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Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2
Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Vol. 2
Collects Strange Tales #154-168 and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1968) #1-3.
Don't yield, True Believers, because the MARVEL MASTERWORKS are backing one of the most influential series in comics history by one of the art form's prime movers, Jim Steranko's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Blending together influences from Pop art to Salvador Dali and across comics' history from Will Eisner to Wally Wood, Steranko's boundary-breaking style is an incomparable visual language that influences and inspires storytellers decades later. Chock full of high-stakes espionage and larger-than-life villains, from Baron Strucker and his Hydra hordes to the Yellow Claw and the horrific Hell Hound of Ravenlock, each adventure will have you on the edge of your seat. Topped with guest appearances from Captain America and the Fantastic Four-not to mention from out of the Atlas Era, the Marvel debut of agent Jimmy Woo-Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. is an uncontested high-water mark that every devotee of the medium must experience.
Don't yield, True Believers, because the MARVEL MASTERWORKS are backing one of the most influential series in comics history by one of the art form's prime movers, Jim Steranko's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Blending together influences from Pop art to Salvador Dali and across comics' history from Will Eisner to Wally Wood, Steranko's boundary-breaking style is an incomparable visual language that influences and inspires storytellers decades later. Chock full of high-stakes espionage and larger-than-life villains, from Baron Strucker and his Hydra hordes to the Yellow Claw and the horrific Hell Hound of Ravenlock, each adventure will have you on the edge of your seat. Topped with guest appearances from Captain America and the Fantastic Four-not to mention from out of the Atlas Era, the Marvel debut of agent Jimmy Woo-Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. is an uncontested high-water mark that every devotee of the medium must experience.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Jim Steranko
299 books49 followersJames Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator who has work for decades till the present.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 24, 2025
This volume collects the 12 (or 11) page stories originally published in Strange Tales nos. 154-168, and the first three issues of Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD. That's almost the entire run of Steranko's work on the series - he had drawn three issues of Strange Tales over Jack Kirby layouts, and there was one more issue of Nick Fury before he moved on. He wrote, drew, inked (about half of these), and sometimes colored these books, making him as close to a one-person auteur as Marvel Comics would have.
Quite simply, there are comic books before Steranko, and there are comic books after Steranko. He introduced so many possibilities to the medium, recovered old possibilities, and regenerated everything else. The stories herein may not be as perfectly plotted as I remembered from when I bought them off the racks at age 8 and 9, but they sure do move fast, and virtually every page is a visual feast of ideas and storytelling creativity. You like full page panels? How about one panel going across four pages? You think words are necessary adjuncts to artwork in comics? How about whole pages of silence with clearly laid out action (or in one case erotic connection)? You think every panel on a page should be squared and facing the same direction? How about twisting and turning panels around a central focus?
Steranko loved comic books and enjoyed fitting Nick Fury into the Marvel Universe but at the same time he told stories at a level outside the superheroics of the other books. He tried pushing things to an entirely new approach when Nick Fury got his own book in 1968 - those three stories may each pack more into 20 pages than any other comic books I know. They aren't perfect - the characterization of Jimmy Woo is an offensive stereotype that came out of nowhere with his talking and thinking like Cain's mentor on Kung Fu would a few years later, and sometimes Steranko would go crazy with purple prose in very long captions. But the stories were complex, and fast moving entertainments.
Quite simply, there are comic books before Steranko, and there are comic books after Steranko. He introduced so many possibilities to the medium, recovered old possibilities, and regenerated everything else. The stories herein may not be as perfectly plotted as I remembered from when I bought them off the racks at age 8 and 9, but they sure do move fast, and virtually every page is a visual feast of ideas and storytelling creativity. You like full page panels? How about one panel going across four pages? You think words are necessary adjuncts to artwork in comics? How about whole pages of silence with clearly laid out action (or in one case erotic connection)? You think every panel on a page should be squared and facing the same direction? How about twisting and turning panels around a central focus?
Steranko loved comic books and enjoyed fitting Nick Fury into the Marvel Universe but at the same time he told stories at a level outside the superheroics of the other books. He tried pushing things to an entirely new approach when Nick Fury got his own book in 1968 - those three stories may each pack more into 20 pages than any other comic books I know. They aren't perfect - the characterization of Jimmy Woo is an offensive stereotype that came out of nowhere with his talking and thinking like Cain's mentor on Kung Fu would a few years later, and sometimes Steranko would go crazy with purple prose in very long captions. But the stories were complex, and fast moving entertainments.
September 25, 2012
This second volume of tales featuring Nick Fury and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings such awesome foes as AIM, Hydra and the Yellow Claw! Watch Jim Steranko's art going from merely copying Jack Kirby's style to establishing his own. Steranko was made for the spy game and every time Nick goes up against the villain, he looks better than James Bond on his best day! Plus, no one before Steranko's art really captured the Pop Art mentality that helped define the changeover from the Silver-Age to the Bronze-Age.
This volume is my personal favorite since it includes the first 5 issues of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Steranko made me want to be an artist!
This volume is my personal favorite since it includes the first 5 issues of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Steranko made me want to be an artist!
January 31, 2020
Comics creator Jim Steranko provides an introduction to this volume, and to be blunt, it's not a humble piece. Certainly, though, if there's a small, select group of comics creators with a right to brag, then Steranko would be among them. This book, collecting some of his most acclaimed work, shows why.
Before I go further, I should first note that this book collects most of Steranko's NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. run (originally published in 1966-1968) but not quite all of it. His first three stories (drawn over Kirby's layouts and with others scripting) appeared in the previous volume, while his last story - from NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 - appears in the subsequent volume. Everything else is here, but to those wanting all of Steranko's run between two covers, I advise doing some searching, because such collections do exist. The three MARVEL MASTERWORKS: NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. volumes, meanwhile, collectively provide Marvel's entire Silver Age run of the series, and not just the Steranko material. Which option you prefer, then, likely depends on what kind of collector you are.
With that aside, I return to Steranko. Frankly, his art is stunning, and while I generally buy comics more for the stories, I often found myself staring at these pages, and in some cases, I could have stared at them all day. There are a number of splash pages, double page spreads and even one four page spread. In these large illustrations, characters often shoot at each other from all sorts of odd angles and sometimes,they fight up and down stairs or from high platforms. Panels draw your eye up, down, across and from side to side. Characters' arms and legs jut out toward the panel edge and toward the reader. There's one background photo collage (a trick borrowed from Jack Kirby) and drawings of intricately detailed armor and machinery. Steranko's design sense is amazing, and while the material still compels, there's also some unquestionable 1960s-style chic to it. Like some of the best works, then, Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. series is oddly both timeless and completely of its time.
While the art is definitely the star, the writing is...well, completely fine and entertaining. That said - the art also serves the stories well, and for me, this book provides a text case on how and why comics is a visual medium. Steranko's work has a certain visual language and style that informs and enhances the words. Take away the pictures, and certainly the story is less compelling, but then...it also wouldn't be a comic, would it? There's a certain immersive style and atmosphere here that just couldn't be conveyed with prose.
With so much of the language being visual, there's relatively less space for the kind of dialogue-heavy character bits that some modern comics fans seem to prefer (See here popular works by writers like Brian Michael Bendis for comparison.). Even so, Steranko does introduce some new supporting cast members and makes some tweaks to Nick Fury's personality.
New cast members include Countess Valentina Allegro de Fontaine (aka "Val"), a love interest for Fury; Clay Quartermain, a smiling male model type who proves more formidable than he initially seems; the "Gaffer," S.H.I.E.L.D's equivalent to James Bond's Q, and Jimmy Woo. Woo (not created by Steranko) is actually revived from a 1950s comic called THE YELLOW CLAW, Marvel's attempt at a Fu Manchu kind of series. The Yellow Claw also appears here as a villain, and while these stories admittedly have dated elements (The Claw and his henchmen are all actually colored yellow!), Woo himself is a positively-portrayed Asian American character, so Steranko does deserve points for adding some diversity to S.H.I.E.L.D's ranks.
Even with that supporting cast, Steranko's Nick Fury is actually much more of a lone wolf than in the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee run, and he frequently embarks on missions solo. Steranko changes the character in other ways, as well, and as he writes in the aforementioned introduction, "Under my influence, he [Nick Fury] became leaner, sharper, more ruthless, well groomed - and more dangerous than ever." While Kirby and Lee had Fury acting much like his younger, World War II self (seen in the concurrently published SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS), Steranko's Fury does seem older, wiser...and frankly, craftier. Steranko's upgrade made sense to me, and I welcomed the change.
Steranko, in his introduction, also discusses how he hoped to "elevate technology to a major motif." He acknowledges that Kirby and Lee's run had "embraced technology," but, to his mind, it was "more in a capricious than comprehensive manner," and he recalls that he "was determined to make that element fundamental to the series." I do think that he's downplaying the technology element in the Kirby/Lee run, as the series' science fiction bent was pretty prominent from the get-go. It should be noted, in fact, that there are many ways in which Steranko was simply building on what Jack Kirby and Stan Lee had already done. That said - it could be argued, I think, that Steranko did indeed bring a slightly different feel to that element. Under Kirby and Lee, the space age technology was a tool in a good v. evil war, and while that basic idea transferred intact to Steranko's work, there is, I think, something of a cold, impersonal feel to the tech. on display. In some ways, that technology is trippier , as Steranko shows us (among other innovations) wall to wall computer banks (again, there's that visual element!), vests that allow the user to warp space and time, and a "psychic storm" unleashed by the mind of the villainous Yellow Claw. Under Steranko, the Nick Fury series was often as trippy as the Dr. Strange series with which it shared the STRANGE TALES book. More striking to me, however, was the contrast between all those machines and the red hot, fire blooded and very human Nick Fury and his equally red hot, fire blooded and human (or are they?) opponents. Steranko plays that contrast well, and I found this one of the series' more compelling elements.
While Steranko employed a number of innovative, experimental storytelling techniques, I think that it's arguable whether ALL of them were effective. I noticed, for example, that his large number of splash pages sometimes forced him to "catch up the story" in the captions. I wouldn't say that this didn't work, as those moments were akin to reading an illustrated novel. Still...there were times when it seemed to me to be a bit of cheat. I'm still pondering how I feel about that, to be honest.
When you're experimenting, though, it stands to reason that some experiments will prove more successful than others. At the very least, Steranko deserves credit for trying new things, and whatever you can say about these stories, they certainly aren't boring. They have also, I believe, earned their place in comics' history, and there's a reason why we're still talking about them today.
Before I go further, I should first note that this book collects most of Steranko's NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. run (originally published in 1966-1968) but not quite all of it. His first three stories (drawn over Kirby's layouts and with others scripting) appeared in the previous volume, while his last story - from NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 - appears in the subsequent volume. Everything else is here, but to those wanting all of Steranko's run between two covers, I advise doing some searching, because such collections do exist. The three MARVEL MASTERWORKS: NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. volumes, meanwhile, collectively provide Marvel's entire Silver Age run of the series, and not just the Steranko material. Which option you prefer, then, likely depends on what kind of collector you are.
With that aside, I return to Steranko. Frankly, his art is stunning, and while I generally buy comics more for the stories, I often found myself staring at these pages, and in some cases, I could have stared at them all day. There are a number of splash pages, double page spreads and even one four page spread. In these large illustrations, characters often shoot at each other from all sorts of odd angles and sometimes,they fight up and down stairs or from high platforms. Panels draw your eye up, down, across and from side to side. Characters' arms and legs jut out toward the panel edge and toward the reader. There's one background photo collage (a trick borrowed from Jack Kirby) and drawings of intricately detailed armor and machinery. Steranko's design sense is amazing, and while the material still compels, there's also some unquestionable 1960s-style chic to it. Like some of the best works, then, Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. series is oddly both timeless and completely of its time.
While the art is definitely the star, the writing is...well, completely fine and entertaining. That said - the art also serves the stories well, and for me, this book provides a text case on how and why comics is a visual medium. Steranko's work has a certain visual language and style that informs and enhances the words. Take away the pictures, and certainly the story is less compelling, but then...it also wouldn't be a comic, would it? There's a certain immersive style and atmosphere here that just couldn't be conveyed with prose.
With so much of the language being visual, there's relatively less space for the kind of dialogue-heavy character bits that some modern comics fans seem to prefer (See here popular works by writers like Brian Michael Bendis for comparison.). Even so, Steranko does introduce some new supporting cast members and makes some tweaks to Nick Fury's personality.
New cast members include Countess Valentina Allegro de Fontaine (aka "Val"), a love interest for Fury; Clay Quartermain, a smiling male model type who proves more formidable than he initially seems; the "Gaffer," S.H.I.E.L.D's equivalent to James Bond's Q, and Jimmy Woo. Woo (not created by Steranko) is actually revived from a 1950s comic called THE YELLOW CLAW, Marvel's attempt at a Fu Manchu kind of series. The Yellow Claw also appears here as a villain, and while these stories admittedly have dated elements (The Claw and his henchmen are all actually colored yellow!), Woo himself is a positively-portrayed Asian American character, so Steranko does deserve points for adding some diversity to S.H.I.E.L.D's ranks.
Even with that supporting cast, Steranko's Nick Fury is actually much more of a lone wolf than in the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee run, and he frequently embarks on missions solo. Steranko changes the character in other ways, as well, and as he writes in the aforementioned introduction, "Under my influence, he [Nick Fury] became leaner, sharper, more ruthless, well groomed - and more dangerous than ever." While Kirby and Lee had Fury acting much like his younger, World War II self (seen in the concurrently published SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS), Steranko's Fury does seem older, wiser...and frankly, craftier. Steranko's upgrade made sense to me, and I welcomed the change.
Steranko, in his introduction, also discusses how he hoped to "elevate technology to a major motif." He acknowledges that Kirby and Lee's run had "embraced technology," but, to his mind, it was "more in a capricious than comprehensive manner," and he recalls that he "was determined to make that element fundamental to the series." I do think that he's downplaying the technology element in the Kirby/Lee run, as the series' science fiction bent was pretty prominent from the get-go. It should be noted, in fact, that there are many ways in which Steranko was simply building on what Jack Kirby and Stan Lee had already done. That said - it could be argued, I think, that Steranko did indeed bring a slightly different feel to that element. Under Kirby and Lee, the space age technology was a tool in a good v. evil war, and while that basic idea transferred intact to Steranko's work, there is, I think, something of a cold, impersonal feel to the tech. on display. In some ways, that technology is trippier , as Steranko shows us (among other innovations) wall to wall computer banks (again, there's that visual element!), vests that allow the user to warp space and time, and a "psychic storm" unleashed by the mind of the villainous Yellow Claw. Under Steranko, the Nick Fury series was often as trippy as the Dr. Strange series with which it shared the STRANGE TALES book. More striking to me, however, was the contrast between all those machines and the red hot, fire blooded and very human Nick Fury and his equally red hot, fire blooded and human (or are they?) opponents. Steranko plays that contrast well, and I found this one of the series' more compelling elements.
While Steranko employed a number of innovative, experimental storytelling techniques, I think that it's arguable whether ALL of them were effective. I noticed, for example, that his large number of splash pages sometimes forced him to "catch up the story" in the captions. I wouldn't say that this didn't work, as those moments were akin to reading an illustrated novel. Still...there were times when it seemed to me to be a bit of cheat. I'm still pondering how I feel about that, to be honest.
When you're experimenting, though, it stands to reason that some experiments will prove more successful than others. At the very least, Steranko deserves credit for trying new things, and whatever you can say about these stories, they certainly aren't boring. They have also, I believe, earned their place in comics' history, and there's a reason why we're still talking about them today.
November 3, 2014
Excellent reprint of these rare silver age stories. I enjoy these collected editions of the comics I remember reading as a kid. Great art and plot for the early days of Marvel Comics rebirth. Very recommended to any comic fan
September 19, 2019
The first half is a jumble of racist stereotypes of Asian people and the second half is just weird and nonsensical.
October 30, 2025
This collection contains the Nick Fury run through the final issues of Strange Tales and the first three of the subsequent solo series, with their greater page numbers.
It's undoubtedly a showcase for Jim Steranko and his superb composition. The stories are a solid collection, often a little silly, of SHIELD enemies with a sizeable run for the Yellow Claw, Hydra and Baron Strucker, as well as random one offs with a greater spy theme. We also get the introduction of key characters, notably Countessa Valentina and Jimmy Woo.
What makes this collection sparkle is Steranko's remarkable composition. Although aspects of his art draw on classic Marvel styles like Kirby-tech and Kirby-crackle, and every character reaching out, he pulls in so much extra. Four page scenes, pages without dialogue, surrealism, psychedelia, use of photography in New York scenes, silhouette. A real fresh style for the 60s Marvel, not least as he also wrote most stories. Possibly a first for Marvel at the time. All together, an iconic era for Nick Fury
It's undoubtedly a showcase for Jim Steranko and his superb composition. The stories are a solid collection, often a little silly, of SHIELD enemies with a sizeable run for the Yellow Claw, Hydra and Baron Strucker, as well as random one offs with a greater spy theme. We also get the introduction of key characters, notably Countessa Valentina and Jimmy Woo.
What makes this collection sparkle is Steranko's remarkable composition. Although aspects of his art draw on classic Marvel styles like Kirby-tech and Kirby-crackle, and every character reaching out, he pulls in so much extra. Four page scenes, pages without dialogue, surrealism, psychedelia, use of photography in New York scenes, silhouette. A real fresh style for the 60s Marvel, not least as he also wrote most stories. Possibly a first for Marvel at the time. All together, an iconic era for Nick Fury
March 28, 2020
After almost a lifetime of hearing about these Steranko Nick Fury stories, I was eager to jump into these books to discover what all the fuss was about. Through the first of these collections and the first half of this one, I wasn't impressed. Steranko is clearly a talented storyteller, but his art was mostly Kirby imitation, mixed in with an embarassing "yellow menace" villain and uninspired stories.
Things take off once we get into the Fury solo series issues. There, Steranko makes the book his own. It's eye-popping and strange, which is what I'd been hoping for all along. I'm eager to get into the third volume, as I definitely enjoy the direction he moved in.
Things take off once we get into the Fury solo series issues. There, Steranko makes the book his own. It's eye-popping and strange, which is what I'd been hoping for all along. I'm eager to get into the third volume, as I definitely enjoy the direction he moved in.
February 1, 2022
Never yield, back shield.
Good color artwork. And plenty of it. Nick fury takes off his shirt to fight all sorts of enemies. Teams up with Captain America and the fantastic four. Saves the world. Figures out the loch Ness monster. Buy this on sale at Xmas or National read a book day, an incredible bargain.
Good color artwork. And plenty of it. Nick fury takes off his shirt to fight all sorts of enemies. Teams up with Captain America and the fantastic four. Saves the world. Figures out the loch Ness monster. Buy this on sale at Xmas or National read a book day, an incredible bargain.
March 8, 2024
Great stories and Masterful Art
A classic for any fans of 1960s Marvel or anyone who wants to read the early stories of Nick Fury. Steranko’s art was way ahead of its time and is truly stunning.
A classic for any fans of 1960s Marvel or anyone who wants to read the early stories of Nick Fury. Steranko’s art was way ahead of its time and is truly stunning.
July 5, 2023
Maybe I'm not the right audience, but I find most of the stories in here to be confusing and forgettable. The best part is Jimmy Woo and he's only in a few issues.
June 3, 2025
Also has the first few of his own series with 20 page stories.
March 25, 2016
Steranko neskutečně válí a kresba je úžasná
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews