Summary

• Nick Fury has a history of making bad decisions, from exploiting the Skrulls to abandoning the Avengers when they needed him most.
• He kept Captain Marvel's existence a secret, even during emergencies like the Asgardians' arrival and Ultron's plan for world destruction.
• Fury manipulated Spider-Man by sending Talos in his place to deal with a new threat, while pretending to be on a desert island.

Nick Fury has made some terrible decisions in the MCU since his first appearance in 2008's Iron Man. Samuel L. Jackson debuted as Nick Fury in Iron Man's post-credits scene, teasing the formation of the MCU's Avengers after Tony Stark revealed his superhero alter ego to the world. Jackson has appeared in a total of eleven feature films and two TV shows set within the world of the MCU, spanning a whopping 15 years, which makes him one of the longest-serving actors in any live-action superhero franchise. While Nick Fury has often been associated with the MCU's heroes, his own actions have seldom been so heroic.

After Marvel Comics based the design of Ultimate Marvel's Nick Fury on Samuel L. Jackson, the actor was cast in the MCU to portray the main continuity's version of the character. Initially depicted as a master spy and the Director of SHIELD, Fury brought Earth's Mightiest Heroes together for the first time in The Avengers, and his role changed after HYDRA was exposed within SHIELD in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Nick Fury's backstory in the MCU has been explored in detail, and viewers have often seen him make bad choices at the expense of other characters. Here are ten examples of the worst decisions made by Nick Fury.

10 Exploiting The Skrulls For His Own Benefit

Set in 1995, Captain Marvel introduced the shape-shifting Skrulls to Nick Fury for the first time, and the future Director of SHIELD quickly formed a bond with the Skrull General Talos. Phase 5's Secret Invasion revealed that Fury had entered into a deal with the Skrulls: if they worked covertly for him, he would allow them to live on Earth while he and Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, searched for a new home for them. Unfortunately, Fury had failed to keep his end of the bargain even thirty-years later, instead exploiting the Skrulls' shape-shifting abilities to carry out missions for him, allowing him to rise through the ranks of SHIELD.

9 Creating Weapons To Protect Earth After Thor "Invaded"

2012's The Avengers brought the titular team together for the first time under the tutelage of Nick Fury and SHIELD, but also revealed that SHIELD was carrying out some potentially-nefarious experiments in the background. After Tony Stark hacked into SHIELD's servers, he uncovered the fact that Fury and SHIELD had been using the Tesseract, a.k.a. the Space Stone, to develop dangerous weapons. Initially, this was in response to Thor's arrival on Earth and Loki's subsequent attack in 2011's Thor, but the outing of HYDRA's forces growing within SHIELD in The Winter Soldier suggests these weapons would have been used for more destructive purposes.

8 Keeping Captain Marvel's Existence A Secret

Brie Larson wasn't introduced as the MCU's Captain Marvel until 2019, but her debut film was set during 1995, and revealed that she had met a young Nick Fury almost immediately after landing on Earth. This meant that Fury had known about Captain Marvel in each of his previous MCU appearances, which raises the question as to why he hadn't ed his superpowered friend. Danvers stressed that she should only be ed in an emergency, but the threat of the Asgardians' arrival on Earth, Loki's attack on New York, and Ultron's world-ending plan would have certainly constituted emergencies, so Fury not revealing Captain Marvel's existence sooner was a terrible move.

7 Abandoning The Avengers After Captain America: The Winter Soldier

After the dramatic events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Nick Fury was presumed dead, and SHIELD and HYDRA's secrets had been revealed to the world. This caused Fury to go into hiding, abandoning his superhero friends even at the times they needed him most. Fury appeared during Avengers: Age of Ultron, helping them rescue civilians in Sokovia, but after that, Fury was absent until Infinity War - and that wasn't to help the team he'd brought together. He could have aided them in dealing with the Sokovia Accords, helped them in protecting Bucky Barnes, or provided assistance during the various battles against Thanos, but Fury never bothered to appear.

6 Manipulating Spider-Man With Talos' Help

Nick Fury was a victim of Thanos' snap in Infinity War, but returned after the Blip in Endgame, and seemed to jump right in to helping Spider-Man deal with a new threat after the traumatic death of his previous mentor, Tony Stark. Mysterio and his "Elementals" presented a huge danger in the wake of Avengers: Endgame, but instead of dealing with the problem himself, Nick Fury sent Talos in his place, who proceeded to manipulate Peter Parker into ing their fight. While all this was occurring, Fury evidently felt himself above it all, instead choosing to pretend to be holidaying on a desert island aboard the SABER Space Station.

5 Exploiting Phil Coulson's Death To Form The Avengers

One of the most controversial decisions made by Nick Fury in the MCU came during The Avengers, which saw the SHIELD helicarrier housing the emerging superheroes attacked by Loki's forces. During the attack, Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson lost his life and the Avengers were scattered, potentially dashing hopes of seeing the heroes team up at all. However, Fury used Coulson's tragic death to motivate Earth's Mightiest Heroes to band together and take on Loki, using blood-stained trading cards as a catalyst. This wouldn't have been so questionable had the cards actually been on Coulson's person, rather than in his locker, so this only provided a tease of Fury's manipulation skills.

4 Leaving His Wife After Returning From The Blip

Secret Invasion shockingly revealed that Nick Fury had been married for decades, but not only that, he had been married to a Skrull named Varra (who had adopted the human name Priscilla). Varra had worked for Fury shortly after the events of Captain Marvel, and the pair had struck up a romantic relationship in the 1990s and 2000s. Upon her introduction, however, Varra revealed that she had been devastated by Fury's disappearance after Thanos' snap. She had, however, been even more hurt that, when he eventually returned, he voluntarily elected to once again leave to work on the SABER Space Station, neglecting the importance of his marriage.

3 Skipping His Own Fight With Gravik

Over Secret Invasion's six episodes, a battle between Fury and Kingsley Ben-Adir's Gravik, the leader of the Skrull rebellion, had been teased. This came to a head in Secret Invasion's finale, which apparently saw Fury hand over the Avengers' DNA, the Harvest, allowing Gravik to transform into the Super Skrull and battle Fury. However, Fury was revealed to be Emilia Clarke's G'iah in disguise, which led to a massive CGI battle. This controversial decision was made even worse by the fact that Fury must have chosen to avoid fighting Gravik, which meant that Maria Hill and Talos' deaths and the replacements of Rhodey and Everett Ross amounted to very little.

2 Leaving Iron Man Out Of The Avengers

After Nick Fury appeared in Iron Man's post-credits scene, it was expected that Tony Stark would be a shoo-in for the Avengers. However, 2010's Iron Man 2, which featured Fury in a larger role, revealed that Stark was still being considered, and was eventually left out of the Avengers. Instead, Stark would be a consultant to SHIELD, which was one of the worst decisions made by Fury. Although Stark would quickly become a member of the Avengers only two-years-later, the fact that Fury was willing to leave out a powerful superhero from the team proved early on that he might not make the right choices.

1 Fleeing Earth When The Skrulls Are Being Hunted

Nick Fury only returned to Earth in Secret Invasion because of his prior connection to Gravik and feeling responsible for the Skrull rebellion's actions. However, Secret Invasion's finale saw Fury abandon Earth once again, shortly after Gravik's death, now apparently feeling as though his work is done. He probably couldn't have left Earth at a worse time, as the President of the United States, Ritson, declared war on the Skrulls in Secret Invasion, meaning the lives of a million innocent Skrulls on Earth are now in jeopardy - because of Nick Fury. Even so, he still returned to the SABER Space Station ready for his appearance in The Marvels.