Comic Book / Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1968)

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a 1968 comic book series from Marvel Comics. Writing and art were initially both by Jim Steranko, with Joe Sinnott providing inks over Steranko's pencil art.

Set in the shared Marvel Universe, it's a continuation of the series of the same name that ran in Strange Tales, one of Marvel's Anthology Comics. Nick Fury was initially introduced as a World War II action hero, as the star of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, but the Strange Tales stories followed his adventures to the present day, with Fury now a super-spy - the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., the titular law enforcement agency.

Steranko left after #5 (although he continued as cover artist for a few more issues), and from #9 onwards Gary Friedrich became the new regular writer, working with several different artists.

The series ended with issue #18 but the last new material was printed in #15, with #16-18 reprinting some of the shorter Nick Fury stories from Strange Tales.

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Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. offers examples of the following tropes:

• And You Thought It Was a Game: One day after completing a Death Course training exercise and joining S.H.I.E.L.D., Jimmy Woo is ejected from a crashing plane over the ocean, then retrieved from the water by some sort of genetically-modified creature. It's the work of the Evilutionary Biologist Centurius, but Jimmy does initially wonder if it's just another instalment of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s extreme training regime.
• Apocalypse How: Centurius plans to kill everyone on Earth by raining down radioactive fire for forty days and forty nights, then resettling the planet from his orbital A.R.C. a century later. Fittingly, when he was a normal human scientist in the 1930s, his first name was Noah.
• Appropriated Appellation: The costumed Right-Wing Militia Fanatic calling himself the Super-Patriot loudly claims that the "craven traitors" in Washington gave him that name as an insult, but he (and his followers) see it as a compliment. However, we don't see the truth of the story - given that he's a murderous Rabble Rouser who's planning The Coup, he may just be lying.
• Artistic Licence – Gun Safety: A downplayed example, but the actors and crew who aid Nick Fury against Centurius apparently had live ammunition on the movie set. They use the film's guns to fight and defeat Centurius's servants and monstrous creatures.
• Assassination Attempt:
  • The first issue sees Scorpio make several attempts to assassinate Nick Fury himself, including a sabotaged weapons test and a straightforward sniper's bullet.
  • Would-be world conqueror Supremus tries to assassinate intelligence agency leaders around the world, using Brainwashed and Crazy assassins.
• Assassin Outclassin': Notably averted in "The Assassination of Nick Fury". Bulls-Eye is hired by Hydra to kill Fury, follows him to a concert he attends with Laura, and then shoots him in the back from fifty yards away. Fury dies - and never even knew the assassin was there. It does go wrong for Bulls-Eye after that, as his employers double-cross him, but the assassination itself went exactly to plan. It's also the last new story in the series, so serves as a Downer Ending until a Fully Absorbed Finale revisits events in The Avengers.
• Bookcase Passage: The Tower of Terror, in the grounds of Castle Ravenlock, has a secret passageway concealed within a real iron maiden. That combination ends badly, as Fury jams the secret door - a villain then calls the 'hell hound' to attack Fury, before trying to escape through the iron maiden. The hound crashes into the iron maiden, slamming it closed and skewering him.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Supremus arranges Assassination Attempts on Nick Fury and other intelligence agency leaders around the world. The killers we see are all notorious hitmen, but for this job they've been brainwashed by the villain, not paid. The only one Fury captures is programmed to kill himself via a Cyanide Pill.
• Briefcase Full of Money: In issue #1, gangster Mitch Hackett is visiting Las Vegas to collect a suitcase full of money - two hundred thousand dollars. Subverted in that it isn't actually full of the money it's supposed to contain, as it's a Time Bomb. And it never reaches Hackett anyway, as it's mistakenly given to stand-up comedian Flip Mason instead.
• Christmas Episode: "‘Twas the Night Before Christmas" is, as the title suggests, a Christmas Eve story. The Hate-Monger's plan to attack New York from orbit is thwarted at the last second when something invisible and very fast flies past at a crucial moment. It's the Marvel Universe, so there are many, many possible explanations. But it's hinted that one might be Santa and his sleigh.
• Collateral Damage: In the first issue, Fury's battle with Scorpio and gangster Mitch Hackett's duel with his would-be assassin both spill into the same Las Vegas street at the same time. Fury's winning against Scorpio... until a stray bullet from the other battle hits him.
• Continuity Nod: When Jimmy Woo joins S.H.I.E.L.D., Dum Dum reminds Fury that Jimmy once swore he'd get revenge after Fury let Jimmy's love interest Suwan (actually a robot imposter) die in a Strange Tales story.
• Criminal Doppelgänger: Apart from his glasses, Las Vegas comedian Flip Mason looks identical to Kansas City gangster Mitch Hackett. Although Flip owes money to Hackett's goons, everyone seems unaware of the similarity until Hackett comes to Las Vegas to collect a Briefcase Full of Money, which is mistakenly given to Mason. Unfortunately, it's not full of money, it's a Time Bomb.
• Death Course: The second issue starts with Jimmy Woo fighting his way through a fun house rigged with traps and enemies. As well as a mundane Hall of Mirrors, there are animated skeletons, a Trap Door, Deadly Gas, a Crocodile Pool and Moving Walls. All of which is followed by the reveal that it's a Deadly Training Area, and the whole sequence has been a Fake Action Prologue showing Jimmy's final test before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. as an agent.
• Deflector Shield: In the first issue, Fury tests the EPB G-System ("Entrope Phase Barrier Guard system") in the Nevada desert. The invisible shield blocks a barrage of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s heaviest artillery, leaving Fury unharmed (although his ears are ringing a little). The final test will be to see if it can block an H-Bomb - but that's when villain Scorpio sabotages the experiment and switches it off...
  Dum Dum Dugan: Once that barrier's formed, nothin' can get in... an' nothin' can get out, either!
• Deliberately Monochrome: Steranko presents some panels in black and white to emphasise them. In the first issue this includes a scene of Fury surviving a barrage of weapons during a test, a vision of Flip Mason's family and a final panel of a payphone dangling off the hook after Mason's been killed by a bomb.
• Dem Bones: Animated skeletons are among the hazards at the start of the second issue, as Jimmy Woo fights his way through a Death Course. It's then revealed as a Fake Action Prologue - a final test before he joins S.H.I.E.L.D. - so they're presumably mechanical rather than genuine undead.
• Disney Villain Death: The Super-Patriot, an American Right-Wing Militia Fanatic who plans to depose the "traitors" in Washington, slips on an American flag while fighting on a high ledge and plummets to his death.
• Dramatic Space Drifting: After the Hate-Monger accidentally kills himself by mistakenly opening an airlock on his space station, his lifeless body is seen hanging in space.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Centurius is convinced that humanity will destroy itself and completely doom Earth. He plans to load his spaceship with beings he's 'improved' via his Evolution Ray technology, kill all life on Earth with radioactive fire, then resettle the planet a century later to give it a new start.
• Fake Action Prologue:
  • At the beginning of the first issue, Fury breaks into an isolated tower on an Island Base but is shot dead by a masked man who catches him by surprise. It's then revealed that 'Fury' was actually a 'Life Model Decoy' android duplicate, and the masked man was the real Nick Fury.
  • The second issue starts with Jimmy Woo fighting his way through a Death Course. It's not until he reaches the end that it's revealed to be a recruitment test for S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Fully Absorbed Finale: The last issue with a new story is #15, "The Assassination of Nick Fury". Hydra hires the sniper Bulls-Eye to kill Fury, and he apparently does, shooting Fury from afar at a Central Park concert. Dugan then kills Bulls-Eye while he's trying to escape - but it would be very much a Downer Ending if it wasn't a cliffhanger, and Dugan's last lines suggest that S.H.I.E.L.D. will fall apart without Nick. The events are explained in The Avengers #72, which also starts to resolve the mystery of recurring villain Scorpio.
• The Gambling Addict: Flip Mason is a Las Vegas comedian who's spiralling into debt due to his gambling problems. He owes a lot of money to gangster Mitch Hackett, and he's terrified that they'll punish his family as well if he doesn't repay them. So he starts to plan a robbery...
• Guns Akimbo: When Fury confronts Scorpio in Las Vegas, he makes his entrance by crashing a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet cycle through a wall, a gun blazing in each hand. He drops them and switches to unarmed combat almost immediately, though.
• In the Back: At the start of the first issue, 'Fury' is focused on unlocking a door on the Island Base he's infiltrating. He doesn't spot the Enemy Rising Behind, silently emerging from a hidden trapdoor via a rising platform - so he gets shot in the back several times. It's then revealed that it's a training exercise; 'Fury' was a synthetic LMD, whereas the masked guard who killed him was the real Nick Fury.
• Island Base:
  • The first issue's Fake Action Prologue sees 'Nick Fury' (actually a synthetic LMD) breaking into a high-tech tower that's isolated on a rocky island surrounded by stormy seas. However, it's all a training exercise.
  • The second issue's villain, Centurius, is an Evilutionary Biologist who has a Volcano Lair on an isolated tropical island.
• Karmic Death: The Right-Wing Militia Fanatic known as the Super-Patriot plans to disintegrate the United Nations headquarters and then launch The Coup to take control of the USA. Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. confront him on a high platform - the Super-Patriot wraps himself in an American flag, in the belief that his opponents won't shoot at it, but then trips over it and plummets to his death.
• Killed Offscreen: The ghost hunter Mycroft - actually Nazi renegade Miles von Croff - is killed when his U-Boat explodes and his underground base collapses. Fury had sabotaged and booby-trapped the submarine when he discovered the base. None of this is shown, but the collapse is heard in the nearby castle, and Fury then explains what's just happened.
• Knockout Gas: Scorpio sabotages a S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons test in Nevada by using sleeping gas on the Las Vegas team that's running the exercise. It seems that they all wake up unharmed once Scorpio's defeated.
• Last Breath Bullet: Gangster Mitch Hackett is fatally wounded in a gunfight with a rival, which collides with Fury's battle against costumed villain Scorpio. When Hackett's killer takes advantage of a rope ladder dangling from Scorpio's flying vehicle to escape, the dying Hackett takes one last shot and brings the whole vehicle down, seemingly killing his enemy and Scorpio.
• Long-Lived: The Evilutionary Biologist Centurius, villain of the second issue, is revealed to be Nobel prize winner Noah Black, who achieved fame in the 1930s. His Evolution Ray has slowed (or possibly stopped) his ageing.
• Mad Scientist: Supremus is a scientific genius who tampers with the climate, evolves and devolves humans into new forms, builds himself a robotic Monster Suit and deploys pacification and brainwashing technology on a global scale. He has the skills to qualify as an Evilutionary Biologist, but not the motivation - he just wants to replace humanity and rule the world in revenge for the way he's been treated.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Nick Fury may be in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that doesn't stop him from doing a lot of the work you'd expect him to delegate. Which include tasks such as acting as a human guinea pig for weapons tests in the first issue.
• Meaningful Name: Centurius has a villainous version of Noah's Story Arc - he plans to kill everyone on Earth with 40 days and 40 nights of radioactive fire, then resettle the planet from his A.R.C. spaceship. Before he abandoned his human life, his name was Noah Black.
• Mistaken Identity: In "Who is Scorpio?", comedian Flip Mason is mistaken for his Criminal Doppelgänger, Mitch Hackett, and given a Briefcase Full of Money. Or, at least, he's told that it's a briefcase full of money. It’s actually a bomb.
• Mugging the Monster: "‘Twas the Night Before Christmas" starts with Fury interrupting an intended mugging in New York, only to find that the woman the two men are menacing is actually their ally, acting as bait. It goes predictably badly for all three of them when they try to mug Fury.
• Murder by Mistake:
  • Flip Mason's killed by the briefcase bomb intended for his Criminal Doppelgänger, Mitch Hackett, which was given to him instead by mistake.
  • Scorpio's initial Assassination Attempt on Fury interrupts a training exercise and he 'kills' the Fury LMD that's being tested, not the real Nick Fury.
• Noah's Story Arc: Noah Black, aka Centurius, has set himself a villainous version of his namesake's task - he plans to kill the world with 40 days and 40 nights of radioactive fire raining down from space. Then, a century later, he will resettle the world with beings from his space vessel A.R.C.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Ken Astor's killed by the titular hound on the second page of "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill!", which brings Fury to Scotland to investigate his old friend's murder.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The Hell Hound of Ravenlock and the ghost of Black Hugh are staged by Lord Gavin and Mycroft, using special effects and guns loaded with blanks. They draw attention away from the U-Boat and crew of ex-Nazi pirates operating from an underground base beneath Ravenlock castle's tower.
• Self-Disposing Villain:
  • When he's losing to Fury, the Evilutionary Biologist Centurius tries to boost his power by exposing himself to his Evolution Ray again. It seemingly devolves him to protoplasm.
  • In "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill!", a villain calls the 'Hell Hound' of Ravenlock to attack Fury, then tries to escape through a secret door hidden inside an iron maiden. Fury's already discovered and jammed that door, though. When the hound charges towards Fury, it clumsily knocks the iron maiden - slamming it shut and skewering the man who called it.
  • In "The First Million Megaton Explosion" the Hate-Monger, dazed and blinded after his fight with Nick Fury, accidentally runs through the wrong door on his space station. Not realising he's in an airlock, he accidentally ejects himself into space.
• Shout-Out:
  • Nick's not a fan of hot new band The Million Megaton Explosion and would rather listen to Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey or Clyde McCoy. Laura pointedly suggests that Nick can go home and listen to Rudy Vallée alone if they're really not his thing.
  • Laura and Nick attend a Country Joe and the Fish show in Central Park. It doubles as a Celebrity Cameo of sorts, as the band are actually shown onstage, not just mentioned. Just to add to it, they're initially performing ”Super Bird" - the verse name-checking Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four is in their speech bubbles. As usual, Nick would rather be listening to someone like the Mills Brothers instead, but figures he might eventually start to appreciate rock.
• Splash Panel:
  • The first issue uses a double-page splash to show Fury, riding a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet cycle, crashing through a wall with Guns Akimbo to confront Scorpio.
  • The second issue uses a double-page splash when Fury jumps through a window to escape Centurius's headquarters, only to find himself falling from the sky above the crater housing the villain's elaborate Volcano Lair.
• Start to Corpse: The second page of "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill!" shows Fury's old friend Ken Astor being hunted and killed by the titular hound. And the first page is just a scenery shot with a Scottish poem about the haunted moors.
• There Was a Door: After Scorpio takes control of the Las Vegas S.H.I.E.L.D. base in the first issue, Fury rides a jet cycle through a wall to confront him, Guns Akimbo, rather than using stealth.
• Third-Person Person: In his first appearance, the villainous Scorpio often talks about himself in the third person, but it's downplayed - he doesn't entirely avoid 'I' phrasing, and his thought bubbles don't use the third person phrasing at all.
  Scorpio: Scorpio is well-versed in the ways of acrobatics! You'll not find me as vulnerable as your other adversaries!
• Throwing the Distraction: At the start of the first issue, 'Fury' (actually a Life Model Decoy) is infiltrating an Island Base and throws a small object across the corridor to distract the guard. Fury then blindsides him while he's focused on the distraction.
• Time Bomb: The plan to kill gangster Mitch Hackett relies on him collecting a Briefcase Full of Money that's actually a bomb with a timer. It’s mistakenly given to his lookalike Flip Mason instead, and later explodes when Mason's in a phone booth calling his family.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: Flip Mason is a Gambling Addict who's heavily in debt to gangster Mitch Hackett. He's desperate enough to start planning a robbery, relying on a fake gun. When Mistaken Identity means he's offered a Briefcase Full of Money meant for Hackett, he takes it as a way to buy himself out of his debts. Too bad it's actually a Time Bomb.
• Two Dun It: The first issue opens with a variant of this. Fury breaks into an Island Base but is shot dead by a masked man who catches him by surprise. It's then revealed that 'Fury' was actually a 'Life Model Decoy' android duplicate, and the masked man was the real Nick Fury - it was all a Fake Action Prologue, a training exercise to test the android's abilities. But it's then revealed that the LMD was shot four times, and Fury only fired three shots - the villain of the story, Scorpio, had staged a simultaneous Assassination Attempt, assuming that he was shooting the real Fury.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Issue #1 includes a scene in Kansas City, in which gangster Mitch Hackett talks about how he's about to hit the big time in Las Vegas. His girlfriend's distracted by the bad weather and starts to comment on it... and the scene cuts to New York, in the pouring rain, where Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine finishes her sentence.
• Volcano Lair: Centurius has an Island Base that seems to be under a very active volcano. He swiftly reveals that it's not active - that's just an astral projection to fool people.

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