And frankly i wouldn't be surprised if i learned that the "straw/toothpick" replaced something edited out.

That or the artist played games.

Anyway that makes Nick Fury look a lot more like Nick Fury than if it wasn't there.

Joe Quesada seems to have based his decision to get rid of smoking on the reasoning that he lost a family member to lung cancer, if I recall the explanation correctly. While I do sympathize with his loss, making Marvel comics totally non-smoking is the height of PC nonsense. And I am saying this as a life-long NON-smoker.

If Quesada and Marvel are concerned with imitable behavior, then why do their heroes use guns and kill? I noted when the ban on smoking was first placed at Marvel, there were many graphic and violent comics and covers to the comics being put out at the same time. One issue of "Wolverine" even had your good ol' "injury to the eye motif."

Oh, and this reminds me... Right before Jemas and Quesada took over, not long after the "Heroes Reborn" comics starting coming out, Marvel apparently decreed that no swastikas could be used in a Marvel comic. So, Rob Liefeld's "Captain America" comics switched in mid-story from Nazis with swastikas to Nazis wearing a red skull-like emblem. I think that Marvel eventually went back to showing Nazis with swastikas eventually, after the change in ownership.

And on the subject of PC police and Nazi symbolism, isn't that a disservice to the memory of what went on in World War II? I mean, it's an attempt to pretend things didn't happen like they did, and that leads down a scary road.

Good points, Matt.

Overall, I think the decision to omit smoking is actually quite admirable, if a little PC, but I appreciate they're well-intentioned with this. It would be nice if they could follow suit by a moratorium on graphic violence (particularly by the 'heroes'!).

Trying to view historical events through the lens of modern-day sensibilities can be interesting, but warping historical events to fit modern day sensibilities is a different kettle of fish. A lot of WWII veterans smoked. Nick Fury smoked a stogie during WWII (and much later)-- established fact. They can always say he's given it up today because we now know it's bad for you, but back then they didn't know any better.

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They knew better! "Those things'll kill ya!" is a mantra almost as old a cigarettes themselves.

Incidentally, bit of trivia: cigarettes were originally considered for ladies only, being that they were so much more "delicate" than cigars. But they were distributed to the troops in the trenches in WW1, basically to give them something to do in the long hours between engagements with the enemy. Four things "came home" with the boys after the Great War -- cigarettes, short hair, swine flu and (blushes!) oral sex!

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The hypocrisy of Quesada and Marvel goes even further then that Matt. Heroes aren't allowed to be shown smoking in the books, yet cussing,bloody and gory on panel graphic violence,and strongly implied sexual situations and innuendos are allowed in their books.