Get Fury #3 Review

 

Writer: Garth Ennis

Penciler: Jacen Burrows

Inker: Guillermo Ortego

Colorist: Nolan Woodard

Letterer: Rob Steen

Cover Artists: Goran Parlov & Nolan Woodard; Dave Johnson

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 10, 2024

 

The CIA conspired with a Marine General to kill Colonel Nick Fury. Fury survived when his sabotaged helicopter crashed behind enemy lines, but then Vietcong troops captured him. So General Mackie and the CIA agents Dave and Steve send Frank Castle to kill Nick Fury before he can spill American Intelligence secrets. But is Frank Castle the right man for the job? Let's load our weapons, march into Get Fury #3, and find out!

 

Story

The CIA agents, Dave and Steve, made a convincing case. Nick Fury had overwhelming knowledge of ongoing US Intelligence operations and undercover agents in the Vietnam War. Many Americans would die if the North Vietnamese Army learned what Fury knew. General Mackie’s troops searched the vicinity of the crash site, but they couldn’t find him. Nor could they track him after Fury reached the Ho Chi Minh trail. But they knew where the Vietcong would take him. And when he checked into the Hanoi Hilton, Nick Fury would never leave.

 

In Get Fury #3, Dave and Steve realize their preconceptions about Nick Fury and Frank Castle were wrong. Captain Frank Castle won't follow their orders unquestioningly. Especially not when it comes to Nick Fury. They thought Fury killed their operatives when he discovered what they were up to. But what if Castle killed their operatives? If any soldiers could escape from Hanoi and return to South Vietnam, they would be Frank Castle and Nick Fury. The CIA agents argue about what Fury and Castle may know. General Mackie huffs, puffs, and blows his top. Dave and Steve talked him into their underhand scheme. His military career is over unless Nick Fury and Frank Castle die.

 

Garth Ennis’ story ponders how war corrupts ideals. US leaders viewed Communism as a corrupting influence on Humanity. Yet drugs threaten healthy societies and destroy people’s lives. CIA officials were willing to flood US streets with drugs for money to bribe Vietcong leaders to ease up on their attacks. General Mackie agreed to the scheme because fewer soldiers died in combat. Yet US soldiers suffered drug-related deaths, and drug use exacerbated any PTSD the soldiers suffered when they returned home. Ironically, the way heroin slithers into the Vietnam War in Get Fury #3 evokes how opium became an integral part of British colonialism and the global tea trade a century earlier.

 

As for Frank Castle, he’s not a secret agent. The special forces officer walks around Hanoi as if he owns it. Why shouldn’t he? The US military trained him to tackle any obstacle before him. But Castle has a reason for making himself a target in Hanoi. And it may involve someone who sparked contention between General Mackie and Colonel Nick Fury.

 

Art

Stonefaced soldiers welcome Fury to his new high-walled home as Castle and two women look on. As Dave drives General Mackie and Steve past terraced fields, South Vietnamese civilians, and a crew working on their tank, the CIA officers envision Castle and Fury’s surreptitious conversations. Letrong Giap introduces an overview of Frank Castle approaching a roadblock on a busy street, ignoring squads of NVA soldiers as he follows the women in Get Fury #3.

 

Nolan Woodard applies limited and loaded palettes on Jacen Burrows and Guillermo Ortego’s art. Orange subsumes backgrounds as Castle emulates Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall. Guns birth yellow stars as red fountains from falling soldiers. As Castle tears through the North Vietnamese troops, Nick Fury frowns from the floor of his dark, grimy cell. Crimson stains his feet, arms, face, and the skin exposed by his ripped and torn green uniform, while a vertical slit of yellow centers on his remaining eye.

 

Rob Steen fires black uppercase letters into white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes in Get Fury #3. The large font grows bold for intonation and never shrinks. While no sound effects enhance Garth Ennis’ MAX-label story, the dialogue enlarges when North Vietnamese soldiers ask Castle for his identity card and security pass. “Badges? We Don’t Need No Stinking Badges!” Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Dirty CIA officials quarrel with a US Marine General over Nick Fury and Frank Castle's fate, Fury books into the Hanoi Hotel, and Castle braves squads of North Vietnamese soldiers to meet two women amid The War For Drugs in Get Fury #3.

 

Rating 9.2/10

 

To preview interior art see my reviews at Comic Book Dispatch.