Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D #8 (1969)
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Ernie Hart
Nick Fury has a good gig. First, he's a secret agent ... can't beat that.
While he's missing an eye, he's practically immortal and hasn't aged since the 60's. He's bedded
more exotic women than William Shatner and drives a flying car. He drinks beer, smokes
cigars and talks in slang. He's portrayed as a Samuel L. Jackson lookalike in
"The Ultimates"-- being drawn like Samuel L. always ranks high on the coolness barometer.
Plus, he used to single-handedly blow up German Panzers in The Big One as a Howlin' Commando. Trust me, even
when he's wearing purple SHIELD spandex, the guy's more
manly than a foosball table with naked lady mudflaps!
You should be able to read an old Nick Fury comic and instantly grow some chest hair, right?! Well, more likely you're
liable to lose a few braincells. A result of the "Dreaded Deadline Doom", this story is overflowing with cliches. At least
Marvel takes the time to admit this on the splash page, as they have a wordy edittorial blurb citing the fill-in artist.
While it's not a fill-in writer, it's quickly apparent that the plot was conceived on the New York subway on the way to office.
First off, there's the villain Supremus. That's him on the cover, with one foor on Fury's taint.
He's a member of the evil "-us Boys", a group which includes
Tyrannus, Annihilus and Titannus. Take a spooky sounding word and add an "-us" suffix. I'm sure there's
a Gonnorheus floating around somewhere. Supremus wears a giant pope hat and lives in a cave. He issues a
warning to the world that he'll soon enslave it. Furthermore, he's causing heatwaves and secretly enciting riots all over
the world!
Cut to "a back street in Washington DC" where Nick Fury is assassinated in his SHIELD office. Four arms holding laser guns
pop out of the wall and shoot him. But wait, what's this? It wasn't Fury, rather it was a hologram of him, courtesy of
Tony Stark. Sooo..then what was that figure that we saw burning on the floor? Images don't burn when someone shoots at 'em.
SHIELD intelligence tells us that the four assasains were an evil French Guy, and evil Afican Guy, an evil
Arab Guy and an evil Euro guy. Be sure to memorize these important names and images...because these guys
don't appear in this book and have no bearing on the plot. But nonetheless, here's your evil scorecard:
|
| Multicultural EVIL Guys! |
My scan's kinda' crappy..but you might be abel to see that Cedric Twigg is "Britain's most inhuman killer". So if
you need to off Karnak or Black Bolt, Cedric's your man. Also, dig the evil Arab named "Pepe".
But back to Supremus and his pope-hat. During his worldwide ultimatum broadcast, Fury noticed that Supremus
said "Sayeeda". Thanks to a helpful edittorial asterisk, Fury knows that this means "goodbye" in Arabic.
Surpremus was also filmed inside a cave...which must be the Caves of Hercules, off the coast of the Meditteranean Sea.
Geography and Foreign Language in one instance! Nick Fury has a future as a public school teacher!
The rest is elementary. Fury flies to Supremus's cave and fights through his deathtraps and flunkies.
He also meets Fatima, the obligatory helpful broad who helps him around the cave. She appears in
a bellydancer outfit and was apparently named after the Ray Stevens tune, "Ahab the Arab". Fatima
is actually Supremus's sister, so she acts as both Female Co-Star and Narrator.
Fury has to hurry (hey, that rhymes)
because Supremus will soon... PRESS A BUTTON to enslave the world. No, Supremus doesn't have to
assemble three rare chemicals, or wait for the planets to align, or wait for a countdown. He simply has
to push a button. This makes him either an extrememly shitty supervillain, or an extremely capable
one.
Well, guess what? With Fatima's help, Fury finds Supremus and stops his fiendish plan of pushing a button.
With one shot Fury takes out Supremus and destroys the evil button machine. Things blow up, but Fury
and Fatima escape! Fury's a one man army and saves the world with one shot. Yeah...that's the story. There is one
interesting wrinkle, though. Supremus was
actually a frail weakling, controlling the giant Supremus figure from the inside. Kinda' like Annihilus or Terminex.
|
| Fatima is entranced by Nick's manliness |
Not too clever of a plot and the art is phoned in. Literally.... the guy who did this was based out of Florida.
Two pages have an interesting layout, as they mix up the typical left-to-right sequence with a
vertical insert. It's not indicative of the usual Marvel style of the time. Jim Steranko was known
for his trippy surrealists covers on SHIELD, but he didn't get the call for this issue (Frank Robbins
was the cover artist).
I don't believe Supremus, Fatima or the Four Worthless Evil Foreign Guys were ever seen again. In his cameo
appearance, Tony Stark is pretty friendly and cooperative with SHIELD. Which backs up Stark's 2006 role as the pro-registration
guru in "Civil War". Of course, Dum Dum Dugan is also around for his usual appearance.
Not one of Nick Fury's highlights. Over the years, his solo titles never seem to sustain interest. His role
as SHIELD chief is usually best served in spot, or background appearances. Aside from Spidey or Cap, Fury's
probably been seen or mentioned in more Marvel funny books than anyone (yes, even Wolverine). He even made
appearances in "Micronauts" and "Godzilla" for poop's sake! Currently, he's starring in the nifty "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance"
video game and will probably play a big role in the conclusion of "Civil War". Fury's manliness knows no bounds.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff all agree: if you ever need to stop someone from pressing a button, get Nick Fury.
Summary: Nick Fury hops into a cave, meets a bellydancer, then shoots something.
Cover price:.12
Rating: .50
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