Marvel Replaces SHIELD With Upgraded Daredevil Villains

For decades, Nick Fury has served his country as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. — the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division — defending the world from terrorist groups like Hydra and A.I.M. And for centuries, the ancient ninja assassin cult the Hand has been one of the most recurring threats in the Marvel Universe since their debut in the pages of 1981’s Daredevil #174.

The Hand has splintered into multiple sects, but their seemingly endless number of half-dead ninja warriors (the genin) are all known to disintegrate via the surgically implanted phosphorous ampules that make them evaporate in a puff of smoke when killed. Hand genin have allied themselves with the likes of Fury’s longtime enemy from World War II, the Nazi Baron Strucker, and through the years, the Hand has clashed with Daredevil as part of hits hired by the Kingpin of Crime: Wilson Fisk.

The clan has been known to murder and resurrect superhumans as Hand operatives in honor of their demon-god the Beast, including the X-Men’s Wolverine and Hand’s once-leader, the mercenary Elektra.

But on Earth-6160, the new Ultimate Universe shaped by the Maker (a villainous Reed Richards from Earth-1610), S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Hand are one and the same. In a world where the Ultimates are a superhero resistance network assembled to defeat the Maker’s Council that rules the world from the shadows, Nick Fury is the head of H.A.N.D.: Heroic Anomaly Neutralization Directorate, which appear for the first time in this week’s Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 one-shot by writer Deniz Camp (The Ultimates) and artist Jonas Scharf (Hellhunters).

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From the Beast, the flagship Cumulo-Carrier of the H.A.N.D. Heli-fleet, H.A.N.D. predicts and preemptively eliminates threats to the global order. Disguised as a permanent, mile-wide thunderstorm, the Beast is equipped with the most sophisticated surveillance tech on the planet and a thermonuclear core that Fury uses to carry out H.A.N.D.’s clandestine assassinations of “terrorists” — those who support the Ultimates, classified as a terrorist organization by the secret council of supervillains in the Maker’s Council.

For the past year, H.A.N.D. Director Fury has answered to the Maker’s Council while the Maker is imprisoned in the City in Latveria. They are Henri Duggary, a.k.a. Captain Britain, ruler of the European Coalition; Emmanuel Da Costa, Black King of the Hellfire Club and leader of the Society of South America; the Rasputins Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red, the Tsars of the Eurasian Republic and Limbo; Emperor Sunfire of Hi No Kuni (“Land of the Sun”) with Viper and Silver Samurai; Ra and Khonshu, the Lords of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms who rule all of Africa except for Wakanda; and the Incredible Enlightened Hulk, who rules most of Asia with his Children of Eternal Light cult and the West Coast of North America (now the North American Union) since redistributed to the European Coalition and the Society of South America.

A veteran of this reality’s version of World War II, Fury served with Dum Dum Dugan and the Howlers until he was recruited to serve this world’s imperator: the Maker. As the head of H.A.N.D., Fury is tasked with monitoring The Ultimates Terrorist Network that is actively dismantling the Council’s operations around the globe.

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Fury has secretly been working against the Maker’s Council, revealing to them a deep-cover network of embedded operatives in their territories — and a traitor in the Ultimates’ ranks. With just 12 months remaining until the Maker is freed from his temporary prison in the City, a contrite Fury has been attempting to accelerate the overthrow of the Council for the things they made him do for “the greater good”: enabling the Inhuman genocide (and murdering a child Black Bolt), killing a family of Star Children (Power Pack), strangling his friend Dum Dum to death with his bare hands, and neutralizing would-be superheroes as the Maker demanded.

Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 ended with Fury activating a self-destruct sequence in an attempt to destroy the H.A.N.D. Helicarrier with the Maker’s Council on board, giving the Ultimates a chance to overthrow the Maker when he returns in one year. The Council then immolated Fury as it was revealed “Fury” was the latest in an endless line of LMDs (Life-Model Decoys) commissioned by his Maker.

The one-shot special is on sale now from Marvel Comics and sets up year two of the new Ultimate Universe.