Howling Commandos

The Howling Commandos is the name of several fictional groups led by Nick Fury in the Marvel Comics Universe.

History

World War II

The first group of Howling Commandos was an elite special unit formed in World War II. The original team consisted of:

• Nick Fury: Nick Fury and His Howling Commandos
• Corporal Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader "Dum Dum" Dugan
• Private Isadore "Izzy" Cohen
• Private Gabriel Jones
• Private Dino Manelli
• Private Robert "Rebel" Ralston
• Private Jonathan "Junior" Juniper
• Private Percival "Pinky" Pinkerton: A British soldier, in issue #8.
• Private Eric Koenig: A defector from Nazi Germany. He joined the squad in issue #27.

Occasional other members would join for an issue or two before being killed, transferred, or otherwise leaving (such as Fred Jones in issue #81). Also daringly for the time, the series killed Fury's girlfriend, British nurse Pamela Hawley, introduced in issue #4 and killed in a London air raid in #18.

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos

A second Howling Commandos team was introduced in the 2005 series, Nick Fury's Howling Commandos as a supernatural unit that works for S.H.I.E.L.D. Its members were:

• 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: 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 did not 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 I: A previously existing character. Kenneth Hale is a man trapped in a gorilla's body. He is now a member of the Agents of Atlas.
• John Doe: A zombie depicted as having normal human-level intelligence, in contrast to other zombie characters in the Marvel universe.

Secret Invasion

A third group of "Commandos" are introduced in Mighty Avengers #13. After discovering the Skrull invasion, Nick Fury assembles a team made up of the offspring of various super heroes and villains. This team members are:

• Quake: Former S.H.I.E.L.D. member and daughter of Mister Hyde. She possesses the power to create earthquake like vibrations.
• Phobos: The ten-year-old son of Ares. He possesses the power to cause fear in others by looking in their eyes.
• Druid: The son of Doctor Druid who has inherited some of his father's skill with magic
• Yo Yo: The daughter of the Griffin. She can run at superhuman speed and bounces back to the point where she began running.
• Hellfire: The grandson of the Phantom Rider. He is able to charge a chain with fire to wield as a weapon
• Stonewall: Son of the Absorbing Man. Daisy Johnson bails him out of jail he is imprisoned for hitting a cop. Possesses superhuman strength. Very little has so far been revealed about the character.

Dark Reign

In Secret Warriors #4 and #5 as seen during the Dark Reign storyline, it is revealed that 1200 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents refused to join H.A.M.M.E.R. following Norman Osborn's rise to power. Under the leadership of Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones, they became a private military company which is hired by Nick Fury to fight against both HYDRA and H.A.M.M.E.R.

Other versions

MAX and Peacemaker

In Garth Ennis' Fury and Fury: Peacemaker, the Howling Commandos were an OSS special operations unit created by Fury and modeled after the SAS. Most of the unit's lineup were wiped out following D-Day, and only Fury and two other members survived (one of whom is most likely Dum-Dum Dugan, who appears in Fury MAX).

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate universe, Howling Commandos were a US Army Ranger unit, escorting an imprisoned Wolverine during the Gulf War. The convoy was attacked by the Iraqi Republican Guard, killing all but Fury. Dum-Dum Dugan appears in the present day, hinting that he was elsewhere at the time.

During the Ultimate X-Men comic, Nick Fury dispatches a special S.H.I.E.L.D. unit to protect the Triskelion from elements of the Academy of Tomorrow, who came to break out one of their own.

A new version of the Howling Commandos appeared in Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #20; S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Monica Chang grants Nick Fury and ex-HYDRA soldier Abigail Brand to take on the growing power of Hydra.^[1]

The full team finally makes its debut during the Dark Ultimates' attack on Earth. The roster consists of:

• Nick Fury
• Monica Chang
• Punisher
• the Falcon
• Stature
• Dum Dum Dugan
• Danny Ketch aka "the Ghost"
• Abigail Brand aka "the Alien"
• Emil Blonsky aka "the Abomination"
• Hercules^[2]

In other media

Animated television

• The Howling Commandos appear in the animated TV series Ultimate Spider-Man, in the episodes "Blade" and "The Howling Commandos". In this version, the Howling Commandos consist of Werewolf by Night, N'Kantu, the Living Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, Man-Thing, and the Invisible Man.

• In the animated TV series, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., The Howling Commandos appear in the third episode of Season 2 called "Hulking Commandos". The Howling Commandos in this episode consist of Blade, Werewolf by Night, N'Kantu, the Living Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster and Man-Thing.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• The Howling Commandos are first introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: The First Avenger. There they were led by Captain America, who freed the Commandos from a Hydra prisoner camp. Their number includes Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Montgomery Falsworth (J. J. Feild), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci).
• In Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the team uses old Howling Commandos' equipment provided by Agent Antoine Triplett, who is the grandson of one of the Howling Commandos.
• The cinematic version of the Howling Commandos appears on Marvel's Agent Carter, in the episode "The Iron Ceiling". Along with Dugan, the other members are Happy Sam Sawyer (Leonard Roberts), Junior Juniper (James Austin Kerr) and Pinky Pinkerton (Richard Short).^[3]

References