I’m fully aware that there was a Sgt. Fury war comic, but I haven’t covered it here because it’s only tangentially relevant to the Marvel Universe.
It’s really here, in Strange Tales #135, that Nick Fury becomes a player in the MU. And in the very first shot, he’s chewing on a cigar, having a mold made out of him for a life model decoy.
Nick Fury created the robots to serve as a body double to trick HYDRA during an attack.
And in the same debut issue, we see the famous flying cars that are still a big deal today…
…And, of course, the Helicarrier.
Yes, issue #135 is amazing. It is one of the best single-issue stories of all time, according to this objectively accurate list.
But this post covers more than just the first issue–it covers the arc.
The story is a bigger budget James Bond kind of thing. Tony Stark is involved as a weapons maker for SHIELD, there are two-way communication quarters, explosive ties, and we learn that the Marvel version of SPECTRE is Hydra
We also learn that SHIELD stands for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division. That changes later.
Also, Hydra has a culture: They don’t call each others’ masks ugly…
The stories all run together, but this is a fine place to stop for now.