Nick Fury
Director Nicholas Joseph Fury (a.k.a. Nick)
Physical Description
Special abilities
- Master Tactician
- Master Spy
- Expert Combatant
- Expert Marksman
- Expert Pilot
- Bilingualism
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Director Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury is an American spy, the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the founder of the Avengers. Fury began his career of serving his nation within the United States Army, rising to the rank of Colonel before becoming a CIA operative during the Cold War. Fury then joined S.H.I.E.L.D., where he recruited and trained Phil Coulson and John Garrett. In 1995, Fury met Vers and the Skrull General Talos and helped Vers uncover her human heritage as Carol Danvers. The trio fought the Starforce, led by Yon-Rogg, who were targeting Skrull refugees. Fury took a liking to Goose, although she scratched and permanently blinded Fury's left eye. While Danvers then left Earth in order to find a new home for the Skrulls, Fury would summon a team of Skrulls to Earth to secretly aid him with his spy career in exchange for helping them find a home.
Promoted to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Alexander Pierce, Fury focused his efforts over the next fifteen years to organize the Avengers Initiative, intending to bring together powerful individuals to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Despite reluctance from World Security Council, Fury recruited Iron Man and Captain America. With the Avengers ready, Fury called on them when Earth was invaded by Loki, who brainwashed an army and stolen the Tesseract. Fury led the Avengers' hunt for Loki, as they attempted to learn what Loki's plan was and who he had been working for. This came to a head following Phil Coulson's death, as Loki was tracked to New York City. There, the Avengers engaged Loki and his Chitauri army, with Fury keeping the World Security Council from nuking the city before Loki was defeated and the Avengers were disassembled.
Following the Avengers' victory, Fury recruited Captain America as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, while Fury worked on Project Insight, as a means of eliminating people an algorithm determined to be future threats. However, when Fury began to suspect that something was wrong with Project Insight, he then found himself targeted by Winter Soldier, forcing Fury to fake his own death and go into hiding. With limited people he could trust, Fury turned to Captain America along with Black Widow, Falcon and Maria Hill to lead the fight, as he soon discovered that HYDRA had secretly managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and Alexander Pierce was their leader, as Captain America had also learned that Winter Soldier was actually his friend Bucky Barnes who had been brainwashed by HYDRA for decades, following Barnes' apparent death in 1945.
Once Fury and his allies had stopped Project Insight and also killed Pierce, Fury chose to go into hiding to continue hunting down the remaining HYDRA cells. Fury then assisted the now resurrected Phil Coulson in defeating John Garrett while also stopping his plans for Project Deathlok. Following this, Fury chose to promote Coulson to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., telling him to rebuild it from the ground up. Fury had then also aided the Avengers during the Ultron Offensive, serving as support during the Battle of Sokovia. There, he commanded the rebuilt Helicarrier, which Coulson's new S.H.I.E.L.D. worked on.
In 2018, now operating underground with a hand-picked crew, Fury was one of the trillions of victims in the Snap but had managed to send a distress signal to Captain Marvel before his death. In 2023, Fury was resurrected by Hulk in the Blip and attended Tony Stark's funeral alongside the other Avengers after he sacrificed his life in the Battle of Earth. Fury was then made aware of Peter Parker's identity as Spider-Man and was tasked with delivering the E.D.I.T.H. glasses to him. Fury then left Earth to join S.A.B.E.R. and was placed in charge of their space station before he tasked Talos and Soren to impersonate himself and Maria Hill respectively on Earth and to deliver the glasses to Spider-Man on his behalf.
Fury returned to Earth to reunite with Hill and Talos as the dealt with the increasing threat of Gravik and his Skrull Resistance, who were enraged by Fury's failed promises to them, and sought to wipe out the human race and take Earth as their new home. With his confidence low, Fury would struggle to handle Gravik's threats, as he would lose Hill and Talos in the fight, and lose his position when he was fired by Raava, who had been disguised as James Rhodes. While also dealing with his wife, Varra's possible betrayal, Fury would eventually save President Ritson's life, while sending G'iah to enhance herself with the Harvest and defeat Gravik. With the conflict over, Fury returned to S.A.B.E.R. with Varra coming with him.
Fury would soon instruct S.A.B.E.R. to investigate reports of anomalies from the Universal Neural Teleportation Network. This included Monica Rambeau, who would suddenly swap places with teenager Kamala Khan. Fury and Rambeau would soon learn that the light-based powers shared by Danvers, Rambeau, and Khan had become entangled, resulting in them switching places whenever they used their powers at the same time. Fury and S.A.B.E.R. would assist the trio in their campaign to defeat Dar-Benn, a Kree Accuser who had begun attacking planets that Danvers had a personal connection with and stealing their resources.
Employment
Once graduating high school, Fury joined the United States Army. He worked his way up the ranks until he became a Colonel. Afterwards, he left the Army to join the CIA. By the 1970s, Fury was undertaking fieldwork missions in Soviet territory. He had joined SHIELD by the 1980s, and was working under Richard Keller's command bby 1988. For six years since 1989, he had a desk job at SHIELD. By 1995, he had Level 3 clearance. He had become Director of SHIELD in 2005.
Morality & Philosophy
Nick Fury is somewhat of an enigma, but his actions prove him to be bold and pragmatic. It's nearly impossible to read his emotions. He is known to manipulate people and is the bearer of many, classified, global security secrets. Nor does he tell whatever happened to his damaged eye. However, while showing Project Insight to Steve Rogers he gives a backstory saying, he lost an eye the last time he trusted someone, insinuating he doesn't trust easily and he is known to compartmentalize. Ironically, Fury lost sight in his left eye over trusting Goose, and not an enemy. His lack of trust in people leads him to the point of even distrusting his own family, as is the case with his mother, whom he asks to call him by the family surname.
Fury and his organization, S.H.I.E.L.D., share a cynical outlook. Sometimes, Fury finds that cutthroat actions and clandestine, illegal operations are necessary to protect the world. Fury stated that "the world is filling up with people that can't be matched" and advocates methods for S.H.I.E.L.D. to arm themselves against potential threats, even if it involves creating weapons of mass destruction. Fury himself quotes "that S.H.I.E.L.D. sees the world as it is, not how it likes to be seen"; though Captain America believed that Project Insight was controlling people using fear. Fury's main goal was world safety against alien and human threats, going so far as to create a team of people with extraordinary abilities called the Avengers and secretly planned to use the Tesseract for weapons as a secondary security option. The latter was kept a secret, even from the Avengers.
While his decisions make him appear ruthless and the nature of his profession occasionally requires a moral grey, Fury genuinely cares about human life and didn't see his agents or Avengers as pawns. Phil Coulson was his closest friend and he seems to trust people like Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff, Carol Danvers and Steve Rogers. However, he did use Coulson's death to motivate the Avengers and used alien biology to bring him back to life, no matter how much Coulson begged to die. In fact, he would often help the Avengers, whether by providing resources or motivating them during turbulent times. When New York was under attack by the Chitauri, the World Security Council insisted on a nuclear strike on New York, but Fury refused to destroy a populated city. He was also seen rescuing people from Sokovia when Ultron uplifted it in the air and intended to use it as a weapon against Earth. Despite being apparently quite a serious person, Fury has displayed a knack for dry humor and use of visual puns whilst regarding his eye and his constant global surveillance, often using irony and metaphors due to the combination, i.e. referring to Tony Stark "I've got my eye on you".
Fury is a man of great and indomitable will, but he can feel too, as he was shaken with the death of Coulson and was deeply disturbed at seeing Hill fade away due to the Snap. While visiting Tony Stark at Clint Barton's home, Fury told Stark that he cared very much about him. It is also shown that Fury has a soft spot for cats, as shown by his interactions with Goose.
The Avengers' failure to stop Thanos from executing the Snap had a profound effect on Nick Fury; shortly after Fury was Blipped back he distanced himself from everyone, deciding to go to space to build the S.A.B.E.R. station and vowed not to return until its completion as Fury had what he described as a "crisis of faith," feeling that no matter how prepared he was, there would always be someone who could defeat him (as shown when he was killed by Thanos in the Snap), cauing Fury to lose hope and feel that he was useless in face of a much more powerful threat. Therefore, Fury decided to go to space and build S.A.B.E.R. as a method to run from his problems and hide from his faith crisis. During that time, Fury would have Talos impersonate him to compensate for his absence, but even Talos would stop hearing from Fury after a while.
When called back to action in response to the Skrull Resistance plotting to invade Earth, Fury remained determined to stop the invasion on his own terms. However, the guilt over his failure to find a home for the Skrulls which caused escalating tension leading to the invasion and his loss of faith in his own abilities continued to affect him. Fury became increasingly doubtful of his own ability to handle the situation, showing his vulnerability more often with many (including Sonya Falsworth, Maria Hill, Gravik and even Talos) pointing out he had lost his edge and was no longer his past self that instilled fear in his enemies. Maria Hill's death and losing all his authority further broke Fury despite him continuing to put on a strong face when in public. By his own admission, Fury had a loss in faith in his belief that the Avengers should always win and save the day. After being fired, Fury still attempted to put on a strong and determined image, telling Rhodes he would still be in even when he was out, but when he left and was alone, Fury immediately broke down and had a seizure. Moreover, it was also noted that the physical capabilities of the former master spy had also declined after the Snap and Blip as Fury was seen to be limping and rather unfit for the battle that lies in front of him.
One thing about Fury for certain is that he prefers everyone that knows him to only call him by his last name, even his family. This allows him to know instantly if there's a spy or imposter around if they call him Nick or Nicholas. Though if it's someone who likes to annoy him, it also allows Fury to confirm their identity.
Social
Family Ties
- Jack Fury (father)
- Katherine Fury (mother)
- Varra/Priscilla Davis (wife)
Species
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Organizational Names
- Foxtrot
- Nick Furry
- 100% Red-Blooded Earth Man
- One-Eyed Man
- Son of a Bitch
- The Most Dangerous Man
- Jacob Veech
- Johannes Kerhonen
Date of Birth
July 4, 1950
Year of Birth
1950 AD
51 Years old
Birthplace
Huntsville, Alabama
Children
Sex
Male
Gender
Man
Presentation
Masculine
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Dark
Height
6'2"
Weight
231 lbs.
Quotes & Catchphrases
"You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."
"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battles we never could."
