Let’s say secret agents have become immensely popular, thanks to James Bond 007. Okay, you’ve already got a World War II combat hero handy in the Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos title (which began in May 1963), and, in Fantastic Four 21 (Dec. 1963), you’ve already updated him to the 1960s as a CIA agent fighting the Hate Monger (an enemy he knew well, as it turned out).
So why not turn Nick Fury into the head of some new, super-secret super-organization like UNCLE, CONTROL or ZOWIE? Call this one SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division).
Premiering in Strange Tales 135 (August 1965), this gruff, barking guy with an eye patch seemed particularly unsubtle for a spy, and we were already swamped with spies by then — James Bond, Derek Flint, Matt Helm, Napoleon Solo, John Drake, Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott, Amos Burke, Maxwell Smart. Even Archie Andrews became a secret agent, for pity’s sake.
The spies of popular fiction offered sex, violence and gadgets, and with the sex and violence necessarily muted by the Comics Code, that meant the gadgets had to be amped up through the roof in SHIELD — flying cars, invisibility suits, death rays, Life Model Decoys, even a flying aircraft carrier (most of them provided by Marvel’s resident tech genius Tony Stark, naturally).
The gadgets served the same purpose for Fury as the spells of Dr. Strange, SHIELD’s companion in Strange Tales, and they offered the same dramatic problem. When you can always pull a deus ex machina out of your ass to resolve whatever peril you’re in, suspense becomes elusive.
More than one enduring element of the Marvel universe sprang from this series — most notably Hydra, the evil cabal that’s now probably even more famous than SPECTRE, the spy organization that inspired it, and seemingly as immortal as its mythological namesake.
Carl Thiel said: I dutifully bought STRANGE TALES with the crappy Human Torch stories because of Ditko's Dr. Strange. Loved it when S.H.I.E.L.D. was introduced although, at 10 years old, I hadn't seen very many of the current spy movies.
ReplyDeleteMichael Fraley wrote: It Dawn's on me that Lee and Kirby well understood how the secret agents of the 1960's were rooted in the quest to defeat Hitler twenty years before.
ReplyDeleteDarren Edwards said: Steranko added a great sophistication the Shield comics. There was a good run in Captain America when he fought Hydra, also drawn by Steranko.
ReplyDeleteNils Osmar wrote: I agreed with the readers who felt (at the time) that Fury should have been a field agent instead of the head of SHIELD. He acted like one anyway much of the time, but the stories would have made more sense and had more internal drama if he had been imbedded in a command structure (like James Bond, answering to a superior) rather than the head of the entire agency.
ReplyDeleteCharles W. Fouquette wrote: The Kirby spin on the secret agent craze of the early 60's pulled a higher level of creative imagination. I can imagine Stan trying to keep up with all that Kirby Dynamism. It must have been at times, hilarious!
ReplyDeleteJames Edward Barr said: SHIELD is one of those things that really helped tie Marvel together as a joint universe without even more main character crossovers. Cross pollination with Iron Man and Captain America and others even without Fury himself having to appear. And as noted Hydra and AIM became durable and widespread baddies. Organizations are great to tie things together and SHIELD/Hydra did the job!
ReplyDeleteSteven J. Allen said: James Edward Barr Yes! The importance of SHIELD in this regard cannot be overstated, and is reflected very much in a certain out-of-timeline cinematic universe.
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