NICK FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a Veterans Day theme with this look at some of the early stories about Marvel’s Nick Fury during his pre-eyepatch World War Two service. For some of my more serious Veterans Day posts click HERE.

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #1 (May 1963)

Title: Seven Against the Nazis

Roster: Captain Sam Sawyer, Sgt. Nick Fury, and Commandos Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones, Jonathan “Junior” Juniper, Reb Ralston, Dino Manelli and Izzy Cohen. 

NOTE: A few years before Marvel Comics created S.H.I.E.L.D. their Nick Fury character led this World War Two series. The characters were the same basic walking cliches that many B-Movie actioners rehashed in war story after war story.

        Nick was the tough-talking New Yorker, Dugan was the mouthy Irishman, Juniper was the naive Ivy Leaguer, Gabe Jones was “the black guy”, Reb Ralston was the Southerner, Izzy Cohen was the sardonic Jewish guy and Dino Manelli was the ladies’ man movie star who enlisted after Pearl Harbor.

Synopsis: Our title heroes, a special missions force, were sent to France to exfiltrate a French Underground leader who possessed vital secrets. 

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #3 (September 1963)

Title: Midnight on Massacre Mountain

Synopsis: After thwarting a Nazi commando mission in England, Fury and his men were sent to Italy to help save a unit that was taking part in the late 1943 campaign in mainland Italy. 

With the help of the real-life OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the difficult mission was a success. 

NOTE: This prequel series to many of Marvel Comics’ 1960s creations used this story to have Nick Fury and his men meet an OSS Agent named Reed Richards, the future Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. 

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #4 (November 1963)

Title: Lord Ha-Ha’s Last Laugh

NOTE: For people who aren’t into World War Two history, I’ll point out that Lord Ha-Ha is an obvious pastiche of the real-life “Lord Haw-Haw”, the alias of a British traitor who performed radio propaganda broadcasts for the Axis Powers.

       The fictional Lord often eschewed the Tokyo Rose technique of direct taunting and instead did an on-air character who lampooned fey, snobbish, upper class British twits.

Synopsis: Fury and his men were sent on a mission to abduct Lord Ha-Ha before his next broadcast and take him back to England to be tried as a traitor. Jonathan “Junior” Juniper was killed during the mission, and believe it or not, he’s STILL dead.

Comment: This issue also introduced Nick Fury’s recurring British girlfriend, Red Cross Nurse Pamela Hawley.

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #5 (January 1964)

Title: At the Mercy of Baron Strucker

NOTE: As the title indicates, this story introduced Nick Fury’s archenemy Baron Wolfgang Strucker, a Nazi soldier during World War Two. Decades later, when S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed, then-Colonel Nick Fury would lead that agency against Hydra, among whose leaders was Baron Strucker.

       Strucker’s twin son and daughter later grew up to be the super-powered mutant duo called Fenris and battled the X-Men.

Synopsis: Our heroes clashed with Baron Strucker and his troops on the island of Norsehaven and later in a Nazi base located in Dortstadt.   

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #6 (March 1964)

Title: The Fangs of the Fox

Synopsis: There’s sort of a Rat Patrol element to this installment of the Howling Commandos’ adventures.

Fury and his boys were sent to North Africa to take on the real-life Erwin Rommel, the infamous Desert Fox. Difficult and ornery substitute commando George Stonewell was sent with our heroes but was reassigned after the mission was completed.

After they were back in England awaiting their next assignment, Nick and his Howling Commandos learned about Rommel’s supposed involvement in the latest plot to kill Hitler.   

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #8 (July 1964)

Title: The Death Ray of Dr. Zemo

NOTE: For another tie-in with the larger Marvel Universe, this story features Captain America and Bucky’s supervillain foe Baron Zemo before he adopted his mask and costume.

Synopsis: After a successful mission against a Nazi S.S. Unit, Nick and the Howlers meet their permanent replacement for Jonathan Juniper – Britisher Percival “Pinky” Pinkerton.

Next, our heroes are sent to Germany on a mission to abduct Nazi scientist Baron Heinrich Zemo and/or steal his high-tech death ray weaponry.

The Howling Commandos fight their way in and out of heavily guarded Castle Zemo, but the Baron escapes. Even worse, Nick and the others succeed in stealing the death ray but are lucky to get back to England alive when the booby-trapped weapon explodes.    

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #10 (September 1964)

Title: On to Okinawa

NOTE: Not only does this issue mark the first Pacific Theater adventure for our heroes but also the group’s first encounter with their naval counterparts – Captain Dan Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders.

        Savage was called simply the Skipper in this story. After he and his men made a few guest appearances in Nick Fury’s series they got their own spin-off series which ran for a short time.

Synopsis: Captain Sawyer subjects Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos to intense quickie training for a mission in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The boys are sent to a Japanese-held island near Okinawa to exfiltrate an Allied spy before the island begins to get carpet bombed.  

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #12 (November 1964)

Title: When a Howler Turns Traitor

Synopsis: The latest mission for the Howling Commandos – locate and destroy a buzz-bomb base which the Nazis are using to bombard England.

Amid a Nazi propaganda blitz aimed at persuading German and Italian soldiers serving in the Allied armies to desert, Dino Manelli pretends to be deserting during the buzz-bomb mission.

In reality, Dino uses the pretence to help the commandos carry out their assignment. Our boys succeed and Nick verifies that Manelli was not really trying to desert, thus saving him from a firing squad.  

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #13 (December 1964)

Title: Side-by-Side with Captain America and Bucky

NOTE: Obviously, this was a crossover story between Nick Fury’s men and Captain America & Bucky.

Synopsis: Cap and Bucky catch on to a Nazi plan to launch a surprise invasion across the English Channel to conquer Great Britain.

Captain America requests that Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos be assigned to help him and Bucky thwart the Top Secret plan.

Amid much shooting and punching and explosions, our heroes work together to stymie the planned invasion, causing Hitler to throw an enormous fit over the failure. 

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #14 (January 1965)

Title: The Blitzkrieg Squad of Baron Strucker

NOTE: This was the first appearance of Baron Strucker’s counterparts to the Howling Commandos – the Blitzkrieg Squad. Strucker’s group consisted of Ludwig, Fritz, Otto, Siegfried, Ernst and Manfred.

(I guess the name “Herr German-Guy von Kraut” was already taken.)

Synopsis: Under Hitler’s personal orders, a fake V-2 rocket base is constructed to sucker in the Howling Commandos on a mission to destroy it. (It’s only a comic book. Just go with it.)

When Fury and his men attack the fake base, they are attacked in turn by Baron Strucker and His Blitzkrieg Squad. This clash sets the pattern for most of the stories in which the two units do battle. The overall result is inconclusive, but both groups get away with their lives.     

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #18 (May 1965)

Title: Killed in Action

Synopsis: Nick Fury and his men are sent on raids against Nazi operations in Monaco and Norway. Nick has been trying to work up the nerve to propose marriage to his Red Cross nurse girlfriend, Englishwoman Pamela Hawley.

Fury has even purchased a diamond ring to offer Pamela during his proposal but the missions prevented him from going through with it.

When Nick and his commandos at last return to England, Fury learns that Pamela was killed in an air raid while they were gone. 

FOR CANADA’S 1940s SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE. 

FOR MARVEL COMICS’ 1940s SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE.