Marvel's Silver Age

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1

Summary: First Appearance of Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commando unit (also referred to as "The Howlers"), a group of American commandos in World War Two. Fury and his men are assigned by their commanding officer, Captain "Happy" Sam Sawyer, to parachute into France to rescue a leader of the French Underground, who has been captured by the Nazis. The French Resistance leader, LaBrave, has the details of the upcoming D-Day invasion, and the Howlers must rescue him.

Publication Date/Cover Date: May 10, 1963

Story Title: "Seven Against The Nazis!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Heroes/Protagonists:

Sgt. Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos (Corporal Dum Dum Dugan, Robert "Rebel" Ralston, Jonathan "Juniper" Jones, Gabriel Jones, Dino Manelli, Izzy Cohen)

Villains/Antagonists: German troops in World War Two in occupied France

1st Appearances:

Sgt. Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos (Corporal Dum Dum Dugan, Robert "Rebel" Ralston, Jonathan "Juniper" Jones, Gabriel Jones, Dino Manelli, Izzy Cohen), Captain "Happy" Sam Sawyer, LaBrave (French Underground leader), Marie LaBrave (his daughter)

Other Characters: Captain "Happy" Sam Sawyer (Fury's commanding officer), LaBrave (French Underground leader), Marie LaBrave (his daughter)

Connections: Though not referenced in this issue, Nick Fury would appear again as Col. Nick Fury of the CIA (later of SHIELD), in Fantastic Four #21, published in December, 1963. He would begin his own series of stories as the "modern day," (for the 1960s) in Strange Tales #135, published in August, 1965.

Notes: This series was both unusual and typical of Marvel Comics at this time in history. It was unusual, in that Lee and Kirby created the Sgt. Fury book in the midst of their very popular superhero-themed expansion (Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, Thor, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, and the Hulk dominated Marvel then), but typical in that until they hit the mark with their new superheroes in 1961, Marvel published a lot of non-superhero comics in the war, western, monster, and romance genres. But this title was different. As we see in later issues, this Marvel war comic is firmly grounded in the same universe as the Marvel superheroes, such as when we see Fury meet an OSS agent named Richards (and the narrator/editor of the book declares in panel that this is THE Reed Richards who would found the Fantastic Four), and when Captain America joins Fury's commandoes in a mission.

A significant aspect to this comic book (remember, it was published in 1963) was the casual inclusion of a black soldier in Fury's commando unit. The race of Gabe Jones is barely mentioned until issue #4, when a new member temparily joins the team and makes an issue of Jones' race. Black characters were rare then, especially as we see this commando unit as racially integrated at a time when the civil rights movement was in full swing, and many whites in the U.S. were still opposed to what today are considered basic rights for African-Americans. Also, the inclusion of Izzy Cohen, a Jewish character, was also atypical of comics at that time.

Sources on Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes:

Lee, Stan (w) and Jack Kirby (a). "Sgt. Fury, and his Howling Commandos", Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos # 1 (May 10, 1963, Marvel Comics [first appearance of Nick Fury].

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos-Wikipedia Article

Howling Commandoes-Marvel Appendix

http://www.historyguy.com/comicshistory/sgt-fury-howling-commandos-1.htm