Nick Fury's Howling Commandos

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Promotional art for premiere-issue cover, by Eduardo Francisco

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics in 2005-2006. The title is a play on that of Marvel's World War II comic Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos.

The series featured a fictional team set in the Marvel Universe, consisting of supernatural characters employed as a unit of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D.. The group's official name was never established but was mentioned in its single other appearance, in Blade Vol. 3, #1 (Nov. 2006), as the S.H.I.E.L.D. Paranormal Containment Unit. The same issue established the name Howling Commandos are their nickname.

Although Marvel superspy hero Nick Fury is the title character, he only appeared in a cameo in the first issue.

1 Publication history
2 Setting
3 Characters
4 Plot
5 Writers and artists
6 References

[edit] Publication history

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos ran from #1-6 (Dec. 2005 - May 2006).

[edit] Setting

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos is set in Area 13, a classified base run by S.H.I.E.L.D. for its supernatural black op program. It also serves as a research and development facility, specializing in the supernatural.

[edit] Characters

Some of the characters, including Brother Voodoo, and Gorilla-Man were pre-existing human characters from Marvel's superhero and supernatural comics. Others, such as Goom, Grogg, and Groot, were monsters from pre-superhero Marvel science-fiction/fantasy anthology comics of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Others were newly created, or new versions of existing characters.

The six issue story in Nick Fury's Howling Commandos focused on seven primary characters:

Clay Quartermain the CO of Area 13. He takes over in the first issue from Dum Dum Dugan
Warwolf (real name Vince Marcus) is the field leader. He is a werewolf who can transform voluntarily whenever Mars is in the night sky.
Nina Price is half vampire and half werewolf.
N'Kantu, the Living Mummy a previously existing character. N'Kantu is an undead prince from ancient Egypt.
Frankenstein is an intelligent clone of the original Frankenstein's Monster. How this process didn't produce different clones of the various individual body parts making up the original monster was briefly mentioned in issue #1. The responce was, "Don't go there."
Gorilla-Man A previously existing character. Kenneth Hale is a man trapped in a gorilla's body.
John Doe not much was revealed about this character other than the sheer fact that he is a zombie. He is depicted as having a normal human level intelligence which is different from other zombie characters in the Marvel Universe.

The main villians are:

Merlin, a powerful magicain claiming to be the true Merlin.
Tilesti of the Folk is a Faerie and Merlin's second in command

Important supporting characters include:

Bradley Beemer, Area 13's Tech Chief. Beemer is in charge of all research and development sections.
Glob
Brother Voodoo
Grogg along with pilot Buzz McMahon
Groot
Hellstorm (Daimon Hellstrom)
Lilith (Lilith Dracul)

Other characters who made appearances include:

Sasquatch - This character appered in issue #2 and was described as THE Sasquatch. What connection if any this character has to Walter Langkowski or to the race of Sasquatches revealed in the second volume of Alpha Flight was not made clear.
Abominable Snowman - like Sasquatch this charcter also appeared in issue #2 was similarly described as being THE Abominable Snowman. What connection, if any, he has to other Marvel charcters name the Abominable Snowman was not made clear.
Goom this pre-existing monster from Marvel's past briefly appears at the beginning of issue #3 when he escapes from confinement within Area 13.

[edit] Plot

The story depicted in the six published issues of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos involves a powerful magician claiming to be the one true Merlin (one of many characters in the Marvel Universe to make this claim). After escaping from a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment facility dubbed the Warehouse, Merlin journies to the United Kingdom where he transforms the entire country into a fantasy realm. The Howling Commandos are charged with the duty of stopping him.