Nick Fury

We invite you to write your own introduction to this review. Make it something about shouting, or being angry, or maybe make a Deep Blue Sea joke. It'll be hilarious. As commander of the world's most powerful and secret spy organization, Nick Fury tries not to get directly involved in combat. Still, there's always a time to make an exception. Iron Man is the centerpiece of all his carefully laid plans, so Fury has no reservations about jumping right into the fight. When it was first announced that Samuel L. Jackson would be playing Nick Fury in Iron Man, I remember someone saying "so this is going to be an Ultimate Iron Man movie?" which to me seems remarkably stupid. Is Spider-Man an Ultimate movie because it starts in high school and there's no Gwen Stacey? Is X-Men a 616 movie because Wolverine has the right hair? Of course not! Yes, Ultimate Nick Fury is based on SLJ, but that doesn't mean poop. Nick is a military guy, so it shouldn't be too surprising that his body is cobbled together from GI Joe parts. He uses Beachhead's upper body (with the belt retooled to remove the grenades), Storm Shadow's hands and Dusty's legs. It's an effective combo, befitting a covert ops soldier. He's wearing a cableknit sweater, cargo pants and sturdy boots, and that sounds right on the money. The clothes are dark grey, with gloss black used for the belt and boots. The head is new; no question about that. It's not like they could just paint a Serpentor head brown and draw on an eyepatch, you know? This is a fully-fledged Samuel L. Jackson likeness, not quite as good as some of the Mace Windu figures, but still recognizably Sam. The eyepatch is sculpted all the way around his head, and he's even got the nifty little scars on his eye. Terrific! Fury's only weapon is a small silver pistol, but he's also got a softgoods trenchcoat and a shoulder holster underneath. The gun and the holster (which is non-functioning - it's got a gun sculpted in it) are reused from the movie version of General Hawk, and they look perfect here. The coat is well made, and it's a surprisingly thin material, so it doesn't look like it's a foot thick on his 4" body. This figure is only available in the Toys Я Us-exclusive "Fury of Combat" set, with two Army drones and a Mark VI Iron Man. The drones are similarly exclusive, so really you're only getting saddled with an Iron Man you might already have. That's a better ratio than most box sets will give you, so consider this one better than average. -- 01/17/11

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