However, fans would soon learn that you can't keep a good spy dead for long as Fury would reappear in the pages of Avengers #72 a year later in 1970. Obviously, Bullseye didn't off Nick Fury. It was one of those handy-dandy Life Model Decoys that kicked the bucket. (A small aside. Has there ever been a storyline where a LMD thought it really was Nick Fury and once faced with the real McCoy the android went berserk and took over for the director of SHIELD? That would be an awesome story! If it has been done; where do I find this amazing tale?)
At about the same time Nick's death was being addressed with the Avengers, Marvel decided to bring back Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. Instead of a new volume starting at issue #1, the House of Ideas decided to continue on with issue #16. However instead of rehashing what occurred in Avengers #72, Marvel inexplicably decided to reprint a trio of Fury's very first SHIELD story line with material that appeared in Strange Tales #135-138. Featuring scripts by Stan Lee, plotting and layouts by Jack Kirby and final art by John Severin. Let's not forget lettering by 'Artful' Artie Simek! Issues 17 and 18 contained reprinted material from Strange Tales as well. The only new material were the covers. Marie Severin penciled this cover as well as #17. Big brother John assisted Herb Trimpe for the finale cover.
If these 3 issues were Marvel's ways of testing the waters for interest in a new SHIELD, it didn't work. After a decade that saw a glut of super spy and Cold War clock & dagger properties, the 1970s signaled an cooling off period for the genre. Nick Fury would pop up in other titles, especially the pages of Captain America. He'd also partake a few solo missions in some of Marvel's showcase series.
With the Reagan 80s bringing the Cold War into the 21st century and beyond with futuristic programs like Star Wars, interest in the clandestine adventures of Col. Fury and SHIELD reignited. He took on SHIELD after discovering the agency had been corrupted by ROXXON in Nick Fury Vs SHIELD. Then in 1989, Fury starred in his first of 3 graphic novel team ups with the X-Man Wolverine while also starring in the third Volume of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD ( volume 2 was another reprint series) which ran for 47 issues.
Classics. But when I bought this I was hoping for the rest of the story. Not reprints.
Completing this review completes Task #9 (With the Word 'Agent' in the Title) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
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