Earth X #1/2 (Wizard 105)

Background

In the Earth X series the human population has been transformed into Mutants all with their own super powers. With everyone having powers, what is the need of having super heroes to protect everyone when everyone can protect themselves? Captain America has pitted himself against the Skull, a child with the power to control anyone he wants to to do whatever he asks. Meanwhile, X-51 and Reed Richards are trying to figure out what it was the caused everyone of the planet to gain their abilities.

Story Details

This story is told from Nick Fury's point-of-view. It starts with Fury being controlled by the Skull and tells of the Skull's plans to take over the United States. Fury might be controlled by the Skull but he believes it'll take more than a kid with powers to fully stop him.

Fury goes on to tell his story about fighting against the Nazis during World War II and how the Germans lost the war because they didn't believe they could lose. It wasn't even a possibility in their heads because they thought it was destiny that they triumph. This is the same reason why the Skull will ultimately be defeated by Captain America, who fights because he is afraid of losing, while the Skull fights because he believes he is the most powerful and that it's his place to rule over others.

Fury tells the origin of his longevity next. He explains how to tried to evade some Germans by running through a mine-field but he was caught in one of the blasts. Instead of dying like he should have, he was taken to a doctor by the name of Sternberg, who wanted to test his Infinity Formula on someone. This formula turned Fury into an immortal as long as he kept taking it. Years later the doctor tried to extort money from Fury by telling him if he wanted more of the formula, he'd better pay up or else his body would quickly age and he would die. Fury doesn't tell how he got out of having to pay and how he could more of the formula.

Years later, Fury joined a group called S.H.E.I.L.D. and he fought for democracy with the likes of Captain America and Nick Fury's Howlers. He joined forces with Tony Stark who supplied him with his flying car, the air craft carrier, and hundreds of robots that looked and sounded just like Nick. But something happened along the way. Mutants started to surface and S.H.E.I.L.D. commanded Fury to put a stop to them. Fighting against Nazis or communists was one thing, but fighting fellow Americans who were born different from everyone was another so he told S.H.E.I.L.D. that he wouldn't do it. Seeing what the Nazis did to the Jews was enough reason to not go along with his commands regarding the mutants.

Deciding that the S.H.E.I.L.D. of old wasn't the same one it was today he decided to take it down from the inside and build it back up the way it should have been. But it was all for naught because of Reed Richards. After Reed's failed experiment to save the world by giving all nations an unlimited power supply, everything changed. The world started mutating but Fury did not. He believed that the Infinity Formula stopped whatever it was that caused the mutation in everyone else.

Fury goes on to tell how Norman Osborn closed down the Daily Bugle by giving it the one news story it wanted more than anything, the secret identity of Spider-Man. Once everyone realized that Spider-Man was actually a photographer working for the paper, it discredited the entire paper forcing it to close it's doors soon afterwards. Not that people were reading that much now anyway. They had much more pressing matters to content with, with everyone having powers chaos soon rained. S.H.E.I.L.D. as well as Captain America were asked to go to New York and try to restore peace among the population, but it's hard to fight citizens who are rioting only because they are hungry.

A new enemy soon emerged, Hydra, an alien invading force trying to control and possess everyone. Tony Stark and Norman Osborn joined forces to fight against the Hydra, which also caused everyone to forgive Osborn of all his old transgressions at the same time. What they didn't know was that the Hydra were not aliens at all, but were created in Osborn's chemical plants. To clear his name, Osborn created an enemy only he could destroy, which paved a way to the presidency for him. Before Fury could tell anyone what he discovered about Osborn, Hydra attacked his heli-carrier bringing it and S.H.E.I.L.D. down.

At this point the Skull started taking over people in California before making his way across the nation. Fury went there to investigate what was going on and to find the Skull and try to stop him. Before he got a chance to, Namor jumped up and punched Fury into next week, only to reveal that Fury wasn't Fury at all, but one of his look-alike robots. By not being able to control the Fury robot, this is how the Skull learned he couldn't control anyone that isn't human, which leads him to decide to destroy the Iron Avengers.

The end of the issue has three sketches and descriptions for Franklin Richards as Galactus, X-51 and Daredevil's Bike.

General Comments

This issue comprised of Nick Fury telling his story from his origin to him discovering Osborn was creating the Hydra that he was also fighting against. It also shows that the Nick Fury who went to California to put a stop to the Skull was just one of Nick Fury's robots. This issue takes place after the Skull has come to power in California and has taken control of Namor, but before he started to make his way across the nation to New York.

Overall Rating

Just an average issue. Nothing really exciting or mind-blowing happened. Yes, we see that Osborn was really behind Hydra in the first place but other than that it was just filled with the back story of Nick Fury, told as flashbacks.