Synopsis & Review by Sean Mills. Thanks!:
Synopsis: SHIELD Director Sebastian Shaw’s interrogation of Mystique continues as he recalls what she’s just told him, that Nick Fury was the mastermind behind the attack at the Mexican embassy and the Sentinel theft from the previous issue, and that Wolverine was not involved. In his day, Fury was one of SHIELD’s most prized tacticians and an impeccable commander; it was a shame that he was human. So everything Mystique claims could be true except that Nick Fury has been dead for almost twenty years.

Mystique is a bit surprised to hear this. So Fury begins his own story. Twenty-three years ago, SHIELD went ahead with the green light to intensify the anti-human campaign and all non-mutant officers were rotated out and usually shot. Nick Fury, however, was the exception as his skills were too valuable to simply get rid of. He was flown to a training facility where he met with a human general who reported that ‘they’ have Nick’s son Jacob.

It’s SHIELD’s plan. They will hold Fury’s son hostage until he trains an elite new unit called Red Guard, at which point they will both be released, alive but under surveillance. The general explains that they’ve taken his family as well and he believes them, because the alternative is that their families are already dead. But if they’re telling the truth, then there’s still a chance that his family is alive, and he has to take that chance. That’s why he’s asking Fury to do this, and Fury agrees.

Fury is about to leave when he’s informed that he doesn’t have to stay in a cell, he’ll have a nice comfortable apartment. Another catch, however, is that the men no longer have to call him ‘sir’. He experiences this first hand, making him angry, as a few soldiers refer to him as ‘Nicky’. Later, he has his recruits lined up as he introduces himself. He gets some jokes from Travis Spangler, Codename: Earshot. The mutant can throw his voice almost a hundred yards and adjust the decibel level. Fury acts impressed before he suddenly grabs Eartshot by the throat and holds him down.

Fury then explains the first lesson: cover. Your codename is part of that cover and is purposefully devoid of meaning. The most effective weapon against an enemy is the weapon that your enemy doesn’t know about. If your codename indicates what your mutant power is then your enemy has an advantage, one that he’ll use to neutralize you. He lets go of Earshot and then picks out another codename from the list of recruits: Wolverine. A fuzzy, stumpy little varmint with big claws and a bad attitude, which seems to describe one scrappy looking recruit.

He banters with Wolverine a bit about killing and explains that anybody can kill; he’s going to teach the man how to lead. He makes Wolverine the Squad Leader. Sebastian Shaw explains that later, Fury was the one who recommended Wolverine to lead the Red Guard. Mystique asks if the two were friends, but Shaw explains that the two absolutely hated each other and that the situation came to a head very quickly.

Later, Fury introduces The Circle to his recruits. It’s a bunch of planks of wood sticking out of the dirt in the form of a circle, and any and all problems between recruits will be worked out inside the circle. Earshot asks what happens if they have a problem with Fury. To answer, Fury walks into The Circle. He’s quickly followed by Wolverine, who’s ready for a fight. Wolverine asks how they do it and Fury explains that they do it until it’s done.

Wolverine lunges at Fury but the human grabs him and flips him over into the ground. Then Fury picks Logan up in a painful headlock, explaining that today’s lesson will be how to fight and think at the same time. The only time you want to confront an enemy face-to-face is when you want to talk. However, an engagement occurs you want to take’em down fast and don’t let up, otherwise you could…but that when’s Wolverine gets the upper hand. He slams Fury to the ground and dives at him, unfurling his claws…

Mystique asks if it was Wolverine who killed Fury. Shaw explains that they don’t know, there was only one possible suspect and that was Earshot. The guy was teased in the locker room after Fury’d picked on him, but Shaw found it hard to believe that he’d acted alone. In fact, Earshot found a note from ‘a friend’ in his locker about half the plan being done, now it was Earshot’s turn.

The following day, as Fury inspected his recruits, he noticed that Earshot was missing. Suddenly he could hear his recruit’s voice calling to him as Fury chased it down, getting warmer and warmer until the voice led him to the gas depot. Fury went inside to find a smoking cigar behind some barrels, a nice touch. Then everything exploded. After that, Earshot committed suicide two days before his court-martial. Mystique asked if Fury’s body was ever found, he could have set up the whole scenario to provide cover for his escape, all he’d need would be…

Shaw concurs with what Mystique has realized. Then he asks her what happened when she visited Logan in the infirmary after the attack on the embassy. He wasn’t there, his bloody trail leading out the window. Shaw read her report, which says that she caught up to him three days later when he’d already located and engaged Fury. Mystique says that’s how it was, but Shaw sees it as rather remarkable. Mystique gives him a look and then he asks what he considers an obvious question, how did Logan know that it was Fury he was looking for? Mystique doesn’t know.

Back in The Circle, when Wolverine dives for Fury, the human pulls out a hidden knife. He then stabs Wolverine in the ear canal sending him crashing to the ground. Fury stands and repeats that the most effective weapon is one that your enemy doesn’t know about. Class is dismissed as Wolverine groans. Fury walks over and pulled Wolverine up by the knife and his hair, yanking it out and explaining that one of these days, all of Wolverine’s kind is going to go down hard and Fury is the one who’s going to do it.

Review: Another fun issue and definitely a nice story. Whereas most House of M tie-ins suffered from the fact that their stories had to run parallel to the main one and therefore couldn’t interfere, this story is just a flashback to fill in some gaps for the fun of it. I like that this time it focuses on Nick Fury and last time it focused on Mystique, as I feel that they’re more interesting than Wolverine in all of this. From what I can tell based on these two issues is that in order to get House of M Wolverine, you just take the normal Wolverine and make him jaded to war and life so that he’s just cantankerous.

It might have been fun to hear a story about Wolverine as the leader of an elite mutant team, but instead we get this. It’s a nice new take on Fury and Mystique and I’m glad for it. Fury’s story is both a sad one and a tough one because he’s an enemy of the title character but he’s a sympathetic character. You feel bad for what’s happened to Fury and it’s fun to see him kick butt, but his last line is a little too mean for a hero. So this is a nice adventure; which might build up to a chapter that focuses on Wolverine.

The art is still great if, again, a little smudgy maybe in some parts. We’re building up to some twist and I’m eager to find out what really happened to Nick Fury. I enjoy the looks at the formation of the Red Guard and all the fun military antics like The Circle. Though I guess I miss the familiar faces like Toad or Nightcrawler. I’d like to hear the story of how they all actually formed, especially where Nightcrawler comes from and how he now might see Wolverine as a father figure instead of a best friend. But oh well, these are things we’re missing out on.

Again, the story we get instead is a nice one and very entertaining.