Nick Fury's Howling Commandos

For similarly named groups connected with Nick Fury, see Howling Commandos.

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos
Group publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #1 (December 2005)
Created by	Keith Giffen
In-story information
Type of organization	Team
Leader(s)	S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agent(s)	Clay Quartermain Warwolf Nina Price Satana N'Kantu, the Living Mummy Frankenstein Gorilla-Man John Doe
Nick Fury's Howling Commandos
Series publication information
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Horror, superhero
Publication date	December 2005 – May 2006
Number of issues	6
Creative team
Writer(s)	Keith Giffen
Penciller(s)	Eduardo Francisco
Inker(s)	Kris Justice Terry Pallot Robert Campanella
Letterer(s)	Dave Lanphear
Colorist(s)	J Tai
Creator(s)	Keith Giffen

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos was an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Running six issues before its cancellation and cover-dated December 2005 to May 2006, the series featured a fictional team set in the Marvel Universe, consisting of supernatural characters employed as a unit of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D..

The title is a play on that of Marvel's World War II based series Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Although Marvel superspy hero Nick Fury is the title character, he only appeared in a cameo in the first issue.

The group's official name was never established in the series' six issues, but was called the S.H.I.E.L.D. Paranormal Containment Unit in its single other appearance, in Blade vol. 3, #1 (Nov. 2006). The same issue established its nickname as the Howling Commandos.

Publication history

Written by Keith Giffen^[1] for its entire run, the series was launched with penciller Eduardo Francisco for its first two issues, followed by Dan Norton for issues #3, Derec Aucoin for #4-5 and Mike Norton for #6.

Plot synopsis

A powerful magician claiming to be the one true Merlin (one of many characters in the Marvel Universe to make this claim) escapes from a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment facility dubbed the Warehouse. He journeys to the United Kingdom, where he transforms the entire country into a fantasy realm. The Howling Commandos are charged with stopping him.

The team is headquartered in Area 13, a classified base run by S.H.I.E.L.D. for its supernatural black op program. It also serves as a research and development facility, specializing in the supernatural.

Characters

Some of the characters, including Brother Voodoo, and Gorilla-Man were pre-existing human characters from Marvel's superhero and supernatural comics. Others, such as Goom, Grogg and Groot, were monsters from pre-superhero Marvel science fiction/fantasy anthology comics of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Others were newly created or new versions of existing characters.

The seven primary characters are:

• Clay Quartermain, the commanding officer of Area 13. He takes over in the first issue from Dum Dum Dugan.
• Warwolf (real name Vince Marcus), the field leader. He is a werewolf who can transform voluntarily whenever Mars is in the night sky.
• Nina Price, a half-vampire and half-werewolf.
• N'Kantu, the Living Mummy a previously existing character. N'Kantu is an undead prince of Ancient Egypt.
• Frankenstein, an intelligent clone of the original Frankenstein's Monster. How this process didn't produce different clones of the various individual body parts making up the original monster was briefly mentioned in issue #1. The response was, "Don't go there".
• Gorilla-Man, a previously existing character. Kenneth Hale is a man trapped in a gorilla's body. He is now a member of the Agents of Atlas.
• John Doe, a zombie. He is depicted as having normal human-level intelligence, in contrast to other zombie characters in the Marvel universe.

The main antagonists are:

• Merlin, a powerful magician claiming to be the true Merlin.
• Tilesti of the Folk is a Faerie and Merlin's second-in-command

Supporting characters include:

• Bradley Beemer, Area 13's Tech Chief. Beemer is in charge of research and development.
• Glob
• Brother Voodoo
• Grogg, along with pilot Buzz McMahon
• Groot
• Hellstorm (Daimon Hellstrom)
• Lilith (Lilith Dracul)

Other characters include:

• Sasquatch, described in issue #2 as the actual folkloric Sasquatch, and not specifically connected to the superhero Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski) or to the race of Sasquatches revealed in the series Alpha Flight vol. 2.
• Abominable Snowman, similarly described in that issue as the actual folkloric Abominable Snowman, and not specifically connected to other Marvel characters named Abominable Snowman.
• Goom, a pre-existing monster from "pre-superhero Marvel", seen briefly at the beginning of issue #3.
• Dragoom, issue #6.

See also

• Creature Commandos, a similar team from DC Comics

Notes

1. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (July 6, 2005). "Giffen Goes Commandos". Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37540. 

References

• Nick Fury's Howling Commandos at the Grand Comics Database
• Nick Fury's Howling Commandos at the Comic Book DB
• Nick Fury's Howling Commandos at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

External links

• Review Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #1 at ComicCritique.com