Garth Ennis (Author), Goran Parlov (Ill.)

> Review by Jack Dumpert

“Retcon.” That’s short for retroactive continuity, the process of reimagining an existing character. There are few better or finer examples than Fury Max, My War Gone By by writer Garth Ennis and artist Goran Parlov. Hard charging, cigar chomping Nick Fury, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appeared in Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos, set in WWII. Fury was later brought back by Lee and Kirby as cold war CIA agent. Fury became the dashing, battle suited director of the super spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Ennis reimagines Fury as an ex-soldier turned mercenary drawn to continuing war. His ties to the CIA involve him in that agency’s malevolent operations from Indochina to Cuba, Vietnam to Nicaragua. Ennis moves the story forward at a compelling pace. The lives of the small cast of characters cross and re-cross paths with Fury as he toils through the dark side of America’s post war misadventures across the globe. Each in their own and different way face the disillusionment and degradation of never ending war. Serbian artist Parlov works in a realistic style reminiscent of the work of the great American illustrator, Alex Toth. Make no mistake, this title is violent, dark and sexually explicit. It is also graphic story telling at its best.