JM DeMatteis steps away for a couple issues so David Anthony Kraft can bring Nick Fury back together with his WWII buddies, Howling Commandos.
Their main villain, Baron Strucker, returns as a Life Model Decoy who thinks he’s a real man (Pinocchio!) and seeks revenge on the group. The idea of LMD Strucker was created during Roger Stern and John Byrne’s excellent run, and this just continues it. This LMD is a Hydra executive, and he attacks the Commandos while they’re having a get-together, so the (surprisingly young-looking) group team up with Cap to take down a Hydra faction. One of them, General Sam Sawyer, dies in the battle.
I suspect the main driver for this story was to clean up the Strucker LMD thread that was still hanging from the Stern/Byrne run.
This story was written a long time ago even by the standards of “Marvel-Time”, so I would be deeply shocked to learn that any of the Howling Commandoes would still be alive today. Even hard-asses like Gabe Jones and Dum-Dum Dugan would have to have passed away by now from old age and natural causes. Of course, Nick Fury is on the Infinity Formula, so he’s good. The explanation for the Black Widow’s longevity is that she was given a flawed version of the Super-Soldier Formula, which is a nice idea, and would explain quite a bit about her abilities, but I just don’t buy it. The reason/s why the Widow doesn’t age is because Nick is sharing his Infinity Formula with her, for two reasons: 1) She is one of SHIELD’s most effective operatives, and Nick wants to keep her on the payroll. 2) Nick wants to keep her young and hot, because he’s doing her on the side. ( why not-?? Who in the Marvel Universe has the Widow NOT boned?? ) So, for the Black Widow, the Infinity Formula is a job-perk! Too bad the Howling Commandoes couldn’t get on that gift-list!