Class: altered human

Occupation: intelligence director , former soldier

Affiliations: leader of SHIELD , former leader of the Howling Commandos , brother to Scorpio

Scale of Operations: worldwide

Powers: Nick Fury's pysiology has been altered due to the effects of the so-called "Infinity Formula." This age-retarding drug allows him to stay in the peak physical condition as he was when he first started taking the drug. After many years of taking the drug, Fury's body now synthesizes it on its own. Fury remains a superb athlete, marksman, and tactician.

History: Nicholas Joseph Fury was the eldest of three children born to the wife of a World War I pilot who died in the last year of the war. Fury was raised in the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City.

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 Commandos," 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 Commandos, AdoIf Hitler ordered Baron Strucker to seek out and humiliate Fury in such a way that would render Fury's and the Howling Commandos' 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. Fellow Commando "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 the 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 alien Dire Wraith invasion.

After many years, the original SHIELD was dismantled after the "Deltite Affair" in which large portions of SHIELD's personnel were replaced with technologically advanced robots called "Deltas". 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 a new version of SHIELD. 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 android (LMD or "Life Model Decoy") 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 Helicarrier, 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. Fury's body soon began producing the drug on its own, however. Fury became young again and, with the aid of the cyborg Deathlok, he put an end to the conspiracy. A short time afterward, he temporarily resigned his position as Director of SHIELD to "Dum-Dum" Dugan in order to take time off.

The vigilante Punisher, operating under a posthypnotic suggestion that Nick Fury was responsible for killing his family many years ago, attempted to assassinate him. SHIELD then began a manhunt for the Punisher, who happened to encounter the monstrous Hulk. The Hulk held a grudge against Fury as he led SHIELD in an attempt to abduct him as his wife, Betty Banner, was dying, and the Hulk attacked Fury and SHIELD, allowing the Punisher to assassinate Fury and escape.

Sharon Carter, also known as SHIELD's "Agent 13," learned that Fury's death and funeral were staged. Carter surreptitiously infiltrated the agency to investigate only to find herself pursued by SHIELD and wanted for treason. To avoid capture, Carter was forced to escape through an energy portal she found in an abandoned SHIELD safehouse. There, she found herself in Nazi territory during World War II, where she encountered Nick Fury.

Fury had found documents which questioned the fate of his predecessor, the SHIELD director code-named Fallen Angel, whom he had believed was killed by agents of HYDRA. In fact, the Fallen Angel was abandoned by SHIELD after HYDRA kidnapped him. Fury set about tracking the Fallen Angel, but as the situation was politically volatile, Fury diverted attention from his investigation by staging his own death. His search led him to the "Backslide," a supposedly abandoned SHIELD project which created a portal from a fabricated Cosmic Cube. Ultimately, the Fallen Angel hoped Fury might use the portal to go back in time, prevent SHIELD from being formed, and thus gain revenge for his abandonment. Fury disagreed, and he and the Fallen Angel struggled. They both ended up travelling through the portal, which did not lead back into time-- it merely created a reality based on the memories of war from the two soldiers. Fallen Angel took his own life and Fury was left, trapped, fighting a stalemate war for months.

Carter's presence allowed the Backslide's reality to change, offering a way out. Together, Fury and Carter battled their way free, as on the other side of the portal SHIELD agents were about to destroy the portal, as Fury was the only one who could open it. Carter and Fury managed to escape moments before the portal's destruction, although Fury disappeared in the explosion.

Soon afterward, Carter re-enlisted with SHIELD, and was recently named acting director in lieu of Fury's return.