Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: July 8, 1965
Cover: October 1965
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Layouts: J. Kirby
Art: J. Severin
Lettering: Art Simek
12 pages
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| Strange Tales #136, Story B | Reading order | Strange Tales #137, Story B |
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Well, we can’t just stand here cryin’ in our soup, like kids! That won’t bring those joes back! We gotta make sure they didn’t cash in their chips for nothin’!
It’s a pretty big deal that Severin is given the cover. Even when Stan’s used different interior artists, he’s wanted Kirby on the cover. Heck’s been the regular artist on Iron Man since day 1, but Kirby’s almost always done the covers. All but one, so far. Kirby got all the Giant-Man covers, whether it was Heck or Ayers on art. But the artist base is starting to expand. Colan’s been doing the Sub-Mariner covers, and now Severin gets a SHIELD cover.
We get something new with the credits. The art attempts to integrate them into the story. Rather than a separate box, they show up on a computer screen at SHIELD HQ.
We see the “Q” scene as Nick Fury gets his fancy gadgeted clothing. The dialogue is pretty rote at this point. “Why are you giving me an ordinary hat?” “Ho ho, it just looks like an ordinary hat…”
I think the hat is cool because it seems like it might actually work. There’s nothing too fancy going on in their diagram. A hat whose brim works like a periscope to allow you to see what’s going on behind you.
I’m not sure I would want to wear a suit made of explosive fabric.
We then get a pretty excellent sequence that puts this story into the category of less light fare than some of the superhero books. A traitor to Hydra tries to get microfilm to SHIELD. He gets it to a SHIELD agent on a train before being killed. The agent on the train then gets it to SHIELD agents in a fancy car, and then sacrifices his life to slow down the Hydra agents in pursuit.
The car turns into a submarine, but encounters Hydra’s underwater force. The SHIELD agents choose death to avoid the capture of themselves and their fancy car. Wow. Four dead in 3 pages, all for a mission that ended in failure. All for nothing, really.
We see Gabe and Dum Dum as SHIELD agents. We knew they were working with SHIELD already because we’d met them in Fantastic Four Annual 3, released one week prior to this. We already knew they’d survived World War II to fight in the Korean War from Sgt. Fury Annual 1. We now know they survived that to become agents of SHIELD in the 60s. This story takes place about 20 years after their adventures with the Commandos, so they must be in their late 30s or early 40s.
The microfilm had the location of Hydra’s bomb it’s about to launch into orbit to hold Earth hostage with.
We meet high-powered executive Leslie Farrington and his meek assistant Brown. Some connection to Hydra is implied. Could Farrington be the Master of Hydra?
We met Agent G in issue 135, but she was called Agent H then. Perhaps this represents a promotion?
We learn she’s the Master’s daughter, and that he thinks he’s doing all this for her. But she just wants a normal life. Last we’d seen her, she’d been quite happy to murder a fellow Hydra agent to attain her promotion.
I’m reminded of the great moment near the end of Breaking Bad when after a whole series of Walt insisting he was doing it all for his family, he was finally ready to admit, “I did it for me”. The Master of Hydra has not yet reached that level of introspection.
We see the full weight of SHIELD’s failure in the end when the bomb is launched into orbit. Nick and his gang are too late to stop it. SHIELD has failed. Hydra has won.
I’ll note that with this issue, Hydra is escalating its plans to directly threaten the world. In the previous issues, the focus had been on trying to find and kill Nick Fury, using a bit more subtlety and subterfuge. The appearance of Hydra in Avengers #19 seems to reflect an earlier state of their plans, and thus fits best before this issue. The Avengers story must take place somewhere between issues 135 and 141.
We’ll come right back here once we check in with Dr. Strange in the back half of this comic.
Rating: ★★★½, 67/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
This is good enough to knock Sgt. Fury #5 off the Best We’ve Read page. One Nick Fury comic for another. That one had introduced Nick’s arch-nemesis Baron Strucker.
Characters:
- Col. Nick Fury/Agent A-1
- Agent L
- Dum Dum Dugan
- Gabe Jones
- Leslie Farrington
- Hydra Leader/The Master/Brown
- Agent G
Minor characters:
- Bill (SHIELD agent killed on mission)
- Joe (SHIELD agent killed on mission)
Story notes:
- Hydra preparing to launch attack on nations of the world.
- Fury examines captured saucer-type Hydra craft.
- Fury reflects on how well-funded Hydra must be, and that not even Hydra agents know the identity of the man in charge.
- Hydra has price of $1 million on Fury.
- Hat functions like periscope to see behind him. Cool because it’s simple and might actually work.
- Tony Stark head of department behind many gadgets.
- Self-destructing tie with built-in microphone; shirt that explodes when torn. I don’t know if I’d want to wear a shirt that explodes.
- Bulletproof suit made of flexible steel.
- In Balkans, Agent L has betrayed Hydra and is delivering microfilm to SHIELD. A Hydra agent disguised as a flower seller kills him, but a SHIELD agent gets the film.
- SHIELD agent resorts to Emergency Plan X3.
- HUAF: Hydra Undersea Assault Force
- SHIELD car switches to marine-drive to go underwater.
- Dugan confirms all 3 agents are killed. Microfilm lost.
- Microfilm contained launch site of Betatron Bomb, which Hydra is about to launch into orbit.
- Pneumatic car transports them to SHIELD airport.
- IBP (Intercontinental Ballistics Plane) waiting at SHIELD Airport. Similar to B-70, rocket engine ship can reach 5000 miles per hour by sailing at the edge of space where there is no wind resistance.
- Gabe notes Fury answers directly to the President.
- Leslie Farrington named Chairman of Board of one of most powerful corporations in Western Hemisphere.
- Agent G is daughter of Master; he claims he’s taking over the world for her, as her mother died in poverty.
- Betatron bomb launched.
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|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #136, Story B | Reading order | Strange Tales #137, Story B |
| Strange Tales #136, Story B | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #137, Story B |
This is great 👍