Hello and welcome to Comic Drake where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake!
A question I am asked frequently is if Nick Fury is a black guy or a white guy because
we’ve seen both in not just alternate universes in the comics, but also both in the mainstream
Marvel Comics universe.
So which is it?
Well today, I’m here to give you a definitive answer once and for all!
Nick Fury first appeared in Sgt.
Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 all the way back in 1963 and proved to be such a popular
character that he was shoved into nearly every aspect of the Marvel universe.
He easily went from just a cool soldier guy to a World War II veteran injected with the
Infinity Formula which is literally a derivative of a magic potion created by the former Sorcerer
Supreme, Sir Isaac Newton.
Yes, Marvel’s Isaac Newton was not only a brilliant mathematician, but he was also
a freaking sorcerer like Doctor Strange.
Oh and he was also evil.
Because comics.
Nick went on to being the most well known director of the super spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D.,
and for years was Marvel’s go to guy for thrilling James Bond-esque adventures.
Heck, he even got a solo movie starring the Knight Rider himself, David Hasselhoff.
So great, Nick Fury was a white guy, but who is this dude?
Well in the year 2000, Marvel created a new universe called “Ultimate Marvel” with
the idea being that they would modernize all the classic characters that we know and love
and start a brand new continuity for readers to hop into without the decades of lore to
keep up with.
Plus, by keeping it separate, veteran comic book fans wouldn’t lose their stories to
a universe wide reboot like with what DC Comics frequently does in their Crisis events.
It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Ultimate Marvel was pretty successful, but featured some noticeable differences from
the main canon such as Mutants actually being created in an attempt to replicate the Super
Soldier Serum, Red Skull is Captain America’s son, Spider-Woman is a female clone of Peter
Parker, and so much more.
At first, the Ultimate Nick Fury didn’t sport his now iconic look when he first appeared
in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #5, but that was relegated to a non-canon alternate universe
and in Ultimate X-Men Vol 1 #9, we are treated to a Nick Fury who greatly resembles Samuel
L. Jackson and trust me… they know.
In fact, when The Ultimates (the Ultimate Universe’s version of The Avengers) were
sitting around eating pizza, everybody starts talking about which actors should play them
if someone ever made a movie about the team.
Nick Fury of course picks Samuel L. Jackson for himself.
Now that is some crazy good foreshadowing.
The writer of The Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men, Mark Millar, has gone on record to explain
just why he went with this version of Nick Fury stating “I wanted an African-American
Nick Fury to be director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
because the closest thing in the real world to this job title was held by Colin Powell
at the time.
I also thought Nick Fury sounded like one of those great, 1970s Blaxploitation names
and so the whole thing coalesced for me into a very specific character, an update of the
cool American super-spy.”
He later went on to say “Sam is famously the coolest man alive and both myself an artist
Bryan Hitch just liberally used him without asking any kind of permission.
You have to remember this was 2001 when we were putting this together.
The idea that this might become a movie seemed preposterous as Marvel was just climbing out
of bankruptcy at the time.
What we didn’t know was that Sam was an avid comic fan and knew all about it.”
This was later confirmed by Samuel L. Jackson who talked in an interview about his first
time seeing the character saying “It was kind of weird.
I just happened to be in a comic store, and I picked up the comic because I saw my face.
And I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not sure I remember giving somebody permission
to use my image.'”
Apparently Jackson was blown away and got in contact with Marvel and he says “They
were kind of like, ‘Yeah, we are planning on making movies, and we do hope you’ll
be a part of them.'”
Now funnily enough, Samuel L. Jackson worked with Mark Millar, on the movie adaptation
of his independent series, Kingsman: The Secret Service, six years after taking up the role
of Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Millar describes his interaction with Jackson claiming “The first thing I said was ‘I
hope you don’t mind me completely exploiting your appearance in my book thirteen years
back’, and he said, ‘Fuck, no, man.
Thanks for the nine picture deal.’”
So all that ended up working out, the movie Nick Fury is based on the version of the character
from the Ultimate comics.
That’s great and all, but… who is THIS Nick Fury from the mainstream comic universe?!
Well… it got pretty confusing for new readers about why there was a black Nick Fury in the
movies, but a white one in the comics, I personally get asked it enough times that I’m literally
making this video right now.
Enter the Battle Scars mini-series whose sole purpose was to adapt agent Phil Coulson to
the main Marvel Comics universe, but also this guy, Marcus Johnson.
Turns out that Marcus here is actually Nick Fury’s son and actually inherited the Infinity
Formula from his father, essentially making him a super soldier.
Marcus is taken prisoner by the villainous group, Leviathan, in revenge against his estranged
father and Leviathan cuts out Marcus’ eye so that he would look like his dad.
Marcus escapes with his Nick Fury and joins S.H.I.E.L.D.
where its revealed that Marcus’ real legal name… is Nick Fury Jr.
With the mainstream comics finally having a Nick Fury that resembled the movies, they
pretty much phased out Nick Fury Sr. with him leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. and now hanging out
on the moon… as this thing…
Because comics!
Oh and to make things better, Nick Fury Jr. is pretty much NEVER referred to as that.
As in, nobody calls him Junior, just Nick Fury.
I feel like a character such as Tony Stark would pretty much like… exclusively call
him that as a joke, but yeah, Junior rose up the ranks in S.H.I.E.L.D.
pretty quickly and for all intents and purposes, replaced his father in an act of corporate
synergy.
So is the comic book Nick Fury black or white?
Well, he’s both.
Kind of…
If you have any more comic book questions that are driving you insane then please, leave
a comment down below and if you liked what you saw then please consider subscribing,
leaving a comment, a like, anything like that, and if you want to learn more about the agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.
then one of the first videos that I did on the channel was actually on Agent Phil Coulson
and his complete history in the comics.
It’s not that great compared to today, but if you go take a look at it, you can see just
how far we’ve come in such a short time.
Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed this video, and hopefully
I’ll see you next time!