Replacement Heroes – When Marcus Johnson Finally Became Nick Fury

By The Telltale Mind on March 27, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

In every sense of the word, Marcus Johnson was indeed a replacement for the long-standing hero named Nick Fury. With the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the bigwigs at Marvel decided that having an African-American Nick Fury on the big screen and a Caucasian Nick Fury in the main line of comics they published would be too confusing. All of this despite the movie Fury being based on the Ultimate Nick Fury, a second version of the character that was currently being published in their Ultimate line of comics. Perhaps it was just a little confusing for the average reader, not to mention the new reader.

Nicholas Joseph Fury made his first appearance in 1963, in the title called Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. He was a World War II hero to somewhat rival Sgt. Rock though nowhere near as popular but just as cool and more importantly, would go on to play a continuing part in the Marvel Universe long after his title was cancelled, unlike his famous counterpart. From war hero to super spy and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury was a man’s man and the man somebody went to when needing a big favour. He would interact with the Avengers, Spider-Man and more, have poker games with Ben Grimm and be responsible for saving the planet countless number of times. He became the defacto glue that held everything together at least for a while whether anyone knew it or not. Suffice it to say, things do not always remain the same forever and even with the Infinity Formula coursing through his veins, everyone and everything has a shelf life.

So it is that after doing everything and anything, someone would come knocking at his door and it would be none other than his fully-grown child, one Marcus Johnson. This would all take place in the Battle Scars miniseries where quite a few other things would take place as well but this would be the biggest of note as it would find Nick Fury stepping down and his son stepping up to take his place. At the time of its publication, it did not exactly rest easy with a lot of readers, replacing a perfect, fully-formed character and putting an unknown in the role with little more than a hello. The good thing, or maybe it was the bad, but Nick Fury would not shuffle off the mortal coil as many might expect in a situation such as this, instead taking on a new role after another lot of ballyhoo. Most of that would take place in the Original Sin series with Uatu being murdered and so forth with Fury then becoming the new Watcher and now going by The Unseen. Readers were not only a little peeved with Fury Jr. but also at Marvel for continually messing around with everyone’s favourite spymaster.

As for Ultimate Nick Fury, he was simply the inspiration for the cinematic version and thus the new Fury over in the main comics line. Based on Samuel L. Jackson as drawn by Bryan Hitch, this version was quite popular with fans and it is no wonder that when looking to cast him in the films, they did not go with the version that ended up being played by David Hasselhoff and went with the no-nonsense Jackson iteration instead. Other than existing, Ultimate Fury plays no part other than this but it is from here that all roads lead to Fury’s replacement and while it was fairly detested because it was unneeded, in the end, it did sort of make sense to make things even across the board for new readers who were looking to get into Marvel Comics at the time.

Circling back to Marcus Johnson or Nick Fury Jr. or simply Nick Fury as he would soon become known, he was shoehorned into the lives of readers everywhere in the worst of ways and yet, despite everything, he was not going anywhere. Soon he was popping up here and there with guest appearances in numerous books, though not so many that he was becoming the new Wolverine and as such, not wearing out his welcome. Numerous storylines have had him showing up, he was in crossovers and the like as well and finally, after a bit of time had passed, Marvel was having the man feature in his very own miniseries.

In the end, the question is, was it successful? The replacement of Nick Fury that is.

That all depends on what one looks at. Was it successful in getting new readers to check out any book he happened to be in? Yes and no. There were more than a few new readers as there always are with the next big thing though not enough to actually move the needle but there were also some that got lost along the way, the cost of messing with a winning formula. Was it successful in aligning the current Marvel Universe with that of the cinematic one? That would be a yes, at least regarding this character and this character only. They are still two separate beasts and there is little that crosses over, though Brian Michael Bendis did try and make the Guardians of the Galaxy funny and is a whole separate thing. Was the character of Nick Fuy Jr./Marcus Johnson successful? He was.

There is a catch to it though. The latest iteration of Nick Fury became fruitful for two reasons – storytelling and time. One can look at him like Roman Reigns from the WWE. He is here and he is not going anywhere. Sure, everyone dislikes him and all anyone wants to do is get rid of him but, given enough time and better writers, it all turned around and now there are no more complaints. The new Fury is established and feels like a genuine part of the Marvel U, he feels organic and is no longer the sore thumb just like what happened to Roman. Marcus Johnson adds rather than takes away and sure, Nicholas J. Fury is missed but there is a place for things and maybe, just maybe, the latter belongs in the past while his son belongs in the present.

It is a rare thing when Marvel or anyone can pull off a successful replacement of a longstanding character but given the previously mentioned factors, Marcus Johnson did indeed finally become Nick Fury though some might disagree.