Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #16 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In the 15th issue of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, the super spy was killed off by a gun-toting assassin named Bullseye. The death of Nick Fury marked the end of the spygame comic despite a 'To Be Continued' tagline. 

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.

True Believers: The Other Hulks #1

Marvel's True Believers comics were an amazing assortment of one-shot reprints of great moments in Marvel history. And they were only $1! The House of Ideas released a slew of them, typically about 3-4 a week, usually to coincide with the debut of a more expensive trade paperback. They were great previews of the more vast material on the market. An excellent way to introduce kids to comics affordably. And for a bargain hunter like myself, cheap ways to own more expensive and harder to find back issues. 

And then 2020 hit. Comic book publishers, like just about everything else, shut down. And we never heard from True Believers ever again!

This 2019 one-shot looks at some other characters to carry the moniker of The Hulk. We're not talking about Gen. Thunderbolt Ross as the Red Hulk or Jennifer Walters as She-Hulk. No Hulkling or Totally Awesome (but really not) Amadeus Cho. In fact, both of the Hulks in this book pre-date the Bruce Banner real-deal by almost 2 full years!

The first story taken from 1960's Journey Into Mystery #62 doesn't really introduce us to a character known as Hulk. Instead, we meet for the first time the cybernetic behemoth and eventual Incredible Hulk foe, Xemnu! His debut story is titled 'I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk' and it's told from the perspective of small town electrician Joe Harper who stumbles across Xemnu's crashed space ship on the way to a repair job. 

Harper notices the electronic attachments on the unconscious 'hulk's' body in a nearby swamp and figures that if he can repair those parts, it might save the alien and potentially benefit mankind. Only the alien, now referring to himself as Xemnu, promises to destroy the earth in efforts to escape back to the stars. Using hypnosis, Xemnu's plot almost works as the populace builds the creature with a new spaceship with enough nuclear power to rip Earth in half upon liftoff. That is until Joe Harper reveals that he wasn't really hypnotized and saves humanity by....

Oh, no you don't! I'm not going to spoil it! You'll just have to read JITM #62 for yourselves to find out what happens.

The second story is from Strange Tales #75. Also from 1960, this story is about a mad scientist who plans revenge on the world by creating a massive robotic 'hulk.' Once inside the robot shell, the scientist will have unlimited power and strength to become the ruler of Earth. All of this just because some guy accidentally broke one of the professor's experiments. 

Like many odd and eerie tales of the era, this story has a great twist ending. In the vein of EC Comics. Just not as gory or violent. But definitely a vindictive comeuppance against a bitter villain!

I love these old stories from when Atlas comics was just transitioning into Marvel Comics. Featuring artwork by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, and potentially scripts by Stan Lee, I've never comic across a bad story from this era. I'd really love to know what collections these 2 stories are a part of. They'd make great additions to my comic book collection and I assume the bigger works would make great reads just like this comparatively small 30-pager.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

SHIELD by Lee and Kirby: The Complete Collection

He's the world's last line of defense against secret organizations that seek to dominate all mankind. He is Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD! Relive Col. Fury's earliest exploits as the director of  Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division or SHIELD. 

In the 1960s, spy flicks were all the rage. 007 himself, James Bond, was saving the world from the likes of Dr. No and Goldfinger. Napoleon Solo was defeating the criminal organization of THRUSH as the Man from UNCLE. There were countless others, such as Secret Agent Man, Our Man Flint and the comedic Maxwell Smart. But none were as ornery or fantastic as Nick Fury!

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby crafted a non-superhero corner of the Marvel Universe with this title. Fury, along with war buddies Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones and SHIELD graduate upstart, Jasper Sitwell, took on the likes of Hydra and A.I.M. (Advanced Ideal Mechanics.)

My favorite parts of Marvel Comics has always been about the espionage. I loved Captain America and his battle against fascism as a SHIELD operative. Nick Fury and his team have always entertained with their amazing gadgets, zany villain dictators and alluring femme fatales. Plus, it helps that I was a big fan of the other Nick Fury title, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos!

I love this collection of stories. It did not disappoint! Now I have to get the companion piece, SHIELD by Steranko: The Complete Collection. I have to read the rest of Fury's adventures in the pages of Strange Tales!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.