Punisher MAX Book 6: Barracuda (#31-36)

"I was in no mood to fuck around" - Frank Castle

Sing hosannas!  After nearly two years I can finally bring the ten volume Punisher series written by Garth Ennis with various artists to a close.  If you've been following this blog for a while, you might recall I had to skip volumes five and six on my romp through the series as they were out of print and insanely expensive.  Thankfully the series got omnibus reprints fairly recently and so the missing two volumes are finally in my hands.  I've did Book Five: The Slavers a while back and now I am looking at Book Six: Barracuda. This volume introduces the MAX version of Frank's ultimate nemesis. We saw him killed in Book Nine: The Long Cold Dark, but here he's at full power.  He's a large, muscular black man, fiercely intelligent, with a savage sense of humour, he's also an assassin for hire and will do anything for a paycheck.  He's almost as skilled at fighting and gunplay as Frank and has the advantage of being younger than him.  Frank in this story is on the trail of corporate scum, taking him to Miami where Barracuda waits to take him on.

We start at the end, Frank on Barracuda's boat looking down at sharks and dead bodies churning amongst bloody water.  Then we return to the beginning.  Frank is on the trail of some particularly potent cocaine.  He kills the last armed man in a gang hideout thinking "the trail eventually led to these boys". Before he can leave the scene of the massacre he hears cries coming from the bathroom.

Frank finds Stephens.

A naked man, his hands bound is lying down in there.  Seems the gangsters took turns using him as a fucktoy.  He tells Frank where the coke is, while moaning one of them made him do some off his balls.  The man pleads for protection. Frank tells him the police are coming.  The man he's in serious danger.  Frank says  wait for the police, then he uses a white phosphorous grenade to cover his escape.  As Frank leaves the man yells he "can't talk to fucking cops!"  Frank tells him to try the Feds and leaves avoiding the police thinking "and that would have been that. But..."
We then cut to some businessmen at a party.  A younger man, Dermot is telling the older man Harry that something has happened that is "serious shit".

Harry: "What I meant Dermot, was why you didn't come to me the instant this faggot developed a conscience? Since when do you handle shit like this yourself?"

Dermot says he wanted to show some initiative and Harry leads him into his office where his wife is snorting coke and refuses to go and mingle in the party, but Harry sends her on her way.

Dermot and Harry.

Then he grills Dermot, it turns out a man called Stephens was going to blow the whistle on their whole operation, so Dermot called Enrique to kill Stephens as he's Dermot's coke connection.  He didn't expect Stephens to still be alive when he asked Enrique to kill him a week ago.  Now he's had a tip from the D.A.'s office that Stephens is in jail after being pulled out of a scene of a massacre.

Harry facepalms and asks Dermot if he realises "how badly you fucked up here?"  He tells Dermot could have been bought off, or talked round but Dermot decided to get criminals involved.  He asks what precinct Stephens is in, it's the sixty-third.

We then cut to Frank enjoying a burger in a diner which is playing the news on the TV.  It reports on the shooting of a Puerto Rican drug gang and how only one man survived.  He's been taken to the sixty-third precinct where they will question him after his symptoms of shock subside.  As the radio waffles on about an anti-Punisher initiative, Frank ruminates how that was his reward for stepping on the wrong toe investigating the slavers.

He watches the story on TV and suddenly sees a policeman called Billy Lacarda walk past the camera.  After writing two books so in-depth about the mob he was accused of having ties to them, he kept his badge just about but his glory days were over.  He remembers Stephens (for it was he) pleading not to be left to the cops and decides with Billy Lacarda showing his face again, well it was time to investigate more closely.

Using a fake ID he goes to the sixty-third precinct and bluffs to the desk sergeant saying he was hoping he could get a couple of minutes with the prisoner.  The sergeant says he's in luck there's been a delay with the paperwork for Lacarda to take him out of the city. He says he'll buzz Frank in when he wants to see the prisoner.

An assassin approaches Stephens.

As he walk down the steps to the cells, Frank wonders how far Larcarda has got with his bluff as he won't be waiting for paperwork.  He's down where Stephens is, and the police man down there is refusing tp allow him to take Stephens without papers.  Lacarda says it's a "fuckin' formality".  But the policeman stands firm.  Stephens pipes up saying he's ask for a lawyer and not gotten one, the policeman says they'll hold him until his story checks out.   He was at the site of a massacre with no ID or personal items which is very suspicious.

Lacarda tries to bribe the policeman with money, but that doesn't work.  So he pulls a gun and hold it to the policman's throat.  Then Frank sounds the fire alarm.  He knocks Lacarda out with one punch and tells the policeman to swap positions wth Stephens and he locks him inside.  He then drags Stephens away how says " so you... do you like believe me now, is that it?"

Using white phosporous grendaes he gets him and Stephens out of the precinct in the chaos that ensues, helped along by people evacuating because of the fire alarm. He ponders Stephens and thinks "thing was.  He probably thought that meant he was safe."
Back with Dermot and Harry, Harry puts down the phone having been told Stephens is gone and Lacarda has been arrested.  He has lost a valuable asset trying to clean up Dermot's mess. He then tells Dermot he doesn't know much about the Punisher.  But he's dangerous and a big gun requires a big gun in return.  He picks up the phone and says to Dermot, "I do not do what I am about to do lightly". He gets through to Barracude who picks up the phone, tells the out-of-it looking woman to keep sucking his dick then make some eggs, and then begins his conversation with Harry which ends this chapter.

Later we see he is on his boat, smoking crack with a woman and has a large pet snake.  It bites the woman, so Barracuda picks it up and smashes its head against the mast.  The woman dies from the poison and Barracuda just says "shit", tips her overboard and sails off.

Meet Barracuda.

In a diner, Frank is grilling Stephens saying he'll never leave him alone unless he spills what he knows.   Stephens asks if he has heard of "Dynaco".  Much to his surprise Frank hasn't, "we were on the cover of Time!"  A few years ago things were different, they were shittiest energy company in the world. Wall Street thought they were a joke.  Then Harry Ebbing came along.

He first fired ninety percent of the workforce, then got the rest to actuall work together.  He turned them into a team with two golden rules, "always stick together, and if you've got a problem, always take it to him first."  It worked and their stock went through the ceiling, the parties they had were legendary.  Frank asks how they managed it.

Stephens: "Harry found out... and I shit you not here. This is legal... that you could base your accounts not on your actual profits, but one what you expect them to be. Simple as that.  You like the sound of one point two billion for the quarter. Go with it.  Knock yourself out."

Frank says, well if it was legal what's the problem?  Stephens says the next thing they were planning was anything but.  We cut to the Dynaco executives on a sking retreat.  Dermot manages to piss Harry off and he skis off.  Harry's wife then asks Dermot if he has ever fucked a trophy wife before.

Stephens spills the sorry tale.

We return to Stephens and he asks Frank if he recalls the blackouts in Florida last Fall just after a hurricane.  Dynaco's stock went up when the grid got fucked up by the weather "power was all of a sudden at a premium".  Dermot brought an idea to Harry, him being Harry's "golden boy", put simply they were going to black out Florida. It would never be the whole grid at once, it would look random and the price of power would shoot up again.

It was at this point Stephens spoke up saying that crippling the infrastructure like that would be illegal.  He said they could get into so much shit if they were found out.  But the rest of the executives looked at him and he realised it was "time to shut the fuck up".   However he refused to and told them that soon Dynaco's profits would come out and "the projected terms we'd been trading under would be worthless.  That behind all his alpha male bullshit, Harry was desperate for capital."

Stephens: "And I guess at that point I was less scared of him than I was of going to jail.  Either we shitcanned this right then and there, or I'd call the F.B.I."
The next morning he was taken hostage my Enrique's gang.  He admits other shady stuff that happened before, like a hooker O.D.'ing at a party, one of the guys being caught in a coke bust and being released the same night, which is how he knew he wouldn't be safe with the cops.

He wonders if Harry is just carried away, creating sheer chaos and making it work for him no matter what the cost, "so long as it turns a profit." We then cut to Dermot dressing after having had sex with Harry's wife Alice.  She is teasing him saying was the reason he was so quick because he imagine Harry standing behind him telling him what to do. He grabs her by the throat and she laughs saying "that's the fucking spirit...!"  He demands to know if she wants him to fuck her, "that'd do for starters cowboy" she grins.

Barracuda, taking care of business.

We then cut to Barracuda driving in an open top car, a humvee full of men stops next to him and Barracuda opens fire on them with an assault rifle. He then gets out and asks one of the survivors where his money is.  When the man says he swears he has the money and begs for his life, Barracuda doesn't shoot him, he stuffs him in his car boot.

Back with Frank, he has left Stephens "mewling into his breakfast".  There was no way to get Dynaco investigated legitimately, not on Stephens' evidence alone.  But leaving Stephens behind "that was my first mistake."  Back in his safehouse he wonders if this is something he should be concerned with at all.

Frank:  "Then again, if Dynaco went ahead, Florida would have a body count. So that decided that."

He decides to get a public confession from as senior a figure as possible. Find Ebbing and put the fear of God into him.  There was a major shareholders meeting in Miami which seemed like his best bet.  His second mistake was thinking he could find what weapons he needed once he got there. Later when he was beaten, cut and bleeding, with a shark closing in on him, "I remember thinking just how wrong you can be."

We then cut to Harry on the phone to Barracuda who tells him that his target is in Barracuda's neck of the woods.  And Barracuda spots Frank walking across the airport floor, "you know, somehow I 'spected the muthafucka be taller".  Frank remembers back to him thinking he could get this done quickly and not need to hire a car, "stupid and sloppy".  His mind wandered in the car and he didn't react fast enough when Barracuda rammed the taxi and sent it careering into a tree and Frank passes out, "I'd have to say I deserved it".
We then see Dermot on the phone to Alice, she asks him to talk dirty to her, "no time like the present cowboy".   He does so, she asks him to say what he'll give her, he says "I'm gonna give you the whole four inches."  Thankfully we then return to Frank, bound in the boot of Barracuda's car, but he always has a small knife secreted in his sleeve for just suck instances and cuts himself free, then when Barracuda opens it boot he attacks him.

Fiiiiiight!

He also has concussion and his vision keeps blurring, but keeps fighting Barracua jamming the small knife into Barracuda's right eye.  They keep fighting and Frank finds an axe and slashes Barracuda's right hand cutting off his fingers, all this does is cause Barracuda to say, "it is on muthafucka.  It is on."

We then cut to Dermot and Alice walking along the beach and she admits to being "a real fucking bitch".  She says Harry doesn't fuck her he just has her bend over the bed and stares up her ass while he jerks off.  How charming.  She says before the married he shake her hand after sex and thank her for a wonderful evening, "you know who else was into that? Hitler."  She says she stays with him for the money, Dermot whinges about how Harry treats him., a "stupid shit one minute and son the next".  Alice says she knows the combinations to his safe and she used it before they came to Miami.

Back with Frank and Barracuda, they are grappling fiercely. Frank wraps some barbed wire round his neck and starts choking him.  Barracuda headbutts him and gets free.  Frank punches him and knocks out one of Barracuda's front teeth.  Barracuda grabs some wood and smashes it over Franks head and Frank falls to his knees as Barracuda tells him he has somewhere he has got to be.

Harry and Dermot in Harry#s office overlooking the beach. He says Alice likes it, "nothing but the best for the little woman". Dermot asks him what he's going to says to the shareholders.  Harry says he won't tell them they plan to black out the Sunshine State..  They've hired a boat and they'll take them for a pleasure cruise.  He'll get them drunk and tell them they are about to enter the "most exciting phase of the operation yet".  Top secret of course.  He tells them their "little problem" had followed them to Miami but he got a call from a most unexpected source.  And Stephens shuffles into the room.

Barracuda is now on a boat with Frank tied up again with Horace, the gangbanger he had in his boot too.  Barracuda tells him a story about the first time he saw a shark eat a person, savage shit "but hard to stop watchin' knowumsayin'?"  He tosses Horace into the sea.  He then tells Frank he has his fingers on ice, but Frank tells him that destroys the nerve endings so the can't be reattached. Barracuda picks Frank up saying "that a fact. Guess the muthafuckin' joke's on me, huh?"  Frank thinks as he sinks into the water that he's in the worst shape he's ever been in and still be conscious.  Then a shark starts bearing down on him.

Texting'll become a pain now.

Frank manages to free his legs and thinks to himself that from what he knows about Great White Sharks is that they don't much care for human flesh and once they take a bite they go to find something better, "Trouble is. Being tasted is nowhere near as gentle as it sounds."  And now and then you'll run into one that does enjoy snacking on humans. Frank surfaces and frees his hands.  Barracuda fires a shotgun at him telling him "shit's against the rules, muthafucka!" Frank then gets a hold of Horace and brings him to the surface.

We cut to Harry, Dermot and Stephens. Dermot is angry that Stephens is still alive. Apparently Stephens was the one who told them the Punisher was targetting them and when he was to arrive in Miami.  Stehpen then tearfully says he so sorrry to Harry.  He says he should have come to Harry with his fears.  Harry asks if he thought calling the F.B.I would be morally correct. Because he would have lost everything he had for the satisfaction of knowing he did the right thing.

Harry: "Oh Jesus Christ Harry.  That's the life I want back..!  I don't want to be out in the cold.  I don't want to be alone... I want it to be like it was.  With the guys. With the team. I'm sorry Harry.  I truly am.  I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
He drops to his knees and when Harry says it's OK, he wraps his arms round his legs and thanks him.   Dermot scowls and when Stephens leaves to get cleaned up, he says to Harry he can't believe he's doing this.  Harry says Dermot created a very dangerous mess that's cost a lot to clean up.  When Dermot says fuck you to him, Harry backhands him and says not to talk to him like that, "you stupid little cunt".  And he walks off.

Then we're back with Frank.  He holding onto Horace as the shark circles them and Barracuda looks on with glee. Horace tries to bribe Frank to help him, but when he admits to being a gangster.  Of course Frank won't stand for that and jams Horace into the sharks mouth.  Frank then dives under the boat as Horace gets chewed up thinking "Horace played his part to perfection".

Chomp!

Then we rejoin Dermot, Stephens and Harry sitting outside a restaraunt.  Dermot is pissed and when Stephens tries to talk to him, he calls him a "faggot" and to not talk to him.  Harry tells them about Barracuda who he met when he was convicted twenty years ago of insider trading and sent to a maximum security prison.  He bribed Barracuda who was also in there to protect him from the other inmates.  He maintained contact with him over the years, "a mutual beneficial relationship."

And we are back with Barracuda sailing his boat back, thinking Frank is dead as well.  But Frank is hanging onto a tire hanging off the side of the boat. On the shore, Harry introduces him to Stephens and Dermot.  Barracuda makes a joke about raping them, then shakes hands with the terrified pair.  Harry dismisses Stephens then sits down with Barracuda.  Noting Barracuda's missing fingers he says he'll double the agreed fee.  Barracuda asks him what he wants him to do next?

Frank crawls into a small pier, it took him a hour to get that far and he stands thinking he has nothing left inside him.  He staggers towards a small hut, but then he collapses thinking that Barracuda will find and kill him and he'd have to kick the shit out of Barracuda in hell.

Alice and Dermot having soapy fun.

Dermot and Alice are having sex in a jacuzzi. He says he was told to take a walk by Harry and Alice says, "so you took a walk up here and fucked the shit out of his wife, that ought to teach him a lesson."  Also a lesson for cuffing him round the ear, "like I was a goddamn ten year old."  He rages about Harry forgiving Stephens, and how he can't take any more of his bullshit. Alice asks if they are going to do the thing they talked about.  He says yes, and as they climb out of the jacuzzi we see Barracuda, armed with large blade standing outside of their room.

He walks inside shouting "naughty muthafuckin' children...!" He tells them Harry knows his wife has been up to something and now he's going to kill them.  Alice begs him not to saying she'll do whatever it takes as long as he doesn't kill them.  This gets through to Barracuda and he stops for now telling them to get room service to bring him some pancakes.

Frank is still out cold, but slowly comes round to find a seagull has crapped on his face. He staggers to his feet thinking "fucking birds".   Back with Barracuda sitting with Alice and Dermot eating his pancakes.  Dermot's been having Alice followed for a while.  He also admits he has no loyalty to Harry, either they make him and offer or he does his job saying Alice was "spreadin' it for his buddy Dermot".   Alice and Dermot's plan is they are going to get Harry busted for his plans to black out Florida then Dermot will take Harry's place.

Well that was convinient...

She has access to all of his notes in his handwriting, copies of all the memos he was too arrogant to get rid of.  Harry will have to resign, the shareholders won't let Dynaco go down with him.  She tells him about the boat the shareholders will be on tomorrow.  After the boat leaves Miami she going to send a press pack to the TV station so Harry will get fucked and Dermot will reassure the shareholders and they'll side with him "the end."  Barracuda is impressed, he says he's going to finish his pancakes then have a chat with Harry.

Frank meanwhile has made it to the shack and luckily for him it's one of Barracuda's safehouses.  It's full of guns, medical supplies and food.  He patches himself up, eats some food and reflects on what happened.  He realises Barracuda was hired by Harry, he decides to take Barracuda's boat "motor over to Miami.  Find them. Kill them. Then go home.  Nothing clever.  Nothing subtle."

Barracuda is reporting back to Harry. He lies to him about what Alice was doing the previous night, she was just clubbing and showed no interest in the men who approached her.  Harry thinks that's strange as he has photos showing she's "sucked at least half the cocks in Manhattan".  Barracuda says maybe she's turned over a new leaf.  Harry says that's unlikely.

Barracuda says why did he have him follow her when he knows what she's up to.  He says so he can get revenge on some of the men she's been with, "she has no idea how many of her one-night-stands I've sent people to visit".  He doesn't tell her because he wants her to be happy.  He is twice her age but quite devoted to her, can't satisfy her and can't abide the thought of the men who can. Sitting behind them, listening in is Frank who thinks, "nice".

Harry tells Barracuda he wants him on the boat with the shareholders to keep an eye on her.  He says he has something to annouce and he doesn't wants any distractions.  Frank thinks this must be the Florida plan. He decides rather than hit Harry and Barracuda there and then, he'll sneak onto the boat in the hope he can take down the entire Dynaco operatin. He leaves to go get tooled up while Barracuda and Harry talk.

Dermot murders Stephens.

Dermot and Alice are having frantic sex in the toilets when Stephens walks in on them.  He tries to run but Alice jumps on him and holds him, Dermot adjusts himself then starts punching Stephens. He starts chokng Stephens saying he won't sya anything about what he saw.  He rages at him and accidentally ends up killing him.  Alice tells the shocked Dermot to call Barracuda.  She leaves and Barracuda arrives saying he is impressed, saying "you Wall Street fucks play kinda rough, don't you?"  And he tosses Stephens body out of the window while asking Dermot if Alice is "nasty".  Dermot says yes and then Barracuda says:

Barracuda: "Only thing 'bout a ho lets you do anything is sooner or later you done it all. You look at this bitch got no kinda limits at all,  An' you start to hate her for it... I mean you fuckin' despise her man.  Knowunsayin'?"

Later on the yacht, Dermot is annoucing to the shareholders that Harry will be joining them soon so everyone grab a drink and enjoy themselves.  Alice and Barracuda are watching and Barracuda says that Dermot is "some smooth shit".
Alice says he learned from the master.  Barracuda says he learned so well he going to replace him. Alice notes the ships crew is staffed by Dynaco security, she says he always keeps his people around him.  Barracuda says if you know the right man "it makes all the goddamn difference in the world.".  She says meaning him and he says who the fuck else?  Dermot appears and Barracuda leaves him and Alice to talk.  Dermot says Barracuda is going to take Stephen's body to the Everglades and let the alligators have him.  Dermot says he's a useful guy to have around.  Alice says he's incredibly niave.  Barracuda is the most dangerous man they'll ever meet and they are going to have to kill him.

Frank enacts his plan.

We then cut to Frank swimming back to Barracuda's boat after having done something to the underside of the yacht.  He says Dynaco wouldn't hand over Barracuda and Harry, so "they made a fight of it.  What followed was their tough shit". Physcially he's still suffering, his stitches keep opening, his head still pounding, he's spitting out blood clots and pissing red.  Meanwhile Harry is being told the press want to talk to him, so he goes to meet them saying it'll be a chance to fly the Dynaco flag.

The final chapter begins with Harry running from the huge number of reporters.  He gets into his helicopter and tells them to take off.  On the yacht they are watching the expose of the plan to black out parts of Florida to increase the company's share value.  Down in the bowels of the yacht Alice starts coming onto Barracuda as she starts sucking his cock, Dermot creeps up behind him and hits him over the head.  Meanwhile the panicked shareholders are wondering where Dermot is.

Dermot takes on Barracuda.

Dermot keeps beating Barracuda until he collapses.  He then throws him into the sea.  He is angry that Alice was giving him oral sex.  She says it was the only way she could think to distract him.   When she accuses him of taking his time to find his balls, he angrily grabs her by the hair and drags her into a small room.  They start having sex and Dermot's phone goes off.  Alice answers it, as Harry tells Dermot to get his act together, they are an inch away from total ruin.  Alice just says to him, "He's fucking me Harry...!"

They spot a bomb Frank planted and Dynaco's men disarm it. Dermot then smartens himself up and goes to meet the shareholders saying Harry has to go, but isn't the company bigger than just one man?  He continues his speech saying Harry's mistakes were his own, after taking this hit they'll dust themselves down and come back stronger than before. "We are Dynaco" he concludes, "This is absolutely nothing".  Then a bomb goes off, "there were two charges" narrates Frank.

He had planted one on the outer hull.  If the one inside had gone off as well the ship would have sunk immediately.  He radios the yacht saying he wants to talk to Harry, Dermot answers saying Harry is not aboard the ship.  Frank says they need to give him Harry and Barracuda and then give themselves up to the F.B.I.  Dermot says Harry is no longer part of the company and he doesn't know who Barracuda is.  Also they found his bomb in the engine room, "you really are a fucking idiot, Punisher" says Dermot.

He goes on an epic rant saying they are not some tangible thing he can defeat with bullets, he says if they blacked out Florida would anyone give a shit? They do it, the stock goes sky high and the shareholders get a return on their investments, "what they care about is doing business."  No one will stop them because everyone who counts is on our side.

Dermot: "So why don't you leave us alone, and go and kill some fucking nigger drug dealers?"

But then Barracuda appears and climbs off the back of the yacht and to Frank yells that the charges are live and to set them off.  Frank presses the button and there is an huge explosion on the boat.

And the yacht asplodes.

The ship sinks and the people on it are left floundering in the water, and this attracts sharks.  Dermot leaves Alice to get eaten.  Frank shoots him anyway. Barracuda tries to climb onto the boat Frank is on saying they're on the same side now.  Frank shoots him thinking, "what's the only thing more dangerous than a Barracuda?" And a shark approaches as Frank turns and sails back to shore which brings this volume to an end.

I have to admit, this is probably the weakest of all ten collected trades of this run.  There isn't enough Frank in it and he's an odd fit for a story about corrupt corporate shenanigans.  Harry's fate is left unclear after the major role he played in it.  He's last seen opening the helicopter door on the way to the yacht.  Suicide?  Who knows.  That said, the introduction of Barracuda is extremely well handled, and we can see why he's such a match for Frank.  He's a brute but he's not a mindless one, his weak point mainly being his overwhelming arrogance.  And you can see why he concocted such a vicious revenge plan for Frank as seen in volume nine, "Long Cold Dark". Dermot and Alice are a pretty loathesome pair, Dermot especially deserved getting blown up, shot and then eaten by a shark.  You can see why he is so bitter in some ways, but it comes out so self-pitying and whiny.  Of course his treatment of Stephens was pretty appalling too.  Stephens being pretty much the only likeable character in this tale, and after all he goes through you have sympathy for his reasons in betraying Frank and wanting his comfortable life back. Goran Parlov is definitely the best artist Ennis collaborated with on this run, and you can see why they went on to do Fury MAX together after this. Anyway, this finally brings my look at Punisher MAX to a close.  There is the prequel mini-series Punisher Born to come at some point in the future, but now I can close the book on one of the best mature reinventions of a classic Marvel character.  It's been one hell of a ride.

Fury MAX: My War Gone By (#1-13) PART TWO

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Fury MAX: My War Gone By (#1-13) PART ONE

"My name is Nick Fury.  I've had a bullet in my head since nineteen forty four. I can't seem to die.  Don't even seem to age much. I fight and fuck like a goddamn demon. I lick up war like it was sugar.  These are the things I've done for my country" - Nick Fury

This thirteen issue maxi-series written by Garth Ennis in 2012 to 2013 under the MAX imprint is something of a magnum opus for him.  Ennis is a student of military history and this series takes Fury through the post-Korean war military antics of the US goverment and CIA and uses the popular character to force us to face up to the upsetting facts behind them.  There are no superheroes here, no S.H.I.E.L.D, no LMDs, this is a Nick Fury purely of our history - the only concession to fantasy is that after WW2 he no longer ages he just gets more grizzled at time moves on.  So he is given a small supporting cast with which to show the ravages of time and a book that starts out as an angry one gradually turns into a heartbreakingly sad one as well.  The framing device is Nick Fury in the present day (2009 I think, roughly by the dates given in the book), holed up for days in a hotel room, dictating his memoirs into an ancient tape recorder. With a gun, the occasional three prostitutes and seemingly non-stop amount of booze to hand, it gives the feeling that this is also a last will and testemant.  This is another hefty and densely written volume that I have had to split into two posts just because there is so much information on the CIA and US military's cack-handed deeds abroad in it.  His artist is Goran Parlov, who illustrated the final two Punisher MAX volumes and the Barracuda miniseries with him.  Parlov has a nice and distinct style not uber realistic, but not too cartoony either.  I like his work a lot, and also for once the reliance mostly on widescreen panels works, giving the whole thing a steady and relentless pace and the feeling of a war on film slowly unfolding before you. 

We start in 1954, with Fury meeting another CIA agent called George Hatherly in French Indochina. There job is to watch the place, because if the French lose their grip, "[they say] the whole of South East Asia will go communist".

Fury and Hatherly meet in 1954

Hatherly asks if he isn't better informed being the agency's station chief out there.  Fury says he thought it was all about the blood debt owed by World War II, but it's all Empires  and colonies, "business as usual".  Hatherly says he missed WWII he was just a little too young.  Fury says someone thought he must have done something wrong to end up here.

They look at the US flag fluttering over the embassy. Fury asks what it means to Hatherly. Hatherly says he wouldn't believe him if he told him.  Then there is a ruckus inside the bar the are drinking outside of.  A woman is being attacked but doing an awesome job of defending herself.  Fury intervenes and gets the man to stop and get lost.

The woman introduces herself as Shirley and she is here as a secretary with a Congressman's party.   She says she was fed up with all the "nancy boys" at the US embassy and went exploring, "never know who you might meet" she grins.

And Shirley makes her mark on Fury too.

Later Fury and Hatherly are at a party thrown for the Congressman.  Fury grumbles that he's not on a fact finding tour, but a vacation.  Hatherly says maybe not, Congressman McCusky is seen as something of an up-and-comer and very anti-communist.   McClusky is then introduced to Fury.

McCusky introduces him to another man who goes where he's sent and can get things done, a French Major called Lallement.  While they talk Shirly says to Hatherly that Fury is "hating every minute of this isn't he?"  Shirley says she knows why Nick Fury is assigned to this "little jewel."  A friend in the typing pool told her.

He was involved in a big retreat in the Korean War. Some units got cut off from the rest and brass wrote them off.  Fury had other ideas and led an attack that rescued all the men and "ended up in so much shit he was lucky to get even this job".

We cut back to Lallement, Fury and McCusky.  Lallement says "Dien Bien Phu" is under siege but they think they can hold it even though France is not the power it was.  Lallement says he is convinced that if France loses Indochina, Cambodia and Laos and the rest will turn communist.

Talking politics at Pug's party.

In two days time he will be escorting a convoy to Son Chau and would be honoured if Fury came with him to witness what they have been up against.   He says bluntly to hold Indochina they need more US backing, their forces are stretched while the enemies grow stronger.  Fury tells Hatherly that they are flying out tommorrow and he will need to check out a weapon.

Hatherly wishes Fury and Shirley a good night and leaves.  Shirley smiles that he is a "sweet boy".   Fury asks her where she learned to handle herself in a fight like that. She says she grew up on the South Side of Chicago.  She says that where "Pug" McCusky found her and said "a figure like hers and an aptitude for shorthand were an unbeatable combination".  Pug's being spoken of as a possible Vice President.

Arriving at Son Chau

Then we cut to the convoy riding out a couple of days later. They are driving through Viet Minh territory and they arrive at the Son Chau fort.  "Hell of a place to have to defend" says Fury. Talking to one of the soldiers it is discovered that the Colonel supposedly in charge has left.

The leiutenant on duty reports they have been mortared every day for a month.  Thirteen dead, twenty wounded.  Ammo and supplies are critically low.  Lallement says he has bought them as much as he could.  Then they hear a cry, it is sergeant Chef Stienhoff, a German Foreign Legionnaire who is throwing around a couple of men in a defensive position.

Steinhoff and Fury chat for a bit, Steinhoff has respect for Fury being as he was in the Airbourne Division.  Then they discover Steinhoff was with the second SS Panzer division and if the West German army reformed they wouldn't want him, "I killed too many Jews".  This makes Hatherly turn and say "what?"

The next chapter begins with Shirley and Fury having wild sex.  Fury says they came back after two days because Hatherly met someone he didn't like, and "I figured I bring him home before he got himself killed".  She asks about the report he's going to write and when Fury hesitates she asks if he thinks she's "fishing for Pug?"

Fury and Shirley start their affair.

She laughs and says she's not and when Fury confesses that what he wants is to be where the war with the Soviets starts, she says they have the bomb now and this sort of thing he's engaged in now is probably something he's going to have to live with and they start having sex again.

Then we cut to Fury sitting outside a bar talking with Pug saying "the French can't hold". Pug asks if more support would help, but Fury says it's "good money after bad."  He says the soldiers on the ground are doing a good job, but the commanders seem to think this is a good old fashioned colonial war and it's not.  They are stupidly not taking the enemy seriously.

Fury: "The Viet Minh aren't a rabble of sneaking little backstabbers.   They're a well-organised battle-tested army doing exactly what they should: fighting superior forces with guerilla tactics".

Pug says but if the French are superior..?  Fury says that their bases are built in all the wrong places and he doesn't think Dien Bien Phu can hold out despite what Lallement says.

Fury says that the Viet Minh emerged four years ago and killed five thousand French soldiers, leaving their heads on spikes along the road. Pug says he appreciates Fury's straight talk but folk back in Washington still want to support the French because of the fear they'll all go commie.

Fury: "Congressman, I don't know if it's really a question of communism. This is a European colony in Southeast Asia; if you treat people like shit eventually they will buck".

Pug starts to say he'll keep needing a man on the ground as the situation develops then Shirley turns up, she brightly hands Pug a message while secretly passing one to Fury which says, "Hatherly on flight to Hanoi this A.M."

Hatherly off getting into trouble.

We then jump to Fury arriving at the Son Chau fort where Hatherly had gone back to. He had wanted to kill Stienhoff but had just got himself badly beaten instead. They have to stay overnight, and Fury manages to sort it so what happened with Hatherly won't leave the base.  Then when Steinhoff appears and accuses Hatherly of being crazy because all he did with the "kikes" was line them up and shoot them, Fury punches him very hard in the face.

Steinhoff isn't floored though and punches Fury back saying he's better than Hatherly.  He knocks Fury off his feet and when he gets up punches him again.  The Major in charge tries to call Steinhoff off but Fury then hits him across the back of his head with an assault rifle. Now Steinhoff is floored and Fury starts to choke him. They wrestle on the ground when suddenly the Viet Minh attack.

The Viet Minh attack.

They mortar the base then charge inside it.  The defenders barely have time to arm themselves and there is chaos and blood and fire and smoke.  Hatherly takes a bullet to the shoulder but the defence is successful and the attackers repelled, for now.  However they get news that Dien Bien Phu has fallen.  There is widespread panic as things are slipping out of France's grasp.

Lallement says that Fury is stuck there for now as Son Chau will almost certainly be attacked next. Fury goes to see Hatherly lying bandaged up.  Steinhoff is standing over him saying he thought Hatherly was brave and could have been a real "Hitler Jugend".  He leaves Fury with him, and Hatherly says "he has no idea there is anything wrong with him, does he?" Fury scowls and says it's time he talked "the facts of life" with Hatherly.

Later they are sitting outside watching the French aeroplanes futilely bombing the nearby area. A relief force probably isn't coming, so Hatherly comments "that's why we've got Nazis on our side". Fury says they didn't all get hanged at Nuremburg.  Hatherly says they are evil and should be wiped from the face of the Earth.

The unfairness of war.

He says he's going to submit a report on Steinhoff to the State Department, but Fury says it'll be buried.  "He's a monster" says Hatherly. "He's a minnow" responds Fury.  The war has been over for nine years, can't he see how the new pieces are falling into place?

Hatherly says Steinhoff doesn't deserve redemption and Fury says he doesn't understand, Steinhoff doesn't want to redeem himself, "he wants to keep on fighting.  Because he's a soldier and it's all he knows".  Hatherly asks if he sympathises with him.  Fury angrily says of course not and asks what the fuck he thought he was doing coming all the way out to confront Steinhoff? 

Hatherly dodges the question by saying Fury did the same.  Then they discuss the previous nights battle and Hatherly admits he might have hit one of their own.  Fury says the same. Then a helicopter arrives to take Fury back home, but Fury insists Hatherly is flown out instead.  Just before the helicopter takes off Fury growls at him, "let this be the last time your conscience gets the better of you. Clear?"  And Hatherly is gone to safety.

There is going to be a supply drop that afternoon so they'll be ready for another attack.  The long term?  Things aren't looking so good.  Then the ammunition dump goes up.  It wasn't hit by a plane, it was sabotage.   Then they spot a suspicious looking soldier walking towards the command tent, before they can stop him, he blows up.  It hits Fury, Lallement and Steinhoff full force.

Lallement is mortally wounded, Steinhoff and Fury manage to pick up weapons as the base is overrun with Viet Minh. Fury realises it is hopeless and stops fighting as Steinhoff is beaten to death by the enemy soldiers.

The fort is lost.

Back at the embassy, Pug admits his frustration that Hatherly came back and not Fury as the French have written off the Son Chau garrison now.  Pug says he imagined great things in Fury's future.  Shirley says some people are beyond politics and can't be "tamed".    She goes to the balcony and sends a kiss on the wind to Fury before accepting the offer to stay for a drink with Pug.

Back with Fury and against all odds, he is still alive.  The leader of the Viet Minh who now hold the base introduces himself as "Captain Letrong Giap".  He says he regrets Lallement's death as he had respect for him, and has respect for Fury as well.

He tells Fury they have won the battle and maybe now the war as well.  But he fears for the future fate of his country being held by outsiders:

Giap: "... this is not a place that the west can come and work out its frustrations.  Not without incurring a terrible price in blood.   This is not French Indochina Fury.  It is not French anything.  This is Vietnam".

And he allows Fury to leave and along the road are all the heads of the garrison's soldiers stuck on spikes.   Fury looks at his broken pistol, then starts silently walking.

Nick Fury is spared.

Then we jump forward to Cuba, as Fury sits in his hotel room with three sex workers sleeping on the bed next to him, he keeps on dictating. "Cuba.  Christ.  What a clusterfuck that was" he says.

Fury: "It was the agency at its most stupid and most arrogant.  There were so many hidden agendas that the right hand lost sight of what the left was doing from the get-go... but it got me where I wanted to be: right back in the goddamned frontline".

With Indochina proving conventional wars couldn't be fought anymore and both sides having enough nuclear bombs to fry the planet several times over, it was clear the battles were going to be via proxy wars.

So the US, the Soviets and China picked their countries and psychopaths backing them with arms and training or installing psychopaths of their own. The main problem was too many of the likes of him had started in "special operations" and had convinced themselves they beat the krauts and Japs by stealth alone, "we were a stiletto to the heart not the baseball bat to the head the army kept blindly swinging".

Next up: Cuba.

Really though the war was won by the grunt in the trench, or the navy gunner who kept on firing at the kamikaze pilot, the kid who climbed into a B-17 for his last mission and came home with his guts spilling out, "again and again, for what seems like forever".

But special forces would find evidence for missions they were needed to carry out just to sell the notion they really were special, "and somewhere along the way we got the idea there was nothing that we couldn't do."  Then the flashback begins, 1961 Fury and Hatherly are running exercises training anti-Castro Cuban forces in Guatemala.

After an exercise, Fury complains to Hatherly that he doesn't like the idea of not going with the soldiers when they launch their attack on Castro.  Hatherly says the US can't be seen to be intervening.  Fury points out the aircraft they are supplying haven't been disguised properly, "devil is in the detail".

Training and supplying anti-Castro Cubans.

Hatherly says he should be in D.C. planning this sort of stuff.   Fury just says they've rushed the plan they do have. That's because the best Cuban pilots are in Russia training in MiGs and when they get back this airforce won't last five minutes. Also the hope is the invasion will spark an uprising but Castro is getting more popular by the minute.

He says he told all this to Pug but it was in front of one of the leading anti-Castro Cubans.  Not very diplomatic. Then he asks Hatherly why he seems so happy.  Hatherly says his wife has just given birth to a son, he's a father now. Fury says he can have the week off while he goes to Miami to speak with Pug about the invasion.

Then it's more wild sex with Shirley time as they take a bath together. She teases him about him getting her to use her influence on Pug to get what he wants.  She also tells him Pug is pretty much a shoe-in for Senator now.  She says if the Cuban thing works out he was a tireless crusader against communism, if it doesn't, he was just here for the marlin.

She says this is the last time they can sleep together, Pug has asked her to marry him.  This takes Fury aback somewhat. She says he is nice and treats her well.  She is fond of Fury but they both know he's not the marrying kind and she takes her leave of him.

We then cut to Pug and Hatherly chatting in a Miami bar, Hatherly is travelling home to D.C. but his plane broke down so he is waiting for a replacement.  He congratulates Pug on his nomination. Pug asks him for his candid opinion of Fury.  Hatherly says he's a war hero and a brilliant soldier, he saved his life and there is nothing Hatherly wouldn't do for him. Pug says yes a war hero, but of what war?  A colonial one that wasn't their's to begin with? He says Fury needs to draw the attention of the right people at the right time.

Fury is given the go ahead to assasinate Castro.

Next day Fury meets with Pug and the anti-Castro Cubans on Pug's yacht. Fury suggests The Bay of Pigs as the best landing area for the invasion and goes to point out the good and bad points of it.  But Pug interrupts saying the Cubans know the details of the operation, they are here to get a look at him.

One of the Cubans says Kennedy is living in a fantasy, "whoever heard of a discreet invasion?"  Another says the important thing is their airforce wipe out the Cuban's one.  The bearded Cuban says the enemy should lose its head, Castro is a coward who will run back to his bunker they say.  "Assassinate Castro" says Fury. That's exactly what they want, no stupid CIA messing about with poison, "we want a man who will look him in the eye and put an end to him".

Pug cheerfully says Fury will get Agency permission to do so and Fury agrees.  He and Pug go for a walk, Fury says Hatherly better cancel his week off, this is a two man job and Hatherly is an excellent sniper.  He could probably use a radioman as well.  Pug comments it's getting less "deniable" by the second.  They arrive at the pool where Shirley is swimming, she gets out and leaves them to keep talking and Pug grins at Fury saying "that's mine".

We're back to Fury in his hotel room, he says that there was supposed to be a diversonary landing away from the Bay of Pigs but it was cancelled.  The air strikes didn't wipe out the Cuban planes and that the resistance should have been warned so it could time an uprising with the invasion, they were never told.  Still two days after the invasion, he, Hatherly and Elgen the radioman were dropped into Cuba.

The attack on Cuba is in full swing.

While that is happening the failure of the Bay Of Pigs invasion is taking place and the Anti-Castro Cubans are not happy by the way things are turning out.  Pug tries to reassure them as they get more aggressive that they should trust the people on the ground.

Fury and Co. set up in a building with a clear line of sight to where Castro is projected to be, Elgen tells them there could be a problem: no one is answering his hails.  Fury tells him to keep trying.  Curfew is keeping the streets deserted, but Fury is suspicious about all the empty government buildings.

They hijack a Cuban military vehicle and the man tells them Castro is taking charge of defence personally.  So they drive out there and witness the air battle which the invaders are losing.  Things on the ground are confused but Fury says Castro will be at Giron, they have a choice.  Keep moving in the open or take the swamps.

Hatherly can't believe what's happened to the men they trained.  Fury says taking out Castro might make things easy for the next lot. Then they are discovered and attempt a getaway from the soldiers.  They escape and climb onto a nearby buildings roof, they can't fight their way to Castto so they are going to wait for him to come to them.

Fury: "He comes down here. He starts crowing for the cameras.  That's when you blow his goddamn head off."

Listening in on the fiasco are the Floridan Cubans.  They tell Shirley to fetch Pug as they look on grimly. Pug however has done a runner.

Everything goes tits up.

The invading infantry are mowed down leaving the sea red with blood.  Fury says to Hatherly to get ready. He gets Castro in his sights and then they are spotted.  A Cuban tank blocks the shot and Hatherly misses.  Fury hits the tank driver and it careens out of control into the building they are standing on, which partially collapses.  Fury takes a rifle butt to the back of the head and everything goes dark.

He comes to and he, Hatherly and Elgen are tied up together and being told outright there isn't anything that won't be done to them. The man standing over them wants to know who fired the shot aimed at Castro.  He has one of the invaders strapped to a table with his head in a vice, "think it over.  Take your time" he says.

Back with Shirley, she is trapped with the Florida Cubans who want to know where the hell Pug has gone.  They realise he fucked them over because the CIA botched the invasion.  Shirley says it's time for her to leave, when one of them tries to stop her, she strikes out at him but he punches her in the face and knocks her down.  She crawls away and gets a gun from her handbag and points it at him telling him the safety's off.

Cut back to Fury, the man with his head in the vice has had it crushed so his eyes are bulging out and his bones are crushed but he is still alive. Nick lashes out yelling at them and is beaten down.  As the Cubans leave them to stew, Fury says he's testing a theory that the Cubans haven't hit them in the faces yet. His theory is the Cubans want a show trial so are keeping them alive for that reason.

They talk and Hatherly on finding out Elgen is married says he's going to confess and do whatever they say so the two of them can go home.  Fury says "Hatherly, we're supposed to be deniable".  Pug won't help get them back.

Caught by the Cubans.

Elgen tells Hatherly he'll contradict every word if Hatherly tries it.  He take responsibility for the shot and "so help me God.  I will make them kill me". He says they came here to help free these people, "that's the point of this country.  To make things better".  He says they can't weaken or fail or it's back to kingdoms and empires.

Later that night the three of them are dragged out to a pier, someone is thrown in before them and sharks immediately rip him apart. Then Elgen gets thrown in.  In a rage Fury knocks down his captors and bites the leader's nose off. Hatherly kicks a couple in the waters as well. They cut each other loose and go to rescue Elgen.

Shirley meanwhile has caught up with Pug. He apologises saying he didn't think they'd turn on his secretary. He says he had to start protecting himself from the fallout from the Bay of Pigs immediately. She tries to walk out on him and he wheedles, "Don't leave old Pug alone in the world. It's a cold, cold world to be alone in" he says and she stops and looks pained.

She sits and takes a drink while he complains that the CIA didn't seem to have been very well organised and "it's coming out that they might have told him one or two little white lies". He says the President isn't a teamplayer having cancelled the follow-up airstrikes. Shirley just drinks in silence.

We rejoin Fury, Hatherly and Elgen.  They are on a small boat, Elgen is in a very bad way, he's lost both his arms. Hatherly tries to comfort him, but Elgen looks at Fury and Fury looks back, then kills Elgen with a pistol shot to the head.  Hatherly screams at him, "what about his wife?".  Fury just says "she'll get a folded flag.  She'll never have to know".  The wind will take them to the Florida Keys by tommorrow.

Fury makes an hard choice.

And that brings my look at this half of the collection to a conclusion.  I have thoughts about Nick Fury I'll share in more detail after the rest of the book, because coming up is the big one - Vietnam - and a guest appearence by Frank Castle.  Fury's messy exploits in French Indochina and Cuba make for compelling reading and Ennis has created a very human set of characters to orbit round the Eternal Soldier that is Nick Fury.  Hatherly the kindly young man and expert sniper.  Shirley the tough but vulnerable to anxiety about the need for stability in her life.  And Pug the not yet quite detestable politician using anti-communist feeling to ride his way up through the US political establishment.  As usually there is a sense of authenticity to Ennis's writing and as usual he doesn't judge the soldier on the ground carrying out the orders of those more politically motivated types above them.  Check out part two in a few days time as things gradually fall apart for everyone.