuriated when Reed uses one of his own hidden devices to throw the robots into deep water (that's their weakness-- they're too heavy to swim), Doom detonates a huge pile of explosives he hid under the village, just as his ex-Nazi underling Hauptmann reminds him of "his people". For an instant, Doom thinks twice-- SAY WHAT? After all his mass-murdering intentions??-- but too late, and the village is toast. Except... for one area where all the people have gathered, which was protected by an invisible force field. Hey, whatta ya know, Sue got Fury to tell her where her hubby was, and she showed up to single-handedly save the day! GO, SUE! Ben's happy she showed, too-- as he says, she's the only one who can keep Reed from talking everyone to death.
GREAT art (though a full-page shot of Doom seems uncalled for), but I'm wondering about Doom's inconsistent behavior. I guess that's to be expected when you're a power-mad despot like him-- or, when 2 guys are writing a book, not 1.
(6-21-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 72
cover by JOHN ROMITA
Another Romita villain returns, who breaks into Stacy's home to steal the stone tablet-- because he read about Stacy having it in the papers. SAY WHAT? Pete learns The Shocker's on the loose again, and goes after him as Spidey. Shocker gets away, but not before Pete plants a "spider-tracer" on him (gee, long time since he used one o' those), and he rushes to the train station to see Aunt May & Anna Watson off to Florida. While there, he sees a Bugle headline saying how Spidey risked his life to fight the Shocker... and I'm left wondering, HOW did that paper get out in such a short time? (Somebody is not thinking things thru here!!!) Flash returns for a visit, once again insults Pete (he says it's a "joke"), Pete gets pissed, then Gwen gets pissed at Pete! (WHY does he bother with this girl??) The simplest thing is to tackle The Shocker again, who's pulling an armored car heist when he arrives. Spidey clobbers the Shocker, but then gets SHOT at by one of the guards! When the guy finds both the Shocker and all the money safe and sound around the corner, he openly wonders "Gee, how come nobody trusts that guy?" (Yeah-- he says this, AFTER SHOOTING at him himself. How stupid are some people?)
Talk about a shock-- "ye editor" YANKED John Buscema off AVENGERS, which was in the middle of one of its BEST RUNS EVER, so he could take over layouts ("storytelling") on ASM. John Romita is now back on pencils, but without having to do the "hard" work he always says gave him such headaches, while Jim Mooney, who'd been doing such a WONDERFUL job on pencils & inks, drops back to just inks. THIS is an improvement?? With Romita drawing, Mooney inking, and Romita, presumably, doing touch-ups inks, it may not LOOK that different, but the storytelling IS different (you can really tell if you squint, heh) and the book just FEELS different. I dunno. Sometimes I wish Romita had just worked AT HOME like most Marvel artists, and done FULL ART (or at least layouts AND pencils) and done it for a long, long time instead of all this "musical artists" CRAP.
This issue was NOT reprinted as part of the early-70's MARVEL TALES run, as it appeared instead in ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS. Somebody screwed something up in there, because "ye editor"s near-incoherent intro describes an entirely different episode, one with Electro. Also, ONE page of this appeared in the 1st MARVEL TREASURY EDITION, just to have a "sample" of Buscema layouts.
(6-21-2008)
IRON MAN 13
cover by GEORGE TUSKA
(alterations by JOHN ROMITA)
This is the 2nd half of a story (I'm missing the 1st half) involving a villain who used to work for Cord Industries ("exploited" is the word he uses) who became crippled, and then found a way, by using special "discs" attached to people's foreheads, to turn them into mindless zombies, channel their bodily energies into him, and make him super-strong and unbeatable. As "The Controller", he's already got dozens of victims under his sway, including Janice Cord, and only his armor saved Iron Man from becoming another one. Loading up a railroad car with his transmitting equipment, and a stock of "slaves", he heads for NYC, where he intends to turn the entire city into his human power supply, which will make him completely unbeatable. Nick Fury informs IM he intends to take out the railroad car before it reaches the city, but IM says if the victims are "disconnected" forcibly it'll kill them. Fury gives him a deadline and wishes him luck. With Jasper's help, the car with the equipment is disconnected-- and left behind-- as IM and the Controller slug it out on the still-moving train, until they get far enough away that he runs out of power-- freeing his victims. Lucky break.
Not one of my favorite issues in a run that isn't a fave of mine in the first place. I first ran across the Controller several years later when, I think, Gerry Conway brought him back. I didn't like him as a villain there, or here. I guess Archie Goodwin's doing an "okay" job on the writing, but that's as far as I'll go. George Tuska & Johnny Craig are doing "okay" on the art, though at this point I'm wondering what's with all these odd-shaped panels. Apart from the splash page, there isn't a single straight rectancular panel in this entire issue!!!
I paid "only" $10.00 for this some years ago, and still felt ripped off.
(6-21-2008)
CAPTAIN AMERICA 113
cover by JIM STERANKO
Synopsis:
While the news reports Cap's death, and that "Steve Rogers" was a fake identity, Madame Hydra has Cap's HYDRA file burned. She then thinks back on her past, and the way she bumped off several top men in the organization following the death of Baron Strucker, to become Supreme Hydra "in this sector". The Avengers, together with Nick Fury, Sharon Carter and several top SHIELD men, hold a wake, but are suddenly gassed by HYDRA agents, bent on eliminating them as well! Rick follows to the cemetary, where multiple premature burials are planned, and is almost caught himself-- when out of nowhere, Cap appears on a motorcycle, very much alive! A battle follows, ending when a set of "Hunter Missiles" miss their target and take out Madame Hydra instead! Cap reveals he faked his own death in order to create the idea that he was never "Steve Rogers"-- "and so, Captain America has a secret identity once more!"
Indexer notes:
Part 3 of 3. The climax of this story in part pays tribute to "Spy Ambush" from CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #10 (January 1942). Nick Fury presumably appears between NICK FURY #11-12. HYDRA would finally return to battle SHIELD this month in NICK FURY #12 (May 1969). After all the effort to get Cap & Rick together as a regular team, it would prove short-lived, as Roy Thomas & Gil Kane wound up teaming Rick with Captain Mar-Vell in CAPTAIN MARVEL #17 (October 1969). Following the cancellation of NICK FURY, Nick, SHIELD & HYDRA became recurring elements in the CAPTAIN AMERICA series. In the wake of Baron Strucker's demise, most HYDRA stories beginning with this one involve regional factions rather than one big, centralized organization. Although she appeared to have been killed at the end of this episode, Madame Hydra would return-- renaming herself "The Viper"-- in CAPTAIN AMERICA #180 (December 1974).
(2007)
The suspense is over...
"the strange death of captain america"
The news reports on Cap's murder by Hydra agents, and the strange fact of a "Steve Rogers" face mask being found, suggesting that it was a fake identity. We see the "origin" of Madame Hydra-- a refugee in war-torn Europe, who hides a "disfigured" right side of her face under all that hair. (Rumors of Dr. Doom only having one tiny scratch may have been misplaced; judging by the reflection in one panel, I'd say Madame Hydra was the one with "only" one tiny scratch!) The Avengers gather for the wake, and Nick Fury gives the eulogy. Rick Jones is too shattered to speak. Suddenly, gas knocks everyone out, and the undertakers are revealed to be Hydra agents, bent on wiping out all their enemies at once-- by BURYING them in a cemetary! (Holy Edgar Allan Poe!!) Rick follows, but they get the drop on him...
SUDDENLY!!!!!-- out of the darkness the roar of a motorcycle cuts the night, and CAPTAIN AMERICA-- still alive-- tears into the scene! Cap & Rick fight the Hydra goons, the highly-explosive gasolene in his bike taking out most of them. A pair of heat-seeking hunter missiles miss the heroes when they dive into an open grave, and Madame Hydra winds up being their target instead. Cap & Rick are back in business-- and as Cap says, he now has a "secret identity" again.
This is probably Steranko's 2ND all-time best issue ever. For whatever reason (schedule? artistic preference?), Tom Palmer replaced Joe Sinnott on this issue as inker. As I noticed before he even debuted, some of the panels remind me a bit of Syd Shores' work (was Palmer inspired by Shores?). But something else I NEVER noticed before-- and I've read this one maybe a DOZEN times over the years-- is how Steranko & Palmer in quite a few panels strongly emulate the line-rendering style of WILL EISNER, whose page layouts and storytelling Steranko had already been using since his debut on SHIELD. What's funny is the way Steve is in "disguise" for half the issue, in an overcoat and hat-- very much like Denny Colt as THE SPIRIT-- and the 2nd half of the issue takes place in a cemetary-- it could have been "Wildwood" for all I know! Amazing that I never picked up on this before!
I'm STILL not clear on the details as to exactly why this episode was a month late... or what changes, if any, "ye editor" may have forced on Jim Steranko's story... or WHY, for that matter, Jim's intended long run ENDED right here. DAMN! 3 whole issues??? It just doesn't seem right. This was the LAST full comic Steranko ever did for Marvel. What a WASTE of so much talent.
Incidentally, the cover, showing Rick grieving at the base of a statue of Cap, was paid tribute to by Tom Sutton 2 years later, in EERIE #32 (Mar'71), when he swiped the pose of "Cap" for the splash page of "Crime Crusher".
Finally, does this new "secret identity" thing even make any sense at all? What's anyone gonna think the next time the by-now well-known face of Steve Rogers appears? That he's the "real" Steve Rogers and Cap was someone else? I dunno... if I was Hydra, I'd shoot the guy anyway, JUST to cover my bases.
The creative line-up chaos of the last few issues would contnue a bit longer...
(6-23-2008)
SUB-MARINER 13
cover by Marie Severin & Joe Sinnott
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 113
cover by Herb Trimpe & Dan Adkins
CAPTAIN MARVEL 13
cover by FRANK SPRINGER
(Mar-Vell figure by JOHN ROMITA)
Both CM and "Walt Lawson" are now wanted men (good luck, considering one's dead and other is impersonating him!). Mar-Vell adopts a new disguise (white beard) but it doesn't last long. At the base, The Man-Slayer repairs itself (gee, JUST like that robot the real Lawson built) and goes on another rampage. Despite being a wanted man, Mar-Vell goes into action AGAIN to stop the robot-- which has developed its own personality, not to mention a heavy dose of confusion. "Though I do not understand my mission-- nothing will prevent me from accomplishing it!" Man-- sounds like the writers on the book in general! The base guards start shooting at CM, he teleports away... to The Hellion. He finds the Kree ship has docked with a gigantic Kree supply support ship, stocking The Hellion up for a long, extended stay in Earth's orbit. What th'...? CM used the supply ship to help him get back aboard his old "home", then confronts Yon-Rogg. But despite wanting revenge so badly, he hesitates, and Yon-Rogg gets the drop on him, bemoaning as he does how much he HATES Mar-Vell, how JEALOUS he is of him, how much it "HURT" him to see his "beloved" Una with his hated rival all this time. And then he lets slip that he has the technology onboard to bring her back to life. SAY WHAT?? Before this can go on any further, Yon-Rogg points out that Carol Danvers is in danger again, so CM races to rescue her, beating that pesky robot for good this time. She now knows he does care for her-- but as the guards close in, she wonders, how can she turn him over to them now?
Gary Friedrich & Frank Springer suddenly took over this issue (whether Freidrich actually may have written part or all of the last 2 issues I'm still trying to figure out). WHY they suddenly jumped ship from NICK FURY is beyond me-- the last couple months "ye editor" has been playing an insanely chaotic game of "musical artists". On my 3rd reading of this issue, I must say this one seems more COHERENT than the last 2 (by a mile!!) but then Friedrich started off better than others on SHIELD and that fell apart pretty quick. Frank Springer is a HUGE improvement over Dick Ayers (I'm still flabbergasted at how BAD a job he did on the 2 previous issues). And, Vince Colletta, back again, does a REALLY damn good job on the inks. The only thing is, Springer is by far his own best inker-- so WHY was "ye editor" getting other people to ink his art? As good as Johnny Craig and Vince Colletta were, solo Springer, I'M SURE, would have been far better. Tragically, starting right here, Frank Springer was one more artist who became just a "cog" in Marvel's assembly-line, NEVER really doing the kind of work he was capable of again, despite being with them for many, many years to come. DAMN SHAME.
No mention of the Black Widow this time-- or who built The Man-Slayer. Exasperating! I can only infer, by BW's appearance in THE AVENGERS, that The Man-Slayer must have been built by Egghead... or maybe The Mad Thinker (robots & androids are his stock in trade). You'd just THINK it would have been mentioned here-- somewhere!!! (Wouldn't you?)
The chaos isn't over yet...
(6-23-2008)
MARVEL SUPER-HEROES 20
cover by Larry Lieber & Vince Colletta
THOR 164
cover by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta
Balder goes to Earth just in time for Thor, Sif, Pluto, his "Mutates", and the atomic research building to all be returned to Earth from the far future. When they emerge from The Time Funnel, BIG FIGHT with the army commences!! Other than Odin still pondering about Galactus, and pushing Balder into battle to help ease his soul (in torment over Karnilla), there's not much to say about this one... except, ZEUS, brother of Pluto, turns up, reminding his evil sibling of "THE COVENANT"!!! Zeus rules the heavens, Pluto rules the underworld-- PERIOD!! And so, all these world-conquering ambitions of his are blown away to nothing, and all is back to normal. Another rushed, unsatisfying ending.
You can SEE why this entire 2-parter feels like it was intended for a "NEW GODS" story, before Kirby decided not to give his new characters to Marvel (and to "ye editor", who he no doubt felt would SCREW THEM OVER the way he did "Him", Silver Surfer, etc...).
(6-23-2008)
DAREDEVIL 52
cover by Barry Smith & Johnny Craig
X-MEN 56
cover by Neal Adams & Tom Palmer (rejected)
NEAL ADAMS makes his Marvel debut. The guy can draw, but his "storytelling" is, if anything, more confusing than Steranko's at times. The Pharaoh's men lay in wait in a "tomb" (it looks like the Temple of Abu Simbel to me) and get ahold of Alex again. Encased in a chamber which cuts off all more power than ever, and grows to gigantic size (gee, seems like Gene Colan should have been drawing this story... heh). He fights the heroes single-handedly, until Alex, on the verge of suffocating (no air in that chamber), by force of will, manages to blast his way free. "The Living Collossus" becomes weak again, shrinks back to normal size, and the temple collapses to rubble. But Alex emerges from the ashes-- glowing with energy, which he says he can't control!
And so, ONCE AGAIN, Don Heck, after doing a bang-up job on a series, gets KICKED OFF in favor of a "flashier" artist, who isn't necessarily as good a "storyteller". (He was replaced by Gene Colan on IRON MAN; John Buscema on AVENGERS; Jim Steranko on X-MEN; Dick Ayers on CAPTAIN MARVEL; oh wait, that last one doesn't make sense...) And this time, Werner Roth, the one really "dependable" artist on this book (he'd been around since Jack Kirby was still doing the layouts) was kicked off WITH him. Tragic-- that kind of lack of respect for so much good work. While many in later years (including longtime X-MEN writer Chris Claremont) seem to worship the ground Neal Adams walked on and feel the book "didn't get good" until he arrived with THIS issue, fans at the time were divided. Quite a few letters were already saying Roth was the "only" guy for the book, that Steranko's style "didn't fit" the book. Before long, some would be complaining that Adams was drawing "complete strangers" who looked nothing like the characters they'd grown to know and love!
"THE FLYING A-BOMB"
The Angel's origin concludes. Thomas, Roth & Sam Grainger do another fine job. Grainger's inks are almost over-powering, but his style seems to be such a PERFECT fit for Roth, I can't help but wish he'd gotten on the book a lot earlier. Looking at these panels today, I'm suddenly realizing just how over-powering Grainger's inks were-- when he was working with Dave Cockrum many years later! Either Grainger OR Tom Palmer (who inked Neal Adams on the lead feature) could easily have raised the level of the Heck-Roth art to something grander than it had been. Instead, they were brushed aside by "flash"-- and "arrogance".
(6-23-2008)
(Continued in June 1969)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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