Nick Fury's Howling Commandos

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Nick Fury's Howling Commandos

Promotional art for premiere-issue cover, by Eduardo Francisco
Publisher Marvel Comics
Schedule Monthly
Format Ongoing during the period of publication
Publication date December 2005 -- May 2006
Number of issues 6
Creative team
Writer(s) Keith Giffen
Penciller(s) Eduardo Francisco
Inker(s) Kris Justice, Terry Pallot
Letterer(s) Dave Lanphear
Colorist(s) J Tai
Creator(s) Keith Giffen

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos was an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, running six issues and cover-dated December 2005 to May 2006. 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 title is a play on that of Marvel's World War II based series Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Although Marvel superspy hero Nick Fury is the title character, he only appeared in a cameo in the first issue.

Contents

[edit] Publication history

Written by Keith Giffen for its entire run, the series was launched with penciller Eduardo Francisco for its first two issues, followed by Dan Norton for issues #3, Derec Aucoin for #4-5 and Mike Norton for #6.

The group's official name was never established in the series' six issues, but was called the S.H.I.E.L.D. Paranormal Containment Unit in its single other appearance, in Blade vol. 3, #1 (Nov. 2006). The same issue established its nickname, the Howling Commandos.

[edit] Synopsis

A powerful magician claiming to be the one true Merlin (one of many characters in the Marvel Universe to make this claim) escapes from a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment facility dubbed the Warehouse. He journeys to the United Kingdom, where he transforms the entire country into a fantasy realm. The Howling Commandos are charged with stopping him.

The team is headquartered 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 seven primary characters are:

  • Clay Quartermain, the commanding officer of Area 13. He takes over in the first issue from Dum Dum Dugan.
  • Warwolf (real name Vince Marcus), the field leader. He is a werewolf who can transform voluntarily whenever Mars is in the night sky.
  • Nina Price, a half-vampire and half-werewolf.
  • N'Kantu, the Living Mummy a previously existing character. N'Kantu is an undead prince of Ancient Egypt.
  • Frankenstein, 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 response was, "Don't go there".
  • Gorilla-Man, a previously existing character. Kenneth Hale is a man trapped in a gorilla's body.
  • Zombie, a zombie. He is depicted as having normal human-level intelligence, in contrast to other zombie characters in the Marvel universe.

The main antagonists are:

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

Supporting characters include:

Other characters include:

[edit] References