Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: September 8, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Possibly the most dramatic battle thriller ever written by: Sgt. Stan Lee
Perhaps the finest example yet of the artistic skill of: Cpl. Dick Ayers
A new inking triumph by: Geo. Bell
Another lettering victory by: S. Rosen
20 pages
| Previous | #271 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| X-Men #8 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #33 |
| Sgt. Fury #11 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #13 |
The Howlers are in an English pub. Axis Sally is on the radio. She is broadcasting Nazi propaganda from Berlin, calling on all Americans of German or Italian descent to turn against America and side with their own people. Of course, Dino Manelli is the Italian-American member of the Commandos, and has already had to deal with prejudice within the ranks.
Dino reminds us it’s possible to love his heritage and still want to fight against tyranny.
Axis Sally is likely Mildred Gillars, an America woman who broadcast propaganda for the Germans. After the war, she was the first woman convicted of treason in America and served over a decade in prison. Gillars was not the only “Axis Sally”, but she was one who broadcast out of Berlin.
The Howlers flee the pub before it is hit with a V-1 Buzz Bomb. The plot of the issue will revolve around a mission to find the source of these cruise missiles and put a stop to them.
The “V” in the V series of weapons stands for “Vergeltungswaffen” (“vengeance weapon”).
The Buzz Bomb was introduced in 1944, and I’m pretty sure it’s still supposed to be 1943 in these Sgt. Fury stories. We’ll keep making these notes and eventually try to sort out the timeline.
Crazy image of Fury by Ayers. Check out the eyes.
Fury’s plan for intel is for Manelli to pretend to turn traitor. Manelli is an actor, but the rest of the team are not, so Fury doesn’t tell the team; he wants to keep their reactions authentic. This part of the plan goes badly.
Manelli is successful. He learns why they could never pinpoint the launch site: it was attached to a train and they always fired from a different spot. He gets a message to the Allied bombers to take out the train.
Unfortunately, Fury gets captured and ends up in a POW camp. The Howlers return home down two men. One is MIA; the other they think is a deserter.
Manelli doesn’t return to base to the hero’s welcome he expected, but rather to a court martial. Nobody believes his story, not even his teammates, so he is sentenced to death.
I find this all to be gut-wrenchingly sad. They are all prepared to die in battle fighting by their friends, but this is very different. A simple misunderstanding has left Dino separated from his friends, and about to be killed by the Army he has faithfully and heroically served.
Don’t worry. It all works out. Fury arrives in the nick (heh) of time to vouch for Dino’s story.
It all works out very quickly, though, with the narrator telling us how it ends and seeming to apologize for the rush. Those final panels are a blur of events. I suspect Ayers thought he had one more page to tell the story.
Usually, the Sgt. Fury stories are 21-22 pages. This one is only 20. Lots of titles have been getting pin-up pages this month, and Stan’s decided every title should have a letters page. I am guessing either the pin-up or the letters page cost this issue a story page.
I appreciate Stan’s response to a letter claiming some of his facts about military organization are wrong with a “We were there!” rant.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 54/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Rating is hard. Trying to balance scoring a generally quite good story that fizzles at the end, likely because a page was deleted. It’s a “very good” story with a rough ending. We’ll average that out and call it “good”.
I read this story in Sgt. Fury Epic Collection vol. 1: The Howling Commandos. You can also find the story in Marvel Masterworks: Sgt. Fury vol. 1 . Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Sgt. Nick Fury
- Cpl. Dum-Dum Dugan
- Pvt. “Rebel” Ralston
- Pvt. Gabriel Jones
- Pvt. Izzy Cohen
- Pvt. Percival Pinkerton
- Pvt. Dino Manelli
- Captain Sam Sawyer
Story notes:
- G2 unable to locate buzz bomb base; Howlers to find it and identify it for Allied bombers.
- Sawyer defends Manelli at court martial; Manelli sentenced to firing squad.
- First issue with letters page: “Tell it to Fury”.
| Previous | #271 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| X-Men #8 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #33 |
| Sgt. Fury #11 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #13 |
