Continuing from our comic book reviews at
http://www.statueforum.com/showthrea...475#post206475
Classic TPB Reviews
Nick Fury’s been getting a lot of play in the Marvel Universe lately. He’s a pivotal character in the
Secret War series that’s still running, in
Wolverine he’s been hospitalized by a gang of undead ninjas, in
Captain America he’s been keeping a dark secret from Cap which Cap has only recently discovered, and in
Fantastic Four he’s hooked Reed up with a consulting gig to both help him with the Fantastic Four’s cash flow problem and ingratiate him with the U.S. government Reed which angered with his invasion of Latveria. But Fury’s really only a supporting character, at best, in these stories. Remember when he carried his own titles, whether Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos or the various S.H.I.E.L.D. comics? Well, out of our appreciation of Nick’s role in the MU almost from its beginnings, we decided to seek out and review some Nick Fury trades and, fortunately for Marvel’s super spy, they’re not too hard to find.
Wktf’s Review
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. tpb
Written by: Bob Harras
Drawn by: Paul Neary
Series Covers by: Jim Steranko, Joe Jusko, Bill Sienkiewicz, et al
This book represents one incredibly bad day for Nick Fury. The title, counterintuitive and ominous as it is, only tells part of the story. Yes, something is rotten at S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization for which Fury has been director forever and the place Nick felt was pivotal to enforcing all that is right and good in the world. But this is not just a simple organization or government corruption story. Oh, no. His whole paradigm of reality has taken a deadly 180 turn. Put yourself in Fury’s place and imagine your worst possible nightmare. Your superiors have branded you a traitor for no apparent reason and are seeking your capture and possible termination. Your closest friends have turned against you and now are your enemies. The enemy you’ve known for decades, Hydra and A.I.M., turn out to have been in a joint partnership with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Roxxon Oil almost from the beginning, and everything you’ve ever believed has been a lie. Oh, yeah, and you’re on the run for your life, with armed pursuers close behind, with no where to go and no one you can trust. Yes, Fury’s whole world comes crashing down on him. And he’s not the only one baffled by this. Madame Hydra is also furious that her evil organization has been a lie all these years. And this leads to an uneasy alliance between these two bitter enemies.
Our story begins, though, with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team trying to stabilize the nuclear engine, called the Power Core, of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s downed flagship Helicarrier. Just when they successfully shut it down and prevent a nuclear holocaust they are ambushed by Hydra agents emerging from an A.I.M. airship who then make off with the nuclear Power Core and bring it to Roxxon Oil. Fury’s both baffled as to why Hydra and A.I.M. would be working together and furious that Roxxon appears to be helping these terrorists. The deeper Fury investigates his concerns the more worried his enigmatic superiors become and soon he is told to stop altogether. But this is Nick Fury, mule-headed, cigar chompin’ former chief Howler who’s just gonna do things his own way. What he learns turns his bosses and his organization against him and sends him into the sewers for cover. Nick’s closest friends, his love Val the Countess and former Howlers Gabe and Dum Dum Dugan become just as baffled as Nick as not only does Fury become public enemy #1 but close associates of theirs all of a sudden undergo radical personality changes and go off the deep end in search of their dear friend and former boss.
This book is a commitment. There are six parts each of which are about 50 pages long, so about 300 pages altogether. But it’s worth it. This damn story twists and turns and keeps the reader off balance so many times you can’t help but keep coming back to it to figure out what the hell is going on and how it’s going to resolve. I can just imaging the football field length plotting strategy Bob Harras must have put together, like a matrix or decision tree, to keep everything straight and begin connecting the seeming disparate dots to bring the story to its shattering conclusion. Neary’s art does Nick and the team proud, even though it can be pretty inconsistent and wanting for three dimensionality at times. There’s one scene in particular, though, where Nick and Val meet only for Nick to be ambushed by several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, that’s pretty spectacular. Nick dives off a pier, his tattered overcoat swirling behind him, as gun fire shoots past and around him. Definitely a strong Jack Kirby feel going here. The story does slow down a little around the fifth chapter as it appears a religious cult is at the heart of the conflict. I rolled my eyes at this but, in this story, nothing is as it seems and by the end everything comes crashing down around everyone. For years, the Marvel Universe went without a S.H.I.E.L.D. organization as a result of this story. How it all happens makes for a great, great read.
This book is out of print, unfortunately. I was able to find my copy on eBay. I highly recommend making the effort to find yourself a copy. You’ll be glad that you did.
Sam Wilson’s Review
Fury
Marvel MAX comics
Written By: Garth Ennis
Drawn By: Darick Robertson
Nick Fury: Still a crotchety, old bastard
“Sgt. Li, Sir. It’s a great honor to meet you. I think you may have mistaken me for my a$#hole of a brother, sir. He also works for S.H.I.E.L.D., but in an administrative capacity.”
“At ease. Your brother a co$#sucker?”
“That’s him sir. He was always the sh%@ of the family sir. Always liked politics and kissing a$#.”
“And what do you like?”
“Guns sir”
“Good man. Airfield, thirteen hundred hours.”
This exchange between Nick Fury and an agent he recruits for a particular nasty mission had me rolling on the floor, and in my mind best sets the tone for Garth Ennis’s Fury series. Ennis had just come over to Marvel to do the Marvel Knights Punisher series, and someone at Marvel had a momentary lapse, and came up with a brilliant idea, “Say, lets put a guy who’s written mature comics about soldiers and soldiering (Vetigo’s The Rifle Brigade and War Stories) on one of our most time honored soldiers, Nick Fury, and then make the book a MAX title so he can do his thing! Of course this was pure genius, and the end result is one of the funniest, character defining and violent Nick Fury tales in recent history.
Fury is not set in any particular continuity. The Nick Fury we catch up with in the opening sequences is a fallen cold warrior, a dinosaur amongst spies who is lost in the shuffle of paper pushers, diplomacy, and the media wizardry of modern political action. Nick got himself in a little trouble, taking a pro-active role in a DEA mission he was supposed to be only “observing”. When he gets back to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, he finds out due to budget constraints, the helicarrier has been decommissioned, and Fury’s been given a new position, “Executive Director of Initial and Intermediary Operational Planning”. Essentially Fury has been written out of S.H.I.E.L.D., and is asked to go home and be a quiet old man. Of course this new development sits real well with our hero.
Enter Rudi Gagarin, another former cold warrior, but on the opposite side. He meets Fury out for a drink and tries to convince him to, “fine some stupid little island state, some place where the chinks and yanks and ivans would all like a piece of, and let’s start playing them off each other… we hire ourselves out as advisors to the head wog and we put the word around… our chance to play the game again, where every time you win you just might have saved the world from nuclear fire…” Fury wants no part of this, well, morally anyway. Mentally he misses the action, and needs the juice. Weeks pass and Fury sees a news report about some Pacific Island, strategic to many nations, under risk of being taken over by enemies of the United States, thus disrupting political balance in the world and starting up some serious sh$#. Fury calls in some favors and gets to assemble a small strike team to clean up this mess before it becomes a real sh%@ storm, but of course he has backstabbing politicos, ex-Hydra Russian soldiers, and a whole lot of bullets and bodies standing in his way.
Fury is classic Ennis in many ways. Uber-violence, fast and humorous dialogue, quirky and morally reprehensible characters and lots of cursing. Man, I missed this. Nick has never been more of a bad-a$#, Ennis seems like he’s coming back to a character he has known for a lifetime. Robertson’s art is stylized and detailed, as always, one of the greats when it comes to drawing gore. This book is available in tpb form from Marvel MAX comics for $15.95. Ennis fans or Nick Fury fans will not be disappointed, but if you are offended easily and have a weak stomach and gentle soul, this book is probably not for you.
