I hate to use the phrase, but it’s appropriate here. No way did Ennis earn the ending to My War Gone By. The final issue has nothing to do with Nick Fury; not the character in this series or the brand. It has to do with all Ennis’s little characters who played in the series–not […]
MoreEnnis gives Nick his big chance and he blows it. Parlov’s expression on his face is just amazing. The wrap up with Barracuda isn’t bad at all. Ennis comes up with a more interesting solution to the Nicaragua question than I was expecting; there’s even a good moment for the sidekick, who’s been superfluous for […]
MoreAnd here Nick figures out what Barracuda’s been doing. The senator and Nick’s girlfriend have a big blow out too–lots about all the years gone by, which feels somewhat forced. Ennis writes all his scenes quite well, but his timing of them is questionable. Why the senator and the girlfriend are having the fight now, […]
MoreOh, Nick’s bald friend is his sidekick. I read through the text introduction too fast, I guess. For this arc, Ennis puts Fury in the middle of some more great U.S. foreign policy–Nicaragua in 1984. Nick is old, grey and still a colonel working for the CIA. I guess Ennis decided to skip over why […]
MoreAnd here’s the great conclusion Ennis promised. It’s an action issue, mostly, with Frank and Nick taking on impossible odds. Besides the prison break and Nick and his nemesis, Parlov draws it all very calm. The hill is idyllic. Frank’s a sniper in peaceful tall grass. Ennis gets his little Frank Castle moment, with Nick […]
MoreEnnis sure does like writing Nick captured issues. He and Castle get caught on their assassination mission in Vietnam. Their target, it turns out, doesn’t like the CIA running heroin through Vietnam and wants to make an example. There’s a lot of talking. It’s mostly an expository history lesson. There’s only one real scene–Nick’s sidekick […]
MoreEnnis jumps ahead nine years to Vietnam. Nick’s sidekick is all of a sudden out of joint about the events in the last issue–a rare misstep from Ennis in this series–so Frank Castle comes in. Much like Nick, Ennis is just using Frank to exploit a brand. He hasn’t done anything Punisher-like to make his […]
MoreThe senator has a long monologue where he talks about the fallout from the Bay of Pigs. The whole issue is fallout, starting with Nick and his team, then with his lady friend and the senator. Ennis approaches the ideology of the whole invasion. One of Nick’s team is very jingoistic, anti-Red; Ennis–and Nick–just lets […]
MoreEnnis tells a story set during the Bay of Pigs invasion. It’s not really a history lesson–there’s some details in the dialogue, but not enough to inform the reader. There’s a little more with the exiled Cubans in the States, but those guys aren’t real people, just stand-ins for them. Instead, Ennis concentrates on Fury […]
MoreIt’s an unhappy issue. From the start, with modern Nick narrating his life story–and explaining why it’s all been wrong-headed–to the flashback with Nick’s love life taking a turn for the worse… it’s unhappy. There’s no action, just conversation. It’s sort of a talking heads issue, but spread over a few days. Nick and his […]
MoreIt’s a disquieting issue. Disquieting is about the only word for it. Ennis opens with a talking heads scene between Nick and his sidekick. They talk about the modern world, the Nazi, patriotism. Ennis does well with the sidekick. Nick needs someone to argue with over ideology. Makes for good dialogue too. Then there’s the […]
MoreGarth Ennis probably missed his calling as a history professor or at least the writer of history books. He has an amazing small section where Fury explains what’s wrong with the French military approach to fighting in Vietnam. It’s short, concise and completely digestible. He also has a great device–the visiting senator–for allowing Nick to […]
MoreFury MAX gives Garth Ennis the opportunity to do one of his favorite things–historical war stories–with one of the things he does really well, world-weary protagonists. Well, I suppose he takes the opportunity to use the series to do those things, not so much it gives him the chance. This first issue is set in […]
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