Nick Fury
Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury Sr. is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, he first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1, a World War II combat series that portrayed the cigar-chomping man as leader of an elite U.S. Army Ranger unit.
The modern-day character, initially a CIA agent, debuted a few months later in Fantastic Four #21. In Strange Tales #135, the character was transformed into a James Bond-like spy and leading agent of the fictional espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. The character makes frequent appearances in Marvel books as the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and as an intermediary between the U.S. government or the United Nations and various superheroes. It is eventually revealed that he takes a special medication called the Infinity Formula that halted his aging and allows him to be active despite being nearly a century old, later leading to him becoming The Unseen, herald of Uatu the Watcher, and forming a new team of Exiles.
Nick Fury appears in several Marvel series set in alternate universes, as well as multiple animated films, television shows, and video games based on the comics. The character was first portrayed in live-action by David Hasselhoff in the television film Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Andre Braugher portraying General Hager, a character based on Fury, in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Jeff Ward also portrayed Deke Shaw, a character based on the original Fury, from the fifth to the seventh season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
A version of the character appearing in Marvel's 2001 Ultimate Marvel imprint was based on Samuel L. Jackson's appearance and screen persona. When the character was introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008's Iron Man, Jackson was cast in the role, which he has played in eleven films, the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Disney+ series What If...? and Secret Invasion. The recognizability of the character portrayed by Jackson in the films later led Marvel in 2012 to retire the original character from his role with S.H.I.E.L.D., replacing him with his son Nick Fury Jr., who is also patterned on Jackson.
Publication history
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Fury first appeared in the World War II combat series Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, as the cigar-chomping NCO who led a racially and ethnically integrated elite unit. The series ran 167 issues, though only in reprints after issue #120. Following several issues by creators Lee and Kirby, penciller Dick Ayers began his long stint on what would be his signature series; John Severin later joined as inker, forming a long-running, critically acclaimed team. Roy Thomas succeeded Lee as writer, followed by Gary Friedrich, who became a signature series as well. Annuals featured the "Howlers" called back to fight in the Korean War and Vietnam War.The Howling Commandos encountered Office of Strategic Services agent Reed Richards in #3 and fought alongside Captain America and Bucky in #13.
''Strange Tales'' and solo series
In Strange Tales #135, Fury, now a colonel, became a James Bond-esque Cold War spy, with Marvel introducing the covert organization S.H.I.E.L.D. and its nemesis Hydra.The 12-page feature was initially created by Lee and Kirby, with the latter supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as human-replicant LMDs, and even automobile airbags. Lee recalled in 2005:
Writer-penciller-colorist Jim Steranko began on the feature in Strange Tales #151, initially over Kirby layouts. He quickly became one of comic books' most acclaimed and influential artists. In some of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, Steranko established the feature as one of comic books' most groundbreaking and innovative. He popularized in comic books such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art; built on Kirby's longstanding work in photomontage; and created comic books' first four-page spread. All the while, he spun plots of intense intrigue, barely hidden sensuality, and hi-fi hipness—and supplied his own version of Bond girls, pushing what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time.
The 12-page feature ran through Strange Tales #168, after which it was spun off into its own series, titled Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This ran 15 issues, followed by three all-reprint issues beginning a year later. Steranko wrote and drew issues #1–3 and #5 and drew the covers of #1–7.
Fury continued to make appearances in the other Marvel books, from Fantastic Four to The Avengers. In 1972, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos celebrated its 100th issue with a present-day reunion of the squad, sponsored by Stan Lee and the creative team behind the title.. The matter of Fury apparently not aging significantly since his term of service in World War II was justified in "Assignment: The Infinity Formula" by the writer Jim Starlin and artist Howard Chaykin in Marvel Spotlight #31, revealing Fury's age-retarding medication treatment.
A six-issue miniseries, Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. was followed by Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. vol. 2. The latter series lasted 47 issues ; its pivotal story arc was "the Deltite Affair", in which many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were replaced with Life Model Decoys in a takeover attempt.
A year after that series ended, the one-shot Fury, using retroactive continuity, altered the events of those previous two series. The Fury one-shot had cast them as a series of staged events designed to distract Fury from the resurrection plans of Hydra head Baron von Strucker. The following year, writer Chaykin and penciller Corky Lehmkuhl produced the four-issue miniseries Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Various publications have additionally focused on Nick Fury's solo adventures, such as the graphic novels and one-shots Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection, Wolverine/Nick Fury: Scorpio Rising, Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty and Captain America and Nick Fury: Blood Truce, and Captain America and Nick Fury: The Otherworld War. He starred in the 2004–2005 Secret War miniseries.
In the 2018 Exiles series "The Unseen" will recruit characters to combat an unknown galactic threat.
In May 2023 Marvel published a double sized one-shot Fury made to commemorate the character's 60th anniversary.
Fictional character biography
Early life and wartime
Nicholas Joseph Fury is the eldest of three children born to Jack Fury in New York City. His father is a United States citizen who enlists in the United Kingdom's Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Jack enlists in 1916 and is stationed in France. He shoots down Manfred von Richthofen early in his flying career and is a highly decorated combat aviator by the end of the war in 1918.Discharged after the war, Jack returns home, marries an unnamed woman, and becomes the father of three children. Nick, probably born in the late 1910s or early 1920s, is followed by his brother Jake Fury, and their sister Dawn.
All three children grow up in the neighborhood known as Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. Nick is an amateur boxer through the New York City Police Athletic League, where he also learns marksmanship. As a teenager in 1937, he went overseas for the first time to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. He was on leave in Guernica when the fascists bombed it.
After he returns to America, Fury and his friend Red Hargrove leave the neighborhood to pursue their dreams of adventure, eventually settling on a daring wing walking and parachuting act. In the early 1940s, their death-defying stunts catch the attention of Lieutenant Samuel "Happy Sam" Sawyer, who was then training with the British Commandos, who enlists them for a special mission in the Netherlands. Nick and Red later join the U.S. Army, with Fury undergoing basic training under Sergeant Bass. Nick and Red are stationed together at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii when the Imperial Japanese Navy ambushes the base on December 7, 1941. Red is among the many killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, with Fury swearing vengeance against both the Japanese and the Nazis.
Sawyer, now a captain, assigns Fury command of the First Attack Squad, a unit of U.S. Army Rangers, who are awarded the honorary title of commandos by Winston Churchill after their first missions. They are nicknamed the "Howling Commandos" and stationed at a military base in the United Kingdom to fight specialized missions, primarily but not exclusively in the European Theatre of World War II. During this period, Fury falls in love with a British nurse, Lady Pamela Hawley, who dies in a bombing raid on London before he can propose to her.
C.I.A.
At the end of World War II in Europe, Fury is severely injured by a land mine in France, and is found and healed by Berthold Sternberg, who uses him as a test subject for his Infinity Formula. After making a full recovery, Fury begins working for the Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency. Six months into his service, he learns the extent of Sternberg's life-saving operation: the Infinity Formula has stopped his aging, but if he does not receive annual doses, he will age rapidly and die. The doctor begins a 30-year period of extorting large sums of money from Fury in exchange for the injections.Fury segues into the CIA as an espionage agent, gathering information in Korea. During this time the Howling Commandos are reformed, and Fury receives a battlefield commission to lieutenant. He later reaches the rank of colonel. During this time, he recommends the recruitment of married agents Richard and Mary Parker, who will go on to become the parents of Fury's occasional superhero ally Spider-Man. Much later, the CIA uses him as a liaison to various super-powered groups that have begun appearing, including the Fantastic Four, whom CIA agent Fury first encounters in Fantastic Four #21.
During his time with the CIA, Fury begins wearing his trademark eyepatch. Sgt. Fury #27 revealed that he had taken shrapnel to one eye during World War II, which caused him to slowly lose sight in it over the course of years.