Battle Scars 6 - OK, Now I'm Fury-ous

[RedMoses]

I haven't been reading this series, as I could not stand 'Fear Itself' and have avoided anything that spun out of it.  However, when I was in my LCS, I did flip through this book, as I'd seen a bleeding cool article about this issue introducing Agent Coulson into the comics universe.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/24/marvel-comics-makes-agent-coulson-part-of/

I'm unable to explain the issue I had with the book without getting spoilery, so here we go:

The book has a character named Marcus Johnson(?) who is revealed to be Nick Fury's son.  In the course of this series apparently something happened to his eye, so now he has an eyepatch.  Nick reveals to him something along the lines of, now that the infinity serum that was keeping Nick young is gone, he's not going to be around forever, and encourages Marcus to get into his line of work.

And on one of the last few pages it shows the character Marcus and his buddy Cheese.  Marcus is sporting his new eyepatch and goatee.  And they're in their new SHIELD gettups, and the captions next to each of them reads "Nick Fury" and "Agent Coulson". 

Nick Fury you say? Yes, it's then explained that his birth name was Nick Fury Jr. and he's going by that name now.  So what we have is a black, male, SHIELD agent, with an eye patch and goatee named Nick Fury, as well as groundwork laid to get rid of that musty, old, stale Nick Fury (sarcasm).

If this is what I believe it to be  , then I am disappointed, as Nick Fury is probably my favorite Marvel character, and they seem to be trying to do a slight-of-hand to replace him with Ultimate/Film Nick Fury.

What are your thoughts?  Did my skimming result in a great misunderstanding of the material?

[S. Earl]

Eh, original Nick ain't going anywhere. He has been around since the 40s and survived death plenty of times. Actually, he's not even dying, he will be on Fractions Defenders team, doing the secret spy stuff while his son is part of SHIELD (which Nick hasn't worked for in almost ten years real time)

[RedMoses]

Yeah, I just don't want him to fade even more into the background.  I was secretly hoping for a Hickman written Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD book.  If you haven't read his Secret Warriors, it's a fantastic Nick Fury series.

[legion of daves]

Yeah, I just don't want him to fade even more into the background.  I was secretly hoping for a Hickman written Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD book.  If you haven't read his Secret Warriors, it's a fantastic Nick Fury series.

 

[S. Earl]

Yeah, I just don't want him to fade even more into the background.  I was secretly hoping for a Hickman written Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD book.  If you haven't read his Secret Warriors, it's a fantastic Nick Fury series.

Read them as they came out and then all the way through again right before the end. Good stuff. I think Hickman probably said everything he had to say in those 27 issues, but you never know.

[RedMoses]

Read them as they came out and then all the way through again right before the end. Good stuff. I think Hickman probably said everything he had to say in those 27 issues, but you never know.

Good point.  He did cap it off very well (perfectly in my opinion).  In that case, he could do a Howling Commandos PMC book. 

[leafinsectman (Dan)]

I love Secret Warriors to bits. I think if it had a great art team that stayed on for the whole run, it would be legendary.

I'll have to wait and see how this Fury thing plays out.

[RedMoses]

I love Secret Warriors to bits. I think if it had a great art team that stayed on for the whole run, it would be legendary.

I'll have to wait and see how this Fury thing plays out.

Yeah, I wish Stefano Casseli (so?) had done every issue.  As it is, at least he was on most issues.

[darrell]

I haven't been reading this series, as I could not stand 'Fear Itself' and have avoided anything that spun out of it.  However, when I was in my LCS, I did flip through this book, as I'd seen a bleeding cool article about this issue introducing Agent Coulson into the comics universe.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/24/marvel-comics-makes-agent-coulson-part-of/

I'm unable to explain the issue I had with the book without getting spoilery, so here we go:

The book has a character named Marcus Johnson(?) who is revealed to be Nick Fury's son.  In the course of this series apparently something happened to his eye, so now he has an eyepatch.  Nick reveals to him something along the lines of, now that the infinity serum that was keeping Nick young is gone, he's not going to be around forever, and encourages Marcus to get into his line of work.

And on one of the last few pages it shows the character Marcus and his buddy Cheese.  Marcus is sporting his new eyepatch and goatee.  And they're in their new SHIELD gettups, and the captions next to each of them reads "Nick Fury" and "Agent Coulson". 

Nick Fury you say? Yes, it's then explained that his birth name was Nick Fury Jr. and he's going by that name now.  So what we have is a black, male, SHIELD agent, with an eye patch and goatee named Nick Fury, as well as groundwork laid to get rid of that musty, old, stale Nick Fury (sarcasm).

If this is what I believe it to be  , then I am disappointed, as Nick Fury is probably my favorite Marvel character, and they seem to be trying to do a slight-of-hand to replace him with Ultimate/Film Nick Fury.

What are your thoughts?  Did my skimming result in a great misunderstanding of the material?

When I read the first issue I called it that they were using this character to make Avengers closer to the movie. They are not going to kill the original Fury but the Ultimate version of Nick Fury is just more well known to the mainstream public and more popular right now.

[BadDeacon]

I don't have a problem with it, though I'm not too invested in the Marvel Universe.

I think it's cool they brought Agent Coulson into the 616. Hopefully those 5 copies I have of his first appearance will skyrocket in value.

[Former Poet Laureate]

Rest assured, Marvel will never let go of that old fart Nick Fury, and it's other trove of WW2 tropes, for some unknown reason, despite the fact that WW2 resonates with today's readers about as much as the Civil War. Nick Fury should be in his 90's by now, for pete's sake. I applaud marvel for finally moving past this era - now if they could just stop working Nazis into every other story, I'd be a happy man.

[RickV]

I have more a problem with this feeling like a glorified ad for the movie than anything about replacing old characters. Worst way to create comics.

[RobCVela]

How is the story in general. I know why it has you "fury-ous" but did it make sense? Reason I ask is that I ordered it yesterday with the rest of my order because it was co-written by Yost and he always hits the mark in my book.

[Cliff_The_Mok]

I have more a problem with this feeling like a glorified ad for the movie than anything about replacing old characters. Worst way to create comics.

This is how I feel about it as well. I find myself moving away from Marvel books more and more because of things like this.

I realize that for all of our highfalutin ideas about comics being this untouchable form of creative expression, that at the end of the day comic book companies are in the business of making money. Nevertheless, this just rubs me the wrong way as being such an obviously marketing department driven decision.

Again, I know DC and other companies all do it as well. It's just here, it seems so blatantly contrived.

[darrell]

How is the story in general. I know why it has you "fury-ous" but did it make sense? Reason I ask is that I ordered it yesterday with the rest of my order because it was co-written by Yost and he always hits the mark in my book.

So far its a fun story. The character of Marcus is likeable and the art by Scot Eaton is nice. Throw in some killer fight scenes with the Taskmaster and Deadpool and its a win.

[RedMoses]

Here's an interview Brevoort did with Newsarama regarding Bring Marvel Comics closer to the Marvel Movies:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/tom-brevoort-nick-fury-agent-coulson.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newsaramacomics+%28Newsarama.com+comics%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Newsarama: Tom, what can you say about what motivated Marvel to introduce Agent Coulson and a Samuel L. Jackson-as-Nick Fury equivalent to the Marvel Universe in Battle Scars? At what point did Marvel recognize it as a necessary step?

Tom Brevoort: I don't know if it was a necessary step so much as it just became a wise step. It's not like anybody said, "You have to do this," but certainly in a world where the incarnation of that character that's appearing in film, and animation, and consumer products, toys — everywhere else — is black, it kind of makes sense for us to not be completely out of step with that. And yet, the Marvel Universe Nick Fury is a storied character, he's been around forever, close to 50 years at this point. It's not like you can just have another guy come in and step into his shoes. That's not really what we're doing here with Marcus, per se, but we are building a newer, younger, more active Nick who can be closer, at least visually, to the incarnation that people know from other media.

[Jordan]

Brevoot makes a lot of sense there. 

Old Nick will never truly go away.  Even if he fades away for a number of years, someday he will get his glorious comeback and everybody will love it. 

[MikeFarley]

Next week,post-Marvel's The Avengers, millions of people will be flooding into comic shops. We don't want them to be confused by the "wrong" Nick Fury.

It'll take long enough to explain the no version of Nick Fury is a featured player in any of the 52 Avenger's books.