A very good question...


...and when even Stan can't understand why they did it, well, it says something.

(And yes, the letter-writer--or the editor--left out the e's: Espionage and Enforcement. Give yourself a No-Prize)

Oh, they gave an in-story reason for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s name change--after the original S.H.I.E.L.D. was infiltrated by rogue LMDs, it was disbanded, and the UN created a new agency that just happened to have the exact same acronym for a name. Because that way the UN didn't have to pay for new patches for all the uniforms, I guess. (Also, because trademark preservation is important, of course.)

But that's in-story. I've never heard a real-world reason why it was necessary or desirable to change what the damn initials stood for. Why, after 25 years, it was important to change the name that Stan and Jack came up with and that thousands of fans had memorized, and replace it with the obviously inferior one that Bob Harras (the S.H.I.E.L.D. writer at the time) or whoever came up with.

And it's now been 30 years with the "new" name. Aren't we due for some young turk to rename S.H.I.E.L.D., to mark their territory and leave their imprint in the Marvel Universe?

So, don't be surprised when a post-Secret Empire S.H.I.E.L.D. forms, calling itself the Sublime Holistic Interdisciplinary Emirate for Logical Destruction, or whatever. Come up with your own--it still won't be better than Stan and Jack's.

By the way, Wikipedia lists the following "related" organizations:

3 Related organizations
3.1 A.R.M.O.R.
3.2 H.A.M.M.E.R.
3.3 S.P.E.A.R.
3.4 S.T.R.I.K.E.
3.5 EuroM.I.N.D. and S.H.A.P.E.
3.6 S.T.A.K.E.
3.7 S.W.O.R.D.
3.8 W.A.N.D.

Get cracking, kids--replace all of those acronyms with hipper, "better" ones!!

From Avengers #20 (1999)

Nick Fury has been kidnapped!! Tony Stark has been put in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. combat operations! He's building a giant-ass whajamahoozis!

Where is Fury? The Fixer and Mentallo have him!!

Alright, as death traps go, "welding him to an honest-to-God H-bomb" is a pretty good one, you have to admit.

But did I mention that Tony Stark is on the case?



And...


Yes, Tony Stark invented a device that melts hydrogen bombs! Apparently with no radiation danger!!

Granted, it's not terribly portable, but give Stark a couple of days...he'll miniaturize it! And no one will ever be threatened by nuclear weaponry again!!

From Strange Tales #143 (1966)

All right, I'm going to SPOIL a thing or three about the 2nd story in this week's S.H.I.E.L.D. #9--the 50th anniversary issue!!--and it's a prett good story, so if you don't wanna know, came back later.

SPOILERS commence after the four S.H.I.E.L.D. pictures...




Still here? Good.

So, as you recall, the stupidest, most upsetting thing Marvel has done in recent years was in the abominable Original Sin event, wherein we learned that...





Yup...we learned that Dum Dum Dugan was killed by Hydra about 10 minutes after he joined S.H.I.E.L.D., and Nick Fury used super-alien tech to Make his own Dum Dum LMD that thought he was still human.

Yes, every single appearance of Dum Dum Dugan post-1966 was not really Dugan.

Sigh....

Me, I had hoped that the Secret Wars reset was going to undo that, or bring over a Dum Dum from Earth-56123 or something.

Nope:

Only now, he knows that he's an LMD...

He's a bit of a super-powered LMD...





...and whenever he dies, his consciousness is transferred to one of  "hundreds" of replacement bodies...

That's right...Dum Dum Dugan of S.H.I.E.L.D. is now essentially...

...Noman of T.H.UN.D.E.R. Agents (without the invisibility cloak).

Look, I won't lie. I despise with the passion of a thousand exploding sons what Original Sin did to Dugan (and to Nick Fury). But if you're not going to retcon that idiocy away, I guess this is a pretty good way to go.

And I have to confess, this is a really good story by Al Ewing and Stefano Caselli. It serves as a "pilot" for the forthcoming Howling Commandos Of S.H.I.E.L.D. series, which Maria Hill describes as "send scary monsters to fight scary monsters."

But here's the odd part...

This isn't the creative team that's doing the actual series! Why did Marvel have one set of hands make the "pilot," when someone completely different will be doing the regular series? This is no critique of Barbiere and Schoonover--I'm just saying that a story by Ewing and Caselli might not be a fair indication of what the series will actually be like.

So in summation--I still loathe what they did to Dugan; this is probably the best way to salvage it without retconning; Dugan is now Noman; this is a really good story and a promising pilot for the series; but the actual series is being made by different hands, so who knows?

Meanwhile, Nick Fury is still chained to the moon...

Hey remember that Marvel crossover event, Acts of Vengeance, from 25 years ago?

25 years ago?!?! Geez, I'm old...

Anyway, Loki tricked a bunch of major villains into sending lesser villains against heroes that weren't their usual foes. See, the unfamiliarity would make the villains more effective against the heroes!! (Hey, Loki, why wouldn't that work both ways?? Shh...)

Anyway, like most of Loki's plans, it was a stinker, no one got hurt, nothing really changed, yada yada.

But the most amazing thing was, Stan and Jack had already done that story, 25 years earlier. And instead of an overstuffed, over-sprawling, "company-wide" crossover that spanned 70 some issues, they did it in one issue.

See, Dr. Doom used his "emotion charger" to influence basically every bad guy to go bust up Reed and Sue's wedding! But there were plenty of super-powered guests who pitched in to help repel the gate-crashers, so we had plenty of foes who had never met before facing off!!

For example, S.H.I.E.L.D. took down the Puppet Master's plan:




The Mole Man and his hoards were taken down by the X-Men!

Red Ghost and his Super Apes?




Doctor Strange took care of them!

Thor fought the Super-Skrull!

Daredevil took on HYDRA!


Captain America took on Cobra and the Executioner and the Enchantress!

Mr Hyde? Hawkeye was all over that!


Iron Man faced off against the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android!

Quicksilver battled the Human Top!!


And, well, everybody fought everybody!!

And it only took one issue.

So let that be a lesson to all you over-padded, "decompressed," "wide-screen," multi-month money-sucks: One issue. That's all you really need.

Plus, Kirby was never late, so we never had to delay an entire line so you could finish your "epic."

I'm. Just. Sayin'.

From Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)

Let's recall the halcyon days of 2004. The Avengers were disassembling, and Bendis (via Doctor Strange) revealed a surprising fact about Wanda's powers:

Yup. No such thing as chaos magic. Firm words from the Sorcerer Supreme. Can't be any doubt, right?

A decade or so later, in the most recent issue of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fitz is possessed, and shoots Wanda with a "magic bullet":





So now Mark Waid (via Dormammu!!) says there is chaos magic, and Wanda is all about the stuff!

Bendis/Dr. Strange, or Waid/Dormammu? Who are you going to believe?!?

No, notintheface and I will never get tired of kvetching about this...

From Avengers #503 (2004) and S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 (2015)