Nick Fury Jr., The Comic

The short-lived “Nick Fury” series is a wonderful experimental piece of comics making. It’s the kind of work you’d expect from some independent creators trying things out in public, not the work of seasoned Big Two creators working the company line.

Yet it’s also the kind of thing you’d need to have a certain level of experience and confidence in your storytelling to attempt.

Or be mad as a hatter. Either/or.

I think it’s a fascinating series, though I can understand why some people wouldn’t like it. It reads very quickly. There’s very little story in here. It’s an eye full of material on every page. It can be overwhelming at times.

But all of that is what makes it so special.

It almost reminds me of the “Batgirl” series from Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott. That’s a book that moved quickly, but it had more character development in it. It helps that it also lasted four times longer than “Nick Fury.”

Everything I expect people might have complained about in this book is exactly what made this book so interesting and so special to me.

What Is “Nick Fury”?

This round of “Nick Fury” is Marvel’s ultimate action/adventure romp. This is the main Marvel Universe’s new Nick Fury Jr., an attempt to bring the Samuel Jackson Nick Fury into the main universe without having him directly cross over from the Ultimate Universe.

James Robinson’s scripts feel a bit like a Warren Ellis run-and-gun ode to Hong Kong gun-fu and James Bond in some moments, and a lot like a Chuck Dixon Batman tale that starts in fifth gear and never lets up. You, as the reader, need to strap in and enjoy the ride. The devil’s in the details, and this book is all details.

Nick Fury is young, but remarkably good at his job of spy craft, mostly due to the gadgets he always has on him and the help from afar he has who is constantly talking in his ear. It’s very Bond-esque in spots, that way.

In these six issues, he goes up against a variety of foes, though there’s a certain Hydra string running throughout most of it. He defends a South American general from assassination during a continent-long train ride, and destroys a town filled with assassins. There’s also the trip to Atlantis, and one to the moon.

The book goes all over the place and it’s wonderful. There’s no padding to the stories. These are the skinniest possible stories, broken down to their barest essentials and thrown at the reader at a breakneck pace.

And Then, There is the Art

The art is what makes this book stand out, though. There are ways of telling the stories in these scripts that would have worked in a more classical style, with maybe three tiers of panels and the occasional double page spread for dramatic emphasis.

ACO, though, tosses that all out the window and tells the stories — all complete in one issue for six glorious issues — in crazy double page spreads that focus on montages and detail shots.

When the storytelling might be a little confusing is when you need to trust in Robinson’s scripts. The dialogue will subtly explain it to you. Enjoy how the director – ACO, in this case — lays the story out in a hyperkinetic way. It’s a constant barrage of images, often little extreme close-up shots. These aren’t shortcuts to get away from drawing backgrounds. These are definite choices the artist is making to tell the story with a particularly hard-hitting rhythm.

Every issue opens with a double page spread establishing the location of the story with large three dimensional lettering that becomes part of the art, kind of like the opening credits of “Panic Room,” before everyone copied it.

It’s a clear and consistent series that knew what it wanted to be from the start and kept going with it.

Recommended? Yes Yes YES!

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. There’s a chance that this recommendation will completely backfire on me. I can see where some people won’t like it. But I loved it. I want more single issue stories at a breakneck pace with lots of imaginative technical aids, ticking time bombs, and a confident lead who can pull everything off.

The book was doomed to fail for being different and not fitting into a neat crossover’s compartment, but I’m glad they tried it.

A collection with all six issues is available in print and digital form today.

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