Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury 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 (May 1963), a World War II combat series that portrayed the cigar-chomping man as leader of an elite U.S. Army unit.
The modern-day character, initially a CIA agent, debuted a few months later in Fantastic Four #21 (Dec. 1963). In Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), 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.
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 1998 live action television movie Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. where he was portrayed by David Hasselhoff. A version of the character appearing in Marvel's Ultimate Marvel imprint was based on Samuel L. Jackson's appearance and screen persona, with Jackson subsequently being cast as the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) as well as two episodes of the first season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Jeff Ward portraying Deke Shaw, a character based on the original Fury, beginning with the fifth season. Jackson voices several alternate versions of Fury in the Disney+ animated series What If...? (2021), and will return in Secret Invasion. The recognizability of the character portrayed by Jackson in the films later led Marvel to retire the original character, replacing him with his son, who is also patterned on Jackson.
A popular character over a number of decades, he has become a recognizable aspect of the whole Marvel Universe. He has sometimes been considered an antihero.
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