Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #7
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #7 (December 1968) is a transitional milestone that marks the handoff of the series from Jim Steranko's direct creative control to other hands — and the cover Steranko provided is itself a significant artifact: a Surrealist homage explicitly referencing Salvador Dalí, widely cited as one of the earliest examples of that fine-art movement being consciously channeled on a mainstream American comic book cover. Inside, writer Archie Goodwin — in what stands as his sole solo outing on the SHIELD title — crafted a psychedelic, drug-induced horror story in which Fury races against a fatal poison while experiencing paranoid hallucinations of his greatest enemies, a psychological approach to a superhero-adjacent character that was still highly unusual for 1968. The issue also preserves the Scorpio mystery thread that Steranko had seeded across issues #1 and #5, keeping that villain's identity tantalisingly unresolved for readers and future writers alike.
In "Hours of Madness, Day of Death," Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, finds himself trapped in a foreign embassy after a violent altercation, only to be drugged with a substance that triggers terrifying hallucinations and a six-hour countdown to death. Written by Archie Goodwin and Frank Springer, with art and inks by Springer, the issue delivers a tense, high-stakes thriller grounded in paranoia and urgency. The cover, a striking collaboration by Jim Steranko, captures the story’s escalating dread.
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By the time #7 reached newsstands in late 1968, Steranko had already exited interior storytelling duties; he wrote and drew only issues #1–3 and #5 of the solo series before deadline pressures forced his departure from the interior pages. He continued supplying covers through this issue, and #7's cover — depicting Fury in a melting, clock-strewn dreamscape — is documented by the Grand Comics Database as Steranko's last SHIELD cover until the 1973 relaunch, and has been noted across multiple sources as a deliberate Dalí tribute. The interior story, 'Hours of Madness, Day of Death,' was written by Archie Goodwin with pencils and inks by Frank Springer, under editor Stan Lee; the letterer was Art Simek. Goodwin had been a steady editorial and writing presence at Marvel in this period, but this issue represents his singular solo credit on the SHIELD title — a fact noted independently by both the Grand Comics Database and the S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete Collection Omnibus (2015).
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover dated December 1968, published by Marvel Comics; written by Archie Goodwin, interior art (pencils and inks) by Frank Springer, cover by Jim Steranko, lettered by Art Simek, edited by Stan Lee.
- The Steranko cover is a documented homage to Salvador Dalí — featuring melting objects, multiple clocks, and single-point perspective — and is cited as one of the earliest examples of Surrealist fine-art influence on a mainstream American comic book cover.
- This is Steranko's final cover for the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. title until the 1973 series relaunch, marking the end of his sustained visual association with the book.
- The interior story, 'Hours of Madness, Day of Death,' features Fury injected with a slow-acting poison that induces lethal hallucinations and paranoia within six hours; his hallucinated adversaries include Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Yellow Claw, Centurius, and members of his own SHIELD team.
- This is Archie Goodwin's only solo-written story for the SHIELD title.
- The letters column in this issue contains a contribution from future comics writer Don McGregor, an early connection between the book and a creator who would go on to significant work at Marvel in the Bronze Age.
- The issue also contains a letters page teaser referencing the still-unresolved Scorpio mystery ('I've finally figured out the true identity of Scorpio!'), keeping reader engagement with the Steranko-planted plot thread alive even after his interior departure.
- The Steranko cover has been reprinted and referenced in multiple collections including the S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko: The Complete Collection (2013), the S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete Collection Omnibus (2015), the Taschen art history volume L'ère des Comics Marvel 1961–1978 (2017), and the Marvel tribute book Steranko Is... Revolutionary (2020).
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Reprinted in Agente Internacional #41 (1969), Captain Britain #20 (1977), L'Inattendu #11 (1978), Hulk Comic #21 (1979), Hulk Comic #22 (1979), Hulk Comic #23 (1979), Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #2 (1984), Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 (2011), S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko: The Complete Collection #[nn] (2013), S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete Collection Omnibus #[nn] (2015), L'ère des Comics Marvel 1961-1978 #[nn] (2017), Steranko Is... Revolutionary #[nn] (2020), Creepy Worlds #107
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