Strange Tales #148

Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD!
Release: June 9, 1966
Cover: September 1966
12 cents
Edited (in absentia) by… Stan Lee
Layouts and script by… Jack Kirby
Pencilling and inking by… Don Heck
Lettering by… Sam Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#580	Next
Avengers #33	Reading order	Strange Tales #148, Story B
Strange Tales #147, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #148, Story B

But Nick Fury… plays every game… his way!

Part of the month when Stan is on vacation. Kirby did the script. Stan still claims to have edited the comic while also claiming to not be in the office. His name still comes first in the credits.

The first script we’ve seen Kirby get credit for in our Marvel reading.

Certainly not the first script Kirby deserved credit for.

The battle against AIM/Them continues. I’d almost gotten in my head that AIM and Them were just different names for the same organization. But then last issue AIM was described as a branch of Them.

Now the narrator tells us AIM is in league with Them.

After a failed attempt to kill Nick Fury, Count Bornag Royale notes that AIM must improve its prestige with Them. That suggests there really is a distinction. My current thinking is that AIM is a branch of Them.

Sitwell “red teams” Fury’s security, showing how he can break into Fury’s quarters. Fury isn’t appreciative and chews Sitwell out. There seems to be some tension between the two.

AIM’s plan comes to fruition as Nick Fury is placed on trial for his failures to defend freedom. Which mostly come down to not shaving and not wearing a collared shirt.

AIM had been spying on SHIELD and noted the tensions with Sitwell. They thought Sitwell would be their key character assassination witness. But the tension was all a ruse. Sitwell would never betray Fury.

Neither would his other loyal aides like Dugan or Gabe Jones. Except that, come to think of it, it’s been a few issues since we’ve seen Gabe Jones.

The trial ends suddenly when Nick Fury unceremoniously jumps through the window of the Helicarrier high in the sky.

AIM thought they’d been manipulating everything, but Fury had a counter plan all along. Next issue we’ll see the final battle with AIM, and also learn more about how the Secret Empire fell.

It’s worth noting that I’ve complained a fair bit about Don Heck’s work on Avengers. He’s doing much better here. Part of that is that he may be better at drawing normal faces than superhero costumes. But part of that is surely Kirby’s layouts. Heck is a fine comic artist. But unlike Kirby, Ditko, or Wood, he wasn’t up to the demands of pacing the story himself, having been used to working with a writer who could do that for him.

Rating: ★★★☆☆, 54/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆

Characters:

• Nick Fury
• Dum-Dum Dugan
• Jasper Sitwell
• Count Bornag Royale

Minor characters:

• Hogan (SHIELD agent)

Story notes:

• Explosion in SHIELD detention section where AIM agents were kept for interrogation.
• AIM described as in league with Them.
• Explosion noted to be thermal blast. Dugan orders anti-thermal chemicals to be sprayed on Nick.
• Nick given maximum dose of vita-fluid.
• It wasn’t Nick who was dying, but a Life Model Decoy.
• AIM blew up prisoners by remote.
• With the death of the prisoners, SHIELD still needs evidence AIM is bad.
• AIM grows artificial men by chemical means in hydroponic chambers; SHIELD’s method of producing LMDs is superior.
• Count Royale seeks to improve AIM’s prestige with Them.
• Council of Free Nations to bring Fury before board of inquiry.
• Royale travels to Free Nations’ Justice Department to testify against Fury.
• Tri-di-roentgen hand-gun projects x-rays to render an object transparent.
• Daily Bulletin reports on Fury’s trial.
• AIM strikes at SHIELD’s hidden airport, after the LMDs.
• Space-drive propellant couldn’t be displayed in Helicarrier; it seemed as if SHIELD didn’t want it.
• General notes Fury has a poor executive image because he acts like he’s still in the foxhole.
• AIM has captured SHIELD rocket car.
• Royale thinks Sitwell wants Fury’s job and will speak against him.
• Fury exits hearing, parachuting out. Dugan picks him up to go take on AIM.

Previous	#580	Next
Avengers #33	Reading order	Strange Tales #148, Story B
Strange Tales #147, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #148, Story B