Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D is almost certainly an amazing series. I wouldn’t know, though, because I’ve never read it. I probably should!
It’s classic late 60s/early 70s comic book goodness. Kirby, Lee, Dikto, Buscema, Romita, and all them were at the height of their powers, and other comic people were bursting onto the scene too. And then with Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., you got Jim Steranko, one of the best of the best, doing art for the first several issues. Even after he left, the covers are still extremely enticing… Makes me wonder why I still haven’t dove in!
Some may ask the question, “Bea, did you really make an entire article just to guilt yourself into reading a comic?” And some may answer that question, “Yeah, probably.”
But it’s also an excuse to feature some audacious, bold, intense promotional art, something y’all know I’m way into. And that means I’m about to feature every single cover in the original series:
Who is Scorpio? I have no idea, but they’ve got to be really badass.
It almost feels like, at least for the Steranko issues, that the series knew ahead of time how iconic it’d be. How influential a piece of pop art the series would become. And yet, there’s no possible way that’s the case, because comics weren’t even close to a respected medium by the late 60s. It’d be another fifteen years before Watchmen or Maus, and much longer still before comic book superheroes became a dominant force of American pop culture.
It’s just so COOL.
More Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Come
And, furthermore, after Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., there was another miniseries in the 80s. Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. The covers here are similarly fantastic, and I similarly have not actually read any of this comic.
These covers are really cool, I’ll say. Although they definitely have less staying power, if only because they are consciously riffing on 80s action movie posters. They are cool, but not as game-changing as the original series.
And then Nick Fury got one more series in the late 80s, which was significantly more conventional in its cover art. Most of it’s outright boring, sadly. A few nice pieces here and there, at least:
It’s good sometimes, but usually when it’s good, it’s harkening back to the old stuff anyway.
But I also haven’t read this comic either, so who am I to say?
…I really should read it.
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More blog posts incoming: Read about Zack Snyder, and also read my short story “Just Love Me” which features cool cover art too.
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