Issue(s): Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #9
Cover Date: Feb 69
Title: "The name of the game is... Hate!"
Credits:
Gary Friedrich - Writer
Frank Springer - Penciler
Frank Springer - Inker

Review/plot:
The writing credits on the Nick Fury series change once again, this time to Gary Friedrich, who had written Fury before in some issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Friedrich will write most (but not all) of the remainder of this series before cancellation. In the Marvel Masterworks intro, Roy Thomas says that Friedrich "returned Fury's dialogue to its pre-Steranko crudeness", which i first thought was an insult but then i realized Thomas was talking about Nick Fury's characterization, not the writing quality of the script. Thomas also notes that social commentary was a feature of Friedrich's writing at this time, and to that end Friedrich re-introduces the Hate Monger to use in the first three issues of his run (and they aren't a single continued story).

The first one starts with Nick Fury about to get some bad news from a doctor, but the doctor is killed by one of the Hate Monger's agents in an assassination attempt meant for Nick (and we never do find out what the bad news was).

As the assassin escapes, Nick notes the giant H on his rescue craft and realizes it's a return of the Hate Monger.

Nick rounds up the gang, with Gabe Jones apparently having been hanging out in some kind of alternate dimension...

...and they trace the assassins to, i don't know, maybe the Savage Land? Or just someone's LSD-induced nightmare.

Click for Giant Squid Just Kinda Hanging Out With A Bunch Of Dinosaurs-size

Wherever they are, it's the right place.

The Hate Monger keeps the working brains of his former advisers on the ceiling.

But things get weird when one of his current advisers suddenly figures out that working for Adolf Hitler isn't exactly the path to world peace.

Oh hey, you're a bad guy? I mean, i knew you were the leader of the Nazis and and all, but going for revenge? That's just tacky!

And don't let that guy pretend that he just now found out that the Hate Monger was Hitler. He dies talking about "mein fuehrer" and with a final Sieg Heil. But on the other hand, what's this talk about "everything I lived for will be in vain"?

And even if he really didn't know it was Hitler until the end (is his final dialogue ironic?), the guy's other name is the Hate Monger. Generally if you're looking to join a group to better mankind, check to see if the leader of the group's name is something like that; it's a good clue that something isn't quite on the up and up.

Also among the Hate Monger's current allies is this lady with the outrageous hair style...

...but that turns out to be the boldest disguise ever (i dare you to not believe this is my real hair), and the lady is really Laura Brown.

You'll notice during the dual unmasking scene above that Nick Fury notes that Hitler Monger already seemingly died once, and he dies again in this issue when the naive/confused scientist blows up the island base. But the Hate Monger will nonetheless appear again next issue, leading Nick to not know what's going on.

Much later we'll learn that Hitler has a series of cloned bodies thanks to Arnim Zola and that's what keeps him going despite all these deaths.

Ok, so this issue didn't really have much in the way of social commentary. Hate Monger is pretty generic in goals here (and why are there dinosaurs?!*). But it does introduce Hate Monger and Laura Brown to the "cast".

*I know, i know: the answer to "why are there dinosaurs" is "Because why shouldn't there be dinosaurs? There should always be dinosaurs." Either that or something to do with the Psychotron (see References).

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Hate Monger first appeared in Fantastic Four #21 and was revealed at the end of that issue to be Adolf Hitler.
  
• The Hate Monger originally intended to torture Fury's allies with a stripped down version of the Psychotron, which was first seen in Avengers #42.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD vol. 3