STRANGE TALES #135: Déjà vu

Published: August, 1965

“Eternity Beckons!”
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
Letters: Sam Rosen

When it comes to Marvel, there are two types of people in the world. I hope no one who is a long-time reader of Marvel Comics will be offended when I call your group the Comic Nerds. These are the people who for decades have been familiar with every character the MCU now brings to the screen. When watching the trailer for the first Thor movie, these people exclaim, “Cool! It’s Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg!” Not only did I not know these Asgardians on sight, but even now, after seeing them in several movies, I still cannot remember their names. These people gasp when they first see the close-up of Thanos in the after-credits of The Avengers, because they know who he is, and can imagine what’s coming.

My husband Russ is in this group. He has no problem calling himself a Comic Nerd. In fact, he often jokes that all the comic nerds look at the Marvel Chronology Project and say, “Man! Those guys are nerds!” (All other nerds TREMBLE before them!)

I, on the other hand, have most of my life been pretty much one of the other type of people in the world. In 2000, my kids dragged me off to see X-Men, which was, by the way, awesome, but at the time, I had no idea where these characters and stories originated, how long they’d been around, and frankly, that background simply wasn’t important to me at the time. I’d just enjoyed a great movie, and that was good enough.

When the MCU was just starting to rev its engines in 2009 with Iron Man, like probably most people, I had almost no understanding of who Iron Man was, except that he was some sort of superhero. (Some non-nerds were probably familiar with the Black Sabbath song Iron Man, but at that time, I was not even that much in the loop.) Before I met Russ, if you had mentioned any particular superhero or supervillain to me, I probably could not have guessed with greater than 50% accuracy whether they were Marvel or DC. In fact, I probably could not have accurately described the difference between Marvel and DC.

By 2009, however, I’d already been with Russ for several years, so now I more deeply understood and appreciated the differences between Marvel and DC, the backgrounds of particular characters, and the considerations of what we might see in future movies. So this is where I now have to expand my understanding to include a third type of person in the world: the one who is no longer content to simply say, “That was a great movie! Where now, IHOP or Applebee’s?” This third type, either by association with a Comic Nerd, or by simply educating themselves on the internet, or industriously reading past comics on their own, is now in this nebulous area between the die-hard aficionado and the casual viewer. This type knows more…yet not enough. When you’re in this group (which I’ll call the Marvel Student), like the philosopher, you know…and yet, you know what you don’t know.

That’s where I am now, and that’s how I approach this new title, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD.

DIFFERENT…YET FAMILIAR…
From start to finish, even as I enjoyed watching Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, I knew I must be missing a lot. Think of how children love The Simpsons, even while so many cultural references fly right over their heads to douse Mom and Dad with additional laughter. Cracking open this issue of Strange Tales, I quickly see that reading this new title will fill in some blanks for me, so I can enjoy the entire Marvel Universe on a deeper level.

Immediately on the splash, we see the implementation of a Life Model Decoy (LMD), which of course was a big part of several SHIELD storylines. So, yeah, I know this… but now I’m seeing the first appearance. Ah ha! It’s starting to occur to me that this new title may be able to fill in a lot of those blanks.

Next, Fury is being escorted around the Pentagon by some guy in a green suit and yellow hat. Though never mentioned by name, right off the bat, I’m getting a vibe that this could be Agent Phil Colson—one of my favorite characters from SHIELD (except in season six, when he wasn’t really Colson…). I may have to wait till a future issue to find out for sure (or I may never find out!), but they give this guy a flying car, so…hmmmm… The point is, I’m now beginning a story where I’m wondering if an unnamed character is someone I’m already familiar with.

After this, another familiar mode of transportation makes its first appearance: the heli-carrier. The creators are so intent on making the reader understand what an awesome apparatus this is, they give it a full page, complete with a giant “WHOOOM!” and a couple of nearby aircraft to put its size and might into perspective. About this time, I’m beginning to think…now we’re cookin’ with gas!!

The loudest “Wow” of course is the introduction of the dreaded Hydra. “Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place…Hail Hydra!” exclaims Agent H, reciting an eerily familiar mantra from both SHIELD and other Marvel movies. And just in case, at this early stage, you are doubting how ruthless Hydra might be, the minion who lets Fury get away is shown no mercy whatsoever, zapped out of existence without a second thought.

So it appears we’ve crossed a line. We now live in a world where Hydra is a threat. Hydra may have been in Howling Commandos, but not being a fan of war stories, I don’t read those, so I can’t say for sure. But I do know that in the 1960’s world of mainstream comic heroes and villains, till now, the only other representations of organized villainy have been gangsters and Nazis. And as deplorable as Nazis are, Hydra is plainly different, more menacing, and clearly in need of more opposing firepower.

And who do you call on when you need that kind of firepower? Well, who else but playboy arms inventor Tony Stark! Tony’s got a lot on his plate these days, running Stark Industries, moonlighting as Iron Man, as well as constantly agonizing over all his personal soap opera dilemmas involving Happy and Pepper. No wonder he had to quit the Avengers! Even superheroes must have limits on how much they can handle! It appears this gig of overseeing the special weapons section of SHIELD must have kicked in just about the same time he left the Avengers. Unless he was also doing this, off-camera, the whole time he was in the Avengers? It boggles the mind!

NICK FURY, MAN OF MYSTERY
And there’s something else that boggles my mind. I understand that superheroes may be able to spin a lot more plates at one time than the average person, so maybe Nick Fury is not an average person after all, but I’ve got a couple of questions I need to ask about him.

First, how is it that he apparently hasn’t aged? Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos depicts his WWII adventures, but the guy we see here, twenty years later, doesn’t look that much older. Ruggedly good-looking, but not appearing to have retirement plans uppermost in his mind. I know there are people who somehow, magically, age extremely slowly. Sometimes they go under the knife to prolong their youthful appearance, but sometimes not. Remember Dick Clark? How about Jared Leto, or John Stamos? Nowadays, Paul Rudd is the prime example of this phenomenon. So is that what’s going on here? Does Fury simply have good genes? Or is our only explanation going to be that he is in the unquestioned “Eternal Now”?

Secondly, I can’t help wondering about that eye patch. When I first met Fury at the end of Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson is wearing the eye patch. This is my image of Fury—eye patch, long black coat, smart, tough talk, and no nonsense, always cutting straight to the heart of the matter. As I mentioned, I’m not very familiar with Fury’s history with the Howling Commandos, and I haven’t seen enough of him yet to know for sure how his personality will line up with the Jackson portrayal, but I can keep track of that eye patch.

No eye patch in Howling Commandos. Then he makes a cameo appearance in Fantastic Four #21—no eye patch. But in his next cameo, in Avengers #18…there it is! So what happened to him between FF#21 and Avengers #18? I hate that Fury has to have an eye patch, but if he must, we would have expected it to be due to a war injury (which is why the Captain Marvel after-credits scene with Goose the cat is so funny and so effective). But apparently, the eye patch is the result of something other than a war injury.

A few more conundrums: when Fury “appears” in Avengers #18, it is only in a thought bubble, as Cap wonders why Fury has not yet answered his letter. But how does Cap know about the eye patch, yet not know that Fury is no longer working for the Pentagon? As a representative of the United States government (at one point he is a CIA agent; at another, he is rumored to be engaged in counterespionage for the Army), how public of a figure has Fury been up till now? Did Cap recently see a news article about Fury (as a former war hero) having a horrible accident in which he lost an eye, and that’s why he’s now picturing him with an eye patch? But if, as a war hero, he is a public figure, why choose him to lead a SPY organization? Wouldn’t it make sense to pick someone else, equally qualified, who flies a little more under the radar?

The easy answer to all this, of course, is the most likely one: the writers screwed up. They weren’t thinking ahead, and they weren’t keeping track of the chronology of events like some people we know. But what fun is that? It’s up to us as fans to ask the questions, bake and twist the pretzels, and try to make sense of it.

AU REVOIR, TORCH AND THING
One thing that really makes sense to me, one place where the writers did not screw up, was in replacing the Torch and Thing title with this.

Actually, replacing Torch and Thing with anything is a move in the right direction. Those stories weren’t bringing anything to the table that FF wasn’t already doing better. Gee…I wonder how they took the news…

This first Nick Fury story alone shows so much potential, it’s completely new and different, adds greater depth to the Marvel universe. We now have a new genre: the spy story! What a James Bond vibe to the whole thing! It appears Fury will be somewhat of a 007, Stark has a bit of Q about him, and hey…a flying car!

Sure, I’ve seen all this before. So whether it’s James Bond movies, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, or other bits and pieces of the MCU, there’s a sense of Déjà vu about all this. Yes, déjà vu…and yet, so refreshing!

DR. STRANGE
In the accompanying Doctor Strange story, Eternity Beckons, the Déjà vu smells a bit stale. It only hearkens back to previous issues in this title. Nothing really new is happening here. This installment is the sixth in a continuing story that’s been going around in circles. With a deep sigh, I’m thinking…It’s time for something significant to HAPPEN!

Okay, Sir Baskerville is a new character, but his telepathic communication is, at this point, a staple of both Marvel heroes and villains. Been there, done that. What else have you got?

Baskerville at first presents himself as a friend to Strange but turns out to be a foe instead. In the world of Dr. Strange, where nothing is what it seems, there’s no particular reason to trust a new character…until they prove themselves. And as the saying goes, character is what you do when no one is watching. When Strange is otherwise occupied, and only we readers are watching, Baskerville rats out Strange to Mordo. Maybe that was a big reveal back in 1965, but for me, a jaded 21st century entertainment junkie, that moment is not as dramatic as the writers intended.

Only two significant events happen in these ten pages:

First, a type of “security camera” rewind of the footage reveals that the girl with the crazy white hair is a “traitor,” so now her life is in danger. If you care about her, and I do—because she has proven herself, with noble and selfless acts when no one but the readers are watching—this is distressing.

In this issue we also see Dr. Strange discover that Dormammu is pulling Mordo’s strings. Yet, even as he comes to this “revelation,” he admits he is merely confirming what he already suspected. So he’s not surprised. And, frankly, neither are we.

Early in the story, the writers try to trick us into believing that something exciting and unexpected is going to happen by having Strange say, “Once again I must do the unexpected!” But honestly…nothing is new or unexpected in this story. Strange uses trickery and spells, just as we expect he will. The ruse with the cape in the suit of armor is easily figured out. At one point, he reasons that Mordo’s evil spirits will expect him to flee—but we the readers expect no such thing. He already did that a few issues back, and since he is a hero, we know he will not always run away.

The problem with the world of Dr. Strange is that in any story that relies on magic to propel the plot, you really aren’t surprised by anything that happens. Paradoxically, the only surprise would be if nothing “surprising” happened. And so the repeated attempts to surprise us begin to feel like a warm, comfortable blanket. Because of course, there is a certain level of comfort in knowing what is going to happen—even if it’s the comfort of not knowing what’s going to happen. Does that make sense?

In one of the earliest Daredevil stories, I got a big kick out of Owl exclaiming “A girl!” when he unexpectedly ran into Karen Page. The same thing happens in this story, when Dormammu rolls the tape of Strange’s snazzily dressed white-haired friend taking off with the power-draining device. “A girl!” he exclaims, and once again I chuckle, and it feels like a moment of Déjà vu. Which is fun and fine. But at this point in this multi-issued drama, we really need something more than a chuckle to compel us to keep reading.

Now that Dr. Strange has a new page-partner, maybe he would do well to let a little of that Nick Fury real-world cutting-edge sensibility seep over to add some truly surprising zing to his meandering storyline. An unexpected collision of genres would seem a sort of déjà vu for this now-seasoned student of Marvel Comics, and I wouldn’t mind at all.