The debut issue of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD was a blockbuster for this young fan. Somehow or other, I'd gotten hold of Strange Tales #167 and had beheld the greatness of Steranko, but this was the first issue I intentionally bought for myself, and it literally blew me away.
I was at once mystified and fascinated by Steranko's storytelling and imagery. The famous silent multi-page opener fascinated and confused me simultaneously. I looked at those pages trying to understand what I was seeing.
The book had bravura and a heart, but the time jumps made the whole a bit of jumble for me at the time. On this most recent reading I really was able to enjoy the lush Steranko images for their own sake and appreciate Joe Sinnott's cohesive and expressive inking.
The story of a loser comedian who gets mixed up with a murderous hood and then comes across the path of Nick Fury who is fighting for his life against the mysterious and murderous Scorpio is a beautifully rendered cautionary tale. It's loaded with atmosphere and saturated with a noir attitude bonded to the high-octane action sequences.
In the second issue of the series Steranko gets his science fiction rocks off as he gives us an updated version of a classic monster movies blending plot elements from The Island of Doctor Moreau and King Kong (literally almost).
Inked with gusto by Frank Giacoia, this one is guns-a-blazing all the way. The opener showing Jimmy Woo's initiation into SHIELD addresses that dangling plot element, and sets up the two-man adventure as Fury and Woo find the deadly volcanic island of Centurius a mad scientist who is creating and revising life at will.
Against this threat to the whole world, Fury finds and drafts a whole movie crew who are busy on the island making another variation of King Kong. This one has humor and some true-life tragedy.
In the third issue Steranko switches gears again, this time beautifully assisted by the soft inks of Dan Adkins.
Effectively Steranko adapts The Hound of the Baskervilles and blends it with some classic ghost stories and haunted house lore. There are more than a few secrets in this one, a beautifully drawn classic that offers a visual feast on every page.
Nick Fury is a man with a mission and more than bit of mystery as he stands in for Sherlock Holmes to battle the ghostly and ghastly hound. And he solves the mystery of the Loch Ness monster to boot.
Issue four has only a cover by Steranko. In a sign of what was to come, the reliable artist Frank Springer steps in with script by Gary Friedrich to reprise the origin of Nick Fury, a useful tale for those of us just discovering SHIELD at the time.
Steranko returns, with the assistance of inks by John Tartaglione, for one more full issue when he brings back the deadly Scorpio and attempts to deepen the mystery.
Scorpio captures Nick and in a weird reversal of the LMD confusion from the debut issue has Nick mistaken for his artificial counterpart. There are some delightful characters in this one and dark moments as Fury learns the real identity of Scorpio. The reader is not given access to this secret which will require a few more years and an issue of Avengers to solve.
And that my friends largely ends the relationship of Jim Steranko with the series which truly launched his career and to a very great extent still defines it.
He did produce two more handsome covers for the original run but that was all as other talents stepped into try and reproduce the Pop-Art magic he'd concocted.
(Frank Springer)
An experienced Frank Springer (who had done the fill-in issue) did quite a few, a callow Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith did one, and an up-and-coming Herb Trimpe produced three and all gave it a good yeoman's try but alas Steranko proved to be too tough an act to follow, or as has proven to be the case over the years there's little support for an ongoing SHIELD series.
One of the lovely things about following comics in the late Silver and early Bronze Ages was the tendency of the publishers, especially Marvel, to make sure that loose ends were tied up. When a series fell victim to cancellation due to poor sales often the storyline would end abruptly, since the creators were working far in advance of the news that cancellation might come. So, it wasn't unusual to see story lines find resolution in the pages of other comics some months after a character disappeared from the comic shelves. Avengers #72 is unusual in many respects, one is that it does indeed resolve dangling plot threads from the pages of the defunct Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD comic as well offer an update on Captain Marvel, who was at the time between issues of his off and on again run.
All that and the introduction of the crime cartel the Zodiac to boot. The Zodiac almost literally burst onto the scene in a relatively rare two-page spread by Sal Buscema and inker Sam Grainger. All of sudden the reader is presented with a dozen villains, eleven of them brand spanking new.
We'd learned more about Scorpio and got see his potent Zodiac Key in play once again. We'd learned that Scorpio is someone from Fury's past, but we are not shown who that someone is. Seemingly Scorpio dies at the end of that story but when has that really ever worked.
Rick Jones, recently bonded by dint of the Nega-Bands to Captain Marvel of the Kree seeks help from his old allies the Avengers. He finds Captain America, who he thought had rejected him (it was in fact the Red Skull in Cap's body) and goes to meet the other Avengers. They quickly gather and learn that Nick Fury is dead, killed by an assassin named Bullseye (not that one).
Rick tells them how he had previously gone to Nick's apartment and encountered Scorpio and as quick as you can say Nega-Band Captain Marvel appears to battle the villain. He is brought low by the Zodiac Key and now Rick brings the Avengers a list of names. Those names are those of important city figures but before the team can act Scorpio appears on their communications screen and an explosion knocks them all out. When they awake, they are captured by Scorpion in a hidden lair. Then the rest of the Zodiac reveal themselves to gloat, but thanks to Yellowjacket's control of bugs he is able to short-circuit the manacles and soon enough the Avengers and the Zodiac are fighting tooth and nail.
The battle takes a turn when Scorpio is revealed to be the seemingly dead Nick Fury himself and with that final twist the Zodiac escape. Fury reveals that the original Scorpio had been his brother Jake and that he had taken his place to infiltrate the cartel. Captain America offers Rick a place with the Avengers but now bonded to Captain Marvel he decides to head off on his own once again.
Nick and his doughty agents of SHIELD battled the Hate-Monger for four issues, Nick's original modern antagonist, in a story by Gary Friedrich who took over the writing reins. There's a wonderful Christmas themed story which has been reprinted a few times. (Thanks for the reminder Colin.)
The young Barry Smith drew an issue in which Nick Fury is being chased by his very own agents of SHIELD.
At the end of the brief series Nick Fury is seemingly dead, killed by an early rendition of Bullseye (not the Daredevil villain). Even a guest-spot by Country Joe and the Fish couldn't save our stogie-smokin' ramrod. And that was it. The series came to an abrupt halt, its hero dead.
One of the lovely things about following comics in the late Silver and early Bronze Ages was the tendency of the publishers, especially Marvel, to make sure that loose ends were tied up. When a series fell victim to cancellation due to poor sales often the storyline would end abruptly, since the creators were working far in advance of the news that cancellation might come. So, it wasn't unusual to see story lines find resolution in the pages of other comics some months after a character disappeared from the comic shelves. Avengers #72 is unusual in many respects, one is that it does indeed resolve dangling plot threads from the pages of the defunct Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD comic as well offer an update on Captain Marvel, who was at the time between issues of his off and on again run.
All that and the introduction of the crime cartel the Zodiac to boot. The Zodiac almost literally burst onto the scene in a relatively rare two-page spread by Sal Buscema and inker Sam Grainger. All of sudden the reader is presented with a dozen villains, eleven of them brand spanking new.
We'd learned more about Scorpio and got see his potent Zodiac Key in play once again. We'd learned that Scorpio is someone from Fury's past, but we are not shown who that someone is. Seemingly Scorpio dies at the end of that story but when has that really ever worked.
Rick Jones, recently bonded by dint of the Nega-Bands to Captain Marvel of the Kree seeks help from his old allies the Avengers. He finds Captain America, who he thought had rejected him (it was in fact the Red Skull in Cap's body) and goes to meet the other Avengers. They quickly gather and learn that Nick Fury is dead, killed by an assassin named Bullseye (not that one).
Rick tells them how he had previously gone to Nick's apartment and encountered Scorpio and as quick as you can say Nega-Band Captain Marvel appears to battle the villain. He is brought low by the Zodiac Key and now Rick brings the Avengers a list of names. Those names are those of important city figures but before the team can act Scorpio appears on their communications screen and an explosion knocks them all out. When they awake, they are captured by Scorpion in a hidden lair. Then the rest of the Zodiac reveal themselves to gloat, but thanks to Yellowjacket's control of bugs he is able to short-circuit the manacles and soon enough the Avengers and the Zodiac are fighting tooth and nail.
The battle takes a turn when Scorpio is revealed to be the seemingly dead Nick Fury himself and with that final twist the Zodiac escape. Fury reveals that the original Scorpio had been his brother Jake and that he had taken his place to infiltrate the cartel. Captain America offers Rick a place with the Avengers but now bonded to Captain Marvel he decides to head off on his own once again.
Steranko would return to SHIELD as an artist only on three occasions. He created some covers for reprints of his groundbreaking work in the early 70's, in the 80's. He struck again with a wonderful painting later in the 90's to kick off a new series.
Nick Fury and his Agents of SHIELD was one of my early favorite comics. The wild creativity of Jim Steranko took me years to fully appreciate, but the stories of the cigar-masticating cyclopean leader of SHIELD always linger fondly in the memory.
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No.10 of the original run was re-printed in the 1975 Giant Superhero Holiday Grab Bag which is where I first read that particular Christmas-themed Nick Fury story.
ReplyDeleteGood catch sir. I'll add that gem. There's something totally engaging about those oversized tabloid comics.
DeleteShield #10 has uncredited Barry Smith art on parts of pages 2-4, possibly as a tryout for # 12.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder. Smith's first bout with Marvel is fascination to me and I've been meaning to take a hard look at for some time. I'd love for Marvel to gather up all his Pre-Conan work. I think there's an audience for that. At least an audience of one.
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