The Defenders (1) #54 "Fury Times 5" (1977)
Writer: Scott Edelman
Penciler: Juan Ortiz
Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Howard Bender

After encountering an LMD of Clay Quartermain, Fury is confronted by a nameless hooded villian and five Nick Fury LMDs. Fury defeats his Life Model Decoys one, by one, finally reaching the mysterious villian. Pulling off the hood, he finds another LMD of himself. Fury radios the real Quartermain to send in a mop up crew and Fury walks off puzzled by the whole event.

• Continuity Notes
• Run as a back-up story following the Defenders story.
• Appearence by Clay Quartermain (and his LMD).
• Speculation: the intelligent LMD featured in this story may be tied to the Deltite LMD seen in the Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D. miniseries.
• Worth noting is the fact that a near perfect Fury LMD was seen accompaning Jake Fury three issues back.

Review
Puzzling curiosity, made interesting by unintentional speculative ties to future S.H.I.E.L.D. stories, in spite of the story's own inherent mediocrity. The story is so bland and unexciting you'd almost think the last page will reveal it all as an ad for Hostess Cakes or something. No explanations are provided as to how the hooded mystery villain suddenly took control of a small chamber within what we assume is the helicarrier. Fury having to strip to his underwear is another beefcake moment for the lady fans although I'm not altogether sure why so many of the LMDs are running around wearing barely anything (does that not attract attention?). Story aside, the art is passable but nothing extraordinary. I wonder if the folks behind the Original Sin storyline read this story.

Rating