In this feature I spotlight changes made to comic book characters that are based on outside media. I'm sure you can think of other examples, so feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you want to suggest some other examples for future installments.
Today, based on a bunch of different requests from readers, I'll feature who Agent Coulson and the African-American Nick Fury made their way from the movies into the comics...
Obviously, for years, the top spy in the Marvel Universe was Nick Fury...
In the early 2000s, Marvel introduced their Ultimate Universe, which had re-imagined versions of all of their classic heroes and in this universe, Nick Fury was African-American and looked like actor Samuel L. Jackson (unbeknownst to Jackson himself at the time, as I addressed in this old Comic Book Legends Revealed)...
Marvel then cast Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in their Iron Man film...
That same film had a clever bit when a seemingly innocuous government official who kept trying to get an appointment with Tony Stark in the film, played by Clark Gregg, turned out to be a SHIELD agent, as well, Agent Coulson...
Coulson became a popular recurring character in the Marvel films and is now starring in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD TV series.
Okay, so that's where we were circa 2011. How, then, did Marvel get Coulson and this version of Nick Fury into the regular Marvel Universe? Go to the next page to find out!
After the Marvel crossover Fear Itself, we had a mini-series called Battle Scars (written by Chris Yost, Cullen Bunn and Matt Fraction and drawn by Scot Eaton and Andrew Hennessey), whose first issue introduced us to two Army Rangers, Marcus Johnson and his best friend "Cheese"...
Eventually we learn that Marcus is the son of Nick Fury and bad guys want to kill him (or WORSE!). Cheese helps out his friend and in the end (after Marcus loses an eye), both men get offered jobs at SHIELD...
And so there you have it, that's how we got Agent Coulson and an African-American Nick Fury into the regular Marvel Universe.
Feel free to suggest other examples of outside media influencing comic book universe by sending me an e-mail with your suggestion at bcronin@comicbookresources.com