Issue(s): Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #36
Cover Date: Jun 92
Title: "The snake who came in from the cold"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
M.C. Wyman - Penciler
Don Hudson - Inker
Barry Dutter - Assistant Editor
Mike Rockwitz - Editor

Review/plot:
Luke Cage guest stars in this issue, which also features the Constrictor. Constrictor seems to be a character that Scott Lobdell has taken a special interest in. He wrote a story in Marvel Comics Presents #74 that delved into his background, and then teamed him up with the Beast in Marvel Comics Presents #85-92. I usually like it when we get more depth from villains. I don't necessarily want them all to be turned into heroes like Sandman or Magneto, but it's good to get an understanding of their motives and turn them into three dimensional characters. But that is the risk you run. It can be a fine line between explaining why a character is doing bad things and making them sympathetic. But Constrictor is a good target for more depth. He's always been more of a straight up mercenary than a true villain. The best example of that is his refusal to join the Serpent Society, which was a nice development for the character by Mark Gruenwald. But it also indicates that Gruenwald saw something about the character's previous appearances that made that feel like the right move (and it was). This story, in my opinion, goes a little too far in the direction of making the Constrictor sympathetic, but at the 1,000 foot level i think it's still a net plus for the character.

The other aspect to this story is that it's the first where Nick Fury is simply an agent of SHIELD, having ceded the directorship to Dum Dum Dugan. But when Fury hears about a sighting of the Constrictor, he jumps into action, not waiting for Dum Dum's approval.

Luke Cage has been hired by a young woman named Mia, who is trying to find out the identity of a mysterious benefactor that has been depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars into her trust fund. Cage's investigation leads him to Constrictor.

Constrictor gets away thanks to a beach dude's keg...

...and Fury shows up to help.

Fury explains that Constrictor used to be a SHIELD agent, and that Mia is his daughter.

Constrictor, real name Frank Payne, went bad when he was working undercover, a SHIELD agent infiltrating The Corporation using the alias Frank Schlicting. One day a random gang attacked the Corporation, and Frank was forced to shoot the gang members. Being forced to take a life caused him to break, especially after Fury forced him back into the field, and he soon became the Constrictor. Fury has apparently been hoping that Frank would eventually come back to SHIELD.

So Cage and Fury go after the Constrictor. When they find him, Fury tries to talk him into surrendering, noting that if the Constrictor didn't want to be found he wouldn't have left such an obvious paper trail for Cage to find.

Constrictor is defeated pretty easily, and it turns out that Cage and Fury have worked out an arrangement since they both have a claim on him. Constrictor is offered a choice. Either Fury can arrange to have the Constrictor pardoned for his crimes, and he'll be able to go back with Mia, or he can surrender to SHIELD, get psychological treatment, and then stand trial for his crimes. Constrictor surprises Cage by agreeing to the latter.

I wonder if Lobdell would have done more with the Constrictor if he had remained on the series (maybe even adding him to the Super-Agents), but as i noted in the previous entry, the final year of this book is a bit of a roller coaster ride in terms of changes in creators and direction. So we have to look at this issue as a standalone and it will be up to later creators to either acknowledge or ignore this (starting, believe it or not, with NFL Superpro #11). Still, even though the Constrictor is a lot more... weepy than i'd like, i think it's good to have this in his history, since later creators will continue to treat the Constrictor as being more nuanced than the average villain.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Cage says that he's been thinking a lot about his father lately, with a footnote pointing to "recent issues of Cage's own mag". That suggests placement at least after Cage #3-4, when Cage learned from Dakota North that his father was still alive.

References:

• Cage found out that his father was still alive in Cage #3.
  
• Fury cites the graduation massacre from Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #26 as evidence that he doesn't deserve to be director of SHIELD any more.
  
• When Constrictor and Cage first start fighting, Constrictor notes that when they last fought, in Power Man & Iron Fist #84, Cage had a partner. But, as Cage notes, so did Constrictor.
  
• Fury says that the Constrictor has been on SHIELD's top ten list since Captain America #228.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Dan Slott (blergh) and Chris Gage will go even further with making Constrictor sympathetic and make him full-on hero. He'll even start romancing Diamondback. Then Marvel will hit hard reset and just have him be full-on evil again and not bother acknowledging the fact.

The idiot writing Captain America now has Constrictor dying of cancer and Diamondback working as a stripper to pay his hospital bills.

Marvel: it can ALWAYS get much worse.

Regarding Cage's placement- part of that might be due to the fact that the MCP decided that Cage's reunion with Danny takes place prior to his appearance in Namor 26.

The idiot writing Captain America now has Constrictor dying of cancer and Diamondback working as a stripper to pay his hospital bills.

Wait, what? Even ignoring that this would be the THIRD insinuation of Diamondback having to use her sexuality to achieve things, I could have sworn that she and the Constrictor broke up near the end of Avengers: The Initiative when a "Misunderstanding" made it look like she was running back to Captain America (which was also the time Constrictor decided that there was no point being a "good guy" since he could never "compete" with somneone like Cap, correct?) But, gah?!

Honestly, the selective continuity is the least of the problems with the idea.