geek'd
Wrap it Up is a lot like my Provide Some Answers feature, which is about long-running comic book plots finally being resolved. This, though, is a more specific comic book occurrence where the plotlines of a canceled comic book are wrapped up in the pages of another comic book series. This would happen most frequently in Marvel Comics, but other companies did it, as well.
Today, we look at how the first volume of “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” ended up with Nick Fury dead, and how that was resolved!
“Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” #15 (by Gary Friedrich, Herb Trimpe, Dick Ayers and Sam Grainger) came out in the Summer of 1969, and served as the finale of the original “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” series (although three more issues would come out over the next year or so, those were all reprints of earlier Lee/Kirby Nick Fury stories).
In it, Nick Fury is attending a rock concert with his then-current girlfriend when he is shot by an assassin known as Bulls-eye (no relation to the Daredevil villain)…
Dum Dum Dugan shows up, but Nick is dead! The SHIELD agents then open fire on Bulls-eye and kill him, as well…
And that’s just how the story ends. Nick Fury is assassinated. So long, folks!
Very quickly, though, Roy Thomas wrapped the story up in the pages of “The Avengers.” Just two months later, in “Avengers” #72 (by Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger), the Avengers are captured by the evil Scorpio (after Dum Dum Dugan warned them about Scorpio and also revealed Fury’s death)…
Scorpio then holds the Avengers prisoners and brings in the evil villain group known as the Zodiac. The Avengers then free themselves and they fight against the Zodiac. In the middle of the brawl, Scorpio’s mask is knocked off and he is revealed as Nick Fury!!
After they finish mopping the floor with the bad guys, Fury explains what happened…
Definitely one of the faster examples of one series being wrapped up in another one (although there have been even faster examples, which we’ll get to in the future).
