Let's get this said right off the bat: When I finished the first chapter of Fury, I was ready to throw the book down in disgust. I was not impressed with Garth Ennis' foul-mouthed, whoring interpretation of Marvel icon Nick Fury. I kept going, though, and I'm glad I did.
Nick Fury is a man left behind by the agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., that he helped build. He's a cold-war dinosaur who is finding that, without a war to fight, his life just isn't worth living. He's reduced to a drinking, whoring old crank....until a chance encounter with an old enemy changes everything. While rembering old times over a drink, Yuri Gagarin waxes poetic about how he and Nick could go somewhere and start their own war, and bring the glory days back. Fury laughs it off, but soon enough, Gagarin has started a coup on a small but strategically placed island near Hawaii, and is about to trigger World War III. Suddenly Fury is important again...
After the first chapter, and the pointless focus given to Fury's nephew Wendell, the book takes off. Artists Darick Robertson & Jimmy Palmiotti have clearly based their Fury on Clint Eastwood, and I could easily imagine Clint playing out this story on the big-screen. The final chapters play out like the best summer action movie you've never seen, and Ennis' pacing is flawless. Be warned, though- This is a "Max" book, Marvel's "Mature Readers" imprint, and BOY, does it earn that title: Death, destruction, dismemberment, used condoms, disfigured soldiers with obscene names, a man being strangled with his own Intestines....The list goes on and on. The action finale is mind-boggling, and the final sequence is staggeringly memorable. I'd love to see Ennis, Robertson, and Palmiotti do a return engagement with Nick Fury.