Nick Fury (gh)

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When the U.S. entered World War II at the end of 1941, Nick Fury volunteered for the U.S. Army. He underwent basic training at Fort Dix, under Sergeant Charles Bass. Sgt. Bass chose Fury to be an example to his company and used Fury as a scapegoat. This treatment only served to toughen Fury.

Soon after graduating basic training, Fury proved himself an outstanding soldier and quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant. Fury served with and led the “Howling Commandoes,” a specially trained unit of soldiers whose daring actions across the European Theater of Operations were considered to be either incredibly brave or incredibly foolhardy.

On one mission in France, Fury was wounded and came under the care of Professor Berthold Sternberg, who first inoculated Fury with the Infinity Formula drug which Fury took for many years thereafter, and which his body now produces on its own.

It was also during World War II that Fury first encountered the man who would become his greatest nemesis: Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker. After suffering innumerable defeats at the hands of the Howling Commandoes, Adolf Hitler ordered Baron Strucker to seek out and humiliate Fury in such a way that would render Fury’s and the Howling Commandoes’ reputations worthless. Strucker then challenged Fury to personal combat on the island of Norsehaven in the English Channel.

Fury accepted the offer and the two combatants met for the first time. Strucker offered a toast before the combat began, Fury accepted, and was drugged by a powerful sleeping pill Strucker had placed in his drink. Strucker soundly defeated Fury, took photos of the beaten man, and had them widely circulated amongst the Third Reich, scoring a tremendous propaganda victory.

Not long after, the Howlers encountered Strucker again, and this time Fury challenged Strucker to a duel. Strucker again tried to drug Fury by offering him a drugged drink. Fury refused, and easily bested Strucker in hand-to-hand combat. “Dum-Dum” Dugan took photos of Strucker’s defeat and circulated them amongst the Allies.

Fury continued his active military service through the Korean War, during which the Howlers were reunited for one mission; to cross the 38th Parallel and destroy a North Korean MIG airfield. The successful achievement of this objective earned Fury a battlefield commission and 2nd Lieutenant’s bars.

Performing espionage work for the French government of Viet Nam in the 1950s earned Fury promotions to the rank of Colonel, and to an eventual appointment to the Central Intelligence Agency. Fury remained with the CIA until he was approached by the Board of Directors of the newly-formed espionage agency, SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division) and was offered the position of Director. Fury accepted.

Fury served the original incarnation of SHIELD both as administrative head and as field commander. His peerless leadership saw the organization through myriad crises and helped it rise to become the world’s premier covert operations agency. Fury and SHIELD thwarted numerous major threats to the world’s freedom launched by such groups as Baron Strucker’s creation HYDRA and Zodiac—headed at one time by Fury’s brother, Jacob. Fury also assisted Earth’s superheroes in cases, and SHIELD spearheaded Earth’s defenses during the Dire Wraith invasion.

Fury’s own integrity kept unethical covert operations by SHIELD to a minimum. Yet, any organization the size of SHIELD could not be controlled by any one man. As a result, members of SHIELD did, from time to time, act without Fury’s consent or even knowledge. Most of these operations were directed either by rogue SHIELD regional directors or by subversives who had managed to infiltrate SHIELD’s ranks. Barbara Morse, a.k.a., Mockingbird, was instrumental in revealing and eliminating the corruption present in SHIELD.

Not long ago, the original SHIELD was dismantled after the “Deltite Affair” in which large portions of SHIELD’s personnel were replaced with technologically advanced robots. Baron Strucker engineered the crippling compromise of his rival’s organization, and international support for SHIELD was soon withdrawn. Fury retired from duty.

The United Nations soon realized that some international espionage agency was necessary and asked Fury to come out of retirement and head up SHIELD II. Fury accepted total control of the new SHIELD (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage, and Logistics Directorate) being answerable only to the U.N. Security Council. The new SHIELD was to be a more tightly run organization, built with safeguards to prevent corruptions like those of the original. Fury first gathered a small cadre of agents and began to expand the agency.

SHIELD and Fury were both dealt severe blows when Baron Strucker was resurrected by his old compatriots and he reformed HYDRA. HYDRA replaced one of SHIELD’s first graduating class of 1500 agents with an LMD with an explosive implanted in it. The explosive was detonated in SHIELD’s New York City Central Office, destroying the building and killing all 1500 agents.

This, and subsequent actions against HYDRA, including the successful defeat of a HYDRA team attempting to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear-powered ice breaker, and the hijacking and subsequent recovery of SHIELD’s flying headquarters, the heli-carrier, drove Fury near to the brink of insanity. Fury subsequently recovered from this affliction with no permanent ill effects.

More recently, a conspiracy arose to prevent Fury from obtaining the Infinity Formula. Fury began to age rapidly. At his weakest, all of Fury’s physical statistics were Feeble. Fury’s body soon began producing the drug on its own, however. Fury became young again and, with the aid of Deathlok, he put an end to the conspiracy. Fury now continues his battle against Strucker and HYDRA. He has also temporarily resigned his position as Director of SHIELD to “Dum Dum” Dugan to take time to cope with the losses of the past few months.