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Nick Fury: Seven Against The Nazis/Nick Fury: Agent Of Nothing
featuring Stan Lee, Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis
(Art by Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Stefano Caselli and John Beatty)
Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 14. First of all this book gives us the original appearance of Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos as they infiltrate occupied Europe to protect the secrets of D-Day during the Second World War. We are then given a story set after S.H.I.E.L.D. has been dismantled and replaced by H.A.M.M.E.R. by Norman Osborn. In hiding and with limited resources, Fury and his team of Secret Warriors uncover a deadly secret buried within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s past.
I was admittedly dubious about the first part of this book. Knowing Nick Fury from his role in the larger Marvel Universe, reading a straight WWII action story felt initially like this was a different incarnation of the character altogether. However, I grew up reading Biritsh WWII comic books like 'Commando', so I actually found myself liking it on its own merits.
The second story here was much more engaging from the outset, however. I'm a big fan of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show and The Winter Soldier is one of my favourite MCU movies, so reading the comic book story that lays out the infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Hydra was great. I also always enjoy an underdog team story, so seeing Fury and the young inexperienced Secret Warriors, led by Daisy 'Quake' Johnson, try to take on not only Hydra but H.A.M.M.E.R. too was something I really enjoyed.
What I found most surprising and interesting in this book is that in Fury's first appearance from (I think) 1963, he's a mean and unlikable S.O.B and in the modern story from more than forty years later, the character is still a mean and unlikable S.O.B. It was a consistency that I was not expecting to find.
4 out of 5