Commentary: The MCU Fury Has Opportunities His Comics Counterpart Does Not
by Frank Martin
It was fairly obvious that the characters from Marvel Comics were never going to be a direct translation in the movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe faced a lot of logistical challenges in making its characters and shared stories exist on the screen. Many of the eventual changes were practical because the stories just couldn’t be told the same way. But through this practicality, opportunities arose to take characters in new and different directions that they couldn’t necessarily experience in the comics. Samuel Jackson‘s Nick Fury in Secret Invasion is a prime example of this.
In the comics, Fury is enhanced by a serum that significantly slows down the aging process. This is what allows him to still be a healthy soldier into the 21st Century even though he fought in World War II. He has a very different backstory in the MCU. He is, essentially, a spy that elevates to the level of super spy within S.H.I.E.L.D. after meeting Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in the 1990s. Even though the backstories are different, the roles of the characters are more or less the same as they view themselves as guardians of the Earth and spymasters.
But this change in backstory has consequences for the character. MCU Nick Fury does indeed age, so he’s forced to grow older and deal with the repercussions of being aged out of the spy game. This is seen specifically in Secret Invasion as Fury is not the super spy he once was. This is a storyline that couldn’t work in the comics given the time compressed nature of Fury’s character. For practical reasons, the MCU couldn’t have Fury be ageless. Sam Jackson was already a fairly old actor when he was cast in the role. But this unique situation allowed the film universe to touch upon a character arc that the comics would never be able to.
Secret Invasion is streaming on Disney+.
