Dum Dum Dugan

Publication history

Dum Dum Dugan first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Dum Dum Dugan received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #2.

Fictional character biography

Dum Dum Dugan was originally portrayed as a British citizen in Sgt Fury #1, but later retconned to be born in Boston, Massachusetts. During World War II, while working as a circus strongman, Dugan helps Nick Fury and Sam "Happy" Sawyer escape the Nazis during a mission, recounted in issue #34. Dugan joins the British Army, and when Sawyer is charged with creating Fury's First Attack Squad, formally listed as "Able Company" and nicknamed the Howling Commandos, Sawyer invites Dugan to transfer into the US Army and become Fury's second-in-command. Dugan's exceptional strength saves the day in several of his adventures in the Sgt. Fury comic books. Dugan is an enlisted man with the rank of corporal, and wears the chevrons of his rank on the front top of his trademark bowler hat throughout World War II.

Dugan leaves the U.S. Army before the Korean Conflict, but rejoins during the Korean War as Second Lieutenant under the promoted First Lieutenant Fury, once again as his second-in-command of the reformed Howling Commandos. Fury had already received a battlefield promotion to Second Lt. earlier. Dugan remains with Fury when Fury continues his military career into the Vietnam War, as shown in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Annual #3 and 4, and later into espionage work. Dugan's exact rank is not stated, but he is addressed as "Captain" at one point. He remains with Fury when Fury goes into the CIA and later into the original S.H.I.E.L.D.

Different accounts state that Dugan and other members of Fury's Howling Commandos receive the Infinity Formula to explain how they all remain youthful and active despite being all into their 60s and 70s in the modern era. Other stories contradict this artificial maintenance of youth by Dugan as merely dyeing his hair and suffering a heart attack.

Later on in life, he is placed in charge of internal security on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.

Dum Dum is placed in charge of a SHIELD Unit coined The Godzilla Squad, charged with the task of tracking and stopping the radioactive kaiju. Over the twenty-four issue series, Dugan goes from loathing the creature's destructive tendencies to accepting the beast's existence after Godzilla saves him on numerous occasions. Dugan later recalls a long list of his greatest nightmares, one of which includes Godzilla.

After suffering his heart attack, Dugan is formally promoted to Fury's permanent second-in-command of S.H.I.E.L.D. as "Deputy Director", though he has acted as such before his formal appointment.

Power struggles

In Marvel Graphic Novel #18: She-Hulk, Dum Dum Dugan ran S.H.I.E.L.D. during one of Nick Fury's absences. His authority is usurped by the craven, sex-obsessed agent Roger Dooley. She-Hulk and her boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot are illegally captured. Dugan protests Dooley's forcible strip-search of She-Hulk in public but is overruled. His authority is regained when Dooley is killed in action.

Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. (1988)

During the Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. six issue series, Dum Dum Dugan and, later, the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D., deal with another mutiny from within. Dugan was shown to have been shot to death while taking out the trash. In this series, HYDRA was revealed to have been a sister organization of S.H.I.E.L.D., with both directly controlled by the mysterious council, who had replaced many of the organization's top brass - including Deputy Director Dugan - with Life Model Decoy android duplicates in order to speed the survival of the fittest selection process that the council had been forcing between the two organizations over the decades. All the officers who were thought to be killed were shown to have been replaced with Life Model Decoy android replacements and were found alive. Dugan retires, along with many of the older officers, at the end of this series. Dugan's retirement does not last long, as he rejoins Fury when the next version of S.H.I.E.L.D. (now known as Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate) is created.

Dugan calls on Squirrel Girl to help him take down various supervillains.

With Nick Fury's absence at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Dugan is placed second-in-command to Maria Hill. Dugan is put in charge of mutant affairs, and deals with Wolverine. Dugan apparently knows a dire secret to Logan's past.

Civil War

In Marvel's Civil War crossover, Dum Dum Dugan and several other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are sent to capture his fugitive friend Captain America. The entire group is defeated. He expresses regret to fellow agent Sharon Carter for trying to capture his friend. He also states his concerns about losing faith in S.H.I.E.L.D.due to the war and the way the organization is run under Director Maria Hill.

After the events of Civil War and as Tony Stark takes over as director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dugan turns in his letter of resignation, stating that he does not approve of the changes Stark has made, or the way he runs the organization. Dugan's resignation is not accepted however, as he is too vital to S.H.I.E.L.D.; despite his disapproval of Stark's leadership, Stark still trusts Dugan, and Dugan alone, with the command of a weapon that could send an abandoned Manhattan into the Negative Zone, destroying the island and anyone inside during World War Hulk, stating that Hulk and Warbound are too dangerous a global threat to leave Manhattan free. Stark trusts that Dugan will know the appropriate time to execute the plan, if at all. Dugan never used the weapon.

Dugan later proved his worth and loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D during a confrontation with Maria Hill, where he forced her to confront the fact that she was apparentlly willing to take actions that would allow innocent people to die while still sticking to 'the book' because the alternative was to disobey orders, informing her that some situations weren't in 'the book'. Inspired by Dugan's words, Hill ended up putting her career on the line by locking down the United Nations under S.H.I.E.L.D. martial law so Stark could escape a tribunal and track down the Mandarin, with Dugan providing Stark with a version of the Silver Centurion armor after his Extremis abilities were deactivated.

Dum Dum is stabbed through the chest by Daken (Wolverine's son).

Secret Invasion

It was later revealed that, shortly after Captain America's death, Dugan was ambushed and stabbed by a Skrull impersonating Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine who then took his place. The Dugan impostor destroys the Peak, S.W.O.R.D.'s Orbital base, in a suicide strike that allows the Skrull armada to invade Earth. After the invasion, Iron Man discovers the Skrull kidnap victims alive and well, including Dum Dum. Dugan is later shown in a support group meeting with the others that had been replaced by Skrulls. Dugan wanted to leave immediately but was convinced to stay.

Secret Warriors

After a confrontation that goes badly between Nick Fury's Secret Warriors and The Gorgon, Fury calls up Dum Dum Dugan's "Howling Commandos" PMC for help in Fury's missions, needing "a couple of nasty old bastards with a bad habit of shooting first and asking questions later." Dugan learns that the new S.H.I.E.L.D. organization has been controlled by their old enemies HYDRA right from the start, the same as the older incarnations of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dugan later shows up in Fury's efforts to bring down HYDRA and yet another secretive organization, the Russian Leviathan. Dugan and Jasper Sitwell soon became all that is left of the Howling Commandos PMC after battles with HYDRA and Leviathan and are arrested by the U.N.. At the end of Secret Warriors, Dugan and Sitwell were released.

Dugan is recruited as part of a multi-verse wide effort to stop a supernatural-powered Nazi zombie army. Assisted by Howard the Duck he takes a team of warriors to the affected reality and manages to neutralize the threat at the source.

A HYDRA group attempts to devastate civilization via super-powered shock-troops and media that inflames people's personal beliefs into irrationality. Dugan leads the effort in destroying this group, often with high explosives. He works closely with Sharon Carter and the Falcon. Dugan is severely wounded in the upper arm but recovers.

Original Sin

During the Original Sin storyline, it is revealed that the real Dum Dum Dugan was killed in 1966, and Nick Fury had him replaced with an advanced LMD; Fury claimed that this was done because he didn't want to lose his best friend and felt that he needed Dugan to serve as his conscience. When the LMD Dugan finds out, he accuses Fury of doing this so that he could feel guilty about things, reasoning that Fury could convince himself that he was still a hero if he felt bad about his actions as the man on the wall. Telling Fury not to bring him back again if they were ever friends, Dugan then shoots himself in the head.

Involvement with S.T.A.K.E.

Months later, Maria Hill deemed necessary to bring the LMD of Dugan back and removed the blocks that prevented his resurrection so he could return to Area 13 and help S.T.A.K.E. (short for the Special Threat Assessment for Known Extranormalities).

Dum Dum Dugan is later appointed to lead the latest incarnation of the Howling Commandos.

During the Avengers: Standoff! storyline, Dum Dum Dugan discovered that Dr. Paul Kraye had Maria Hill imprison Orrgo at Pleasant Hill. Upon locating Pleasant Hill, Dum Dum Dugan leads the Howling Commandos to Pleasant Hill where they fight past the inmates. When they confront Kobik, she teleports the Howling Commandos back to S.T.A.K.E. HQ. Once back at S.T.A.K.E. HQ, Dum Dum Dugan learns from Orrgo that Paul Kraye released all the inmates there to cause havoc causing the Howling Commandos to spring into action.

1602

In Marvel 1602, the commander of Sir Nicholas Fury's soldiers is named Dougan. In 1602: New World, he is the defender of the Roanoke Colony.

Earth X

Dugan appears, on the other side of the afterlife, in the climactic battle against Mephisto's forces in Earth X Volume 1, issue 'X'. Along with multiple modern superheroes, Dugan fights with many of his old 'Howling Commandos' comrades. He had perished due to being taken by the Hydra entity.

The Transformers

Dum Dum Dugan and Nick Fury show up in the issue "Prisoner of War!" from The Transformers as guest characters along with Peter Parker and Joe Robertson. They also reference Godzilla's comic in this appearance, though not by name.

Ultimate Marvel

Dugan appears in Ultimate X-Men several times, once at the end of the Blockbuster storyline, then again, during New Mutants, and one more time as a hologram at the beginning of the Magnetic North story arc. Here, Dugan is scarred and aging but physically fit, and is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director of Mutant Operations. He has a mysterious connection to Wolverine, even remembering Logan's real name while Wolverine himself couldn't recall it. Also of note is that this version of Dugan has never been seen with the mainstream version's trademark derby hat. In the "Ultimate Origins" five-parter it is shown that he was involved with Project: Rebirth, the project that made Captain America, appearing as an already grown man in 1943, essentially replacing Chester Phillips in Mainstream continuity. Thanks to a runaway mutant, Dugan and Nick Fury led a strike team at the Weapon X facility, but not before killing Malcolm Colcord on the true origins behind mutants, and rescuing T'Challa Udaku.

Television

Film

Video games