S.H.I.E.L.D. Insignia (circa 1963)

Colonel Nicholas Fury (S.H.I.E.L.D. Public Director)

Formed in 1963 under the title of 'Supreme Headquarters International Espionage, Law Enforcement Division', SHIELD was the world's first truly 'international' secret intelligence service. A board of 'Directors' (including the prominent businessman Tony Stark) acted as an 'Oversight Committee' on the long-term scale - creating and implementing policy, guiding SHIELD's philosophy and goals - while the day-to-day business of running the agency and it's field operations was assigned to a 'Public Director', who would be the 'face' of SHIELD in the Law enforcement and Intelligence communities.

SHIELD's original Public Director - Rick Stoner - was assassinated by agents of HYDRA soon after the agency came on line and was replaced by Colonel Nicholas Fury, a decorated veteran of the Second World War and Korea, who was to remain a force withing the organisation for over two decades. Under Fury's directorship, SHIELD faced the Hydra threat in a prolonged series of bloody and costly battles, until Fury himself met and defeated the enemy leader, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who was presumed dead after he was exposed to the 'Deathspore Virus' and sealed within an atomic reactor in the remains of Hydra's Island base, shortly before its destruction.

The passing of the Hydra Threat (the organisation fragmented and turned to major crime rather than world conquest) left SHIELD free to deal with such menaces as Advanced Ideas Mechanics (AIM), the only arm of Hydra to prosper in the aftermath of the Hydra Island Disaster. With the passing of the era of the megalomaniac tyrant, SHIELD turned it's attention to fighting international terrorism on a smaller scale, often assisting such organisations as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in apprehending threats to national security and world peace.

For twenty-five years, Fury guided SHIELD through every situation imaginable - from fanatical neo-Nazi warmongerers and super-powered terrorists to giant mutant lizards, instilling in his agents a sense of duty and integrity, emphasising loyalty to SHIELD over personal loyalty. This was very nearly to prove both the organisation's downfall and cost Fury's life in 1988, when a renegade Life Model Decoy (LMD) - an artificial lifeform used by SHIELD for decades to deal with hazardous situations - engineered a takeover of SHIELD by replacing agents with advanced LMD's known as 'Deltites'. Fury spent several weeks on the run afer being framed and branded a traitor. Before the end of the 'Deltite Affair', Fury would discover that even Hydra and AIM had been infiltrated by the replicants and after the destruction of the LMD leader aboard the SHIELD satellite, all three organisations were left in tatters. Finally, the United Nations revoked SHIELD's Charter and all surviving operatives were debriefed and discharged.

A year after the dissolution of SHIELD and Fury's retirement and withdrawal from public life, a plan engineered by the late Baron Von Strucker and the oriental mastermind known as the Yellow Claw was to bring Fury back to active duty and SHIELD back from the dishonor that had fallen upon it. The United Nations commissioned the 'Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage and Logistics Directorate' to face a resurgence of the earlier 'global terrorists' - including a Hydra which had grown strong in the absence of it's mortal enemy and had emergedupon the world stage again with the Ressurection of Von Strucker. The grossly undermanned and underfunded SHIELD suffered badly in the first battle of this renewed war, losing over 1500 new agents when Hydra attacked and destroyed SHIELD Central during it's innauguration ceremony.

Once again, Fury led SHIELD against the forces of Hydra, defeating Von Strucker during an attack on his Iceland base. Although Von Strucker is considered dead, Hydra still manages to operate in a diminished capacity and agents of SHIELD still found themselves called upon to deal with their most long-standing foe. In the wake of the second Hydra conflicy, Fury had become a bitter and vindictive man and SHIELD began to change, becoming more secretive in it's operations and particularly ruthless in it's field duties.

Colonel Fury closes down a Hydra Satrap (late 1960's)

SHIELD Insignia (1970's-90's)

Recruiting poster (post Delta)

Major General George S. Hammond, USAF - Commanding Officer, SGC

Current SHIELD 'Unit' Insignia (2001 Onwards)

As Fury's control of the agency decreased, unscrupulous factions in the government began to use SHIELD to further their own agendas, until Fury's 'assassination' at the hands of a brain-washed Punisher revealed him to be an LMD created by Tony Stark, who had taken Fury's place while the real Fury had undertaken a secret mission to investigate "Project Back Slide', a government experiment that had left him trapped in a 'pocket dimension. Upon his release, Fury began a cleaning out of the agency, cropping the 'dead wood' which had held back and corrupted his once-perfect team.

It was during this period that Fury was approached by General George Hammond, who had recently taken command of a top-secret US Air Force project. Hammond and Fury had met in the 1960's - although the details of that meeting are unrecorded - and the General held Fury in high regard. At Hammond's request, SHIELD relinquished the majority of it's domestic espionage duties (ostensibly as a 'streamlining' of the agency) and was brought into the fledgling Stargate Command as part of the SGC's fast-response force and to improve covert intelligence gathering.

Despite initial distrust and antipathy for the newly-recruited SHIELD agents from regular Air Force personnel, both Colonel Fury and his team soon adjusted to their new role and even submitted to the protocols of the military chain of command and proved themselves to be a potent force in the SGC's covert battle against the Goa'uld, both on Earth and in operations on many alien worlds. As time progressed, the wild card members of Fury's command became a vital component of SGC operations, winning recognition for their courage and tenacity in the line of duty - Colonel Fury himself was promoted for his actions, attaining the rank of 5-Star General and gaining the title of 'Base Commander'.