Nick Fury

"I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."

- Nick Fury to Tony Stark Nick Fury is one of the interlinking characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. He is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. His job is to maintain world peace and to also keep an eye on dangerous situations. Fury himself keeps an eye on all of the known 'superheroes' in the world. He becomes the driving force that eventually sees the different heroes become a unique response team known as the Avengers. He is portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. He will return in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The Avengers
"I still believe in heroes."

- Nick Fury

With little to show for his efforts in bringing together a group of extraordinary people, Fury shelved his plan and began focusing on weaponry instead. "Phase Two", as the offshoot idea came to be called, involved re-engineering weapons technology that had emerged in the hands of HYDRA years earlier, as well as other cutting edge, or alien, technology. The Tesseract, that he'd assigned Professor Selvig to investigate, formed a significant part of this puzzle. When the Tesseract began emitting unexpected levels of gamma radiation, Fury was quick to personally take charge of the operation. The emissions proved to be a prelude to the appearance of Loki on Earth, and neither Fury, nor his personnel had the power to stop Loki escaping with the Cube.

Desperate for a solution to the problem of Loki's possession of apparently limitless power, Fury reactivated the Avengers Initiative. He effortlessly brought Steven Rogers in and dispatched agents to call in the help of Tony Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner. In short order, Loki made his first public appearance, and was apprehended, heralding an unexpected further addition to the collection of extraordinary people when Loki's brother Thor arrived, making demands of his own for Loki's extradition.

Fury could do little to quell the rising tensions in a ship now packed with egos, and problems only escalated when some of these people uncovered his deceptions surrounding Phase Two. With arguments boiling over, Loki played his hand, and Fury and the others were caught completely off guard when the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier came under attack in a daring commando raid by Loki's soldiers. Fury returned to his post on the bridge to take command of the situation and was instrumental in warding off an assault there.

In the wake of the battle, Fury found agent Coulson mortally wounded by Loki's hand. He resolved to use Coulson's sacrifice to his advantage, exploiting it to give a "push" to Stark and Rogers. Despite the ethically questionable nature of the plan, it proved to be effective, and the men set off in pursuit of Loki shortly thereafter. The Avengers Initiative may have finally come to fruition, but Fury's role in their battle was not yet done. The World Security Council issued orders to send a nuclear missile into the vicinity of Manhattan, which Fury refused, but then overriding orders saw one fighter jet escape him after he knocked another out of action with a rocket.

The Avengers Initiative ultimately won out. Fury's defiance of the World Security Council may not have been forgotten, but his methods and actions had saved the world. He resolved to call upon the Avengers should they be needed again, and made further assurances that they would come.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he will help Captain America defeat Crossbones and Batroc the Leaper and undo the brainwashing that turned Bucky into the Winter Soldier.

Abilities
Nick Fury is a master strategist and an astute judge of character. He uses these talents to great effect in his leadership of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury has done what would be called questionable tactics over his years but nonetheless, he will ultimately do what is right. Point in case, when the Council ordered him to strike the city with a nuke, but he wouldn't; even going as far as disabling one of the planes ordered to strike the city with a rocket launcher and warning Stark about it. He has shown while an man of great resolve and will, he too can feel, as he was shaken with the death of Coulson. He is a seasoned unarmed- and armed-combat expert as he was able to take down two brainwashed agents with ease.

He is also trained to use US military firearms (standard and automatic).

Equipment

 * S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform: made from 9-ply Kevlar (able to withstand ballistic impact up to .45 caliber bullets) and a fire-resistant material whose kindling temperature is 1,700 °F (930 °C). Numerous S.H.I.E.L.D. paraphernalia including a radio-link tie.

Weapons
A government issue USP pistol. Also, an array of SHIELD weapons, conventional and otherwise.

Weaknesses
He has 95% vision loss in his injured left eye, over which he wears a cosmetic eye patch.

Behind the scenes

 * Samuel L. Jackson plays a Nick Fury primarily inspired by the Ultimate Universe version of the character. The Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury first appearing in The Ultimates in 2002, Fury was redesigned by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch as a bald African-American general, with his likeness resembling Samuel L. Jackson without his authorization. Jackson's agent initially tried to sue Marvel, but Jackson was a fan of the idea and secured the rights to play a version of Ultimate Nick Fury in a film. He would achieve this in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 * Fury appears in some early versions of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer but the character was rewritten as General Hager due to licensing issues.
 * Samuel L. Jackson's appearance was uncredited in Iron Man and Thor.