Monthly Archives: September 2006

Nick Fury and His Agents of SHIELD #4 [1973]

Posted on September 9, 2006 by Bob

Two STRANGE TALES reprints from 1966 in this issue, the SHIELD stories from #152 and #153, both drawn by Jim Steranko over Kirby layouts, both edited down to 11 pages from the original 12. Steranko would of course take over the full art in the next issue.

“The Power of SHIELD” starts with Fury trapped on a runaway plane with the Overkill Horn, about to be shot out of the sky by SHIELD. Meanwhile, back below the ruins of Karnopolis, the Supreme Hydra switches identities for the next phase of his plans.

NickFury41973.jpg

He leaves just in time, as Fury is able to escape from the plane before SHIELD’s attack hits and redirects the plane to Karnopolis, which is destroyed when SHIELD’s Strato-Mine homes in on the Overkill Horn. Fury then leads a rescue of the daughter of the previous Supreme Hydra, who had helped him escape earlier. The story finishes with a pretty funny scene of Jasper Sitwell, temporarily in charge of SHIELD, trying to smoke one of Fury’s cigars.

Next up is “The Hiding Place”, which opens with Fury getting a shave at the SHIELD barber shop, so I guess it’s more than a front for the entrance to the SHIELD base. Anyway, as he cleans up, the car that Gabe and Jasper are taking the rescued daughter to safety in is attacked, and Fury and Dum Dum Dugan are off to the rescue. As they are, though, the new Supreme Hydra changes faces yet again, this time to that of a SHIELD agent they captured, and infiltrates SHIELD HQ, leading the forces that go to help fight off the Hydra attack and capturing his own men to win Fury’s confidence.

Just Kirby layouts, of course, and Steranko at the time was quickly developing his own style, but at this point a lot of the Kirby comes out both from the layouts and Steranko’s own work being influenced by Kirby. The SHIELD stories are really plot heavy at this point, with a lot of twists in the half-issues they got.

Published 1973

Posted in Genre, Superhero | 1 Comment

Where Monsters Dwell #26 [1974] – The Thing Called Metallo

Posted on September 1, 2006 by Bob

This issue features a 13-page Kirby/Ayers reprint TALES OF SUSPENSE #16 (1961). Mike Fallon escapes from jail and decides the best place to hide-out would be to volunteer to test a radiation suit. Apparently there’s no background check for that, so he’s in, and gets to try out the giant robot frame, which can’t be damaged or even opened except from the inside. The tests end up involving one of the greatest scenes of all time: Giant Robot vs. Giant Octopus!

WhereMonstersDwell261974.jpg

The suit passes all it’s other tests, and then Fallon decides that he should use it for his own gain, and procedes to rob a bank. After that he decides to free the prisoners in Alcatraz and enlist them as part of a criminal army. Makes sense to me. Fortunately for the world, as he gets to the prison he begins to feel ill, and the prison doctor informs him that he has a disease that can only be treated with radiation therapy, which would require he leave the suit. Struck by the sheer irony of the situation, he wanders off, leaving all thoughts of a criminal army behind.

Pretty good twist for this kind of story, and a lot of great art throughout. I especially like one panel where Metallo does the typical Kirby “thoughtful hand-across-the-chin” gesture, which looks pretty funny with those big robot fingers.

The cover is also from ToS #16.

Published 1974

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