Promotional Items
A large part of attracting an audience to a comic book is promotion and Marvel Comics, since the days of Stan Lee, was always experimenting with different ways of promotions both within and outside the comic books themselves.

Below are some examples of promotional items used for and with Nick Fury.

 

\ This rather beaten-up old card is an example of the cards distributed to comic book shops in anticipation of the Nick Fury Vs SHIELD miniseries in 1988.

 

Following the success of the Nick Fury limited series, Marvel set volume 2 of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD as one of six major titles to premiere in 1989. In order to promote the release of the series, Marvel created a contest geared to getting readers to buy at least the first issue of all 6 titles. The back of each of the cards featured one question related to the particular series being promoted. Sending away the answers to all six questions would have earned one a random shot at winning original art by John Byrne. 

The question on the back of the Fury card was :

What level does Nick Fury reach before Val stops him?

(A): 7
(B): Hemline
(C): First Base

The answer is of course A, as seen on page 19 of the first issue.

 

These items were produced in 1995 as promos for the Fury of SHIELD series. The first features the cover for the debut issue and refers to the book as a monthly title instead of the limited series it became.

The Encryptor card was packaged with copies of issue #1; to be used to find hidden messages inside the 4 issues as part of a contest celebrating the 30th anniversary of SHIELD. The winner would have won autographed copies of the premiere issue as well as various promos like posters and stands.

The secret messages were as follows:

Issue #1- "Scorpio is Fury's illegitimate son" (Pg 10)

Issue #2- "Scorpio's real name is Mikel and he made his first appearance in Scorpio Connection" (Pg 7)

Issue #3- "Fury once dated Val, but now they're just close friends" (Pg 4)

Issue #4- "Someone will kill Nick Fury very soon" (Pg 21)

The final clue is curious in particular as its unclear exactly whether it is referring to Fury's death in the Over The Edge storyline or a disused plot from the Fury of SHIELD comic.

From Top to bottom: Promotional poster, SHIELD Encryptor card used to find secret messages in comic (bagged w/ issue #1)

 

For the combined anniversary of the X-men and The Avengers in 1993, a 7 page preview of the crossover storyline was to be found in most Marvel Comic books prior to the event. Pages of preview art were accompanied by dialogue from Nick Fury.

I'm getting too old for this. Back when I first hooked up with SHIELD, Xavier had things under control. Times have changed. Now powers are sittin in the hands of a bunch of blasted kids. Those X-Force brats runnin round tryin to act like grown ups. Now that Cable's returned, I figger they'll run right on back to him. An X-Factor's still holdin hands with Val Cooper. Wonder what they'll do when they find she's been involved with Project Wideawake and the Sentinals? At least the mutant teams ain't fanatics. Not like the Acolytes. Now that Magento's gone, they been tryin to kill normal kids in the name of genetic cleansing. Their blamed Holy war is getting out of control. An' worse, they're poisoning the minds of other mutants. Look at Quicksilver. Course some of em don't need poisoning. Deadpool comes to mind. So does Sabertooth. (SHIELD file 111761).

The war's gettin dirtier...so are the heroes. Blasted roll calls-lineups always changin. What's gonna happen to warhorses like Cap? Thor? Iron Man? The Avengers that fought the Kree. Korvac. Operation Galactic Storm. Even Kang. These new yahoos are less about justice, more about vengeance. USAgent, Thunderstrike, War Machine. Can hardly recognize the new group--just don't feel the same. More violent. Less controlled loners. DO they have what it takes to be a team? Is it a changing of the guard? Or the beginning of the end? (SHIELD file 011693)

 

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An all-star SHIELD salute to Ralph Dula for donating the SHIELD Vol 2 image and bringing this promotion to my attention. Also my brother Sergio Ferre for clueing me into the Avengers/X-Men crossover promo w/ Fury.