Strange Tales #139



"The Brave Die Hard!"
writer: Stan Lee
layouts: Jack Kirby
art: Joe Sinnott
letters: Artie Simek

grade: A

It is so jarring constantly shifting between the Howling Commandos and Agent of SHIELD stories because, quite honestly, one is consistently fun, and the other is not. Part of this comes down to an issue of genre, I suppose. I prefer sci-fi to war any day, but we also saw some really action-intensive and deeply emotional war stories in earlier Howling Commandos issues that have gone by the wayside in favor of a lighter, campier approach -- the kind of stories old army buddies would recall together as opposed to an honest or even interesting depiction of the thrill and tragedy of war.

If you look at how strongly Howling Commandos started and where it is now, and if you look at Howling Commandos now versus Agent of SHIELD, I think the sole variable that explains all of this is clear -- Jack Kirby. I'm willing to believe that Stan Lee is a nice guy, a good editor, promoter, and manager, a visionary, and a strong co-creator, but it's clear here that his work suffers tremendously when Jack is not involved in the plotting.

Meanwhile, art-wise, Jack tackles Agent of SHIELD so much better than he tackled Howling Commandos only a year earlier. Whereas his pencils were so rough, his faces non-distinct, inconsistent, and ape-like, his art is gorgeous and expressive here. Maybe it's Sinnott's finishing, but even his arrangements have more power. He gives so much expression to the Supreme HYDRA commander even while behind a full face mask, especially in that second to last panel in which he is hunched in self-doubt while his agents scurry about him with clear purpose.

As for the story itself, Jack's imagination just continues to kick my butt. The security measures that even leave an average HYDRA soldier living in fear that he might one day forget the password or say it too slowly and the energy-compressed rations both suitably wowed me, even while the explosive shirt seemed a little too far-fetched, and HYDRA's mechanical hunter seemed downright silly. Meanwhile, I appreciated the misdirection (which felt like Stan's work) in depicting a large dinosaur for the big reveal of what the "Braino-saur" was, only to discover we were only watching Fury's subconscious and his assumption of what it must be. Then again, why in the world would you name a super intelligent air/space craft a "Braino-Saur"? Surely, Tony Stark could come up with a more appropriate and catching name than that.

This was an exciting issue, full of awesome sci-fi concepts, great action, and surprising emotional intensity on the part of the Supreme HYDRA Commander. There's no doubt that momentum is building to a crescendo for the next issue. I can't wait.


Minor details:

- If the average HYDRA soldier knows what the Supreme HYDRA Commander's daughter looks like with her mask off, couldn't he easily put two and two together to discern who the Supreme Commander really is?

- Does the "G" in "Agent G" stand for "girl"?

- Gabe and Dum Dum joke that they are not insured and that "no insurance company would give a policy to a SHIELD man!" but I have to assume SHIELD takes care of their families should something happen to them. I guess it's just done directly and without an outside insurance agency's involvement. Hopefully, unlike HYDRA, they offer dental too.


plot synopsis: HYDRA uses a device to look into Fury's subconscious to learn about the Braino-Saur, but they discover he knows nothing, they take him to a high security containment area with the intent to publicly execute him after the Supreme Commander has taken control of the world as a means of asserting his authority, Stark reveals that the Braino-Saur is a sophisticated thinking air/space craft that can deactivate HYDRA's Betatron Bomb while in orbit, Fury escapes from his cell with the help of his explosive shirt, Dum Dum and Gabe lead an attack on HYDRA using the captured HYDRA-RAM spacecraft from issue #136, we're further teased about who the Supreme HYDRA Commander is by again being reminded he's one of the members of the board of Imperial Industries International, the Commander learns his daughter is with Fury and descends into self-pity and doubt while continuing to order his soldiers like nothing is wrong, and the Braino-Saur goes to work on the Betatron Bomb.

Strange Tales #140



"The End of HYDRA"

writing: Stan Lee
layouts: Jack Kirby
pencils: Don Heck
inks: Joe Sinnott
letters: Sam Rosen

grade: B+ (High marks for the revelation about the Supreme Commander, but not much else)


The power-packed conclusion to the sweeping HYDRA story arc. Lots of excitement and adventure as Fury and his agents take down the Supreme HYDRA commander once and for all.

...except that, when you stop to think about it, none of that actually happened.

First off, the story cuts out abruptly with the Supreme Commander about to blow his headquarters (and everyone in it) sky high. Sure, it says "The end," but that's neither an ending nor much of a cliffhanger. I was amazed to go back and discover the ending I remember for this story didn't occur here but in the next issue. Weird.

Second, and this is the truly disturbing part, Fury and SHIELD had almost nothing to do with the downfall of HYDRA. Instead, their defeat can be attributed to the following:
1. The Supreme Commander's daughter turning on him, thus distracting his focus, as well as freeing Fury
2. The Supreme Commander's initial unwillingness to bring harm to his daughter (who was with Fury the whole time, thus saving him by extension)
3. Tony Stark's and his Brain-O-Saur device deactivating the Betatron Bomb HYDRA was using to lord over the nations of the world
4. Inexplicable luck in having the SHIELD agents completely surrounded by armed HYDRA agents firing on them from all sides at point blank range with no cover, and yet not a single SHIELD agent got injured.

Fury tries to set the tone and moral for the story on page 2 when he proclaims, "No matter how thick-headed I am, I'm a MAN! A man oughtta be able to out-think a crummy machine!" but it's never Fury's determination, thinking, nor bravado that takes down his highly sophisticated nemesis. In fact, Tony Stark's "machine" (The Brain O Saur) is the final essential key in ensuring their victory over HYDRA.

So, once the excitement that always accompanies a well-anticipated climax dissipates, this is a pretty unsettling issue. I never caught these things upon my previous readings of this story.


And speaking of the Brain O Saur (a name that still makes no sense for this ultra sophisticated spaceship), it's quite silly the lengths Lee goes to in this story arc to continue to respect fans' wishes of keeping Nick Fury's Howling Commandos/SHIELD universe largely separate from that of the Marvel Superheroes (for those that don't know, he received massive push-back in response to the Captain America guest appearance in Howling Commandos #13). In this case, it seems to me that Tony Stark could have far more effortlessly become Iron Man in order to deactivate the Brain O Saur with a far greater amount of control. Utilizing this incredibly complex spaceship to remotely deactivate the bomb, two issues after being imprisoned by HYDRA soldiers, all seems far far far more complicated than just suiting up and saving the day in a single issue.


Really, the only other aspect of this issue worth noting is how disappointingly unimpressive HYDRA agents appear up close in this story. At first, I thought the Supreme Commander was sending out those skateboard troops because he didn't want to see his daughter killed, but when they fail, the only backup plan is blowing up the base. So dude's on skateboards is the absolute WORST they can throw at their enemies? I know -- I know. Jack loves drawing that stuff (skateboarding HYDRA soldiers, a Silver Surfer, the Black Racer is a dude on skiis), but it's more ridiculous than usual here.


Important Details:

- Supreme HYDRA commander revealed to be Arnold Brown, Mr. Farrington's personal secretary. Though the clues were there all along, this had to be one of the best surprise reveals in all of comicdom. I'll admit to not having seen it coming. Farrington was the far more obvious choice, and Lee and Kirby counted on us assuming that.



plot synopsis - HYDRA loses to SHIELD forces, Tony Stark takes out the Betatron Bomb, the Supreme Commander flees, reveals his true identity to the readers, and is about to blow up his HYDRA headquarters with everyone else still in it.

Strange Tales #141



"Operation: Brain Blast!"
writer: Stan Lee
pencils: Jack Kirby
inks: Frank Ray (Frank Giacoia)
letters: Sam Rosen

grade: B+


I still can't figure out why the culmination of the HYDRA storyline was so awkwardly paced, seemingly concluded in the previous issue, even while the true climax occurs as an after-thought here (the defeat of Imperial HYDRA). Come to think of it, this issue begins with the SHIELD agents having conquered the HYDRA agents, but we're never given a clear sense of how this came to pass. SHIELD just suddenly won...somehow.

As for the ultimate end of Imperial HYDRA, I was disappointed to find myself less impressed with it this time than I was upon the first reading. Somehow, it feels less tragic and ironic now; instead just sort of tacked on and convenient. On so many levels, you can look at the life of the Imperial HYDRA as one extended tragedy, and his downfall is ultimately attributed to his conscience interfering and causing him to pause twice too often, but Lee doesn't play this up as much as I would have liked him to. With all the classic Marvel stories that were needlessly reinvented for the Ultimate imprint, someone really could have raised this storyline to the next level with a more in-depth retelling that spends more time on characterization and motives. I find Imperial HYDRA fascinating and wish we could have spent more time with this single father, enduring a tragic loss in a world that refused to give him a fair shake, and subverting it all. We never really see HOW he did it. How does a nobody build a criminal empire beneath the feet of his unknowing boss? THAT's a story worth seeing.

The story awkwardly transitions to being about SHIELD's new E.S.P. unit and SHIELD's new rival, a rogue operative with telepathic abilities and a plan to use a man with the innate ability to build anything as his compatriot. Though I ultimately really like where Stan and Jack go with the E.S.P. unit, this first installment isn't particularly compelling, and wouldn't a rogue telepath and a man who has a superhuman instinct to build amazing things both fall under the jurisdiction of the X-Men? Where's Cerebro's mutant detector now, Stan?


Important Details:

- Death of Imperial HYDRA
- HYDRA is conquered
- Fury allows the Imperial HYDRA's daughter to escape
- Introduction of SHIELD's E.S.P. Unit.


Minor Details:

- Jack's elaborate scenario in which "The Fixer" uses his ability to build himself an elaborate escape from prison was utterly absurd on so many levels.


plot synopsis: SHIELD has conquered HYDRA, Fury and his agents are charging up the stairs in pursuit of Imperial HYDRA, he is still in civilian clothes and hesitating before blowing everyone up, two of his minions randomly run into him, assume he's a nobody, and ignore his protests as they kill him, and we switch gears to learn about SHIELD's new E.S.P. unit, as well as the rogue telepath that used to work for them (the E.S.P. Unit has been developed in anticipation of his working against the organization, even though the department was originally his idea) and "The Fixer," a criminal with the ability to build anything with whom the telepath plans to partner.

This was a good thread.

Love the Sarge. Love all these comics. Heck, I even like the Roy Thomas issues.

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #28



"Not a Man Shall Remain Alive!"
writer: Stan Lee
pencils: Dick Ayers
inks: John Tartaglione
letters: Sam Rosen

grade: A-

This title has always been a curious read. Sometime it's a fun and somewhat silly mag, sometimes it's played for action, and, every once in a while, Stan decides to tell a truly meaningful story within. This is one of those stories.

In reviewing the previous issue of Sgt Fury, I started to experience immense frustration with this title, so much so that it's been more than a year since that last review, realizing that nothing much could ever happen in the title: we already knew all the Howlers would survive and live through at least the Korean War, we knew that the Howlers couldn't actually change real history, and we knew that the Howlers could never kill any bad guys in a magazine approved by the comics code. So, that being the case, what could Stan actually DO with this title each month to make us care?

This issue provides at least one answer to the problem in that, in a surprising shift in both tone and scope, this issues shifts its focus away from both The Howlers and the people they protect in order to tell a story from the German point of view. Whereas all Nazis had been previously portrayed as both stupid and prideful, this is a startlingly honest exploration of the Nazi perspective, best articulated by Baron Strucker, after being forced to execute a town of helpless French civilians:

"I do not wish to do this! I am a soldier--not an executioner! But I have my orders! I must obey them! The sabotage must end! It must END!!"

and again, after receiving more direct orders from Hitler:

I believe in our destiny! I believe in this war! I believe Germany should rule the world! But, why must a MAD SAVAGE give the orders? Yet, I am a soldier! I MUST obey! It is not for me to question! He is my Fuehrer! -- The SWINE!"


While it's as unlikely that Hitler's highest ranking officers were calling him "swine" behind his back as it is that Hitler would have ever devoted his full energies to directly overseeing the extermination of a small French village, It's surprising and brutally honest, nonetheless, to explore the conflicting emotions any loyal Nazi officer must have faced when ordered to perform some of the horrifying acts that history knows they committed.

In fact, while Stan and Dick avoid articulating it directly, it seems that this story, more than any other Howlers story so far, is really about The Holocaust (as it would ultimately be called). Fury and The Howlers liberated a concentration camp once earlier, but it didn't look like much more than a POW camp then. In this issue, the cruelest thing Strucker can think to do to this town is to send its people to concentration camps (until he ultimately decides to blow the whole town sky high), with the town's populous desperately pleading to avoid this fate. In addition, Strucker's inner conflict with being forced to massacre innocents, along with the looks of disbelief he gets from his soldiers when conveying these orders, seem more targeted at the Nazis who ran concentration camps than to anything that happened elsewhere in the war (and, by the way, I can find no record that there ever was a town called "Charbeaux" in which these things happened).

I'm not sure what the climate was like in America at the time: how well known it was what occurred in those concentration camps, nor how acceptable it was to publicize it in a magazine (let alone one read by children), but it truly feels like that's what Lee and Ayers are trying to discuss here, and let's not forget both that Lee had been in the war and that he was Jewish.


For what it's worth, this becomes the first instance of me actually liking Baron Strucker. Taking his former hubris as a military leader and using it to twist him up on in the inside when given orders that violate his morality, ultimately looking for a way to rationalize what he must do -- it's such an honest portrayal of evil. I find it utterly captivating.


Regarding the artwork, this is pretty much Ayers at his best, thus far. I still maintain that the strength Ayers brought to this title was his ability to draw powerfully expressive faces. Just look at Strucker's hardened face while painfully working to maintain that facade in spite of the conflicting feelings he has within:




Or this image of the "false parade" where French people are forced, at gun point, to cheer for Strucker's arrival:




Of course, Ayers is still Ayers, and so we get the occasional panel where FAR too much dialogue is thrown into one space:



but it's a rare occurrence in this issue.


Oh, and check out Ayers getting creative with panel arrangements for once:




Seems like both he and Stan took this issue more seriously than some of the others and truly strove to put their personal best into it.




Important Details:


Though he has had cameos before, this marks the first time Hitler, himself, has a significant presence in the title, appearing in fourteen panels and driving the action of the story:





Minor Details:

Inevitably, suspension of disbelief continues to run high in this title. Fury puts his hands up to surrender to pursuing Nazis, insults them while they have their guns drawn, and somehow just knows they're not going to open fire. Even with all the stark realism Lee and Ayers lent to this story, this title still offers the idyllic promise that the good guys always win, not necessarily because they are smarter or stronger, but because their clear moral compass makes them more resolute and, therefore, superior in every way. The good guys never lose. Going along with that, Hitler can't be a brilliant strategist in this title; he must be a stark raving madman because he utterly lacks a moral compass.



Historical Accuracy:

A Google search provides no evidence of a town called Cherbeaux in France. Its only mention online is in reference to this issue.



plot synopsis in one sentence:


The Howlers are ordered to defend a small town in France that has fallen under Nazi control, Baron Strucker is running the town and is ordered by Hitler to make an example of the town's inhabitants because it still harbors French resistance fighters, Strucker wrestles with his orders, Hitler keeps putting the pressure on him, The Howlers arrive and begin helping the resistance, Strucker issues more and more severe punishments for the townspeople, and Fury and Strucker finally come face to face, with explosives placed in the basement of every building in town and Strucker about to throw the switch. To be continued...

Oh, I've enjoyed some of their silly moments. If they ever give Pinkerton a solo series where he takes down entire platoons with his bumbershoot, sign me up. But a lot of the sillier stories in this title have felt a little more phoned in. Additionally, I think I struggle, sometimes, to enjoy silly comedy amidst the second most devastating war in all the history of mankind. I realize it was pretty standard to treat World War II as some sort of ideal back in the day, but I struggle to do that, and I wonder how (and why) Lee and Ayers do the same when they were actually there. That's part of what I loved about #28, really: it did more to look at the war with honesty.