Issue(s): Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #15, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #16, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #17, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #18, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #19
Cover Date: Sep 90 - Jan 91
Title: Apogee of Disaster: "Apogee of Disaster" / "'Uh, Houston, we got a problem'" / "Telemetry and terror" / "Magnificent desolation" / "Downrange of the end of the world!"
Credits:
D.G. Chichester - Writer
Bill Jaaska / Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Romeo Tanghal / Fred Fredericks - Inker
Barry Dutter - Assistant Editor
Mike Rockwitz - Editor

Review/plot:
Here we go with more of this. D.G. Chichester returns, this time permanently replacing Bob Harras as the book's writer. Frankly i can't say what distinguishes the two writers on this title. Both are immensely boring. I've said this before, but in many ways books like this are the real problem with the 90s. A Rob Liefeld comic is at least interesting, if only as a horror show. This is just banal. The fact that the Keith Pollard/Kim DeMulder art team is gone does not help. Even when the art was nice, the stories have not been compelling. But the decline in art on these issues makes things that much worse. I will at least give Herb Trimpe (who draws all but issue #15) credit for a crazy crazy space monster.

But Bill Jaaska's art on #15 is just terrible. Here's Nick Fury, in disguise, infiltrating something or other. Notice the character de-aging 10 years between panels.

And here's the bad guys of our issue, awkwardly posed while overwhelming us with exposition.

Have a cigar?

Ok, the story. Those technicians, who as i understand it are not exceptional intellects and are feeling a little insecure about it, have stolen a space shuttle so that they can fly into space and do something to increase their brain size.

Nick Fury and his crew of rag tag boring SHIELD agents go to the Fantastic Four to borrow a space ship to go after them.

Trimpe's art, generally speaking, is not really an improvement over Jaaska.

And maybe that's for the best, since this scene could have been a lot more graphic.

But like i said, whatever the faults of Trimpe's art, it's made up for with a space monster.

That guy is actually Peter Lohan, the leader of the technicians. The process that was supposed to increase his intellect instead turned him into a giant big-headed monster. And once he's transformed, he turns on the rest of his crew. So this is almost a MODOK story. Except that this is literally all that happens. SHIELD basically just spends the rest of these issues running away from Lohan.

So just sit back and enjoy your Lohan.

Lohan!

LOHAN!

Get your own Lohan action figure!

The FF's ship is damaged and they have to take refuge on the moon. Despite what seemed like a resolution in the last Bob Harras arc, Kate Neville and Val Fontaine are back to their rivalry over Nick.

SHIELD salvages equipment left behind from the Apollo mission to repair their ship, and Kate and Val are sent to the Blue Area to fill up the oxygen tanks. Note that Val apparently didn't pay close attention when Nick told her about the Inhumans. It didn't "used to be" a hideout for the Inhumans. It currently is (if a city can be called a "hideout"). But the part they are in is the old Kree ruins.

This arc also introduces a new SHIELD engineer, Bruno Krea.

He's from Brooklyn, so not for nuthin', badda bing, etc..

In addition to being unintelligible, he's kind of an idiot-savant. Able to come up with designs for weapons and equipment without any understanding of how they work. He can't even operate a hand drill. Almost along the lines of Forge except that Forge does seem to have legitimate engineering capabilities in addition to his mutant power.

Bruno helps dismantle the Apollo equipment to repair the SHIELD ship.

You might expect the Inhumans to show up to see about the monster running around on the moon but they don't get involved. Network Nina tries to use her telepathy to stop Lohan, but winds up getting possessed by him. But she's restrained and SHIELD manages to get off the moon. Lohan chases them, and Nick winds up fighting him in space. He is riding around in a floating chair, and he eventually directs the chair into Lohan's mouth and causes it to explode. Which may sound awesome, but it looks like this.

I mean, i guess it is awesome, in its own weird way.

Another thing to gripe about regarding this series is the pacing. Five issues for this story?! This has been the case since the very first arc. Someone writes in to complain:

In the Death's Head stories with which Harras opened this series, we were treated to this "trust me, I'll get to the story" method of comic book storytelling. The entire storyline could have been handled in one issue (maybe two) and might have actually been interesting. But to wait six months... was a stretch I think most readers were unwilling to make.

But readers will have to get used to it. This book may be a vanguard of the decompression trend, but it's happening across the line and will become the standard.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Thing is still in his exoskeleton.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A