Nick Fury in the Cold War

Fury MAX: My War Gone By, a graphic novel written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Goran Parlov, reimagines the Marvel superspy Colonel Nick Fury as a CIA agent operating not in a comic-book universe but in ours. Ennis tracks Fury's career from French Indochina to Cuba to Vietnam to Nicaragua, using the fictional but realistic Fury to trace the real and bloody history of the CIA.

Ennis provides a simple yet comprehensive description of the Cold War in one bit of dialogue: "Us and China and the Soviets, picking our lineups of third world psychopaths." The comic tackles the tension created by America's stated "good intentions," the often inglorious actual intentions, and the war crimes committed to advance them. From the first issue complied in this graphic novel, it's clear that Fury is addicted to war. By the end of the volume, it's hard to deny that America's political establishment shares his obsession.