Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: November 10, 1966
Cover: February 1967
12 cents
Seldom-equalled editing by Stan Lee
Seldom-surpassed scripting by Roy Thomas
Seldom-lacking layouts by Jack Kirby
Seldom-rivaled rendering by Jim Steranko
Seldom-legible lettering by Artie Simek
12 pages
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| Strange Tales #152, Story B | Reading order | Strange Tales #153, Story B |
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The hour of Hydra has come at last– And nothing that the human race can do will cease our relentless march toward world domination!
Steranko takes on the cover solo, and does an impressive job. He probably won’t need Kirby’s handholding much longer.
Inside, it’s still the Kirby/Steranko art team, with the art seeming more and more Steranko each issue. What’s changed is the writer. Thomas has been the regular on X-Men and Sgt. Fury and occasionally filled in elsewhere. This is in that fill-in category. He won’t be a regular writer on this series.
We open in the barbershop. Not clear the status of it after the attack by AIM. Is it still a SHIELD base? Is it still secret?
We recognize the two agents working in the barbershop, but still haven’t learned their names.
We do learn the name of Agent H this issue. Laura Brown. We’d inferred her surname before. She’s being granted amnesty by the president.
In another example as to why I don’t trust the issue references given in editor’s notes, this note refers to Laura’s betrayal of Hydra taking place in Strange Tales #133. Not only is that wrong, it wasn’t even Nick Fury’s title yet! That was a Human Torch story.
Laura’s now a Hydra target, and it’s up to Sitwell and Jones to protect her.
Last issue, Supreme Hydra shed his Don Caballero disguise to become Emir Ali-Bey. He’s already tired of that one, and will be assuming a new one. We still don’t know his true identity.
One Hydra agent notes how intense his hatred for SHIELD and particularly Nick Fury is. It seems to be personal. That’s a clue for those of you playing along with the “who is Supreme Hydra” game.
Agent O is responsible for Supreme Hydra’s makeover. Or Maybe it’s Agent 0. Hard to tell. O or zero?
Fury and Dugan lead the charge to rescue Laura Brown, along with Sitwell and Jones. One agent, Agent Bronson, does particularly well and gets Fury’s attention. He is assigned to personally escort Brown to safety.
Unfortunately, the real Agent Bronson is a prisoner of Hydra. This is the Supreme Hydra in disguise.
I’m not certain as we hadn’t gotten a good look at the agent’s face, but the real Bronson may be the agent captured at Karnopolis in issue 150.
Impressed by Agent Bronson, Nick asks if he had fought in WWII as well. Bronson notes he was in a Commando Squad as well. Is this a lie on the Supreme Hydra’s part? Or is it another clue to his identity?
Gabe and Dum Dum playing poker is a nice callback to their regular games in the pages of Sgt. Fury. Dugan laments how he always lost. But finally decades later he has a winning hand.
Until Sitwell sneezes.
Again, not a bad break point for Nick Fury. But we’ll keep reading on because Dr. Strange is still trying to rescue Clea from Umar next issue.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 57,100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Characters:
- Colonel Nick Fury
- Male barber
- Female barbershop agent
- Jasper Sitwell
- Gabe Jones
- Laura Brown
- Dum Dum Dugan
- Supreme Hydra/Arnold Brown
- Supreme Hydra/Emir Ali-Bey/Agent Bronson
- Agent O (maybe Agent 0?)
Story notes:
- Recap of recent events while Nick gets shave.
- President pushing through amnesty for Agent H, whose true name is Laura Brown.
- Laura had been staying in Hydra only to talk her father out of it.
- Hydra initiates Plan K to attack Laura’s transport.
- Motorcycles strike and seem to destroy SHIELD car before it can lift into air.
- Section Phoenix is ready for next transformation of Supreme Hydra.
- SHIELD techs installing Ultra-magnetic stabilizer in captured Hydra saucer. Fury and Dugan install magni-force repulsor. Tony Stark designed gizmo to put force field around Hydra saucer.
- SHIELD lost contact with Sitwell and Jones in Sector Three. Fury gets emergency clearance to take the saucer after them. Dugan is ordered back to sick bay, but comes along anyway.
- Sitwell, Jones, and Brown… alive and prisoners.
- Agent O prepares new face for Supreme Hydra; his face matches a prisoner of theirs.
- Dugan calls for reinforcements to Sector 3-A2.
- Supreme Hydra boards Helicarrier disguised as Agent Bronson
- Supreme Hydra as Bronson gases truck, and Fury thinks he’s a hero. Recommends for a citation.
- Jones, Sitwell, Dugan, all recovering.
- “Bronson” assigned to escort Laura safely
- Dugan and Jones play poker; Dugan recalls many losses to Ralston.
| Previous | #620 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #152, Story B | Reading order | Strange Tales #153, Story B |
| Strange Tales #152, Story B | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #153, Story B |
