- [Scott] How are you doing, you wonderful nerd?
Looks like we are not done speculating about
the Marvel news from Comic Con.
I thought all the Infinity War stuff would be enough,
but then we got the announcement about
the Captain Marvel film taking place as a 1990s prequel
to the MCU, and it will feature
the shapeshifting alien Skrulls
and, of course, a Nick Fury that has
both of his eyeballs in functioning condition.
And that is pretty exciting stuff.
I mean, yeah, Captain Marvel, Skrulls, that's all good.
But it almost certainly means that we'll get to see
exactly what happened to Nick Fury's poor peeper
in the film.
Finally, the mystery is solved.
All we have to do is wait until, eww.
Naw, I don't wanna do that.
So let's fill some time
by talking about how Nick Fury lost his eyeball
in the comics and some speculation
about how he might lose it in the MCU.
Now currently there's a lot of speculation and theories
being thrown out there about how Nick Fury
could lose his eye in the MCU based off of just
the bare minimum knowledge that we have right now.
Maybe there's a big final battle scene
at the end of Captain Marvel that causes lots of damage.
Maybe they fight each other, and that's why she
isn't around in the MCU right now.
But in the Marvel comics, Carol Danvers has nothing to do
with how Nick Fury lost his eyeball
and neither do the Skrulls.
So, Nick Fury debuted in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos
number one from 1963.
We wouldn't figure out how he lost his eye
until about 13 years later in Marvel Spotlight
number 31 from 1976.
Nick Fury was a sergeant in World War II,
and he was eluding Nazi patrol when he stumbled into
a French landmine field.
Unfortunately, one of the mines exploded,
severely injuring Nick Fury.
Including irreparable damage to his eye.
He was taken in by a Doctor Sternberg,
who patched him up as best as he could.
But he also saw Fury as a really good test subject
for something called the Infinity Formula.
It's basically an immortality drug.
This is how Nick Fury was able to survive
in the Marvel comic book universe from World War II
onward without aging like crazy.
Although the caveat with the Infinity Formula
is that you would have to take it every so often,
or you would rapidly age overnight.
It's a little bit of different story over for
ultimate Nick Fury.
The one that actually looks like Samuel L. Jackson.
We made a whole video about it years ago
explaining the resemblance.
Go check it out.
Maybe don't.
It's a really old video.
This version of Nick Fury also fought
during World War II and was a test subject
of Project Rebirth.
He was injected with a serum that gave him
superstrength, slowed his aging, all that good stuff.
And it also allowed him to escape.
He was later a part of SHIELD
and assigned to the Weapon X program.
He was transporting Wolverine when they were ambushed,
and he lost his eye in the explosion.
But Wolverine carried him off to safety,
like the good old chap that he is.
Now I'll be honest, neither of these two explanations
seem like something that we're gonna get in the MCU.
Very likely he's gonna lose his eye due to,
not just a random explosion,
but a very personal attack.
As he explains in Winter Soldier, he lost his eye
because he trusted someone
that should not have been trusted.
We'll talk more about this in a bit.
But before we get to all that,
there is one last comic book
that I would like to talk about.
It's a tie-in comic to the MCU,
so already we're questioning the canon of these things.
But, the comic book features a story about Nick Fury
before any Avengers stuff.
Before Iron Man, before Hulk, before any of that.
We don't have a specific date for when
this story takes place, but we do have a vague
understanding that it takes place during the final years
of the Cold War.
So, around late '80s, early '90s.
Which hey, the 1990s is when Captain Marvel's
supposed to take place.
Curiouser, curiouser.
Let's see what the story has to offer.
Honestly, it's a pretty standard spy story
featuring twists and double crosses,
but what's interesting here is that Nick Fury
was simply a CIA agent during this time in history.
He was not a SHIELD operative,
not yet.
And what's also interesting is that in this story,
he already has his eye patch.
Meaning he lost his eye before SHIELD.
So that raises the question
could the Nick Fury that we see in the Captain Marvel film
be a pre-SHIELD agent Nick Fury?
Someone who's just a spy for the CIA perhaps.
And maybe his encounter with Captain Marvel and the Skrulls
leads him down a path to becoming the director of SHIELD.
That's a pretty interesting idea.
However, no.
Can't happen.
Lemme explain why.
So, in Captain America Winter Soldier,
the best MCU film ever made, don't at me,
Alexander Pierce tells a story of how he and Fury met.
Nick Fury was a deputy chief of a SHIELD station
in Bogota when rebels attacked an embassy there,
taking political hostages, including Pierce's own daughter.
Pierce wanted to wait and negotiate with the rebels.
But Nick Fury instead performed a covert mission
to get all of the hostages out safely.
The mission was, thankfully, a success.
Nick Fury got all of the hostages out,
and Pierce was so grateful that he honored Nick Fury
for his bravery in this photograph that we see
right here.
Now, this picture was taken
five years after that mission.
Now, honestly, we don't have a solid date for it,
but we can safely assume it's no later than the early '90s.
Thanks to this photograph later on in the film,
we can see that Alexander Pierce was at least
director of SHIELD until '92.
But the exact date honestly doesn't matter.
All we need to know is that Nick Fury
was working for SHIELD, and look here,
both of his eyeballs.
As much as I love interpreting comic book tie-in media
as official canon, this story, unfortunately,
doesn't make sense in the timeline of the MCU.
Nick Fury should not have an eye patch
before he joined SHIELD based off of what we learned
in Winter Soldier.
But what this does mean is that
in the Captain Marvel movie, we might see a Nick Fury
who's still working under Alexander Pierce.
And with the added element of the Skrulls
being shapeshifting aliens, that could impersonate
even your closest allies,
that would only lend itself to some amazing foreshadowing.
And oh man, we haven't even talked about
the Skrulls that much.
Captain Marvel versus the Skrulls could have easily
been a story told entirely in outer space,
outside of Earth.
Much like the Guardians movies.
But Fury's involvement means that the Skrulls
do invade Earth in some capacity.
Probably small factions in secret.
And the fact that it's never been mentioned
in the MCU up until this point
means that it's very likely a SHIELD government cover-up.
Fury is one of the only people who knows
that the Skrulls not only exist but came to Earth
and very likely impersonated other human beings.
Probably someone he was very close to,
which goes back to this line.
- Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.
- [Scott] Maybe it was a Skrull who impersonated
Captain Marvel herself who attacked Fury
when he was least expecting it.
But in all honesty, that doesn't seem
like too big of a deal to me.
Nick Fury is a spy.
He's the spy.
He should be used to double crosses and betrayals.
I mean, that's kind of a trope of spy life.
Whoever scarred his eye would have to be someone
so close to him, someone that he would never expect,
that it would cause him to never trust
a single human being ever again.
And, this is gonna sound really crazy,
so everyone put on your tin foil hats.
But we don't know much about Nick Fury's family,
but we do know that at the time
he and Alexander Pierce met,
his mother was still alive.
- 1435 Elmhurst Drive.
When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437.
- [Scott] And since that potentially takes place
around the same timeframe as the Captain Marvel movie...
Uh, okay, yeah.
So the Mama Fury Skrull theory, I am fully prepared
to admit is nothing but speculation.
But a shapeshifting alien
disguised as a beloved family member
attacking him would not only scar him for life physically,
but potentially emotionally.
Forcing him to adopt the mindset of permanent distrust
of everyone around him.
I mean, if you were him and you knew that the Skrulls
existed and could take the form of anyone,
even those closest to you, then yeah,
you'd probably keep everyone at a great distance.
The Captain Marvel movie could be a really interesting way
to flush out the character of Nick Fury
and tell us about his personal life.
Before completely demolishing it and setting him
on a path of being cold, distant, and mysterious.
Okay, I think I'm about done now.
You can take off your tin foil hat.
Stop complaining in the comments about
my crazy speculation.
I'm just as aware of how ridiculous it is as you are.
But, I would love to know your thoughts in the comments
about the MCU Nick Fury.
How do you think he's gonna lose his eye in Captain Marvel?
Lemme hear your wildest, craziest theories
right down in the comments below.
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