Nick Fury and his Caterpillars.
There are questions you will not get answers to. There are things going on that you do not get to know about. And rest assured, I will never slip up in case you feel like bein' coy.
Nick Fury, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Secret Warriors is a comic book series starring Nick Fury, Agent of Nothing. The premise: Take the world's longest-operating clandestine agent with a legendary career in the world's police agency. Turn his world completely upside down. Add superpowered teenagers and shake well.
Secret Warriors (2009-2011) ran for 28 issues, originally co written by Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman, Hickman would eventually take over as sole writer at the beginning of the second arc of the series in issue 7 and continue as such until the book's finale.
The main Secret Warriors team is lead by Daisy Johnson, with backup in the form of James Taylor "J.T." James A.K.A. Hellfire, a chain-wielding pyrokinetic, akin to Ghost Rider; Yo-Yo Rodriguez A.K.A. Slingshot, a speedster; Alexander Aaron A.K.A Phobos, the "little boy god of fear", as J.T. put it; "Stonewall" Jerry, the son of the Absorbing Man, with all of his powers; and Sebastian Druid A.K.A Druid. Mutant teleporter Eden Fesi joins the team shortly after their first mission against HYDRA.
The team's commander, Daisy Johnson, appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though in a bit of an unusual way in the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The third season in particular drew inspiration from Secret Warriors, introducing several of its characters (Slingshot, Hellfire, and Hive) and partially adapting its storylines.
A new version of the series launched in 2017 starring Daisy Johnson and focused on the rise of HYDRA under the control of Steve Rogers in which Daisy leads a team of Inhumans (Kamala Khan, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Karnak and Inferno) to protect them from threat of HYDRA while the Inhuman royal family is in space. An animated film adaptation loosely based on that version of the team, Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, will debut in 2018.
Tropes for the 2009 series:
- The Ace: Nick Fury as compared to everyone else.
- Broken Ace: When we get an idea of the consequences of his lifestyle.
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The first mission of Howling Commandos PMC under Fury is to steal these back.
- All There in the Manual:
- The series begins with the team already having been assembled in Bendis' New Avengers, in the tie-in to Secret Invasion.
- The first issue has parts of the Fury Files, which includes: a map of bases that only Nick knows about, a list of potential recruits, a partial power structure of HYDRA, and diary entries from Yo-Yo.
- An Arm and a Leg: Yo-Yo loses her arms below the elbows to Gorgon early on.
- And the Adventure Continues: The last issue ends with the implication Nick is going to go spring the Contessa. His later appearances after the series have him without her, suggesting that didn't go so well.
- Artifact of Doom: The box that is first extorted from the Silver Samurai, then handed over to Leviathan. Its nature and role in Leviathan's plans have not been explained.
- Artificial Limbs: Yo-yo after the Gorgon cuts off her hands.
- Back from the Dead: Gorgon is resurrected by the Hand in issue 2.
- Badass Boast: Happens quite a few times, including Fury's famous one man speech. Probably the most audacious example is Phobos, the child god of fear, delivering a Reason You Suck Speech to Norman Osborn, the former Green Goblin after he offered to bribe him with toy trucks. After Phobos has well and truly messed up Osborn with his mind, he delivers two amazing parting lines. You don't fuck with Nick Fury, and you DO NOT fuck with the god of fear. Made even better by the fact that Osborn starts the exchange by threatening him and saying that he's in too deep for a child, and that, throughout the exchange, they're facing massively superior firepower in the form of Bullseye and Ares.
- Becoming the Mask: A villainous example is found in the Kraken. The dying pal of Strucker you see in flashbacks? Killed in his hospital bed. Turns out Madame Hydra isn't the only Legacy Character among the villains.
- Berserk Button: Yo-yo for Jerry. Hurt her and he will absolutely ruin your day.
- Big Bad Wannabe: The story begins at the start of Dark Reign, when Norman Osborn is the main threat to the Marvel U, but here... he's up against Nick Fury and Baron Strucker, both chessmasters par excellence, and he's totally outclassed, to the extent neither thinks he's worth bothering with.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Fury's attitude prior to the Howling Commandos mission to the Dock, which would put former comrades in the line of fire.
- Blood Knight: Gorgon likes killing. His only reaction when Stonewall comes after him looking for vengeance for Yo-Yo? Irritation. When Stonewall suddenly turns giant? "Better." As things at the Dock go pear-shaped for HYDRA, he has to be dragged away by the others.
- Body Double: When J.T. and Alex discover Nick's Life Model Decoys, leading to some... implications.
- Bookends: At the beginning of the series, we see Nick Fury at Captain America's memorial, built in honour of the hero after his death. In the end, we see Nick there again, Steve standing beside him (he got better).
- Boom, Headshot!: Tensions between Hydra and Leviathan are not helped when one of Leviathan's commanders gets his brains splattered, with the splatter somehow forming the Hydra insignia.
- Breakout Character: Compared to the others, Daisy is this. The rest of the team has faded into obscurity, but Daisy has became a fairly well-known member of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s regular agents, was briefly its director, and has made the jump into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as one of the leads in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and she is also one of the main characters in Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors.
- Bullying a Dragon: Norman Osborn tries threatening Baron Strucker by bringing up the fact he killed the man's son, Andreas (naturally, embellishing certain details). All it does is annoy Strucker, who never liked Andreas much anyhow, and makes him mutter he now owes Osborn two favors.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Eric Koenig makes his first appearance since 1991.
- John Garrett makes his first since 1995
- Alexander Pierce returns after last appearing in 1994
- Mikel Fury last appeared in 1996
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Issues 5 and 6 has Nick storm a HAMMER base with the help of the Howling Commandos, which nearly goes very wrong when HYDRA gets involved, and he has to be bailed by the Caterpillars, but Nick manages to recover the helicarriers and several former SHIELD agents. When Contessa calls him afterward, he casually brushes this off as "Monday".
- Call to Adventure: Function performed by either Daisy or Fury.
- Came Back Wrong: Viper likely Cursed with Awesome despite being dead for only a few hours.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Among those listed in Fury's Caterpillar files is an Australian called Eden Fesi. He appears in issue 4 and becomes part of the team.
- The Chessmaster: Baron von Strucker and Nick Fury.
- Child by Rape: Jerry/Stonewall's mother was raped by the Absorbing Man. He was born the next year.
- The Chosen Many: Daisy's squad isn't the only one working for Fury. Since this is Nick Fury we're talking about, we only meet the leaders of the other two squads.
- Cloak and Dagger: Nick sneaks into Obama's office IN THE FIRST ISSUE!
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: A mild case in Druid. For example; after Yo-Yo has her arms cut off, Druid is more worried about Yo-Yo's body image then her emotional trauma, he didn't understand why Daisy was angry with him after crashing their plane, etc, etc. A small quirk.
- Continuity Nod:
- Nick Fury's files at the end of issue 1 list a lot of SHIELD and HYDRA bases, some of which have been seen over the years. It mentions the Utopia base, which was trashed by the Children of the Vault over in Mike Carey's X-Men a few years prior, and The Cube prison, compromised during Civil War and then wrecked in Secret Invasion.
- Creepy Child: Alex alternates between acting like an ordinary kid, and a kid who happens to also be the god of fear, such as telling everyone their futures over lunch.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Hydra manages to invade the Hand's island home, easily killing everything in their path, as part of their plan to revive the Gorgon.
- Crazy-Prepared: The Fury Files indicate Nick Fury might as well have this as his superpower.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The Kraken is apparently this, explaining how he could be dying six years prior and be around at the present. The flashback that explains this also shows that the helmet extrudes an armor.
- Developing Doomed Characters: One late issue is devoted to the gathering of another team of Caterpillars. Then they all die.
- Dirty Communists: Leviathan is basically Stalinist Hydra.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Daisy Johnson, field commander of the team, can cause earthquakes.
- Double Agent:
- Contessa Fontaine has been Fury's old flame, Madame Hydra, and a leader of Leviathan AND HOW!
- Likewise J.T. although he was largely coerced into itnote , seems to regret it and wants Strucker to spare Daisy
- Doppelgänger Attack: Nick's LMDs do this to Norman Osborn's group when they infiltrate a base.
- Dwindling Party: All of Nick's former supporting cast gets whittled down through the series. By the end, only the Contessa and Dum-Dum Duggan are the only ones still alive.
- Easily Forgiven: The Contessa receives Fury's forgiveness after she betrays him, and he kills every single member of Leviathan but her and its leader.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Leviathan has been holed up in a mountain since Joseph Stalin's era.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Fury, given that he took the Longevity Vaccine.
- Establishing Character Moment: In case you're a newcomer to the escapades of Nick Fury, issue 2 begins with Strucker immediately identifying a group of Skrulls, effortlessly killing them, and then blowing up his base, with thousands of loyal HYDRA agents just to get rid of the rest.
- Eyepatch of Power: Fury, though somewhat subverted with his LMD's.
- Evil Versus Evil: Leviathan abducts Viper from a HYDRA shipyard
- Extra-ore-dinary: Jerry, if he's in physical contact with it.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Obama in the first issue manages, in the Oval Office, to stand with his face entirely obscured but... well, it's him.
- Faceless Goons: Guess, I dare you
- Femme Fatale: Valentina de la Fontaine.
- Foreshadowing: The lunch scene has Alex outright tell J.T. he's going to die. He does, courtesy of Nick Fury.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Alex's power, being the God of Fear.
- Handicapped Bad Ass: Gorgon. Although this is probably a Power Limiter
- Historical In-Joke: In the Marvel Universe, Enron was a Roxxon subsidiary, according to issue 4.
- I Have Your Wife: HYDRA gets the Silver Samurai to hand over the mysterious box by holding several of his associate's wives and children hostage.
- Karma Houdini: The Gorgon survives and escapes to kill another day.
- Kick the Dog: Early on, HYDRA nabs a few psychics from a SHIELD Human Popsicle facility. Some of them were woken up too quickly and it's "damaged" them. So Gorgon skewers them with his sword.
- The Lancer: Daisy "Quake" Johnson.
- Legacy Character: All the caterpillars are the children of villains or former villains. Daisy is the daughter of Dr Hyde, Yo-Yo is the daughter of the Griffen, Stonewall is the son of Absorbing Man, Phobos is the son of Ares, Druid is the son of Dr Druid, and T.J. is a descendant of the Phantom Rider. The odd one out is Eden Fesi (unless he's related to Gateway).
- Locked Out of the Loop: Nick towards Daisy and presumably everyone else.
- Living Lie Detector: the Howling Commandos and HYDRA employ psychics
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Hive and apparently Leviathan. The former is similar to Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
- Magnetic Hero: Fury, as of issue 6. To be fair, many of the men that join his side worked for him in the past.
- Manipulative Bastard: Fury, definitely, comes off like this. So does Strucker.
- Military Maverick: Fury, almost to trope-namer levels.
- The Mole:
- J.T..
- The Contessa turns out to have been one of these for Leviathan and the Soviet Union the entire time.
- Monumental Destruction: The Seattle Space Needle is levelled when Leviathan bombs it, to get at the HYDRA base underneath it.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation
- Non-Action Guy: Eden Fesi, Alex and Druid usually have to be protected by their more combat oriented team mates in battle.
- No-Sell: Phobos' fear vision doesn't work on Gorgon. Hard to be afraid when you've died once before.
- No Sympathy: Nick Fury, one of nature's Stone-Cold Bastards. When planning his raid on the HAMMER helicarrier facility, Gabe asks if he's going to shoot the ex-SHIELD agents working there who're just doing it to provide for their families, and what he'll feel? Nick's answer? "Recoil."
- Only in It for the Money: J.T. signed up for the pay and the thought of James Bond-thrills. His dissatisfaction with working for Nick Fury leads to him turning on Nick.
- Our Wormholes Are Different: Eden Fesi's power.
- Physical God: The adolescent son of Ares, Phobos.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Eden Fesi, J.T., and Druid each fill this role.
- Playing with Fire: J.T. James aka Hellfire.
- Private Military Contractors: Dugan's 3000 strong Howling Commandos outfit, before Nick brought them back into the fold.
- Put on a Bus: Sebastian is kicked off the team by Nick for incompetence. He's eventually "voted" back in by majority.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The Howling Commando PMC attempts to fight Hydra directly and the results are a victory but one which eradicates their entire military force.
- Rebel Relaxation: Alex does it for one panel when he and J.T. find the LMD bay.
- Redshirt Army: HYDRA
- Dugan's Howling Commandos are eventually completely wiped out
- Reincarnation: Alex and Ares, because a mortal lifetime is not long enough to raise a god.
- Repetitive Name: J.T.'s full name is James Taylor James.
- The Reveal: A big honking one at the end of issue 1: SHIELD has been part of HYDRA all along.
- Sealed Army in a Can: The reason why (all) 100,000 members of Leviathan disappeared overnight
- Sealed Orders: Daisy's team disperses this way in issue 13.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism:
- Issue 2 has Baron Strucker blow up his underwater base, just to get rid of an unknown number of Skrulls.
- Used when the Dark Avengers get inside a Fury base.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Nick, generally to Daisy, but also everyone else.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: J.T. and Daisy, but they are now a couple.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The Secret Warriors (especially Jerry) want to be True Companions who band together to save the day. Nick Fury points out every chance he gets that this is not that kind of story.
- Spy Catsuit: Default wear for SHIELD agents, but since there's no more SHIELD, but Daisy and Yo-Yo have them.
- The Spymaster: Obviously.
- Spy Versus Spy: HYDRA, HAMMER, Fury's group, and now Leviathan.
- State Sec: Leviathan seems to have been this for Russia at one point.
- Super-Speed: Yo-yo Rodriguez and the Gorgon. But the Gorgon is just a cut above her
- Super Mode: Jerry while fighting (and winning against) Gorgon.
- Taking the Bullet: Jasper Sitwell shoves Nick out of the way of an incoming sword, thrown by Gorgon. He lives... for a while, anyway.
- Teen Superspy: Alex and Yo-Yo, most obviously.
- Teleportation:
- Eden is a teleporter.
- HYDRA uses teleporters.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Strucker blows up Gehenna, killing every loyal HYDRA agent in it, simply because there's Skrulls there and he can't be arsed checking for all of them.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- The entire HYRDA organization.
- Sebastian Druid. At a later point, we eventually see him again when he's called in for magic-related advise. He's trimmed down considerably, now sports a small, neatly shaped beard as compared to his old peach-fuzz, and has considerably more of a hold on his powers, his expertise and his overall self-confidence.
- Unwanted Revival: Viper would've preferred being dead after being shot dead by Contessa de Fontaine.
- Unwitting Pawn: Since SHIELD is revealed to have been an intelligence arm of HYDRA, Nick's entire career becomes this.
- Now revealed that Fury knew this all along and in fact had been manipulating HYDRA and Strucker. And so the Gambit Pileup begins.
- Villainous Breakdown: Viper has this as a near death experience/flashback before she's resurrected
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Jerry tends to go into battle sans shirt. Seems to be a quirk inherited from his dad, Crusher Creel.
- The War Room: Multiple, as Fury has numerous private bases around the world.
- Was It All a Lie?:
- Silver Samurai asks Viper this in issue 6, when she and Madame Hydra hold several people hostage so he'll hand over The Box. She just replies "best if you believe that."
- In issue 15, Nick has this with Valentina in the restaurant, reflecting that in the past he would have tried to kill her without bothering to find out the answer.
- Wham Shot: A new Madame Hydra is introduced in issue 2, despite that role usually being Viper's thing, except Viper's right there next to her. At the end of issue 6, we see Madame H unmasked. She's Contessa.
- What's Up, King Dude?: At the end of their chat, Obama points out that Fury's not being terribly respectful to the office of president. Nick retorts that after six decades of dealing with presidents of all stripes, "that [bleep]'s lost its luster."
- What the Hell, Hero?: Nick's often on the receiving end from friends and allies, but generally to no effect.
- Worf Effect: J.T. gets knocked out in nearly every fight, it's just about a running gag.
- Xanatos Gambit: Nick Fury and Baron Strucker pull a number of these on each other.
- Zerg Rush/We Have Reserves: Pretty much standard procedure for HYDRA. May have changed after Strucker destroyed a base with 15,000 agents in it. The guy really doesn't like Skrulls...
