Broken Frontier

Once again, Nick Fury proves that how ever many steps America’s enemies are willing to take, he’s willing to go one—and in this case—several steps further.

Daisy Lynne Johnson, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and daughter of Mr. Hyde, sits in an interrogation room, grilled by agent Maria Hill about events that occurred six hours before on a New York pier. First, there was the explosion during one of the final acts of Nick Fury’s secret war against Lucia Von Bardas, prime minister of Latveria who’d funded a small army of costumed villains in a terrorist campaign against America. But once Bardas is defeated, the aftermath gets hotter than any of the previous fighting. Fury’s Secret Warriors—Captain America, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Wolverine, The Black Widow, and Spider-Man—learn that they’d participated in the overthrow of the Latverian government, as well as assassination. They can’t remember any of it, because Fury had two days wiped from each of their memories. None of them take it well, especially Wolverine, who attacks and mortally wounds Fury. But Fury still has several cards up his sleeve, and when he’s done, his fate will be as unknown as the future of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Despite the almost unforgivably long wait and the inevitable comparisons to Identity Crisis, Secret War #5 is one of the most thought-provoking and disturbing, yet also one of the most engrossing reads of the year. True, Brian Michael Bendis (depending on one’s point of view) either swipes or appropriates the mind-wiping plot element from Brad Meltzer. But to his credit, Bendis ups his game over Meltzer’s by making what was personal in Identity Crisis political in Secret War, and crafts drama out of the thorniest of ethical dilemmas—what to do in cases with ends that are clearly right and wrong, but means that are anything but. If it was wrong on principle for The JLA to mindwipe Batman, was it also wrong on principle for Fury to do the same to the Secret Warriors? It’s a tough question, but the questions that follow are even tougher. If Fury was right, what’s the difference? If I lived in the Marvel Universe, I’d sleep easier at night knowing that he was on the case, but should it be left to any one man—even if it is Fury and we know he’s right—to make such a decision? And yet, if Fury is wrong, then is there ever a point beyond which principles have to be put aside to achieve the right outcome?

Part of Nick Fury’s appeal is that, like the great spymasters of history, he’s always played on a different field than "people who wear masks." True, heroes face tough decisions, but even in the post-Authority, Ultimates age, making those decisions rarely entails compromising values, either their own or those they have to protect. For Fury, that’s a luxury, and in Secret War the end most definitely justifies his means. And despite the real possibility that he was set-up by a president who wanted him out, as well as what he must have foreseen as the subsequent instability of S.H.I.E.L.D. (one of the more compelling storylines in New Avengers), Fury has little time for debate, second-guessing, or even regret. This single-minded clarity is the essence of his character, and Bendis plays it masterfully by taking it to its extreme.

We see the core character of each of the major players in this issue. However, characterization is just one of Bendis’ strong points in Secret War #5. There’s tons of dialogue, but for the most part it flows particularly well. And of special note is the non-linear storytelling, which is used to great effect. In shifting between the present and two different points in the past, Bendis keeps the reader as disoriented as the characters, but also lands moments of suspense in just the right spots.

Lush yet grim, and as lyrical as it seems the stuff of nightmares, Gabrielle Dell’Otto’s artwork hits the symphony of notes that Secret War #5 needs. Some of those notes are bombastic—The Thing rocking the house and crashing a whole pier. Some of those notes are subtle—the sensuous yet razor-edged cat-and-mouse game Daisy plays during her interrogation. But they all have gorgeous color, from cool, intense blues, to ambiguous grays, to the demon red in Wolverine’s eyes. Thematically, from the first page, Dell’Otto’s paints transport us through the looking glass, from a world we thought we knew on the page to how our own world with superheroes might actually look. Overall, he combines a flair for tone, anatomy, and emotional mood to tell a story with images. And his paints lift the story off the page, but only because his lines brought it so convincingly to life in the first place.

Had I followed another path and become a philosophy professor, and had I enough juice to decide what and how I taught, one my courses would’ve been called Comic Book Morality: From Black and White to Shades of Gray. For this coming semester, Secret War #5 would be at the top of the syllabus.