Thoughts on Nick Fury Jr?

[Anthony W]

Nick Fury Jr is an attempt to use the legacies of Classic Nick and Ultimate Nick and the character fails at both.

His name isn't really "Nick Jr" it's Marcus Johnson. That doesn't strike anyone as weird? Dude dropped a name he used his entire life to honor a father he never really knew?

He is young and has the ability to grow hair...but chooses to be bald? Make no mistake being bald can be cool, but it's usually done as a last resort. If you can still grow a full head of hair, you still grow a full head of hair. Ultimate Nick was bald because he was older and balding and just decided to let it go and go bald.

The eyepatch...sigh. Classic Nick has an eye patch because he is Nick Fury. Ultimate Nick has an eye patch because he is the Nick Fury of the Ultimate Universe.

Why give Marcus...sigh...Nick Fury Jr an eyepatch?! Because the other Fury's have them? Give him an artificial eye, something unique to him.

[Jabare]

he's basically Nick Fury at this point (or didn't they just port the Ultimate Fury over, I forget). It helps with Synergy for everyone who has seen the movies and other multimedia. They even brought Coulson over and changed that relationship.

We can nitpick his origins like how it was done but Marvel's always done things like that. Look how they've made changes to Wakanda, look what they did with Blade years back. They did it with Scarlet witch, Quicksilver and others. I'm sure it will be retconned and smoothed over in years if wasn't already.

By the end of Battle Scars its obvious what the intent was, but given Marvel's history they handled this a little better then usual.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I'm just wondering, have they ever stated where he was during Stevil's Secret Empire?

[Anthony W]

he's basically Nick Fury at this point (or didn't they just port the Ultimate Fury over, I forget).

I wish they would have ported over Ultimate Fury, that character had charisma. Classic Fury is awesome. Ultimate Fury is awesome. Nick Jr tries to fuse the two and fails miserably.

[Chris0013]

he's basically Nick Fury at this point (or didn't they just port the Ultimate Fury over, I forget). It helps with Synergy for everyone who has seen the movies and other multimedia. They even brought Coulson over and changed that relationship.

We can nitpick his origins like how it was done but Marvel's always done things like that. Look how they've made changes to Wakanda, look what they did with Blade years back. They did it with Scarlet witch, Quicksilver and others. I'm sure it will be retconned and smoothed over in years if wasn't already.

By the end of Battle Scars its obvious what the intent was, but given Marvel's history they handled this a little better then usual.

This...and like you said about other movie things...it is why the X-Men started wearing black leather.

[justanotherclassic]

I think he was a mistake. If they wanted to maintain Synergy, they should have brought Ultimate Fury over with Miles. He still had an air of gravitas about him, and he could have had an interesting perspective as he integrated into the new world. He doesn't have anything that stands out, and by replacing Original Recipe Nick, Marvel also looses out on many of the interesting relationships had built over the decades. I miss his rapport, especially with the Captain America family characters.

[XPac]

He's a botched attempt at synergy.

They tried replacing 616 Nick with him, but both one cared enough about Marcus to use him regularly.

They basically killed off Uatu and ruined 616 Nick to attempt to bring a mcu version that people basically forgot about overnight. Totally not worth it.

[pageturner]

He's a botched attempt at synergy.

They tried replacing 616 Nick with him, but both one cared enough about Marcus to use him regularly.

They basically killed off Uatu and ruined 616 Nick to attempt to bring a mcu version that people basically forgot about overnight. Totally not worth it.

this for the most part

to be honest he does not bother me when he rarely pops up.I know who he was/is and can just move past it.

[Shockdingo]

He's a botched attempt at synergy.

They tried replacing 616 Nick with him, but both one cared enough about Marcus to use him regularly.

They basically killed off Uatu and ruined 616 Nick to attempt to bring a mcu version that people basically forgot about overnight. Totally not worth it.

Totally agree with it not being worth it. I loved OG Nick as a kid when on the Sega Channel, I got to play the Punisher beat 'em up, and liked seeing him in Spidey's animated series and then I started seeing him in more comics. When I first read Battlescars, with Marcus, I liked him and thought he had potential, but by the end with the clumsy synergy attempt I feared that OG Nick's day were numbered, and Original Sin proved my fears. I would have liked Marcus to be his own man, and climb up in some interesting spy stories and be a new generation spy character. To be fair, I never read his stand alone series so he could very well be different from his earliest appearances, but a few of the post mini appearances had people acting like he had a history with them, except for a Wolverine issue where he called him out and said he's not his father.

I love Sam Jackson and movie Fury, but if I'm being honest, I'm sad I'll never see OG Nick in an adaption again. The general public now thinks of Nick looking a certain way, so it could be...prickly and a mess if we have a new animated series or game and he looks like his old self. Even in Ultimate Alliance 3 they went with his movie look despite the past 2 games having the OG Nick. I did like how Wolverine and the X-men & Avengers EoH married his OG and ultimate looks to make something rather nice.

With the Unseen, has eve even shown up again since the end of Original Sin and I think one appearance in Squirrel Girl or something???

(Also, I miss the Watcher from What-Ifs and interacting with the Fantastic Four...)

[Ascended]

Fury Jr. does kinda fail at the attempt to fuse classic Fury and Ultimate Fury. Marvel doesn't really do reboots but I kinda wish they had used Hickman's Avengers run as an excuse to do it here. I don't think we're gonna get away from the Sam Jackson inspired version of Fury any time soon; that's become the de-facto take on Fury, but trying to introduce a son into the 616 so classic Nick didn't get erased does not seem to have worked out for anyone. I hate rebooting characters and race bending but I almost think it'd have been a better option, considering how poorly the Furys have handled since.

[Anthony W]

I think he was a mistake. If they wanted to maintain Synergy, they should have brought Ultimate Fury over with Miles. He still had an air of gravitas about him, and he could have had an interesting perspective as he integrated into the new world. He doesn't have anything that stands out, and by replacing Original Recipe Nick, Marvel also looses out on many of the interesting relationships had built over the decades. I miss his rapport, especially with the Captain America family characters.

Exactly. He comes off as a Nick Fury cosplayer. Just bring over Ultimate Nick if synergy is that important.

[Jabare]

When is the last time Fury appeared up in recent comics?

That last Fury series wasn't bad, made him out to be more like James Bond. I liked the art style. That had to be at least 4 or 5 years back, I think.

New readers and casual readers are just going to see Nick Fury, so in that sense it works, especially with how they've been pushing him in cartoons and other multimedia over the years. Hardcore comic readers, who care deeply about continuity, might nitpick inconsistencies. That's not gonna change until they soft retcon it a few years down the line, what with Marvel's moving timelines. Ironically, most characters will be okay with just swapping their years, but then you've got characters like Magneto or Blue Marvel that are tied to specific points in history. They either keep getting older, and their powers give them longer lifespans, or you retcon them. Cap is an exception since he's frozen and can be revived, whenever.

[a moment closer]

I think it was in the War Machine arc in Punisher from a couple years ago.

[CaptCleghorn]

Nick, Jr. obviously is using facets of both Ultimate and Samuel J. Nick. But where both OG Nick and Ultimate Nick were higher up on the spy food chain, Nick, Jr. isn't as yet. The Robinson/ACO work on their series was extraordinary and gave a distinct flavor to Nick as a high level operative and not a master espionage wizard using people as chess pieces. When thinking of what OG Nick really would be doing, I go back to Miller and Sienkievicz's Electra mini where Nick is brilliant multi-tasking while on the phone.

We can have both a Nick who's out kicking spy butt and a Nick who is maneuvering the greys of spycraft. Even though the personality and mannerisms of Ultimate Nick might be preferable to OG Nick for many, those can be used by Nick, Jr. OG Nick is a valid character IMO because of his longevity and his brusque unpolished style used sometimes to put people off. Junior and Original Nick both have their places. And OG's isn't as a Watcher.

[Chris0013]

Nick, Jr. obviously is using facets of both Ultimate and Samuel J. Nick. But where both OG Nick and Ultimate Nick were higher up on the spy food chain, Nick, Jr. isn't as yet. The Robinson/ACO work on their series was extraordinary and gave a distinct flavor to Nick as a high level operative and not a master espionage wizard using people as chess pieces. When thinking of what OG Nick really would be doing, I go back to Miller and Sienkievicz's Electra mini where Nick is brilliant multi-tasking while on the phone.

We can have both a Nick who's out kicking spy butt and a Nick who is maneuvering the greys of spycraft. Even though the personality and mannerisms of Ultimate Nick might be preferable to OG Nick for many, those can be used by Nick, Jr. OG Nick is a valid character IMO because of his longevity and his brusque unpolished style used sometimes to put people off. Junior and Original Nick both have their places. And OG's isn't as a Watcher.

Operative word there is 'yet'. SHIELD still has to come back....again...wonder who they will put in charge of it?