Nina, Great review (and fantastic title). I forget how much of a barrier the Marvel/DC universes are to non-readers, even if its not relevant to the story. Even if the reader doesn't need to know anything for a particular tale, the act of figuring that out is probably enough to take one out of the story. I wonder if you'd have been more interested if this didn't feature characters from the Marvel Universe. Maybe not. I suspect that one has to be primed for this by a lifetime of reading similar stories (hard boiled stories about tough men doing tough things while smoking cigars and chugging whiskey). I think this series was inadvertently ruined for me by Tucker's comparison to Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy last week - made me realize how flat a lot of the characters in Fury are. Give me the continuing adventures of Pete Bondurant or Dwight Holly any day. -J