Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: FROM STORY TO SCREEN

David Robbins
c 2014


There has been a lot of talk about Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, the TV series spun off from a number of hit movies in which S.H.I.E.L.D was featured.
But where did the concept for S.H.I.E.L.D come from originally? you might wonder. From the fertile minds of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, back in the Silver Age of comics.
It was 1965. Spies were all the rage. James Bond was hitting his stride on the big screen, and the small screen had a huge hit called THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
At the time, Marvel was just hitting its stride, too. SPIDER-MAN and THE FANTASTIC FOUR were selling like crazy. Thor was taking a title called JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY by storm.
Three other titles---TALES OF SUSPENSE, TALES TO ASTONISH and STRANGE TALES---featured two superheroes each month. Iron Man and Captain America were in TALES OF SUSPENSE.  Ant Man/Giant Man, and the Hulk, were in TALES TO ASTONISH. (Giant Man was later replaced by the Sub-Mariner.)
It’s STRANGE TALES that interests us here. Initially, it had stories about the Human Torch from the FF, and Dr. Strange. Marvel dropped ‘Torchie’ for their newest brainstorm: NICK FURY, AGENT OF SH.I.E.L.D.
Below is the first cover. If you’ve never read the comics but seen the movies, you might be thinking, ‘Hold on a minute. Who is that guy? Everybody knows Nick Fury is really Samuel L. Jackson.'

The explanation is convoluted but we’ll keep it simple. Basically, Marvel has two ‘universes’. There’s their ‘regular’ universe and their ‘Ultimate’ line. In the regular series, Nick Fury was ‘that guy’. In the Ultimate universe, which came much later, Nick Fury looked a lot like Samuel L. Jackson. When it came time to make the movies, the real SLJ was tabbed for the role.
Before we go on, another digression is called for. Stan and Jack didn’t pull Nick Fury out of proverbial thin air. Fury was already an established character in a hit series about World War Two---SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS.

[Issue #13 of the SGT. FURY series co-starred Captain America.]
So when they decided to do a spy series, they had an inspiration. Why not use Nick Fury? In an earlier issue of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, Fury had co-starred as a government agent. It made perfect sense to have him be the new head of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jack Kirby possessed a fantastic imagination. It wasn’t long before S.H.I.E.L.D went from a secret headquarters under a barbershop to an airborne aircraft carrier, the Helicarrier. And where Bond had his souped-up Aston Martin, Kirby went one better and gave Fury a flying car tricked out with all sorts of weapons. The early stories were full of high-tech gadgets.
Lee and Kirby also came up with great villains. One of their best was HYDRA, a sinister organization bent on world domination. Hydra’s motto: ‘Cut off a limb and two more shall take its place.’ [You think I was kidding about that motto? Count the hands.]
It wasn’t long before the super-busy Kirby did just the layouts and other artists the finished art.

[John Severin was one of the artists who finished Kirby's layouts. His issues are terrific.]
The stories were heavy on action and light on sophisticated nuance. That changed when Jim Steranko came on board. If you weren’t around at the time, you can’t appreciate the impact he had. His art was spectacular. It elevated Fury to a whole new level. From psychedelic panels to adult subtext, his stories were like nothing the reader had ever seen.

[The first Steranko issue. He went on to blow everyone's mind. Literally.]
Steranko stayed on the title for two years. He then kicked off Fury’s own mag, which ran for a year and half. Later---we’re talking about ten years---Nick Fury returned in a miniseries, NICK FURY vs SHIELD. It proved so popular that a new monthly title was launched. It lasted four years. Since then, the original Fury has appeared in a number of titles and occasional one-shots.

[Another great Steranko cover. Fury's combat suit was a staple of the run.]
And then there’s the Ultimate version of Nick, which brings us back to Samuel L. Jackson, the movies, and the TV series.

[Some of that sophisticated nuance I alluded to. Notice there isn't any dialogue.]
You might be wondering: ‘Okay. If the original guy was around during World War Two, how is he still kicking today?’ The answer is that he has access to a special formula that has prolonged his life.

[The first issue of Nick's own series with art by.........you guessed it.]
If Fury sounds like your kind of kick-butt guy, Marvel has collected the entire STRANGE TALES run and the first solo series in three MASTERWORKS. They’re fun reads.