User blog:Nausiated/Project 11/61: Agent of SHIELD

I have just completed the second half of my expanded history of Nick Fury, covering all of his modern appearances from 1963 to 1969. This also includes all flashbacks, retcons, and revelations that have occurred (that I have been able to find) up to December 2014. Here are some footnotes on the whole ordeal:


 * Nick Fury has some of the most muddy continuity of modern history characters I have encountered so far (and yes, I realize I haven't even touched Wolverine or Spider-Man yet among countless others) Fury has many rectons and continuity problems. I won't touch on the wartime era ones again (read my last blog) But Fury -- or more specifically the origin of SHIELD -- is particularly muddy from all the different hands that have touched it over the years. Originally in SHIELD was the brainchild of Tony Stark. In  it's suggested that Stark convinced the United States government to found SHIELD. While  shows that the United States government was developing SHIELD sometime in the 1980s. Then of course there is the centuries old Brotherhood of the Shield who has been implied to be responsible for the formation of SHIELD during the run of S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol 1 and Vol 2. This was more so reinforced in  through  during the Wheels Within Wheels story line.


 * Then there is the wonderful continuity involved which has been complicated by . EVERY SOURCE (this includes all editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe) have stated that SHIELD was founded in the modern era. At least the incarnation that had Nick Fury as it's director. Original Sins #5 states that SHIELD (with Fury as director) was in operation in 1966. Marvel Wikia admin ADour asked writer Al Ewing about this in Tumble recently. Ewing had this to say:


 * I think the generally accepted version these days is that S.H.I.E.L.D. came into being after WWII and in the beginnings of the cold war. A couple of stories don’t quite fit - that early FF adventure with CIA Fury - but they do with tweaks. For instance, if you take S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Tony Stark to be Howard Stark (or maybe even Howard Stark Snr) it works fine.


 * The Marvel timeline slides to benefit the readers - it means you don’t have to ask why Spidey isn’t an old man - so if it’s doing more harm than good, throw it in the bin. But then, that’s my answer to all continuity. I love it, but only as long as it’s working for us rather than against us.


 * Which in all due respect to Al Ewing -- who wrote a pretty awesome story, go check it out -- it just doesn't fit all that well as far as explanations go. After some consultation with other admins who cared to chime in on the matter (specifically on the subject of when Dum Dum Dugan was replaced with a Life Model Decoy we came to this conclusion in this thread:


 * ''Doing my research of Nick Fury for an expanded history page and I was reviewing the recent revelation regarding the Dum Dum Dugan LMD that was revealed in . I think we need to do some editorial house cleaning and interpretation with this because the narrative messes up established continuity and the set timeline via the Sliding Time Scale.

''
 * The sticking point is that in the narrative that Fury provides is that Dum Dum's death happened in the "Early days of SHIELD" and specifies the date as 1966. Which does not fit with Marvel continuity at all. The SHIELD anti-espionage organization was not formed until the modern age shortly after the birth of the Fantastic Four and founding members of the Avengers as specified in, and many other publications. SHIELD could not have been in existence prior to 1966. Fury was still a member of the CIA at the time and this has been documented in a number of tales as well.


 * So I propose a few things about referencing this:


 * - The date Fury mentions (1966) should be considered topical. I suspect that the writer (Al Ewing) used the year 1966 in terms of when Dugan truly died by the PUBLICATION date as opposed to the date in Marvel time. Which makes sense the early SHIELD stories appearing in Strange Tales Vol 1 were published in late 1965, early 1966. The first Hydra storyline ending in January 1966.


 * - The Marvel Chronology Project -- of course -- hasn't gotten around to updating their Nick Fury timeline, but doing my own independent research I would stay that the flashback in where Dugan is killed in action happened sometime after . This would make the most sense as the first incarnation of Hydra that SHIELD battled between  and  was such a small operation. The much larger version with Baron Strucker in command was active between  through .  This could be supported by the fact that in Original Sins, Fury and SHIELD were going after Otto Vermis, the Hydra agent tied into the origin of Spider-Woman. Vermis himself did not appear until  circa 1977, however if you read the narrative in the story Vermis acts as though he encountered SHIELD before.  shows Fury destroying Hydra Island and seemingly slaying Strucker.  started a brand new storyline where Fury teaches new spies. The flashback from  could fit perfectly between these two stories because it would make sense that SHIELD would go after other Hydra units that were active while Strucker was in charge.


 * - With this logic in mind I would recommend that the "retconned" first appearance of the Dum Dum Dugan LMD to .


 * It is the editorial standpoint of the Wikia admins that this will be the accepted explanation for the Dugan LMD until Marvel officially explains where this takes place.