hjhjjIn the normal Marvel Universe, Nick Fury is a WWII vet with one eye, a cigar habit and a big flying ship called the Helicarrier. That last item comes to him as part of his job* as the director of SHIELD**. In the Ultimate Universe, Marvel’s rebooted line of comics designed to appeal to modern audiences (and have less baggage in terms of continuity), Nick Fury is Samuel L. Jackson with an eye patch – the character is literally and obviously modeled after the actor.

So if your comic book movie – in this case Iron Man – needs a Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD cameo, who do you get? According to Aint It Cool News, you get Samuel L. Jackson. And AICN would know – remember that Jon Favreau worked on John Carter of Mars with Harry, so if this rumor was bad, it would have been debunked before being printed. Heck, it probably originated in Favreau’s office, and I think you can take this to the bank.

According to Drew McWeeny, Jackson is filming his bit today. This is exciting for those of us who have waited a long time to see something approaching a cohesive Marvel Universe hitting screens – Marvel Studios is planning an Avengers movie, based on the comic company’s team comprised of its greatest heroes; in the Ultimate Universe the Avengers are the Ultimates, and they work under Nick Fury and SHIELD. Word is that the Avengers movie is going to be styled on the Ultimates comic, so you can see that it looks like Samuel L. Jackson has just earned himself a new franchise.

By the way, how cool is Iron Man sounding? Our own Jeremy Smith was on the set, and he reported back to me that his initial disinterest in the project got turned around after seeing what Favreau et al are doing with the property. Man, my fingers are crossed that this one is good….

* Yes, continuity hounds, Nick Fury no longer has this job. But it’s comics… he’ll get it back.

** I actually have no idea what this stands for anymore; the meaning of the acronym has changed over time. It used to be Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division.