Issue(s): Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #9, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #10
Cover Date: Mar-Apr 90
Title: The Chaos Serpent: "To fear a painted devil" / "A matter of faith"
Credits:
D.G. Chichester - Writer
Keith Pollard - Breakdowns
Kim DeMulder - Finishes
Gregory Wright - Editor

Review/plot:
Nick Fury, Kate Neville, and Alexander Goodwin Pierce have another run-in with Leviathan while he's trying to intimate an army official. Pierce winds up launching a warhead at Leviathan, but he's protected by his duped followers.

Later, Fury and his companions go to the Grand Canyon, where a new SHIELD Helicarrier is being built. Nick's relationship with his ex, Contessa Val Fontaine, is still strained.

It was said in an earlier lettercol that there would be no more aliens in this book, but they must have been excluding Lump, the Gnobian that was part of Bob Harras' story. Leviathan kidnaps him.

The reason for kidnapping Lump is somewhere between lame and bizarre. He uses Lump to "prove" to the army officials that he's semi-brainwashed that he (Leviathan) does have otherworldy powers. Like, look, i found a weird thing, so what i say must be true.

At this point SHIELD has discovered Leviathan's location, so Nick Fury and a mysterious somebody (kind of spoiled by the cover of issue #10) parachute in.

Additional SHIELD agents approach the platform with the seagull hats from Goldfinger.

Captain America's role is partially that of a symbol, to counteract the weird hold that Leviathan has on the people he's been manipulating.

Leviathan tries to escape on a stolen Soviet sub. I mentioned in the first part of this arc that i was wondering if / hoping that this Leviathan had something to do with the organization that much later appears in Secret Warriors, and they were a Soviet based organization, so i kind of perked up again here. But don't mind me; the two Leviathans (one a person, one an organization) have nothing to do with each other.

Network Nina tries to pull the pieces of the plot together, but by this point no one's really interested.

Fury and Cap take Leviathan out.

This arc also checks in on Madame Hydra Six, who is being kept in a mental hospital and is apparently obsessed with Pierce...

...and it also shows us an agent of the Yellow Claw messing with Dum Dum Dugan's grave.

Final grade: uninteresting.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Mr. Fantastic is said to be arriving later to supervise some of the construction of the new Helicarrier. I haven't listed him as a Character Appearing but this shouldn't take place while he's time traveling beginning in Fantastic Four #337. Captain America's appearance is context free. See the Considerations for issues #7-8 regarding my decision to split this arc in half. This issue begins with Leviathan having been visiting and enthralling various army officials. Network Nina, last seen with the core SHIELD team, starts this issue working in the half completed Helicarrier with the Contessa. So it seems some time has passed between #8-9.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

D.G. Chichester seemed to forget that Tony Stark wasn't supposed to be making weapons at this time- in this story, Stark Industries is working on the Helicarrier and in a later story, Tony tells Nick he can't give Nick the weapons he needs because of interference by the United Nations.

Oh yeah, and Chichester refers to Tony's company as "Stark Industries" when it should be "Stark Enterprises". Had Chichester actually read an Iron Man comic since 1971?

There are some good elements in this Nick Fury reboot, but a lot of questionable or just outright wrong choices. Certainly I found these first two story arcs to be completely boring.

Regardless of comments by pseudo comic experts, the Shield series was visually groundbreaking and Steranko planted a flag the ensuing artists ran with, including these two books, which regardless of story are filled with visual opiates.