Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1990-04-01 00:02:38 |
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Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #24
Issue(s): Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #24
Cover Date: Jun 91
Title: "The Camouflaged Commemoratives affair"
Credits:
Doug Murray - Writer
Norman Dwyer - Penciler
Jack Torrance - Inker
Barry Dutter - Assistant Editor
Mike Rockwitz - Editor
Review/plot:
This fill-in interrupts D.G. Chichester's return of Baron Strucker storyline. The fact that it was coming was known at least as late as the lettercol for issue #23, which may mean that its publication was less about deadline issues and more because the story was a just-in-case inventory story that was getting stale. It deals with the Mandarin and uses a status quo that was no longer applicable due to John Byrne's Iron Man run.
The story begins with a continuation of the tradition of super-hero poker games (Marvel Two-In-One #51, Marvel Two-In-One #75, Marvel Fanfare #24), although it's a smaller and less interesting group of players than usual.
The game is interrupted by an alert from SHIELD, informing Fury of attacks from around the world. An attack at the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC, an attack at an anti-war speech in Berlin, and more. All of the attacks are by statues that come to life, and all of the victims were participants in an international "J-2 Meeting" dealing with the subject of international criminal groups like Hydra and The Hand, trying to work out cross-boundary laws. Fury asks his super-hero card partners who might be responsible, and Mr. Fantastic suggests the Grey Gargoyle, although he's currently "secure in the Vault". Beyond that, the super-heroes are not part of this story. Fury takes his leave of them and goes back to SHIELD, meeting with a group of generic agents and none of his regular cast.
The villains responsible are actually lackeys of the Mandarin.
SHIELD eventually traces the attacks to the Mandarin. The twist is that the Mandarin simply kills his lackeys and withdraws.
Pretty basic but i like the idea of the Mandarin not bothering to get involved and being happy to dump his minions. I'm also glad to have another story from this period where the Mandarin was loaning out his rings. It was discussed at the beginning of John Byrne's run like something that was happening a lot but we really only saw two examples of it, the story that introduced it, Iron Man #240-243, and the Psylocke story from Uncanny X-Men #256-258, which was arguably a special case.
Quality Rating: C-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: A note indicates that this story takes place prior to Iron Man #259. Based on my placement, that means that Ben Grimm is wearing his exoskeleton at this time, which may be odd except for the fact that the odds of these card games getting interrupted by a fight of some kind are pretty high.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
We saw it in Iron Man Annual #5, by Gillis, Bingham and Green. T'Challa was awesome, as always.
Well that was an earlier situation. I'm referring to the period after Iron Man #240 where the Mandarin became semi-amnesiac and was operating like a modern crimelord instead of his usual self. But you're right that the Iron Man annual shows precedent in Mandarin being willing to lend out his rings.
