Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Strange Tales (1951) #150-168

by Jim Steranko (Author and Illustrator)

The year is 1966. The glamorous adventures of sophisticated espionage agents rule movies, novels, and television...but not comic books.
Enter Jim Steranko.
This trailblazing artist would soon take over both the writing and penciling duties of Strange Tales, bringing with him a bold style of equal parts cinematic verve and mindbending psychedelia. The result is a groundbreaking series of spy stories that startled readers with their pacing, design, and sheer genius.
The year is 2000. Now Steranko's legendary tales of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. are collected for a new generation—and they're just as innovative and eye-popping as ever!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Sequential Art

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

James Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator who has work for decades till the present.

Reviews

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd that, after including all the stories which Steranko 'rendered' from Kirby's layouts, there was no room for "Who Is Scorpio?" (I still don't know the answer to that burning question!) from Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D nos. 1 and 2.

Still, there is seldom such a quantum leap as this, from a guy hired because he can draw like Jack Kirby,




to a guy who could draw like no one else.

[Bob Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a visionary, it’s a real shame he left Marvel so early.

https://youtu.be/0ictXE78vVw

[Alex Sarll]

The lunatic glory of Steranko's Twitter inspired me finally to attempt this, and initially I was wishing I'd stuck to the Twitter. But once he's no longer hobbled by Stan Lee scripts and Jack Kirby layouts (I still can't abide those two as anything more than the layers of foundations for what came after), matters improve immeasurably. Yes, it's still a Silver Age comic, so there's still plenty of inadvertently comic poses, overlong captions and repetitive, corny dialogue. But there's also a vigour and a constant urge to experiment; Steranko becomes the first in a long line of artists who are clearly massively inspired by Kirby, but who - being able, among other things, to draw more than two facial expressions - surpass their master. All this "astonishing mission of galactic revenge where only one can survive!" stuff - I know this is what people get from sixties Marvel, but this is the first time I've ever genuinely felt it from a sixties Marvel comic, rather than from a later homage. Wonderful fun.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Steranko may be the most unique artist to ever work in comics. He was a magician and escape artist as well as a judo practitioner and that's just scraping the surface. He also worked in many creative fields from ad art to movie posters. Just a true renaissance man.

Steranko really came into his own as an innovator in these issues. His art is heavily influenced by Jack Kirby, but you can see that Steranko draws with a cinematographer's view. When I think of the term "pop art", this volume is what I think of. Crazy panels and weird effects abound. The final story in the volume is a dream sequence that I'm sure Steranko wrote just so he could really cut loose and channel Salvador Dali.

This volume also re introduces The Yellow Claw and Jimmy Woo from the FBI's golden age, although the final two page wrap up for that plotline was nuts and hurt the story overall. The entire mission was set up by Dr. Doom and a supercomputer playing a chess game and using SHIELD agents and enemy agents as the real life chess pieces. Seriously.

The scripting was a little overdone, but really Stan Lee himself did overscript a lot of his comics in the sixties, although he later eased up on the scripts and let the art tell more of the story.

Steranko really only did a relatively small amount of comic book work overall, but his influence has remained in the industry nonetheless. I wish he would have done more work, especially on Batman or Daredevil.

Overall this is a key piece of Marvel history, and is really the type of book any Silver Age comic fan should read.

[Ed Wyrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steranko! It's hard to express what Steranko's name meant back in the 60s. People can tell you all day long how influential he was, how exciting his brief, explosive appearance was, but unless you lived it, unless you waited breathlessly for each new comic book to come out, you'll just never fully understand what his name means to us. It's truly a case of "you had to be there."

[David Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of the Jim Steranko SHIELD stories. A must have for Marvel and action fans. Back from the 60's! The Steranko art is what sets these stories apart. Pop art high tech equipment. Fury as always was in front leading the charge (more so than a leader should have). Exciting stories. Yellow Claw and Hydra....which one was the better villain? Hard to choose.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars, I guess, but nearly two. Here is the problem: people say that Jim Steranko revitalized a tired comic book feature with an original and vital art style that incorporated collage, pop-art graphics, and raw energy. This is true, but it took many issues for Steranko to evolve into this artist and what seemed fresh in the later stories has not aged particularly well. Add to this that Steranko, who also wrote most of these stories, retained the faults of Stan Lee's scripting such as a tendency for characters to boast, covering too much of most pages with lengthy and sometimes unnecessary word balloons, and preposterous escapes. He also added flaws of his own, two of them borrowed from James Bond films. These are as soon as a gimmick is introduced you know it will be used before the story ends and the bases of operations used by the villains must cost many billions of dollars. How can they afford it before their schemes succeed and if you have that much jack, why bother? Steranko is also overrated as a comic book artist. His figure work is OK, but the postures in which he puts characters, especially during action scenes, are quite impossible. Unlike previous artists on the feature, some reprinted in the earlier stories in this collection, he is not a very good storyteller. The action from one panel to another too often does not flow, but looks more like snapshots taken too far apart. Sadly, the reintroduction of Yellow Claw supports racist stereotypes. The creation of FBI agent Jimmy Woo does not balance this, though that was probably the intention. I gave the previous collection of S.H.I.E.L.D. stories two stars and this one is better, so I guess I must give it three, but this collection is two stars in my heart.

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estaba frente a mi...una portada preciosa e iconica de Steranko, además respetaba los colores de la época, bocetos de Kirby,Buscema y del gran Steranko, que se funden en unas historias locas y llenas de imaginación de espias, contra criminales orientales hipnotizadores, Hydra y sus cansinos seguidores, y sobre todo, por Fury y sus compañeros que son una pandilla de cascarrabias que entre todo, salvan al planeta. Los textos son predecibles y kitsch, pero se dejan leer y te arrancan sonrisas, aunque ya sepas las trampas y este sobre alimentado de textos, pero lo que se come el libro es el dibujo, con una imaginación y hermosura Pop que te derrite las pupilas a cada viñeta.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story's slow to start as is the art, but it's pretty awesome from half way through. The colouring touch up is a bit dodgy, but basically good fun whacked out comics.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really is a time capsule. The art work and the story lines are truly a glimpse into the past. The illustrations are a marvel to behold today and it took me much longer to read all the dialog and process the stories than compared to a modern graphic novel. The collection itself spanned several issues and even had a 4 to 6 page fold out ‘mega’ page in the second to last issue. I thought Steranko really had an amazing style for page layout and the comic panels. In some issues I was turning the book around to try and follow the different art pieces and that was really neat. I’d give the book 4 stars with just one Star less because of how the story seemed to constantly be exasperated with itself.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Advertising artist Jim Steranko had a brief, memorable career at Marvel in the mid-sixties (he got frustrated with some of the editing), primarily as writer-artist of the SHIELD series. His art was wildly imaginative, very sixties (not meant as an insult) and quite different from anything anyone else was doing. He was also a terrific action storyteller. This collects the first part of his run as SHIELD goes up against Hydra, battles the Yellow Claw (unfortunately that Fu Manchu knockoff hasn't aged well) and encounters aliens.
It only gets four stars because his plotting is weak at times. Still a terrific run, though.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visually innovated, fast paced, the sort of book following the rules of constantly ratcheting up the tension leads to some "huh" moments where you're reading the issues all in one go rather than with one month apart to lose track of specific details.

The front half of the book is better than the second story wise because the second half villain, the Yellow Claw, is just such a yellow peril nightmare, but at the same time the back half of the book has more experimental imagery and panel layouts so it's kind of a wash.

[Iván Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy interesante volumen con los inicios de Nick Furia en el comic a la mano del gran Steranko.
El único problema es que me ha pillado mayor este comic, aunque el dibujo me parece genial y la forma de comunicar con el, también, la densidad de diálogo y cuadros narrativos me abruma y hace la historia pesada, además de que Furia, sin superpoder alguno, tiene infinitas soluciones para todo y en algunos momentos me parece demasiado. Quitando eso, es una lectura recomendable, en especial para quien gusta de leer Marvel y de hacerse con historias antiguas de esta editorial.

[Kelly McCubbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, Steranko's art here resembles nothing else in the history of comics. Sure he starts out apeing Kirby, but becomes his own man fairly quickly and starts stretching the form in ways that few else have ever tried. Some of his layouts make you want to stand up and cheer.
The writing is driving, but nothing much more than an American Bond rip-off. The "Yellow Claw" story is, also, flat-out racist. Be warned.

[Dan Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The artwork is great, but the writing is weak. The stories are all the same. Nick goes it alone against deadly odds, a villain takes on his identity, and Nick fights him for most of the issue and wins.Very disappointed because of Steranko's reputation.

[DURTY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool cold war comic book.

[Corey Timmins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting read but very very dated. Some racial stuff, like the Yellow Claw needs to be read as a part of the culture at the time. Written back in 1966.

[NDB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great art but I didn't enjoy the recoloring. The Original comics look better

[Mark Rubin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this on my reading list for quite a while as everyone on the Internet is obsessed with Jim Steranko’s work on the book. And Steranko really does shine here. The artwork after he really takes over creative duties is so pitch perfect comic book-y, with new and modern costume designs, Kirby-inspired technology, and bombastic splash pages (including a 4-page one!) and character poses. The story is what it is, still very much in the James Bond-inspired one-man-army secret agent genre. There’s always a near death cliffhanger, always a perfect gadget for the specific situation, always a double cross or masquerade. It’s fun and entertaining and great to look at.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the 1960s America was in Vietnam, James Bond was in the theaters, Assassinations were all over the news and the Cold War was in full throttle. There was no better time for espionage and spy fiction and Marvel was not going to let a marketing opportunity slip through their fingers. Stan Lee & Jack Kirby decided to take their WWII company commander Sgt. Nick Fury and bring him forward into the current era. When they first did this, in the pages of the Fantastic Four (as Marvel's flagship title in the 60s this was the launching pad for more than one character) but Nick Fury as a master spy quickly caught the imagination of the readers and so Lee & Kirby turned over the pages of Strange Tales formerly devoted to the Fantastic Four's teenage hothead, the Human Torch to Fury and his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
But it wasn't until the arrival of Jim Steranko that the series really took off. What had been a fun, enjoyable read with typical Kirby energy and Lee's overenthusiastic huckstering dialogue turned into something far more fascinating and compelling. Steranko took what was a rather typical Lee/Kirby title and tempered into one of the most memorable runs of Marvel outside the original creative teams. Nick Fury became, what Kirby & Lee had intended, the James Bond of comic books and the House of Ideas had another hit.

[Adam Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume collects Jim Steranko's runs on Nick Fury's Strange Tale's stories. The book begins with Strange Tales #150 and #151 Steranko began to transition into becoming the series artist and eventually writer through Issue #168

The book focuses on two seperate baddies. The first half focuses on Fury's battle with the Supreme Hydra. And then it's on to battling the Yellow Claw, a character introduced in the mid-1950s when Marvel was known as Atlas. (Though this occurs with a twist.) Then we wrap up with an issue that foreshadows the Scorpio line that would feature in four of the five first issues of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own comic book.

What you get in these 19 Nick Fury stories are standard action spy adventure stuff from the 1960s with nearly every issue ending with Fury in a deathtrap or facing some weird strangeness. At this point, the only difference between Fury and the superheroes of the Avengers is that Fury had government sanction, and no superhero costume. In fact, one of the book's guest stars is Captain America and Fury fights him to a standstill in an exhibition.

There are also guest appearance by Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, and Dr. Doom.

I will admit that some of the hype around the book set me up for a bit of a disappointment. Despite all the talk about Steranko's art, throughout most of the book, it wasn't all that exciting, until the last three issues which also included an eye-popping four page pullout.

Overall, some good stories for fans of Nick Fury who remain true to the the motto, "Don't yield, back S.H.I.E.L.D."

[B. Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sterenko is awesome. He took what should have been a campy rip-off of James Bond using a campy WWII comic book character during the era of campy Stan Lee-Jack Kirby comics and slowly infused it with late sixties psychedlia and pop culture coolness. His backrounds and effects ooze groundbreaking art pastiches that took the rest of the industry years to even emulate. The equipment and outfits he gives Fury are so cool it takes even the most hardened reader back to elementary school daydreams of 'wouldn't it be cool if..' And even Fury's hap-slappy dialog and Dum-Dum backslapping get toned down over the course of this collection of fifteen page short stories to a more dimensional and real character. Sterenko is the reason that Nick Fury survived the Golden Age of comics and is still around for Sam Jackson to try and pump new life into him.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so this was pretty hard for me to get through. I generally have a hard time getting through the older Marvel stuff, but this was EXTRA hard. I'm just not that into spy stuff, and the techno-babel was WAY out of control here. I went into the book having read reviews about how Strenko took characters from WW2 and made them explode with 60's spy stuff and new kinds of art unfamiliar to comic books. I can kind of see it, but it's one of those times that I know I just really am not appreciating it for what it is because it's already something I'm so familiar with. It was like going the see Andy Warhol's stuff, intellectually I knew it was groundbreaking and why, but emotionally it didn't do a thing for me because it was a style I've been over saturated with and seen done way better.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy, Steranko made a career for himself with this! I can see the new things he was trying, but from a technical perspective Neal Adams was beating the pants off of this guy back in the day. When Adams made a futuristic computer screen, for example, he'd look at what was available, futurize it, and everyone would know what he drew. When Steranko is tasked with the same illustration, he kinda puts a block of black ink here and there it ends up looking like a then-contemporary radar screen with some random buttons in a poorly lighted room. As for his go-go psychedelic covers, all I can say is that there is a graphics history of incorporating and melding earlier and contemporary styles in the arts forever. Maybe he was the first to do it, but the mashup was there for the taking and it was inevitable.

[Jeffrey Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book of late sixties S.H.I.E.L.D. stories when Jim Steranko first drew, and later wrote and drew, the comic. This contains a long run of Strange Tales featuring Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. and a few issues of Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Steranko surely brought a different art to the pages of comics. It is stunning at times. The dialogue and set ups are more dated but I find it interesting that certain plot elements from these older comics are still being used in the new television program. It is a strange and interesting collection and fun to read.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nach dem Avengers-Film bin ich auf diese Ausgabe gestoßen. Kaum zu glauben, dass ich Anfang der 70iger die Originalausgaben hatte. Da dieses Buch recht günstig war und ich in entsprechender Stimmung, habe ich in einem Anflug von Nostalgie das Buch gekauft.
Die Zeichnungen sind zu Anfang noch mittelmäßig, später werden sie immer besser. Der Plot allerdings bleibt gleichbleibend schwach und ich hatte einige Male keine Lust mehr, das Buch bis zum Ende zu lesen.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird collection. I can see a lot of potential for Steranko. The early stuff in the collection is kind of boring. There is obviously a lot of Stan Lee in the early issues.

Steranko starts to experiment towards the end of the collection so it's hard to understand why they chose to collect his early run rather than the peak.

The art is a lot of fun. I would love to see more of his work.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm new to the world of comics, but it's easy to see the brilliance of Steranko's imagery. I could stare it his page layout for hours. What surprised me was his writing. In taking on the scripts for Nick Fury he brought the character out of post-WWII villiany into the world of fighting multi-dimensional beings, robots and aliens and using some of the craziest technology.

[Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have used some trimming, particularly the first third consisting of Stan Lee's work on the series. Jim Steranko's initial issues as writer/artist aren't great but as it goes on it becomes increasingly better and you can see how his blend of 60s psychedelic imagery and crazy spy gadgets would revolutionize the genre, I just wish there was more the end and less of the beginning.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steranko's work on SHIELD is legendary. I'd never gotten around to reading it though. This book collects his stories from Strange Tales. The stories are only 12 pages long, but there's a lot packed into them. You can really see Steranko's progression as an artist and writer, from the first story to the last.