Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Howling Commandos

Team Name
Howling Commandos

Base of Operations
Europe and Africa

Current Members
None

Former Members
Sgt. Fury, Cpl. Timothy "Dum-Dum" Dugan, Captain Samuel Sawyer

Other Members
(Honorary, Reserve, etc.)
Pvt. Izzy Cohen, Pvt. Percival Pinkerton, Pvt. Gabriel Jones, Pvt. Dino Manelli, Reb Ralston, Junior Juniper

Other Info
A U.S. Army Captain named Sam Sawyer recruited select U.S. Army Rangers to form a team at the beginning of the American involvement in World War II. Sawyer assigned Nick Fury the command of the First Attack Squad. (To learn about Nick Fury, click on his highlighted name above.)

The team's earliest assignment occurred in the autumn of 1942. They were to recover British rocket scientist Dr. MacMillan from a German military base in occupied Norway. Due to the team's success, the group became honorary "Commandos" in the British Army by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They earned the "Howling Commandos" nickname due to a mission in Italy when the members of the team commandeered a sound truck and let out a cry of "Wah-HOOOOOOOOO" to scare off the enemy.

Over time, the Howling Commandos have fought alongside heroes such as Doctor Strange (against Dormammu) and Captain America (against Red Skull). The group has also fought villains such as Dracula, Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, Baron Heinrich Zemo, and Mister Sinister. (To learn about the different highlighted characters above, just click on their names. Note: Beware of the form-fitting outfit worn by one on Dormammu's bio page.)

Later, during the Korean War, the group was reunited for further missions. It was then that Nick Fury received a field promotion to lieutenant. The team also reunited again during the Vietnam War.

Over the following years, several members of the Howling Commandos went on to spend various amounts of time as a member of Nick Fury's current organization S.H.I.E.L.D.. (To learn about S.H.I.E.L.D., click on their name above.)

More recently, after the Secret Invasion, many S.H.I.E.L.D agents were given chances to work for H.A.M.M.E.R.. However, those who did not accept the offer formed the Howling Commandos again. Eventually, when Fury contacted them, he offered to employ them full-time. Their first target would be the Dock (a H.A.M.M.E.R. hellicarriers facility). After the battle--which also included an attack from HYDRA--most of the surviving H.A.M.M.E.R. agents joined up with the Howling Commandos as well. (Click on the highlighted names above to learn about the event and/or teams.)

To learn more a tiny bit more about the Howling Commandos, click on the following link, http://marvel.com/universe/Sgt._Fury%27s_Howling_Commandos.

In the movie Captain America: The First Avenger, the Howling Commandos' members differ from the comics in many ways. In the movie, the Howling Commandos consists of Montgomery Falsworth, Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, Jacques Dernier, and Bucky Barnes who were led by Captain America. Sam Sawyer and Nick Fury also don't make an appearance during any of the Howling Commandos battles.

2 comments:

  1. It seems like the movie group was a totally different group... the only similarity is that they fought with Captain America... and Dum Dum Dugan... so I guess there is that connection too. Are the other guys in the movie connected at all to the Howling Commandos?

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  2. The only guys in the movie that are actually connected to the comicbook Howling Commandos are Dum-Dum Dugan and Gabriel Jones. Others had experiences during World War II, but were not a part of Sgt. Fury's Howling Commandos.

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