Nick Fury Jr.

This page is for the second Nick Fury, Marcus Johnson

For the original Nick Fury, see Nicholas Joseph Fury

Origin

Marcus Johnson was a Ranger in the U.S. Army. Up until recently, he was not aware that his father was actually Nick Fury. For this reason he was being pursued by several different parties. Following the revelation that he was the son of Fury, and that he was born as Nicholas Fury, Jr., he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. along with his best friend Phillip “Cheese” Coulson.

Creation

Marcus Johnson, now known as Nick Fury Jr., was created by Chris Yost, Matt Fraction, Cullen Bunn and artist Scot Eaton. He first appeared in a cameo in the comic Fear Itself issue 7 (2011) where his person was discussed and a photo of him was seen, but his first full appearance was in Battle Scars #1 (2011). His identity as Nicholas Fury, Jr. was revealed in Battle Scars #6.

His creation is due in large part to the immense popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s portrayal of Nick Fury, by Samuel L. Jackson.

Major Story Arcs

Battle Scars

While serving in the Middle East, Johnson received word that his mother had been murdered back in the US. He returned home and investigated the crime scene, finding shell casings used by Russians. While leaving his mother’s home he was attacked by the Russian hitmen who killed his mom. Marcus took them down and began to question one before being shot with a bow and arrow. He turned around to see Taskmaster standing before him. Taskmaster was about to kill him before Captain America arrived in time to save him at the last moment. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived to try and bring Marcus to safety. Marcus went off with Quake to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility where he was visited by Cap in the infirmary. He continued to question why everyone was after him and why his mother was killed yet was not given any answers. Soon Marcus began to feel as if he was being held his against his will and broke out.

Marcus contacted an old Ranger friend for help and informed him of his current situation. They planned to find Taskmaster and attempt to get some information. While searching for Taskmaster, Marcus was attacked by Deadpool who was also after Marcus. As they fought, Taskmaster arrived and ran Deadpool through with his sword. Marcus took on Taskmaster and this time gained the upper hand. At that time the Serpent Squad arrived, also looking for Marcus. Johnson took them on, lasting only about fifteen seconds before being electrocuted by Rattler. Deadpool returned, and due to the confusion Marcus was able to escape with Taskmaster as his prisoner. He interrogated Taskmaster, but before he was able to answer, a masked man stunned Taskmaster. He also drained Marcus’ energy for a moment and escaped. Marcus caught up with him and unmasked him, the man also revealed himself to be Marcus’s father… Nick Fury.

While arguing and eventually coming to blows about the realization, Fury and Johnson were ambushed by more mercenaries, and easily captured. In the custody of Orion, Johnson had his eye cut out (the left eye – same as Fury), and tests were run by Orion’s men… confirming that Johnson had the Infinity Formula in his DNA. Fury managed to slip his restraints and give Johnson enough time to escape (even if accidentally), but Fury was brought in to give Orion a blood transfusion to restore him to a youthful state. The transfusion drained Fury of the remaining Infinity Formula in his system. Fury was then tortured and had his mind probed by Orion’s telepath, wherein they found all of Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets and fail-safes.

Marcus saved Fury, and with the help of his friend, Cheese (Coulson), was able to get Orion alone and kill him. He was taken to get his wounds cared for, and was also given the Super Soldier uniform that Steve Rogers once wore. As a new agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Johnson was also informed that his birth name was, in fact, Nicholas Fury, Jr.

Secret Avengers vs AIM

Maria Hill co-opted the Secret Avengers as a team of SHIELD agents, including Fury. When they agreed to become part of the team they agreed to having nanotech planted into their brains which made them forget about being part of the team in front of other people that aren’t part of it. He even went as far as to shoot Hawkeye on their first mission and leave him for international arms dealers to test the nanotech under interrogation.

The team’s big target was the lawless new country in AIM’s control, Barbuda. During a defense expo, Fury and Quake were confronted by Andrew Forson, the Scientist Supreme, and AIM goons that were trying to steal the Iron Patriot armor on display. In the chaos, they were able to assassinate Rebel Ralston, the Senator supporting Quake as director of SHIELD. Quake took it especially bad. She jumped the gun and sent the team to Barbuda to assassinate Forson, which Fury thought he accomplished. Their mole in AIM, Mockingbird, alerted them that he only managed to kill a double.

When MODOK attempted to defect, thinking Forson was insane, he gave them the locations of AIM facilities that turned out to be traps. Fury was captured along with Black Widow and Clint. Once they were moved to AIM’s headquarters, they slipped their restraints and mounted a rescue mission for their spies in AIM. They barely got out with their lives

Killable

When Wolverine caught wind of a sentient virus from the Microverse trying to take over the world, it struck back by attacking Wolvie’s immune system and neutralizing his healing factor. He suddenly found the need for help and put together a SHIELD task force, including Fury. He helps Wolverine sneak into Wakanda and save a being known as The Host, a mutant who could control viral biology and was currently imprisoned in the African nation.

While Wolverine was pulled away by various rivals, Fury focused on his plan. He was babysitting The Host and granting her a power upgrade so she was a match for the sentient virus. He was also plotting to return Wolverine’s healing factor, but he had to give that plan up when the pandemic spread faster than they estimated.

The virus also caught on to SHIELD’s plan and started mind-controlling some of its hosts to attack the helicarrier. Fury led a platoon of agents to create a barrier and protect The Host until she could finally send the virus back to The Microverse

Mindbubble

After Captain America captured an out of control Nuke, he handed his fellow super soldier over to Fury at SHIELD. Unfortunately, Nuke had been outfitted with a bomb by The Iron Nail. Fury survives, but the explosion releases a superhuman prisoner named Dr. Mindbubble, who targets Fury in his vulnerable state. Dr. Mindbubble produces dream bubbles that trap victims in life like virtual words. He uses a bubble to convince Fury to betray SHIELD by making them look like Hydra and himself like Fury’s buddy, Coulson. Together, they take command of a new helicarrier for The Iron Nail.

This led to Iron Nail sapping the super soldier serum from Captain America, causing him to age dramatically.

Save the Empire

After the last debacle, the Secret Avengers are still active but in a transitional period. Unfortunately, SHIELD is the victim of multiple sabotages. Coulson and Fury investigate SHIELD satellites and come across a heavy, The Fury, they weren’t prepared for. Spider-Woman and Nat are sent to space to rescue Fury and Coulson. When The Fury gets away, Fury is assigned to track it with Hawkeye, since Coulson showed signs of PTSD after being stranded in space trying to fight it the first time. They tracked it to China to a city that was destroyed by Chinese police years ago but has suddenly reappeared. MODOK, still working for Maria Hill, believes all this weirdness and sabotage are actually connected.

They figured out that SPEAR was using the Chinese city as a nursery for interdimensional beings that they were bringing back inside The Fury, and Snapper, MODOK’s traitorous assistant, was plotting to bring the other dimension to this one. Fury led a team to SPEAR to save their kidnapped members and use a black hole bomb to close off the dimensional portal.

Civil War II

After a Terrigen bomb was set off on Earth, it caused a terrigen hurricane that circumvented the globe transforming anyone with latent inhuman genetics. One such person was Profiler, an inhuman who was gifted with the ability of precognition. The superhuman community was split over how to utilize his abilities to stop crimes before they happen, however, SHIELD was happy to use the intel. Fury was given a new message to weed out a Hydra cell only to find out that he was duped with a phony mission because he was the real target. For SHIELD to survive, Fury had to due, per Profiler’s vision.

Fury fights off his “team” and crashes their transport. Presumed dead, Fury goes off the books to hunt down the so-called “leader” who marked him for death. Every one of his leads went cold until he finally tracked down an LMD of his father who gave him all the answers about Profiler’s vision and how SHIELD top brass essentially sacrificed him. Fury didn’t care about picking sides so he allowed SHIELD to believe he was dead and hoping that was good enough for the vision.

The Rubicon Trigger

After Taskmaster was framed for the death of Maria Hill, he found himself on the receiving end of Black Widow’s rage. Fury isn’t buying it though. He helps Taskmaster get off the grid in exchange for his help. Fury wants to unlock some old H.A.M.M.E.R. mainframes called the Rubicon Trigger, but it has a complicated biometric lock. It is based on kinesic signature, which is why Fury needs Taskmaster, but Tasky says videos won’t be good enough. For this job, he needs to get close in person to copy their body language. The three people are: Phil Coulson, Okoye, and Ami Han of Tiger Division.

Considering the high value of their positions, it meant hell for Taskmaster. While he fought the superagent’s respective superhuman back-up, Black Widow was just a step behind him. She finally caught up to Taskmaster after he got the three codes and was back in Fury’s custody. She was about to kill him when she was interrupted by Maria Hill, alive and well. She framed Tasky and slipped the info to Fury in order to deactivate the Rubicon Trigger, an orbital biological weapon. After the fall of SHIELD, she didn’t trust the three people who helped her to lock the weapon to work with her. However, when Taskmaster performed the body language codes, he activated the Rubicon Trigger. That way, while the rest are preoccupied with disarming it, he would be able to sneak away.

Infinity Score

While analyzing some data, Fury noticed a weird interloper trying to access it. This person was looking into anomalies related to The Abaddon Index, SHIELD’s database of extinction level threats. After comparing notes with Captain America, he learns that two of the Infinity Stones had turned up, except they were bonded to humans. Fury assumed there were four more humans bonded with cosmic power. Despite Cap’s warning that the Infinity Stones are even more powerful when brought together, Fury still plans on capturing them before they can hurt anyone.

These plans put a target on Fury’s head by the interloper, who revealed himself to be Nighthawk of Agent Coulson’s Squadron Supreme of America. He wanted to bring back the better world that Coulson had made, and he was going to use the Infinity Stones to do it. With a combination of drugs and hypnosis, he convinced Fury to be his sidekick, Falcon. With tech they swiped from P.E.G.A.S.U.S., the two of them were able to track and capture Infinity Stone hosts. However, after capturing a single host, Star, Fury’s mind-control failsafe turned on allowing him to betray Nighthawk, taking Star to keep prisoner himself.

When Black Cat’s mom was diagnosed with cancer, Black Cat had the same idea as Nighthawk. She wanted to assemble the hosts, who are more powerful together so they could cure her mom. Her usual crime connections led her to Quantum and Overtime, but she had to break into Fury’s vault for Star. Fury did not appreciate that. He tried to chase Black Cat, but she proved more sly than he anticipated. Instead, he staked out Black Cat’s mom and waited for her to show up with as many Infinity Stone hosts as she could find. The hosts were too powerful for Fury’s task force though. They were able to fight their way out individually, but Fury was still able to arrest Black Cat.

Invader

Nick was one of five allies that Captain America brought together after he uncovered the conspiracy of the Outer Circle. They were secretly controlling the world with the help of five “Starpoints,” enforcers they send out into the world. Cap needed this team’s new help to continue investigating the conspiracy, with their only lead being AIM’s sudden secret movements to go underground. They planned on raiding a secret lab for answers, however, there plan was interrupted by MODOC, the fifth and final Starpoint that Cap had encountered. He had taken them all hostage and deposited them with wiped memories, scattered around the country.

With their only lead being AIM’s search for a lab of Armin Zola, Cap dubbed them the Invaders and made a plan to raid their heist attempt. Cap divided up duties with Fury and Redacted rescuing hostages. As they were closing in on stopping AIM’s attempt, MODOC attacked them psychically again. Fury was forced to re-live his worst memory, but his teammate, Destroyer, was able to break through the psychic barrier and free him and the other Invaders at the expense of his own life. This gave them the opportunity to take down MODOC and The Power, a member of the Outer Circle.

Man on the Wall

Fury receives a secret message by way of holographic cab driver that someone was going to break into The Lock Box, an underwater storage facility for dangerous extra-normal items. Not willing to take any chances, Fury sent a team of LMDs ahead of him to replace the guards for what was obviously a trap. He found a new SCORPIO, Rebecca Hargrave, trying to steal the Zodiac Key, which she successfully snatches.

After deducing her identity, he calls in a favor from Cyclops to get to The Moon and talk to his father, still working for the Watcher. SCORPIO was looking for intel inside the Watcher’s old base. He got the drop on her and with his dad’s help, recovered the Zodiac Key. After SCORPIO retreated, Fury Sr. shared some knowledge with Fury Jr. He said there was twelve unique doors that the Zodiac Key opens, with an unknown number of Keys in existence. The one on the Moon was called the Door of All Worlds. Fury Sr. intended to use it to find a world where he didn’t know all the secrets and hoped Fury Jr. would take his place as The Man on the Wall.

With some gentle nudging from Uatu, Fury Jr. accepts.

Character Profile

• Height: 6’3″
• Weight: 225 lbs
• Eye Color: Brown
• Hair Color: Black (shaved bald)
• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Atlanta, Georgia
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Man on the Wall; formerly CIA agent, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, U.S. Army Ranger
• Known Relatives: Nick Fury (father), Nia Jones (mother), Mikel Fury (paternal half-brother), Dawn Fury (aunt), Jake Fury (uncle),
• Distinguishing Features: Nick Fury wears an eye patch over his left eye just like his father. Nick Jr’s eye is actually missing. He also has a tattoo of his mother’s face with a banner that says “Remember” on the left side of his chest

Powers & Abilities

Initially, Marcus appeared to have no superhuman qualities but has great physical conditioning from his time with the US Army Rangers. Marcus inherited his father’s Infinity Formula at birth, slowing his aging rate.

Expert Marksman: Marcus is an expert marksman, skilled in throwing weapons and firearms.

Combat: Marcus possess great combat skills. Due to his military training, Marcus is proficient in armed and unarmed combat. He’s capable of mastering combat skills or weapons in days or months, even though he is not nearly as good as the Taskmaster.

Variants

Warp World

When Gamora folded the world together, Fury was combined with Rick Sheridan, the human host of the superhero, Sleepwalker. They became known as Rick Fury.