Strange Tales 1951 #159 - 7.0 - $55.00

Fury reminisces with Laura about his days growing up in Hell's Kitchen; then at SHIELD HQ, offers her a job as an agent. Fury goes to the UNIT academy, where recruits undergo rigorous education. He meets two new agents: Sidney E. Levine, a tech expert and Val, who scoffs at his attitude that the spy game is man's work. Fury takes on Captain America in a display bout for the recruits, but gets dizzy due to a side-effect of the invisibility pill he used earlier. Cap tells him he's found out who was responsible for a job they tackled a year ago.

Strange returns home to find his Sanctum gone! Wong, who barely escaped its destruction, recounts how Umar used a spell of vanishment. Strange dispels her enchantment and his house returns. Using the Crystal of Agamotto he senses evil mystic powers around the world. Casting a spell he discovers a group of mystics, banded together, working to free an imprisoned mystic to lead them. Strange strikes down the most powerful of the group, but is too late, they have freed Baron Mordo, his most hated enemy, knowing it will be impossible to convince him to join forces to save the Earth!

Date stamp (1967-05-16) on front cover of indexer's copy. On-sale date from 1967 Periodicals, Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

• Featuring: The Great Captain America! - Romita and Severin credits per Nick Caputo via the GCD Errors list, December 2008, updated February 2020. Nick notes that the original art as published in Steranko Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition reveals that Captain America was redrawn by John Romita with additional changes possibly by Marie Severin.
• Spy School - In the introduction to Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of Shield Volume 2 Steranko says he took over the color chores with Strange Tales # 165 although the earlier checklist in Comic Book Marketplace # 28, October 1995, credits him with coloring beginning with # 157. Part 1 of 9. 1st appearance of Fury's apartment, The Gaff & Val. Cap mentions the last time he & Fury met was when they fought "THEM"'s Humanoid Assassin in TALES OF SUSPENSE #78 (June 1966). That story was clearly Cap & Fury's 1st meeting since WW2 in SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #13 (December 1964) as Cap had been trying to contact Fury for months about possibly becoming a SHIELD agent (seen in several issues of THE AVENGERS). Yet 4 pages later, Cap refers to a job they tackled together "a year ago" (Perhaps "The Big Blackout" took place immediately after TOS #78, as there was a break between issues #78 & #79). After loitering in the shadows outside Stark Industries for 2 months, Jasper Sitwell became a regular in the Iron Man series in TALES OF SUSPENSE #95 (November 1967).
• Fabulous Facts and Frivolous Fables for Frantic Fans, Faithful Friends, and Fiendish Foes! - Items; Stan's Soapbox; The Mighty Marvel Checklist; list of 26 M.M.M.S. members
• "The Evil That Men Do..." - Part 13 of 22; part 2 of the Living Tribunal sequence. While under an evil influence, Piper Halliwell once used an identical spell to Umar's to make her house vanish (and it was restored in the same way) in an episode of the tv show CHARMED.
• - Letters of comment from Burton Wolder; Mrs. Beatrice Juarez; and Mark Evanier. Also includes Merry Marvel Marching Society info and coupon.