Making Marvel Mine: Marvel Masterworks Sgt. Fury Vol. 1 ( Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1-13)

Okay, I know I don't usually start like this, but right off the bat, I want you to know, I LOVE this book. Straight up, this is my favorite book I've done a Making Marvel Mine of that wasn't about Spider-Man (to which, I admit, I am extremely biased). And I'm not a big War Story fan or anything. But this book is so far ahead of the curve, and has such an energy, that I don't know what else to call it but a thing of brilliance. Racism and bigotry are taken head on, the horrors of war are experienced, propaganda, concentration camps, and the blitzkrieg are all in there, and a major character gets killed off in a comic book that came out in 1963. That was simply NOT DONE, but there it was. This wasn't just another war comic (there were a lot of those in the sixties), this was a book where anyone could be lost, and the stakes were always high.

It's also a very personal book, at least by the standards of early sixties comics. All 13 issues in this volume were written by Stan Lee, and the art was by Jack Kirby (issues 1-7, 13) and (the often under-appreciated) Dick Ayers (issues 8-12), and all three had served in the U.S. Military during World War II. I don't want to suggest that they were basing the stories after their own memories, because I know that the war wasn't a particularly happy subject, especially for Kirby (he would have nightmares about it all of his life). But I do think they felt the need to express something about the war to younger generations, and this was one of the places they did that.

It's a peculiar thing; the book isn't exactly a glorification of the allied forces, but it is at times deliberately dishonest. I mean that in the best way possible- this is World War II as it happened in the Marvel Universe. The army is integrated, our heroes bust open a concentration camp like it’s nothing- but never once are the complexities and horrors of war undermined or completely ignored. It’s a very shrewd series.

The book opens with immediate fanfare- no time wasted on explaining an origin, simply an action splash page of the Howlers and then two pages to cover the biographiesof each member of the eclectic cast. Sgt. Nick Fury, the "steel-muscled, iron-nerved fighting man" is the leader of the Howlers. Fury is pretty much the biggest, most hardcore man's-man that ever lived, and it's easy to see how, over the years, he'd grow from being this shaggy soldier into the greatest spymaster the (fictional) world has ever seen. At his right hand is Corp. "Dum-Dum" Dugan, the bowler hat wearing, cigar smoking strongman who you might remember from the Captain America movie (Fury himself isn’t in the WWII scenes, for obvious reasons of movie continuity). The rest of the cast was easily the most diverse of it's time: Izzy Cohen, one of the first openly Jewish characters in comics, was a scrappy mechanic who could fix anything with a motor. Dino Manelli was an ex-movie star of Italian-American decent, who left Hollywood to join the army. "Rebel" Ralston was a jockey from Kentucky whose small size hid how deadly he could really be. Jonathan "Junior" Juniper had joined the army as soon as he graduated from an Ivy-League university. And Gabriel Jones was a bugle player who just happened to be African-American. Later on we meet characters like Captain "Happy Sam" Sawyer, Fury's hard-nosed C.O.; Pamela Hawley, a British nurse who falls in love with our brash hero; and Percival Pinkerton, a British soldier who's eventually assigned to the Howler's.

It's hard to talk about this book without spoiling all kinds of things and/or gushing about it, but I would like to talk about the brilliance of my favorite issue in this collection. Sgt. Fury #6, "The Fangs of the Desert Fox!", may be, and I am 100% serious when I write this, the SINGLE BEST COMIC OF THE SILVER AGE, PERIOD. I admit, I haven't read them all, but I've read more than most people, and it really is that good. It’s a complex tale of friendship, bigotry, and the place morality has even in war. It’s not exactly your typical 1964 funnybook.

The story revolves around the Howlers being sent on a mission to stop the unstoppable General Erwin Rommel, Hitler’s greatest general, and leader of the Afrika Korps. Now, if that sounds like a pretty meaty subject on its own, well, it is, but that’s just the frame work to tell a much more grounded story- the personal drama becoming far more important and interesting than the marching armies and grand explosions that surround them. As Fury and his men do exercises to prepare for the capture of Rommel, Dino Manelli is injured in a parachuting maneuver gone wrong, and so he is quickly replaced by the military brass with a soldier named George Stonewell.

It quickly becomes apparent that Stonewell, despite being quite a competent soldier and Red-Blooded ‘Merican, is also a Red-Blooded ‘Merican Racist. His general jerkwad behavior gets Fury right pissed off, and Fury makes it clear in no uncertain terms that Stonewell needs to get over himself right now, or Fury will personally hand his ass to him.

The mission gets started, and is almost immediantly screwed up by Stonewell continuing to act like a general all-purpose asshat. In the course of battle, the Howlers escape and even manage to capture a Nazi soldier. Now, the Nazi soldier sees that Stonewell is a big, strong, blond dude, possibly of Aryan descent. And the Nazi also sees that Stonewell doesn’t seem to particularly like working with Cohen or Jones, and offers Stonewell a secret deal. He tells Stonewell that if he helps the Nazi escape, he will make sure that Stonewell is not executed when Rommel comes in and wins the day for the Germans. Now, the easy-writing route would be to have Stonewell defect and join the Nazis here. But no, see, Stonewell may be a racist, but he’s also a proud American soldier (if a flawed one), and he steadfastly refuses to betray his country. He’s an intolerant dick, but he’s also on our side- a very mature concept, for a book originally aimed at young kids.

I won’t spoil the whole thing, but I will say that the book successfully walks a very tight line- talking about after-school special material without ever feeling like an after-school special. A lesson is sort of learned, but never once does it feel forced; Stonewell never has a ridiculous moment when he suddenly realizes “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t be a racist anymore!” It’s a very human and sympathetic portrayal, one that Stan Lee in the introduction calls his “most impassioned plea for an end to bigotry”. And then, at the end of the issue, you learn that General Rommel himself isn’t the monster he’s suggested to be, and that he was actively planning to assassinate Hitler- in affect, the entire issue is a series of enemies turning out to not be the enemies you thought they were. It’s spectacular.

By the way, pretty much everything in that issue that is about Rommel? It’s true. Not only was he one of the most brilliant Generals in World War II, but he deliberately refused orders to kill captured allied soldiers, Jews, and civilians. He really was a major part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler, and his death was directly because of that fact. In his book, “The Second World War,” Winston Churchill said of Rommel; “He also deserves our respect, because, although a loyal German soldier, he came to hate Hitler and all his works, and took part in the conspiracy to rescue Germany by displacing the maniac and tyrant. For this, he paid the forfeit of his life. In the sombre wars of modern democracy, there is little place for chivalry.”

While Rommel, Hitler, and the invasion of Normandy are all in this book (Normandy to a small degree, but still), not every villain in the series is historical, as this is still a Marvel Comic. The two biggest standouts are clear. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a skilled swordsman and scientific genius, is set up by issue 5 to to be Fury’s arch-nemesis, a role he still fills today. And in issue 8 we’re introduced to Dr. Heinrich Zemo, 12th Baron Zemo, and his death ray. He’s a brilliant scientist working for the Third Reich, and I’m sure we’ll see more of him (*cough*Essential Avengers is only two reviews away!*cough*).

Straight up: Sgt. Fury is great comics. It’s not much in the way of capes and cowls, but there are a few in there nonetheless. Captain America and Bucky are in issue 13, titled, appropriately enough, “Fighting Side-By-Side With...Captain America and Bucky!”, and heck, if you’re playing close attention, the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards even has a cameo in an issue! But even if they had never shown up, this would still definitely be a great piece of Marvel history, and seriously, just brilliant work from all the collaborators. This may well be Stan Lee at his very best (I’m hesitant to confirm that, because I have a lot more Lee-scripted Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to read yet), and the art is all top notch. Top marks all around on this book, I highly recommend it, not just to comic book fans, but everyone.

Editors Note: Full disclosure, I bought my copy of this book over a year ago, a hardcover Marvel Masterworks version. Unlike the Marvel Essentials books (which all the previous reviews have been), there are only about 10-15 issues in each Masterworks collection. The Masterworks are gorgeous, fully colored and on really, really nice paper. Essentials are uncolored, and on paper that's basically like the paper you find in a coloring book. That being said, Masterworks are $50 and up for half as many comics as the Essentials (which run $16-20), so I usually stick with the Essentials. When I bought this, though, there was no Essential Sgt. Fury, so this was my best option for the stories. However, a few weeks ago Marvel finally released an Essential Sgt. Fury, probably because the characters are so integral to the plots of the Captain America and Avengers movies. Anyway, I'll eventually get around to grabbing a copy, and you'll get a review of the stories in it that weren't in this volume. Just letting you know.