Dum Dum Dugan

A former circus strongman, Dum Dum first met Nick Fury on his way out of Holland, escaping the Nazi onslaught. Fury and 'Happy" Sam Sawyer were on a mission to meet a British spy and Dum Dum helped them escape the Nazis and recover vital papers for the war effort. Later, Dum Dum enlisted in the British service and served alongside Sawyer in North Africa on several missions. Sawyer was wounded and forced to take a desk job and when asked to form a special missions squad, he remembered Dugan, placing him as second-in-command of the newly formed First Attack Squad; aka The Howling Commandos.

During his time with the Howlers Dugan became skilled on all Allied small weapons and gained experience in all forms of hand to hand combat, especially Judo. With his trademark derby, Dum Dum frequently struck fear into the Nazi and Japanese enemies in mission after mission. Such were the Howling Commandos feared by the Third Reich, a counter squad of elite fighters, the Blitzkrieg Squad was formed, and among their number, bar room brawler Siegfried, whose story of defeating six men with his bare hands made it to the ears of Von Strucker, was chosen to stand against Dum Dum Dugan.

Among the foes Dum Dum squared off against was Colonel Klaue, stepping in for Fury on a one-on-one match with the iron-handed officer. Following this incident, Dugan was brought up on court martial charges, but Fury soon revealed that it was a plot by the Agent of a 1,000 Faces. Perhaps one of his most daring moments was his face off against the Sea Shark, during which he lead a group of prisoners to take over the German ship. Foreshadowing his future experiences in SHIELD, Dugan also faced a number of supernatural and super-human menaces during the war, including Baron Blood.

Dugan had many opportunities to take command of the Howlers himself. On one occasion, trapped behind enemy lines during Allied bombings of a German town Dum Dum took command and lead a demoralized team back across heavily fortified enemy territory with a wounded Fury in tow. His experience with the Howlers lead to Dugan to being assigned to train the similar task force known as the "Deadly Dozen" by Sawyer. Promoted to sergeant, Dugan along with fellow Howlers Pinkerton and Maneli trained and fought alongside the Dozen on their first missions. Dugan was reassigned to the Howlers just prior to the Battle of the Bulge where he fought alongside not only his Howler teammates, but also the Deadly Dozen with their new commander and Captain America and Bucky.

Serving Fury well as second in command of the Howlers during not only World War II, but also later during missions during the Korean War, it took little indecision as to who Fury wanted seconded to him as sub-director of SHIELD.

For a more complete bio and appearance list, check out Dum Dum's SHIELD bio