Nicholas Joseph Fury, Jr.Nick Fury Jr.

Patching Life Together

Early in his career with S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury and Coulson were conscripted into a new team of Secret Avengers by Acting Director Maria Hill. The parameters of the team’s status quo were that each member of the squad would have their memories erased after each mission. On one of those brainwashed field outings, Fury led the team in preventing an assassination attempt on the President and recruited Taskmaster (Tony Masters) to work undercover inside the organization known as Advanced Idea Mechanics, A.I.M.

Later, then Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy Johnson was suspended after a failed Secret Avengers mission involving A.I.M. Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson, leaving teammate Mockingbird (Bobbi Morse) stranded on A.I.M. Island. Maria Hill was promoted to Director, with Fury becoming her right-hand man. Acting on intel from alleged A.I.M. defector M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton), the Secret Avengers ended up being captured in their attempt to rescue Mockingbird, though their mission was merely a sideshow in a strange, one-sided romance between M.O.D.O.K. and Director Hill.

Fury also befriended Wolverine, helping him stop a sentient virus of the Microverse from possessing and destroying Earth. He also welcomed the original Human Torch (Jim Hammond) into S.H.I.E.L.D. Later, he fought the Fury, a super-weapon on Misericordia—a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite—where he almost died in space when Coulson inadvertently stranded them in orbit. Though they’d already been very close friends for a long time, this near-death experience brought them even closer.

On another adventure, Fury was hypnotized by Dr. Mindbubble (Weapon LXI) into stealing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier Gungnir—which also turned into a giant robot—for the Iron Nail (Ran Shen), who used the mechanical monstrosity to try to spark an international war. Luckily, Fury’s old friend Captain America was there to stop Nail and help Fury break free from the spell.

During Civil War II, Fury infiltrated a HYDRA cell posing as a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Going off of an interpretation of Inhuman profiler Ulysses Cain’s predictions, the cell’s attack on S.H.I.E.L.D. could have proven fatal. Fury wound up being attacked by fellow soldiers, who turned out to be agents loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and not HYDRA deep cover as he originally thought. They weren’t double agents, just traitors. To figure out the source of their betrayal and to save himself, Fury faked his own death so he could continue his investigation without knives at his back.

Fury interrogated crooked S.H.I.E.L.D. benefactor Elton Blake and was directed to an abandoned base called Ulu, in Alaska. He wasn’t able to capture the mastermind there, after being caught off guard by the mystery villain’s speed, but he was able to infiltrate another base, where he downloaded massive quantities of data to figure out the enemy’s next move. He ended up at the Kratos underground base, where the Leader was revealed to be a rogue Life-Model Decoy of Fury’s father. The Leader revealed that the interpretation of Ulysses’ prediction wasn’t correct. It wasn’t about a rogue HYDRA cell, but that Fury’s next mission was going to cost him his life and if he decided against taking the mission it would end up with S.H.I.E.L.D. destroyed. The Leader intended to take Fury out, then take over the organization to reinvent it. Fury risked his own life to destroy the base.

Fury didn’t die in the destruction; he survived and retrieved the Leader’s head to hack it for more details of the plan. He was able to forgive Director Hill for sending him on a suicide mission, understanding the weight of her position to ensure S.H.I.E.L.D.’s survival, but he couldn’t just brush off being left in the dark the way he was. Fury decided to postpone returning to active duty with S.H.I.E.L.D., choosing instead to remain underground, trusting the only person he could always count on: himself.