The character to introduce the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Nick Fury. He had a big part to play in the early days of the series and continues to appear. Unlike most leaders, Fury doesn’t have a clean-cut image, as he’s made a lot of decisions that can’t be encouraged.
Most of these have been with the hope of being to the benefit of the heroes, but the nature of these actions has also been too questionable to ignore. Due to this, Nick Fury has ended up doing a lot of bad things during his time in the MCU for which he should be called out.
10 Keeping Captain Marvel's Existence A Secret
This might just have been the worst decision in the MCU as Captain Marvel was known to no one and the world paid for it. Nick Fury figured he would keep the superhero’s identity a secret for when the time called for it, only to never actually get around to doing so.
Had Fury simply told someone else about Captain Marvel, they would have been able to introduce superhero much earlier and gotten her to Earth to stop Thanos from completing the Gauntlet. By keeping Captain Marvel a secret, Fury ended up costing the universe half of all life.
9 Authorizing Weapons To Be Manufactured From The Tesseract
The Infinity Stones themselves can be considered as the secondary antagonists in the MCU, seeing as their use empowered the villains more than the protagonists. Nick Fury took somewhat of a villainous role himself, as he authorized the extraction of power from the Tesseract to use in weaponry.
This was precisely what the Red Skull had also been doing in the 1940s, meaning there wasn’t any difference between him and Fury on paper. Since he had such a high influence in S.H.I.E.L.D., yet still did nothing to stop this practice, the blame lies on Fury to dabble with such dangerous weapons.
8 Leaving Tony Stark Out Of The Avengers Initiative
Despite the heroics of Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, Nick Fury wasn’t impressed by his behavior. By the end of the movie, he had decided to include Iron Man in the Avengers Initiative but leave out Tony Stark, arguing that the armor was useful but Tony’s attitude wasn’t.
This was a particularly low move since Tony was the one who created the armor and was Iron Man, meaning Fury basically wanted Tony’s tech but disregarded the man that had been the brains behind it.
7 Blaming Thor For S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Unethical Practices
Messing with the Infinity Stones is what ultimately led to the creation of Ultron. Before that, Nick Fury was confronted by Iron Man and Captain America over his unethical practice of using the Tesseract to create weapons, to which he deflected the blame over to Thor.
Fury claimed S.H.I.E.L.D. had to dabble with the Tesseract due to Thor’s fight with the Destroyer in order to protect Earth from threats like Thor. He didn't acknowledge the fact that Thor had demolished the armor and had been the one to save Earth from Loki. Fury then continued to argue that Thor and his people had come to Earth and “blown stuff up,” all this when Thor had done nothing to agitate him.
6 Exploiting Coulson's Death To Push The Avengers
While there have been many times that Nick Fury has saved the world, the methods he took were far from acceptable. After Phil Coulson’s “death,” he took the Captain America cards stained with Coulson’s blood and claimed the latter would have wanted the Avengers to keep fighting.
Even though this worked, it’s a heinous act to take someone’s belongings, smear them in their blood, and then make a false claim to emotionally manipulate their friends, all of which that Nick Fury did to get the Avengers in line.
5 Constantly Disappearing From The Avengers To Leave Them Astray
One of the possible storylines for Captain America 4 could have been an explanation over Nick Fury’s activities, as the MCU never got around to confirming where he went. This ended up hurting the Avengers as they had no idea what became of Fury and were left without direction.
Fury would show up when he felt like it but never explained where he was going or when he would leave. Times such as the Sokovia Accords crisis would have been perfect for Fury to bail the Avengers out, but he chose to remain in hiding and let the team break themselves apart.
4 Pressuring Spider-Man To Be An Avenger
Peter Parker was under the impression that he was dealing with threats from other universes in Spider-Man: Far From Home, something he didn’t want a part of. However, Fury sent Talos to impersonate him and force Spider-Man to work with him.
This involved using the memory of Tony Stark as a way to pressure Peter emotionally, even though the latter was still mourning and was hurt by the idea that he was letting Tony down. Despite Peter not wanting to be a hero at the time, Fury basically pressured the teenager to fight.
3 Taking Bruce Banner To S.H.I.E.L.D. Without His Consent
Bruce might have technically been asked to go to S.H.I.E.L.D., but it’s clear he didn’t have any choice since there were two dozen guards armed and ready outside during his conversation with Black Widow. Bruce had chosen to go into hiding after The Incredible Hulk, only for Fury to track him down.
He had a girl pretend to need help from Bruce before the latter found out it was a ploy to get him out in the open. Bruce had wanted nothing to do with fighting or having any chance of the Hulk’s return, but Fury left him with little choice as Black Widow influenced him to go to S.H.I.E.L.D.
2 Not Calling Captain Marvel In For The Battle Of New York
Loki’s invasion of New York was very much a time where the villain should have been killed in the MCU, as he took the lives of thousands of people. It could have been easily avoided had Nick Fury simply called the service of Captain Marvel.
There were no effects of the Snap preventing him from summoning Captain Marvel on this occasion, meaning it was Fury’s own choice not to call her. Considering how Captain Marvel destroyed Thanos’ fleet in a manner of seconds, the Chitauri and Loki would’ve been child’s play for her. And had Fury made the call, thousands of lives would have been saved.
1 Forcing Coulson's Ressurection
Coulson didn’t die as Nick Fury had the Avengers believe, instead having been resurrected through Project T.A.H.I.T.I., which was anything but a pleasant experience. It was such a painful procedure that the resurrected Coulson experienced immense pain.
This was to the point where Coulson even begged to be killed again to avoid the pain he was in. However, Fury continued to commission the project to bring Coulson back even though the latter was clearly in extreme distress and had made the call for his life to end, meaning Fury took this right from Coulson.