Greeting’s GVNation. It’s time to play your favorite daytime game show, “What’s my line?” Here are today’s guests.
Guest#1: State your name and occupation.
My Name is Nick Fury and I lead a specialized military unit.
Guest# 2: My Name is Nick Fury and I lead a specialized military unit.
Guest#3: My Name is Nick F’N Fury and I lead a specialized military unit.
Here’s a little background information about our guest: Nick Fury was created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee. Fury first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963), a World War II combat series that portrayed a cigar-chomping Fury as leader of an elite U.S. Army unit. It was during this time that Fury developed his disdain for the brass (as he called them) and his willingness to lead his men into situations that most would avoid. It was only because of this willingness that his commanding officer “Happy” Sam Sawyer allowed Fury to speak his mind to him. As far as the “Howling Commandos,” that name was given to them by the enemy as they would holler “Yahoo! and blow bugle blasts while plunging into battle. When German troops heard that coming at them, they knew the “Howling Commandos” had arrived and they were in trouble. This series grew to be very popular as sales proved that stories about World War II still resonated with readers, especially those who lived through some of those events, as artist Jack Kirby had.
With the popularity of the character, Stan Lee decided to introduce a modern-day Fury(modern day as far as the 60’s as opposed to the mid 1940’s where The Howling Commandos took place), who at that 
time was initially a CIA agent. (This was done concurrently with his World War II exploits with the Howling Commandos). This version complete now with an eyepatch (it was explained that the patch was the result of losing his eye sight as a result of a grenade during WWII) debuted a few months later in Fantastic Four #21 (Dec. 1963). In Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), Fury was transformed into a James Bond like spy and became the leading agent of the fictional espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. This new version of character would make frequent appearances in other Marvel books.
One of the questions that came up during Fury’s leap forward in time was why he didn’t seem to age, although significant time had passed. It is eventually revealed that Fury takes a special medication called the Infinity Formula that halted his aging and allowed him to be active despite his advancing old age.
Move forward to 2001 and the Ultimate Comics initiative from Marvel Comics. This was created to provide a brand new and more diverse version of the Marvel Universe. It was designed to attract new readers, and shedded the continuity from the previous decades stories to start fresh.
Part of this new initiative included an African American version of Nick Fury. This version served in the first Gulf War, where he was transporting a deadly mutant through Kuwait, only to be ambushed. Wounded, Fury would have bled right out if that mutant hadn’t turned out to be Wolverine, who was able to carry Fury on his shoulders across the desert to save his life. He still lost his eye however. The original Ultimate version of Nick Fury did NOT resemble some guy named Jackson. In fact he didn’t look like anyone. It is only in 2002’s Ultimates limited series that Fury is remade to look like Samuel L. Jackson. It was believed that this was done (besides the obviously cool as hell factor) in the hope that eventually the actor would agree to take on that role. Needless to, say, he did.
So would the REAL Nick Fury, please stand up? As you know by now, they would ALL stand up. Because in one reality or another, they are ALL Nick Fury. This does not even include the Marcus Johnson/Nick Fury, Jr. story where he actually IS the son of the original Nick Fury and STILL looks like Samuel L. Jackson. Sam needs to receive massive royalty checks for all these Nick Fury’s who have borrowed his face.
I have to admit that I stopped following comics before the whole Ultimate series came into being. Imagine my surprise when I started seeing basically Sam Jackson being called Nick Fury. He can’t be Nick Fury. He’s too cool looking…and he isn’t a stogie smoking scruffy looking white dude. Of course, I was just as surprised when the original guy showed up with the eyepatch. What happened to my favorite Sergeant (with apologies to DC’s Sgt. Rock)? This was explained in similar fashion in both cases with war wounds being the culprit. In the end, it was not the transformation of Nick Fury to looking like Samuel L. Jackson that was a problem. You could do no better than make Nick Fury Director of Shield look like “you know who…No not Voldemort.” This is quite the admonition from a change abhorrent creature. See previous Traditionalist post.
My problem was when I read that because of the expected popularity of the Ultimate Nick Fury, they had completely retired the original Nick Fury like he didn’t exist. That was an issue to me. It would be like saying we are no longer acknowledging the Christopher Reeves version of Superman since the Henry Cavill (I am a big fan, by the way) version is so popular. Isn’t there enough room for all of them? They kind of solved the issue in the mainstream Marvel books with the whole aforementioned Nick Fury, Jr. storyline. At least they still acknowledged there used to be this grumpy old white guy who fought the Nazi’s, battled alongside Captain America, engaged Hydra, and carried the moniker of Nick Fury. They did not wipe him from existence. That is all a traditionalist can ask for. Now let’s bring Nick Fury back from the Thanos dust and we’ll move on.
How many of you even remember the original Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos? How about Colonel Nick Fury and his Agents of Shield? If not, check those books out and see how it all started and share your thoughts at GVNation.
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
