Episode 1815 Talkback: Spotlight on Nick Fury
i_am_scifi
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From his Lee and Kirby origins and the best eyepatch in comics, to The Howling Commandos, to Steranko's iconic take, all the way to Original Sin, the Infinity Formula and beyond, nobody has been a part of more facets of the Marvel Universe than Nick Fury. It took a group of four geeks, including Spotlight Maestro Chris Eberle, Shane, Ian and Murd, gathered together in one undisclosed location (okay fine, it's disclosed, it was the CGS Studio) to make this Spotlight happen! And for those paying attention, this one is at least five years in the making. So get in your flying car, put on your stealth suit with as many pouches as you can possibly fit, put that eyepatch on the correct eye, and join in on the action; if you're tough enough. (3:17:19)
Listen here or watch us IN STUDIO on YouTube below, and your application to SHIELD will be reviewed.
Comments
The best use of Nick Fury Jr is the Nick Fury series from James Robinson and ACO. ACO elevates the story with Steranko-inspired art. If you have Marvel Unlimited do give a shot.
The character was heavily featured in the recent Taskmaster mini-series which is a lot of fun, and is the star of the Infinite Fury story currently running in the Marvel annuals.
Here is the cover image of David Roach's lovely Masters of British Comic Art book. The cover art is by Brian Bolland and does indeed show Dan Dare, Judge Dredd and Tank Girl. The other character is the third British bear of note, Rupert Bear who recently marked his centenary of publication in UK newspapers.
@eamonn_clarke Sooty, Biffo, Bungle & Superted might take umbrage at that ranking.
Yeah, the Sgt. Fury comics were pretty weak fare compared to DC’s war books, which is why I only had one issue of it as a kid, compared to my sizeable stack of the latter. Live and learn.
But Nick Fury piqued my interest the next time I saw him in Marvel Team-Up #82. He doesn't appear until the final page, but what an entrance, stepping out of the shadows after seemingly gunning down the Black Widow in cold blood. I wouldn't find out what actually happened until several years later, it being the first issue of a four-part story, and I think that mystery was a large part of why I ended up liking the character.
Also, David Roach is an acquaintance of mine, and he knows his stuff. It is indeed a lovely book, and I heartily recommend it.
Also, also, in the credit where credit is due department, @mwhitt80 should share in the Forum Meets kudos. It was his initial idea after all!
@Brack
good point, they probably would all make the top ten, but not the top three.
Love the Spotlight episodes. Always a treat. I'm glad that, true to form, Murd first came across Nick Fury via the Marvel Universe trading cards. I was working as a camp counsellor in Maine in 1992 and came across these cards as some of the kids had them. Pleased to find anything Marvel-related (it was so rare back then, wasn't it? Now I don’t look twice at someone wearing a Captain America belt buckle.) I even managed to purloin a few of them for myself. I distinctly remember sending one to a friend of mine who was getting married back in the UK that summer. I had no wedding gift for him but Iron Man was always his favourite superhero so I figured, why not? Later on that year, I saw the video of the best man’s speech and my Iron Man trading card was shown to all present. A very cheap wedding gift but, after checking prices on ebay, I hope he’s still got it as those 1990 cards can fetch a pretty penny.
I completely empathise with Murd's fondness for these cards. I had a similar affection for a deck of Marvel Superhero Top Trumps cards from the late 70s. It was early on in my comic reading career and, like Murd, I used these cards to speedily increase my knowledge of characters in the Marvel Universe. Check them out – they were only released in the UK, I think:
https://tainthemeat.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/marvel-superheroes-top-trumps/
Anyway, onto Nick Fury. I have very fond memories of a run of Sgt Fury comics back issues that I bought back when I was a kid in the 80s (when they were reprinting the Silver Age stories) and these are the ones that have stayed with me the most. So much so that, when I was up in my mum’s attic the other week, looking at old comics, I saw a few Sgt Fury comics and had to bring them down with a view to rereading them. The recent CGS spotlight then pushed them right to the top of my to read pile. Unfortunately, the one I remember the most, which features the line that I later found out to be inspired by Alice in Wonderland– “I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury, says cunning old Fury” – was not among them. But as I was reading them, one stood out as a homage to Casablanca – Sgt Fury 166 (a reprint of Sgt Fury 72). The credits were, unusually, right at the end of the issue. And the writer was credited as ”Gary couldn’t make it this time around so practically the whole blamed bullpen sat around workin’ on this one!” Intrigued, I turned to Google. Seems Friedrich had turned in a script that was very similar to Casablanca. Stan Lee ordered a quick rewrite plus Dick Ayers’ pencils needed to be changed as the characters looked too similar to the screen characters, Bogart, Peter Lorre et al.