Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: October 8, 1964
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Written and drawn by the Titanic Two: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inked by: Dick Ayers
Lettered by: A. Simek
23 pages
| Previous | #283 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man #20 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #34 |
| Sgt. Fury #12 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #14 |
Jack Kirby returns for one final issue of Sgt. Fury, likely motivated by the choice of guest star. Under Kirby, this was one of Marvel’s best titles. It’s perhaps lost a step under Ayers, though remains one of the better series we are reading.
So far, one could almost question why we are reading this World War II series along with all the superhero ones. It is certainly the odd duck in my reading list. We have had two points of crossover so far. The Commandos teamed with a young Mr. Fantastic when he was Major Richards of the OSS, and we saw an older Colonel Fury team up with the Fantastic Four. This is the third point of crossover between Nick Fury and the superhero titles. There will be more.
One thing Kirby had was a strong sense of comic timing. Nick is a little unhappy to watch a reel of himself in action and find the cinema not cheering for his team. Pam assures him that the English are just more reserved than Americans in showing their emotion. But then Captain America and Bucky come onscreen, and the English are suddenly cheering loudly at the screen.
The basic theme of the issue is that Sgt. Fury thinks Captain America is just for show. He wears a fancy costume and gets the glory while Fury’s boys do the real work. Fury and Sgt. Bull McGiveney don’t agree on much, but they share this assessment of Captain America.
Fury and Pam are enjoying themselves in a pub. As usual around Pam, Fury is trying to be on his best behavior, daintily sipping tea. However, Fury can’t abide bullies in general, and dislikes McGiveney in particular. So when McGiveney starts picking on a (rather familiar looking) private sitting at a table, Fury intervenes, ignoring Pam’s objections. Of course, a fight between Fury and McGiveney never stays just between them. Both their squads want in on the action. Chaos ensues.
Captain America and Bucky embark on a secret mission into “Nazi-land”.
Speaking of humor, let’s look to this scene between Captain Sawyer and Izzy during a judo training session.
In modern comics, there will be back and forth over whether Captain America and Bucky used guns, with 1980s Marvel comics tending to say they didn’t, and 2000s Marvel comics suggesting they carried them regularly. In this issue, we see what we had also seen in the 40s comics. Neither regularly carried a gun, but both were happy to use whatever tools were handy. Here, Bucky picks up a dropped gun and starts firing. That’s a pretty common practice for Bucky.
We learn the Howling Commandos had recently been passed over for promotion, which is bizarre given their many successes. Sawyer thinks they need a more high profile mission, like teaming up with Captain America. Fury is eager for the job if only to prove his Commandos are the real soldiers, and Captain America is all show.
The Howlers get separated in a fight. Gabe is injured and Izzy sees him back to England.
Fury and Ralston end up captured. On the prison train, they meet two suspicious people. One is the private from the pub in England. How did he get there when they know there have been no other deployments? Then there’s the member of the Hitler Jugend (youth) overseeing them. His english is surprisingly good for a young German.
The featured team-up is actually pretty short. Fury doesn’t meet Captain America (in uniform) until page 19. They work together through page 21.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the significant meeting of the two World War II icons. By this point, Fury has changed his tune and recognizes Captain America as a genuine soldier.
We’ve seen Kirby incorporating photo collages into the pages of Fantastic Four to depict deep space or Namor’s undersea realm. Now we see the technique turned to depicting a big explosion from World War II.
This is only our second time seeing Bucky in the Marvel Age, the first being a flashback to when he died near the end of the war. Remembering that adds a bit of pathos to the lighthearted adventures of this kid too young to be fighting in a war alongside a superhero.
In about 2 months time, Stan and Jack will be using Captain America’s own series in Tales of Suspense to give us adventures of Captain America in the 1940s, which will soon include his World War II battles. This issue is likely a warm-up for that, perhaps a chance to gauge fan reaction a little sooner.
Rating: ★★★½, 68/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
The scans are mostly taken from a 1994 JCPenney reprinting. I’d gotten a set of them at a young age, likely as a Christmas gift from my parents. The first early Marvel comics I read are from this JCPenney set. This was the “Vintage Pack”.
It included the following comics:
- Young Men #25 (1954)
- Amazing Adult Fantasy #13 (1962)
- Sgt. Fury #13 (1964)
- Thor King-Size Special #2 (1966)
- Fantastic Four #66-67 (1967)
- Uncanny X-Men #28, 62-63 (1967, 1969)
- Amazing Spider-Man Special #5 (1968)
- Sub-Mariner #8 (1968)
- Captain America #109 (1968)
- Avengers #88 (1971)
- Incredible Hulk #140 (1971)
- Tomb of Dracula #25 (1974)
Unfortunately, the JCPenney reprint was only 22 pages, and the original comic was 23 pages. So they deleted most of page 12, moving the first panel to the end of page 11.
The JCPenney reprint seems to be taken not from the original comic, but from a reprint in Special Marvel Edition #11 (1973). That reprint had the same deletions, as well as the change to the endnote you see below.
That first deleted panel was important to my commentary above, as it shows Bucky picking up a Nazi gun he then fires. My reprint skips ahead to him firing a gun, without clarifying it hadn’t been his.
You can find this story in Sgt. Fury Epic Collection vol. 1: The Howling Commandos or Marvel Masterworks: Sgt. Fury vol. 1 . Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Sgt. Nick Fury
- Percy Pinkerton
- Rebel Ralston
- Izzy Cohen
- Gabe Jones
- Dino Manelli
- Dum-Dum Dugan
- Pam Hawley
- Captain America
- Bucky
- Sgt. Bull McGiveney
- Captain “Happy Sam” Sawyer
Minor characters
- Manfred (German soldier)
- Heinrich (German soldier)
Story notes:
- A theater in Britain shows clips of the Commandos, as well as Captain America and Bucky. Nick and Pam are in attendance.
- Captain America and Bucky are coming to Britain.
- Captain America and Bucky to inspect arms build-up and determine if an invasion of Britain is imminent.
- Nazis transporting slave laborers from Poland, Czechoslovakia and France.
- Cap and Bucky save American pilots from execution.
- Grenade injures Gabe’s leg. Cohen takes him back to England.
- Operation Einfall (Invasion)
| Previous | #283 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man #20 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #34 |
| Sgt. Fury #12 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #14 |
