It's a great origin story, a very tight 12-pages of Kirby/Ayers art which establishes the now Colonel Fury as he's recruited to lead the international law enforcement efforts against the forces of Hydra. Although having his doubts about his own qualifications given the super-science realm and international scope of SHIELD, he quickly proves himself by foiling a sabotage attempt and taking charge in the confusion.
Lots of the key elements of the series are introduced, like the Life Model Decoys, the cool air-car (with the flipped tires), the Helicarrier and of course Hydra! Immortal Hydra! Cut off a limb and two more shall take its place! Man, I always love that Hyrdra salute, especially with the visual.
I also always liked that Tony Stark shows up in here, but with absolutely no reference to Iron Man. That works well to establish the series firmly in the Marvel Universe, but sort of off to one side, where it works best (while Fury also works well as a supporting character in other books).
Published 1966
2 comments:
Judging from the altered artwork and lettering, I suspect Tony Stark was added in by Stan at the last minute to bring a little continuity with the Marvel line, something Stan was quite good with at the time.
Nick Caputo
Hm, I don't have a copy of the original to compare. Anyone? I'd be surprised if they changed much only a year later (they did make changes in early FF reprints around this time, mostly to bring the Torch more in-line with his later version).
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