By Daniel & Charles Knauf, Roberto de la Torre, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & others (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2299-9
The arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark has had many roles in the Marvel Universe since his debut in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963): inventor, armaments manufacturer, liberal capitalist, eco-pioneer, politician and of course superhero. In this brief and rather padded package he takes on a new position as leader of the world’s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate.
Collecting issues #15-18 of the third volume of the Iron Man comic-book and set after the dramatic Civil War which divided the super-hero community, it finds Stark placed in charge of the very public covert agency and having a hard time being a commander as opposed to an active combatant. Meanwhile a deadly hodge-podge of previously low-grade terrorist organisations with no philosophy or agenda in common have suddenly all become major threats. Someone is providing the whackos with intel, training and major ordnance…
Battling his own conscience, die-hards from the previous S.H.I.E.L.D. administration unhappy with his “management styleâ€, public opinion and self-serving politicians, Stark is also coming to terms with a bio-technology upgrade that has infested his own body and is forced to wonder whether he if is even a “man†at all any more …
When an anti-terrorist strike-mission to Mongolia leads to a devastating super-weapon attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying base, Stark’s last-ditch save comes at incredible personal cost. Moreover the beleaguered director is completely unaware that the whole episode has been nothing but a feint to occupy him whilst his deadliest foe returns…
Gritty, clever and hard-hitting this tale is entertaining but agonisingly incomplete and inconclusive. Even with an extensive interview with the scripters and 13 pages of Marvel Handbook text pages the story depends far too much on knowing what’s gone before, and the space devoted to two additional reprint stories could have been better used to apprise new readers. Either that or simply add the lead adventure here to the previous or next Iron Man collection.
Those aforementioned “golden oldies†are strong enough to be included elsewhere and only tangentially relevant to this saga anyway. ‘Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Man for the Job!’ is from Strange Tales #135 (August 1965) in which Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers first introduced the spy organisation as well as its nemesis Hydra, but is the first chapter in a far longer epic as is ‘Dread Night of the Dreadnought!’ from Iron Man volume 1, #129 (December 1979): the rather rushed conclusion to another long story-arc in which S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to buy Stark International out from under its owner in the name of National Security.
Plotted by half the Marvel Bullpen, inked by the other half, scripted by David Michelinie and rough pencilled by the indefatigably trustworthy Sal Buscema the tenuous link to the spy theme is overtaken by a bombastic battle between Armoured Avenger and Hydra robot.
Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is written by father-and-son team Daniel & Charles Knauf and strikingly illustrated by Roberto de la Torre, Jonathan Sibal, Karl Kesel & Cam Smith. It deserves much better than to be wedged into such a poorly conceived and grossly exploitative package as this. Caveat ever so Emptor
© 1965, 1979, 2007 Marvel Publishing, Inc, a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.