History ComicBook / FuryMyWarGoneBy

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Of the main characters, Hatherly comes closest to this. Though he [[spoiler:dies thinking everything he did was [[AllForNothing all for nothing]]]], he manages to have a loving family and live his life without compromising his innate idealism, even using his last moments to comfort Shirley. Everyone else, on the other hand, is either killed ([[spoiler:Pug]]), commit suicide ([[spoiler:Shirley) or wind up realizing that their life has ultimately been utterly empty and meaningless (Fury).

** In a related sense, one of the themes of the series is essentially how US foreign policy, frequently based on cynical and self-serving ends that obscured the noble ideals it claimed to represent and which led to various atrocities and (arguably) unnecessary conflicts, gradually managed to degrade the popular image of the average American soldier from the heroic savior from World War 2 to the sociopathic avatar of authoritarianism and oppression in the minds of many. Nick Fury himself, once a hero who faced down entire armies and single-handedly destroyed tanks on foot to liberate concentration camps, in the end becomes nothing but a killer who goes to far away places for nothing but the love of combat, and screws scores of prostitutes in his spare time.

* NotSoDifferent: Letrong Giap, a brutal Vietcong captain whom Fury encounters and fights twice in Vietnam, but ultimately neither of them manage to kill the other. Decades later, after the end of the Cold War Fury meets Giap again in peaceful circumstances. Giap talks about how they are very much alike, both men who did horrible things without remorse because they believed their cause was just. But in the end the regime they fought for was just as greedy and corrupt as any other.

** In fact, ''every'' chapter ends on a DownerEnding. The Vietnamese allow Fury to go back to his superiors as the sole survivor of the attack, the Cuban invasion fails completely, the evidence linking the CIA to narcotrafficking burns up (ensuring the Vietnam War won't be shortened), the CIA-backed narcotrafficking in Nicaragua will continue as if nothing happened, Hatherly [[spoiler:dies thinking everything he did was AllForNothing and his family hates Nick]], Shirley [[spoiler:murders her husband's mistress, her husband and then shoots herself after years of alcoholism]].

** Steinhoff loses his own eyes during the final Viet Minh attack on the French base. Its not shown, but the wounds look like shrapnel damage from the artillery.

** Steinhoff loses his own eyes during the guerilla attack on the base. Its not shown, but the wounds look like shrapnel damage from the artillery.

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Averted: the French troops are quite competent if under-equipped. Even the former-SS doesn't mind taking orders from them.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Five years after the atrocities in Nicaragua, Fury retaliates on Barracuda by [[CrowningMomentOFAwesome breaking most of his bones in a darkened room by beating him with a baseball bat]] while wearing NightVisionGoggles.

* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Explored, deconstructed and gradually inverted. Despite his regard for the other man Fury himself tends to look down on the idealistic Hatherly as someone who doesn't really understand the world that they live in and the necessity of the brutal, cynical and terrible actions they and their leaders are involved in, such as backing oppressive regimes, assassinating world leaders, performing illegal actions in other countries and general {{Realpolitik}} in order to oppose communism. [[spoiler: By the end, however, Fury is burned out, has lost everything and everyone he values, and realises that everything he did in the Cold War was essentially pointless and unnecessarily harmful and didn't really improve anything, and that if there'd been more good idealists like Hatherly running things the world might have been a lot better. In essence, it's Fury realising that SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers]]

Second ''ComicBook/NickFury'' comic series released on the Creator/MarvelComics' [[Creator/MarvelMAX MAX]] imprint, which ran for thirteen issues between 2012 and 2013. Just like ''ComicBook/FuryMax'', which preceded it by over a decade (it is unclear if the two works share a continuity, despite both being MAX), this was written by Creator/GarthEnnis.

** In a related sense, one of the themes of the series is essentially how US foreign policy, frequently based on cynical and self-serving ends that obscured the noble ideals it claimed to represent and which led to various atrocities and (arguably) unnecessary conflicts, gradually managed to degrade the popular image of the average American soldier from the heroic savior from World War 2 to the sociopathic avatar of authoritarianism and oppression in the minds of many QED Nick Fury himself, once a hero who faced down entire armies and single-handedly destroyed tanks on foot to liberate concentration camps, in the end nothing but a killer who goes to far away places for nothing but the love of combat, and screws scores of prostitutes in his spare time.

* AffablyEvil: Steinhoff (a German veteran of WWII) explains that he had nothing to do with the death camps, on the Eastern front they just had the Jews dig a trench and shot them. He fails to see why this distinction fails to placate the Americans.

* TheAllegedBoss: The character Barracuda is in charge of his outfit despite only being a sergeant and having two officers above him. This is what makes Nick Fury suspect corruption.

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Averted: the French troops are quite competent. Even the former-SS doesn't mind taking orders from them.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: ''Greatly'' deconstructed throughout the series. Elite formations such as the SAS, Green Berets, Delta Force and Spetsnaz ''are'' more glamorous to civilians and rank-and-file soldiers, and they're certainly trained and equipped to make spectacular splashes... but ultimately, they're too few in number to actually win wars. That's the job of the great masses of the regular armies, navies and air forces, who endure horror, boredom and vastly more casualties (and for much longer) to assure a lasting victory. So, they may be ''glamorous'', but they're not as ''effective'' as many would believe. And that belief - that a handful of elite "super-soldiers" could make the rest of them irrelevant - was what ultimately led America to attempt some very stupid things, thinking the elites would always succeed.m

* GratuitousFrench: Steinhoff's French is somewhat lacking, though still comprehensible.

* BloodKnight: Cheff Steinhoff, a Nazi war criminal, evaded capture after WWII and joined the French Foreign Legion to continue fighting in wars. He has no problem with the atrocities he has committed, which includes executing Jews, and instead views these actions as his duty as a soldier.

** [[spoiler:Cheff Steinhoff]]. He may have died in the defense of a doomed French outpost in Indochina, but he got to die in a manner which he was quite happy with, instead of facing the firing squad he thoroughly deserved.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: ''Greatly'' deconstructed throughout the series. Elite formations such as the SAS, Green Berets, Delta Force and Spetsnaz ''are'' more glamorous to civilians and rank-and-file soldiers, and they're certainly trained and equipped to make spectacular splashes... but ultimately, they're too few in number to actually win wars. That's the job of the great masses of the regular armies, navies and air forces, who endure horror, boredom and vastly more casualties (and for much longer) to assure a lasting victory. So, they may be ''glamorous'', but they're not as ''effective'' as many would believe. And that belief - that a handful of elite "super-soldiers" could make the rest of them irrelevant - was what ultimately led America to attempt some very stupid things, thinking the elites would always succeed.
-->The way we told the story, it was guys like us who beat the Krauts and the Japs by stealth alone: we were a stiletto in the heart, not a baseball bat the army kept on swinging blindly at the head. We were airborne jumping in at midnight, or frogmen swimming from torpedo tubes of submarines. We blew up bridges, gunned down generals, set light to every fuel or ammo dump we found. By the time we were done, the enemy was a headless chicken, skidding towards the battlefield on a slick of its own shit.\\
When really, the war was won by the grunt in his foxhole, sitting in a foot of water for a month. The Navy gunner who keeps on firing, even when the fucking kamikaze crashes down his throat. The kid who climbs into his B-17 for one more mission, pissing his pants to Berlin and back, coming home with the co-pilot's intestines slopping in his lap. Again, and again, and again. For what seems like forever.\\
But we saw it differently. Our secret missions had to have done something, right? So we found the evidence we needed and ignored the rest, just to sell the notion that the Special Forces-the little units that could do '''so much'''-were the future. And somewhere along the way, we got the idea there was nothing that we couldn't do.

-->'''Nick Fury''': If you can build rockets, you can have a job. Just like if you can kick a couple of platoons into shape, hold off a night attack when the odds are fucked and a sane man would shit himself. The French don't care about Steinhoff's past, not so long as he can fight like he does.

-->This is not French Indochina, Colonel Fury. It is not French anything. This is '''Vietnam.'''

-->'''George Hatherly''': "Hey, if you can make money from narcotics and use your war for cover-why not use that to pay for your war?" And you know what you get then? You get Barracuda.

-->'''"Pug"''': Here we are at last, Colonel. Everything we've hinted at or talked around for thirty years. Of the two motives--[[PatrioticFervor American interests]] and [[BloodKnight a love affair with the gods of destruction]]--which do you think would resonate more strongly with our fellow warmongers here in Washington? [[NotSoDifferent Which]] of us is [[ArmorPiercingQuestion worse]]?

-->'''George Hatherly''': This is what comes of fighting secret wars, Nick. Too much unchecked power. Eventually someone gets the idea to use it to make a buck, like those three idiots in Saigon. Then someone else says, "Hey, if you can make money from narcotics and use your war for cover-why not use that to pay for your war?" And you know what you get then? You get Barracuda.

* SleazyPolitician: Pug. While it is very strongly hinted that he is also a CorruptPolitician who profits quite a lot from the various illegal activities that Fury comes up against, nothing can be proven on that front. What ''can'' be proven is that he's a largely smug, unpleasant and slimy individual with numerous distasteful personal habits.

-->'''George Hatherly''': ''Hey, if you can make money from narcotics and use your war for cover-why not use that to pay for your war? And you know what you get then? You get Barracuda.''
** In a related sense, one of the themes of the series is essentially how US foreign policy, frequently based on cynical and self-serving ends that obscured the noble ideals it claimed to represent and which led to various atrocities and (arguably) unnecessary conflicts, gradually managed to degrade the popular image of the average American soldier from the heroic savior from World War 2 to the sociopathic avatar of authoritarianism and oppression in the minds of many.

-->'''Nick Fury''': If you can build rockets, you have a job. Just like if you can kick a couple of platoons into shape, hold off a night attack when the odds are fucked and a sane man would shit himself. The French don't care about Steinhoff's past, not so long as he can fight like he does.

----
->The American flag symbolizes the debt we owe to the past, and the responsibility we owe to the future. It's right there for all to see. Blood on the bandaged wounds of brave men, and all the stars in the sky.

* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Explored, deconstructed and gradually inverted. Despite his regard for the other man Fury himself tends to look down on the idealistic Hatherly as someone who doesn't really understand the world that they live in and the necessity of the brutal, cynical and terrible actions they and their leaders are involved in, such as backing oppressive regimes, assassinating world leaders, performing illegal actions in other countries and general {{Realpolitik}} in order to oppose communism. [[spoiler: By the end, however, Fury is burned out, has lost everything and everyone he values, and realises that everything he did in the Cold War was essentially pointless and unnecessarily harmful and didn't really improve anything, and that if there'd been more good idealists like Hatherly running things the world might have been a lot better. In essence, it's Fury realising that SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers.]]

----

But we saw it differently. Our secret missions had to have done something, right? So we found the evidence we needed and ignored the rest, just to sell the notion that the Special Forces-the little unites that could do '''so much'''-were the future. And somewhere along the way, we got the idea there was nothing that we couldn't do.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: ''Greatly'' deconstructed throughout the series. Elite formations such as the SAS, Green Berets, Delta Force and Spetsnaz ''are'' more glamorous to civilians and rank-and-file soldiers, and they're certainly trained and equipped to make spectacular splashes... but ultimately, they're too few in number to actually win wars. That's the job of the great masses of the regular armies, navies and air forces, who endure horror, boredom and vastly more casualties (and for much longer) to assure a lasting victory. So, they may be ''glamorous'', but they're not as ''effective'' as many would believe.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Despite the realistic tone of the series, Nick Fury ages very slowly compared to everyone else around him, and no matter what he does "just can't seem to die".

* TheIdealist: Hatherly starts out this way, having been raised and trained with the myth of the heroic soldier in the aftermath of WW2. He's soon confronted with the shitshow reality of international politics and just how little ideals really matter, especially in war.

* BloodKnight: Cheff Steinhoff, a Nazi war criminal, evaded capture after WWII and joined the French Legion to continue fighting in wars. He has no problem with the atrocities he has committed, which includes executing Jews, and instead views these actions as his duty as a soldier.