Marvel Comics; $16.95

Nick Fury. Wolverine. Scorpio. Arcade. Miss Locke. Beautiful women. Plenty of danger. Twists and turns and further twists. Scorpio’s playing a deadly game, but is it really Scorpio, Nick Fury’s late brother, Jake? And whoever he is, what is his goal?

Former Epic Comics editor Archie Goodwin’s script showed that however infrequently he put on his writer hat, he never lost a beat. Combining his tight story with art by Howard Chaykin (who also illustrated the pivotal Nick Fury story in Marvel Spotlight #31) produced one of the best non-Steranko Nick Fury stories ever.

Reading this graphic novel again after so many years, it was very pleasing to find it hadn’t lost a beat.

For those with a mind for trivia, the full title of this project is Wolverine, Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection – A Marvel Graphic Novel, at least in the hardcover edition (1989). In the softcover (1990), however, Wolverine was dropped from the indicia, so it was just Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection.

– J.C. Vaughn