Comics Review: Fury's Big Week

As a way to tie the various films in the marvel cinematic continuity together, a prequel comic to the upcoming "Avengers" movie was released, in eight parts. It follows the agents of SHIELD, particularly Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury was they deal with the events seen in the marvel films. As it starts, we see Fury summoned to stop the search for Steve Rogers, and instead focus all attention on the cosmic cube. Fury disobeys, keeping a team up north, and working on getting Stark to join his initiative. The prequel offers little in the way of spoilers; we have no indication what world threat led Fury to even consider the avengers initiative. I don't even think the word "avengers" is uttered during the comic.

Things start off in the middle of IM2, as Stark has his drunk fight with Rhodey and flies off. SHIELD is somehow aware that Stark is dying of palladium poisoning, which is explained as forming bonds with someone's RBCs. They give Fury some lithium compound to slow down the effects; I have to pay attention to IM2 and see if that injection is in the film.

While Fury works on Stark, Coulson gets word of an abnormality in New Mexico, and after much convincing, is given the go ahead to check it out by Fury. We know what he finds there, so the comic doesn't focus on that. Rather, we see much more of Clint Barton, who was there in the scene from the film, but also present during the time of the destroyer attack.

Meanwhile, Natasha Romanoff was working with Tony Stark, as seen in the events of IM2. The comic shows the final battles to some degree. Afterwards, Natasha is told to go find Banner. We learn that General Ross also broke into SHIELD's database, maybe on company of SHIELD's boss, the world security council or something. It turns out Ross feels he's the sword protecting the world, killing the world's enemies, and Fury is the shield, protecting secrets safe behind a wall. As Natasha traces Banner, she sees the incident at Culver, and reports that Blonsky was likely on something to make him strong. She eventually tracks Banner to Dr. Stern's place, when the end battle of "The Incredible Hulk" occurs. Before this, the final events involving the destroyer and whatnot happened in New Mexico, placing the Hulk battle after this.

In a nice aside, we see her find Samuel Sterns, already imbued with his powers, feeling he can see his future as the super villain called "the Leader." But he's a bit too annoying, so Natasha shoots him in the foot. We then see her report back to Fury. Hulk has vanished. Fury talks with his bosses regarding his busy week: helping save Tony Starks life, making an alliance with thor, and following Banner. All the while, he had a team up north searching for Cap. And each one of those things can help with the cosmic cube, aside from the Hulk stuff. Tony's new elements, temporarily called "badassium," may unlock the clue to opening the cosmic cube. The destroyer, now property of SHIELD, may have come from the same place as the cube. And Cap is the last guy to actually have used the cube.

Surprisingly, the epilogue takes place a year later, when Captain America's body is found. We actually see the scene of his frozen body picked out of the ground! We also see Coulson walking through SHIELD headquarters. In some nice artwork and panels, we see various experiments conducted by SHIELD, including "Project Mr. Blue" aka the leader, and a now functional destroyer. Finally, before Fury heads up to see Cap, he sends Barton to watch Selvig. The last show shows Selvig working on the cube, and in a reflection, you-know-who waiting to cause some mischief as "The Avengers" begins.

Overall, I thought this was superbly done. It avoided spoilers, which could've been so easy to just add in here. We finally see, with some canon basis, how these films fit together. It's CA, IM, IM2, T, TIH, and then the last scenes of CA, with IM2, T, and TIH overlapping to some degree. It was a nice way to also see the behind-the-scenes of SHIELD, and realize that even SHIELD has a boss. Can't wait for the film!