Nick Fury

*"I’m the last person standing between them and what they really want."*
―Nick Fury[src]
**Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury** is a world-renowned spy, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and founder of the Avengers. Fury began his career within the United States Army in the late 1960s, rising to the rank of Colonel before his honorable discharge. He later became a CIA operative during the Cold War, primarily operating in Soviet territory. Continuing to serve his country, Fury joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight against Earth's most dangerous enemies. The great scope of enemies widened in the 1990s as Fury met Vers, helping her uncover her human heritage as Carol Danvers, as the two fought off the Starforce, which was led by Yon-Rogg, as they were targeting Skrull refugees. Fury took a liking to Goose who scratched him for violating her space and permanently blinded Fury's left eye. Fury kept the reason for this injury secret, telling others it was classified but happened in the line of duty, while Danvers had then left the Earth in order to find a new home for the Skrulls and protect the rest of the universe.

Later promoted to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Alexander Pierce, Fury refocused his efforts over the next 15 years to organize the Avengers Initiative, with Fury's true intentions were to bring together any other powerful individuals to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. with protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial threats, which he had only learned of following his encounters with the Kree and Skrulls. Despite some more considerable reluctance from World Security Council who had not believed in his theories, Fury had still continued his efforts and eventually managed to recruit both Iron Man and Captain America into their Initiative, ready for an incoming invasion.

With the Avengers ready, Fury was forced to call them all into action when the Earth was invaded by Loki, who managed to brainwash an army and steal the Tesseract. With the Avengers assembled, Fury took charge of the hunt for Loki, leading the volatile team through the mission as they attempted to learn what Loki's plan for the Tesseract was and who he had been working for. This all then came to a head following Loki killing Phil Coulson, before being tracked to New York City. There, all the Avengers engaged Loki and his entire incoming army of Chitauri in a final battle, with Fury keeping the World Security Council from nuking the entire city before Loki was defeated and the Avengers were disassembled.

Following the Avengers's victory, Fury recruited Captain America as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, while Fury worked on the new Project Insight, as a means of accurately predicting threats; something which conflicted with Rogers' ideals. However, when Fury began to suspect that something was wrong with Project Insight, he then found himself becoming a target of the Winter Soldier, forcing Fury to fake his own death and go into hiding. With limited people he could trust, Fury then turned to Captain America along with Black Widow, the Falcon and Maria Hill to lead the fight, as he soon discovered that HYDRA had secretly managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and Alexander Pierce was the leader, as Captain America had also learned that the Winter Soldier was actually his friend Bucky Barnes who had been brainwashed by HYDRA for decades, following Barnes' apparent death in 1945.

Once Fury and his allies had stopped Project Insight and also killed Pierce, Fury chose to go into hiding to continue hunting down the remaining HYDRA cells. Fury then assisted the now resurrected Phil Coulson in defeating John Garrett while also stopping his plans for Project Deathlok. Following this, Fury chose to promote Coulson to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., telling him to rebuild it from the ground up. Fury had then also aided the Avengers during the Ultron Offensive, serving as support during the Battle of Sokovia. There, he commanded the rebuilt Helicarrier, which Coulson's new S.H.I.E.L.D. secretly worked on.

In 2018, now operating underground with a hand-picked crew, Fury was one of the trillions of victims in the Snap but had managed to send a distress signal to Captain Marvel before his death. In 2021, Fury was resurrected by Hulk in the Blip and attended Tony Stark's funeral alongside the other Avengers after he sacrificed his life in the Battle of Earth. Fury was then made aware of Peter Parker's identity as Spider-Man and was tasked with delivering the E.D.I.T.H. glasses to him. However, deciding to take a vacation in space on Talos' flagship, Fury tasked Talos and Soren to impersonate himself and Maria Hill respectively on Earth and to deliver the glasses to Spider-Man on his behalf. After discovering that Talos and Spider-Man had been involved in a crisis in Europe, Fury decided to end his vacation and return to work.