Strange Tales #135 (1965, First Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD)

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe existed, before Samuel L. Jackson ever strapped on an eye patch, there was a 12-cent comic book from August 1965 that quietly changed the shape of the Marvel Universe. Strange Tales #135 introduced Nick Fury as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., launched the spy-fi era of Marvel Comics, and debuted Hydra in the same issue. It is one of the great key issues of the Silver Age, and it carries the kind of story that makes a comic genuinely important beyond its cover date.

What Makes This Issue a Key

Strange Tales #135 is the triple-key issue of the Silver Age spy genre. In a single book you get:

• First appearance of Nick Fury as Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The character had appeared previously as a World War II soldier in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, but this is his debut as the modern-era super-spy director.

• First appearance of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division). The espionage organization that would become central to the Marvel Universe.

• First appearance of Hydra. The terrorist organization that became one of Marvel's most enduring villains and a cornerstone of the MCU.

• First appearance of the Life Model Decoy (LMD). The android duplicate concept that has appeared across comics and television ever since.

This is a lot of firsts for one comic, and the significance of each only grew as Marvel's interconnected universe expanded over the following decades.

The Creative Team

The Nick Fury story, titled "The Man for the Job!", was written by Stan Lee with art by Jack Kirby and inks by Dick Ayers. The cover was penciled by Kirby and inked by Frank Giacoia. This was the A-team of Silver Age Marvel, working at the peak of their creative collaboration.

The issue also contains a Doctor Strange backup story by Lee and Steve Ditko, which was the standard format for Strange Tales during this period. The book split its pages between Nick Fury and Doctor Strange, two very different characters who shared the same title for years.

The Kirby cover captures the Cold War spy-thriller aesthetic perfectly: a fully suited Nick Fury emerging against a background that announces S.H.I.E.L.D. clearly and boldly. It reads like the poster for a James Bond film filtered through the Marvel house style.

The Historical Context

Strange Tales #135 arrived at the height of the 1960s spy craze. The James Bond films were dominating box offices. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a hit on American television. Spy fiction was everywhere in popular culture, and Marvel was smart enough to pull Nick Fury from his World War II setting and drop him into the contemporary Cold War espionage world.

The timing proved perfect. The combination of Fury's gruff, larger-than-life personality, the sleek S.H.I.E.L.D. technology, and Kirby's dynamic page layouts made the new feature an immediate success. Within a few issues, Jim Steranko took over the Nick Fury stories and elevated them into some of the most visually adventurous comics Marvel ever published.

That trajectory, from this debut issue through the Steranko run, makes Strange Tales #135 the starting point of a genuinely significant era in comics history.

Condition and Grading

As a 1965 Marvel comic, Strange Tales #135 faces the full range of Silver Age condition challenges. The newsprint paper yellows, the staples rust, the covers are prone to wear along the spine, and the cover gloss fades over time. Copies that remained unread and well-stored are rare.

Key condition factors for this issue:

• Staple condition: Original staples should show only light surface oxidation in high-grade copies. Replacement staples are a significant grade penalty.

• Spine stress: The high-use areas where readers fold the book back show rolling or stress marks on most copies.

• Cover gloss: The bright primary colors on the Kirby cover retain their impact in higher-grade examples. Faded or handled copies lose the visual punch that makes this cover so effective.

• Centerfold: The interior pages should be firmly attached. Detached or loose centerfolds are a grading concern on Silver Age books.

Value by Grade

Record sale for a high-grade copy reached $20,400 at auction. Signature series copies signed by Stan Lee, which were common in the years before Lee's passing, carry additional premiums depending on the grade and the signature's documentation.

What to Look For

The standard edition of Strange Tales #135 has one known variant: there are no significant printing variants or foreign editions that affect the key issue status. What matters is finding the cleanest possible copy for your budget.

A few buying considerations:

Avoid coverless or incomplete copies. This is not the kind of book where a coverless reading copy makes sense as a collector purchase. The Kirby cover is part of the appeal, and a coverless copy loses most of its presentation value.

Check the staples carefully. Replacement staples are common on Silver Age books that have been restored or repaired. A CGC label notes restoration, and CBCS similarly flags it. On raw copies, compare the staple color and rust pattern across the book.

Mid-grade remains accessible. The strong demand for high-grade copies has pushed 9.0 and above into serious money. But a solid 4.0 or 5.0 copy gives you a genuine, displayable, authenticated Silver Age key at a fraction of the top-grade price.

Signature series considerations. Stan Lee signed thousands of copies over the years. A Signature Series label from CGC provides the authentication most serious buyers require. The added value depends significantly on the book's underlying grade.

The MCU Effect

Like many Silver Age keys, Strange Tales #135 saw increased interest every time the characters appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nick Fury's prominent role across the MCU, the recurring Hydra storylines, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization featured in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. all drove renewed interest in the source material.

That MCU connection has kept Strange Tales #135 in front of a new generation of collectors who may have encountered these characters through film and television before ever picking up a Silver Age comic. The result is demand that extends beyond the traditional Silver Age collector base.

The Bigger Picture

Strange Tales #135 is the book that launched one of Marvel's most durable concepts. The idea of a shadowy espionage organization, a tough-as-nails director with a complicated history, and a global network of agents fighting threats beyond the reach of conventional authority has proven remarkably elastic. It worked in the spy-craze 1960s, it worked through the Cold War, and it worked in the post-9/11 world when the MCU brought these characters to a global audience.

For collectors, the appeal is straightforward. It is a genuine triple-key in a single issue, created by the most important creative team in Silver Age Marvel, at a price point that rewards condition-conscious buyers across multiple grade tiers. A solid mid-grade example is a legitimate Silver Age collection cornerstone.

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