*****MARVEL COMIC SPOILER ALERT*****
USA Today, which has established itself as THE place for comic-spoiling news reports over the past few years, broke the story that Agent Coulson (from the Marvel movies) will be appearing in the comics. Also, there was a scoop about the son of Nick Fury in the 616 universe which deserves its own few paragraphs.
Bear with me as I briefly explain the history if Nick Fury from Marvel comics and movies. Back in the 1960s, Fury was created as a WWII hero who had taken something called the infinity formula which slowed his aging to a crawl. That's why he's still alive and active in current comics. He was later reinvented as a super spy in SHIELD. Some time down the line, he became the head of SHIELD. Also, he was a white guy. David Hasselhoff played him in a bad made for TV movie in the late 1990s.
Along comes 2001, and Marvel decides to launch the Ultimate Marvel Universe which will be completely separate from the mainstream Marvel Universe (commonly referred to as Marvel 616 for reasons I won't go into here). The idea was to restart well known characters in the 2000s rather than the 1960s. For example, Ultimate Peter Parker was a web designer rather than a news paper photographer. Anyway, one of the things that got changed in the Ultimate universe was that Nick Fury was now black, and looked a lot like Samuel L. Jackson. This (among other things) gave the Ultimate universe a bit more racial diversity, and the Sam Jackson Fury ended up being the choice for the movies.
Follow me so far? So, the Marvel movies are huge hits, and Marvel wants to capitalize on that in the 616 universe. It's been long established that 616 Fury has a few kids out of wedlock. At least three sons, in fact, with the latest one being a (half, obviously) black soldier named Marcus Johnson that Fury himself didn't even know existed. In the latest issue of the miniseries Battle Scars, Marcus loses an eye, and looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson. And his main homie is going to be Agent Coulson. And he's probably going to change his name to Fury at some point in the near future. And the classic, white 616 Fury is still around. So, Marvel has successfully created a black Fury in the 616 universe to match their massively successful movies without killing off the classic white version (yet). And the fanboys completely lost their shit.
*****End of Marvel Comics spoilers*****
I just went to the comic store and bought the entire 6 issue Battle Scars series moments ago. Hopefully I'll have the time to read and review it between now and Friday.
