FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: MARVEL’S vital SGT. FURY VOL. 1

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Essential Sgt. Fury Vol. 1

by Robert Greenberger

Of all the titles that can be said to kick off the marvel Age of comics, the one that may have been the most consistently strong right from the beginning was Sgt. Fury and his growling Commandos. The series chugged right through the ‘60s and ‘70s until it switched to occasional reprints and vanished with a whimper after 167 issues.

At a time when marvel had retired its genre titles or features in favor of colorfully costumed characters, DC Comics had been more successfully introducing recurring characters in their commercial war titles, led by Sgt. Rock. In late 1962, as Marvel’s wonderful Four, Hulk, Ant-Man, Thor and Spider-Man were generating increasing sales, writer/editor Stan Lee was feeling like everything they introduced was a sure-fire hit. In what is perhaps the second most oft-told tale from the era, Lee bet publisher Martin Goodman he could make a hit out of a book with the worst title ever. He quickly coined Sgt. Fury and modified the real life Screaming Eagles into the growling Commandos.

Partnering with Jack Kirby, who unlike Lee saw actual combat, the two kicked off the first new war series in years and using the new alchemy of characterization mixed with slam-bang action, the series right away found an audience. John Severin, who would join the art team some time later, recalled that he and Kirby had spoken about teaming for a war-based comic strip in the 1950s that never materialized, but it could be that Kirby took those unused concepts and contributed them to the feature. The first 23 issues and annual #1 are being collected in the new edition of vital Sgt. Fury volume 1. The 544-page collection contains the very best of the material and demonstrates early on that the creators were channeling their own world war II experiences nearly 20 years later.

Fury’s squad was made up of a motley bunch that was more integrated and international in flavor many of whom were seen recently in the Captain America movie such as Corporal Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader “Dum Dum” Dugan and private Gabriel Jones (an African-American solider, who the color separator “corrected” to Caucasian in issue one, prompting Lee to send a note with the color guides to the second issue). The team had several significant firsts such as Isadore “Izzy” Cohen, the first Jewish American comic book protagonist (Ben Grimm’s heritage was revealed decades later) and there was Jonathan “Junior” Juniper, the first significant character to die in battle during the marvel Age. He was replaced by Pinky Pinkerton, who Stan later suggested was always portrayed as a gay character, although I seriously doubt that.

Taking orders from Captain Samuel “Happy Sam” Sawyer, the Commandos worked throughout the European theater of war and both Lee and Kirby made certain not to glamorize the actual battles. Dubbed “The war Mag for people who hate war Mags”, the series stretched credulity at times but also brought pathos at a time when the rest of the titles were bombastic. The second issue right away demonstrated the horror of war with a scene set at a concentration camp, its emaciated prisoners, and the horrific gas chamber.

Issue #4 not only killed Juniper, but it introduced Pamela Hawley, the British nurse who was to become the love of Fury’s life. I still recall sitting in summer camp reading a reprint of issue #18 where Hawley died and felt gut-punched. Characters didn’t die like that (at least not then they didn’t; Hawley was the most significant death until Gwen Stacy opened the floodgates a few years later). The large cast allowed Lee to explore their backgrounds to vary the storytelling so in this book you will get to meet private Robert “Rebel” Ralston’s family and Pinkerton’s background.

As for contributions to the marvel Universe, issue #3 guest starred major Reed Richards of the O.S.S. and in issue #13 the Howlers met Captain America and Bucky. When Fury’s major antagonist Baron Von Strucker was introduced, little did anyone realize both men would survive to the modern day and continue their battles as the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra respectively.

The book was a victim of its own success so Kirby was gone by the eighth issue, replaced by Dick Ayers, who was a veteran storyteller and easily slipped behind the drawing table. Kirby returned for the occasional cover, and the first and last pages to issue #13, but Ayers made the title his own, even plotting a few issues and managed to fit in drawing the first annual as well. check out issue #15, which was attractively inked by Steve Ditko. When Severin joined him with issue #27, the book took on a distinctive look all its own and was one of the best drawn titles of the decade.

For one of the most satisfying reading experiences from that particular decade, you don’t want to missthis collection.

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Essential Sgt. Fury Vol. 1 SC