The Unexpected Return of Hydra

Tonight the local ABC affiliate aired the 1998 made-for-FOX TV movie based on the Lee and Kirby created Marvel Comics character "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

I saw it when it was first on, and taped it then. It was a bit campy and melodramatic, with little of Steranko's edgy sense of style. As I recall the reviews in the comics fan press were generally favorable, though it was felt that the actress playing Viper went way over the top with hr scenery biting histrionics. Still, she was playing a Marvel bay-guy insane psychopathic daughter of uber-Nazi Baron Von Strucker leader of a freelance terrorist organization, so you had to expect a bit of flambouyance and Sandy Hess certainly brought that to the party.

In 2002 I brought the tape over to watch it with a friend who hadn't seen it before.
And as the film neared it's completion and the evil villainous organization Hydra plotted to nuke Manhatten we had one of those moments that the Internet abbreviaton "OMG!!!" was designed to convey, as the baddies opened the door to their discreet, unmarked van, revealing four missiles aimed directly at the World Trade Center towers.

"Holy f***!" I exclaimed, "they are NEVER going to show this on TV ever again!"

Oh well, wrong again.

But that wasn't the part that stabbed at my heart this time through.

At the end, after the disaster has been averted but Viper and her frozen-solid father have made their unlikely escape and Colonel Fury is making his "I bet we haven't seen the last of them" speech to set up the sequel that was never made, he snarls "If you ask me, this war will never be over. If it's not Hydra it's always someone else. if you ask me, this world is a whole nest of Vipers."

Dammit, don't you just hate it when a bad David Hasselhof movie is smarter than the President of the United States?

= Napoleon Park =