Sgt. Fury #5

SGT. FURY #5 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

We return once more to the WWII adventures of Nick Fury to meet his nemesis: the future leader of Hydra, Baron Von Strucker, in all his shirtless glory.

Fury is crankier than usual this issue, because in the previous one the Howling Commandos lost their first comrade.

And once again we see that Howling training is freaking bonkers, because they throw live grenades at tanks!!! FOR PRACTICE!!!

At least the Commandos have noticed this is SLIGHTLY untenable.

We now cut to Discount Castle Doom a castle in Bavaria. I’m used to see Bavaria namedropped in stories dealing with Latveria (which shouldn’t be anywhere near the place), but for once this DOES make sense since we’re in Germany.

And here it is, the first Von Strucker. Who I have to say is more sensible than the Commandos when it comes to training!

Notice that Von Strucker doesn’t speak with the exaggerated German accent of many Nazi characters of the series, making him a lot easier to accept as a serious character.

The emphasis on Von Strucker being an aristocrat is right there from the start. But oddly enough, this entire deal is the fact that he’s supposed to be a master at any conceivable weapon, something that will completely be dropped in modern stories.

I can see why Von Strucker went the supervillain route: even in his first scenes, he doesn’t seem to fall in line with the other Nazis.

One of Von Strucker’s planes drops a message at the Howling Commandos barracks, to challenge Nick Fury to a duel. WHICH FURY ACCEPTS.

SOMEHOW, his superior officer doesn’t approve of his soldiers to walk right into a duel.

If you’ve ever read an action story ever, you know Fury is immediately going to disobey orders.

And here it is: the first meeting between two people who will try to murder each other for the next forever.

So the duel is on. Now don’t be too shocked, but it turns out that the Nazi commander *gasp* cheats!

Despite being drugged, Fury is STILL able to fight Von Strucker to a standstill… for a while.

Stan Lee sure does like having villains that make their own publicity. To be fair, this is absolutely something the Nazis would do.

Believe it or not, Nick Fury is not kicked out of the Army for this stunt… but JUST BARELY.

Probably because nobody else is insane enough to join the Howling Commandos. Which at the moment consists of just SIX PEOPLE who are able to do THIS with almost no support:

The mission just happens to be at the current headquarters of Von Strucker. I get it, if Fury takes him prisoner, then maybe his reputation can be salvaged. As long as he doesn’t do something incredibly stupid like challenging him to a second duel, right?

Fury is not exactly the brightest in this series. He doesn’t even realize he lost the first duel because he was drugged: one of his fellow Commandos has to spell it out for him!!!

Fury is so awesome in his second round that even Jack Kirby decides he can’t give him justice, so the fight is entirely off-panel.

Von Strucker escapes capture because the Howling Commandos are attacked by the other Nazis, but the picture will reach the general public.

Also Nick Fury gets his old job back because that’s the kind of stuff that happens regularly in this book.

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Historical significance: 6/10
Von Strucker is a somewhat regular presence in this series, showing up in other 6 issues. His appearances against the Howling Commandos are not anywhere near as significant as his role as the leader of Hydra in present-day adventures. Von Strucker has A LOT more WWII appearances in continuity inserts, which typically tend to completely ignore his depictions from this series and opt to basically use the modern day version.

 Silver Age-ness: 7/10

Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
Look, this was a blast to read and I appreciate the subversion of Fury getting into trouble after the first duel… but I don’t care if he’s the most famous war hero in the world, you can’t expect me to believe he can go through this stuff and still have his job!

How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
Von Strucker has a LONG and complicated history; too complicated to go into detail, in fact.
He’s part of the trifecta of WWII supervillains that survive to the modern age, together with Red Skull and Baron Zemo, though it’s funny to think that only Red Skull is a Golden Age character.
Out of them, Von Strucker definitely the one that adapted the best to a different era.

Speaking of which, why DID Von Strucker end up being re-used as the leader of Hydra? Well, Nick Fury being the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. was not exactly subtle in its inspiration from James Bond… so is it any wonder that Von Strucker ended up being his Blofeld?

Having said that, there’s little of the modern Von Strucker in his original story. The look is mostly there, is his aristocratic sense of superiority… but that’s about it.
There’s almost nothing of the manipulative bastard that will manage to repeatedly keep up with Nick Fury’s schemes.
I do find it interesting that he doesn’t show a lot of deference towards Hitler and the Nazi higher-ups: in later stories he’s become even more defiant towards them, and in modern times he’s far less linked to the Nazis than people like Red Skull.
I definitely like Von Strucker more as the head of Hydra than as a Nazi supervillain: that niche is firmly the domain of Red Skull, but NOBODY plays “scumbag terrorist overlord” like Von Strucker.