A blast from the past, from a Marvel Universe only 6 years old. The lead Nick Fury story is from the classic Jim Steranko era, and it's pretty awesome. I kind of want to read more of this earlier version of Fury, more James Bond than super-spy. He's a lot less jaded than writers treat him now.
But Ms. Severin's contribution to this issue is a Doctor Strange tale, and it's pretty great. The story is a concluding episode to a longer tale, and the Stan Lee script is, as usual with him, a bit stilted. There's just too damned much exposition. But the art has a wonderful Golden Age feel to it. As I read more pre-1955 comics, I'm gaining a much greater appreciation for the style of that era, and also for the influence it casts over comics. While the EC horror comics influence is fairly obvious, sometimes we fail to look for, or perhaps include, influence from the early superhero tales. They were simple and often very quickly produced, but the stylization that seems a staple of the era manages to convey fantastical situations with very little detail. Contemporary comics, to a large extent, are about spectacle, sometimes to the detriment of story. Comics from the 30s and 40s aren't, as the production standards were so much lower. Or rather, the production technology was so much less-sophisticated. This Doctor Strange story is beautiful to look at. I kind of wish the overly-verbose Stan Lee speech bubbles weren't there.
(For example:)
"For, only I possess the knowledge--only I possess the power--only I possess the consummate skill--to withstand so deadly a blow--and summarily repel it!"
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