S.H.I.E.L.D: The Early Years

The popularity of Nick Fury and SHIELD timed with the American public's appetite for spy fiction (James Bond, Man from UNCLE, Secret Agent) lead Fury to jump forward into the Cold War from his Howler days in World War Two. The eye-patch wearing Fury made his first appearance as an agent of SHIELD in Strange Tales #135. Fury and his agents shared rack-space with Dr. Strange through issue #168, until they premiered in their own title; Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. This run lasted 15 issues of original material with the last three featuring reprints from Strange Tales. During this time Nick Fury adopted his second most influential (some say primary) creative force in artist/writer Jim Steranko, joining the SHIELD creative team during the Strange Tales run and kicking off the SHIELD title debut.

The Strange Tales and Nick Fury, Agent Of SHIELD runs introduced most of the core supporting characters that would continue through five-plus decades of SHIELD tales; among them Sgt Fury alumni Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones, joining Lee/Kirby's Jasper Sitwill and Laura Brown and later joined by Steranko's Valentina DeAllegria, Clay Quartermain, and resurrected from the pages of 1950's Atlas comics, Jimmy Woo.

Also Nick Fury's villains gallery took shape in these years. Two previously introduced characters, the Yellow Claw and Baron Von Strucker returned and featured as two of Nick Fury's greatest foes. Scorpio, an original creation of Steranko, was introduced during the title series and although appearing only a few times, would grow to become a major foe.

In 1967, Steranko's run on SHIELD was honored with an industry Alley Award for Best Normal Adventure Hero in their popularity poll and Strange Tales won for Adventure Hero Title with One or More Characters in Own Strip. The following year, 1968, Steranko swept with a Hall of Fame award for his SHIELD work, Best Pencil Artist and Best Cover for SHIELD #6. In addition Steranko's swansong in Strange Tales, "Today Earth Died" won for Best Feature story. With two ongoing and award winning title series (in two different time periods no less), featuring some of the brightest of Marvel's core talent, Nick Fury never again matched the sales and popularity of this period.

After the cancellation of the SHIELD title, Nick Fury ironically lived on in his own past in the Sgt Fury comic that by now had begun its reprint stage, enduring all the way to 1981. With no single writer guiding Fury, his characterization, as well as the mission of SHIELD varied to the whims of the writers who used them. SHIELD became a frequent staple in the pages of Captain America and Iron Man. One highlight during this time involved Howard Chaykin and Jim Starlin's Marvel Spotlight #31 with the introduction of the Infinity Formula to explain his lack of aging (in the face of the Marvel time slide).

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