Sgt. Fury Epic Collection, Vol. 2: Berlin Breakout

Sgt. Fury Epic Collection #2

by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Dick Ayers

Ready yourself for all-out action against the Axis powers in the Mighty Marvel manner! Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos embark on exciting World War II adventures ― including a mission to protect the Manhattan Project and the atom bomb against Nazi spies and saboteurs, uprooting an undercover agent who is none other than the Red Skull, confronting a traitor in their own ranks, and going mano a mano with Baron Strucker in war-torn France! And that’s just for starters! This volume also features the origin of Nick Fury’s eyepatch, Dum Dum Dugan going it alone behind enemy lines, and the story that spurred the concept for the film Inglorious Basterds! Topping it off, we’re including a rare Nick Fury adventure from the Korean War ― and the story of Fury’s promotion from sergeant to second lieutenant! Collecting SGT. FURY #20-36 and ANNUAL #1-2.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Superheroes, World War II, Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2023

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read if you're into WWII and cringe-worthy plot-lines of them '60s vibes. That's what it is. Some nice issues with guests like Cap and Reed from the war, or something like an origin of how Fury had that accident with his eye, but other than that it's mostly silly dialogue with nice artwork.

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second Epic Collection of Fury and the Howlers reprints issues #20 through 36 and Annuals #1 and 2, a solid, if a bit stolid group of books. Sgt. Fury doesn’t really start howling—for me at least—until the war team supreme of Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers, and John Severin take over with issue #44, and then there’s about a 35-issue run that’s just wonderful. Roy Thomas takes over the scripting of Fury in this volume with issue #29, his first regular scripting gig after some other earlier work at Marvel, including an Iron Man story, some Doctor Strange scripts over Steve Ditko plots, and the ubiquitous—and lovely, I’m told—Millie the Model. (Everybody loves Millie.) I always liked Sgt. Fury more than DC’s Sgt. Rock (although in retrospect, that Joe Kubert and Russ Heath art is ridiculously great), and when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby updated Nick Fury and made him a super-spy around this time (1965-66), I was in seventh heaven. I was very surprised and pleased to see a second Fury Epic Collection, especially in this 60th anniversary year for the title, since I doubt reprints like this are burning up the sales charts. Good but not great, this volume is an example of war, Marvel-style, and Ayers certainly went down in history as THE Sgt. Fury artist. WA-HOOO!

[Joe Santoro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to check this out just because it's one of the few main line Silver Age comics by Marvel I'd never read... I got vol 2 on purpose to skip all the origin stories.

Its ok for what it is.. a superhero comic with a thin veil of a historic setting. If you're looking for anything remotely resembling historical accuracy, this is not the right place.

That said, it's pretty fun to see Fury and his crew punching out Nazis.. no killing of course, it's still Comic Code approved! The length they go to to make sure there are no gunfights are pretty hilarious as you read more (there are some explosions, but never any bodies certainly).

I'm glad I read it, but I probably don't need to read any others... this is not the book you want if you're looking for a war comic.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

It always amazed me that the Howling Commandos weee able to sneak in anywhere because they never shut-up.