Nick Fury Fact — November 3, 2026

Today's Fact

The Avengers Initiative began as a deniable hunting party for escaped Nazi war criminals, staffed by killers a president could disown.

BEFORE THE FAMOUS AVENGERS EXISTED, NICK FURY LED A SECRET 1959 TEAM — WITH SABRETOOTH AND KRAVEN ON THE ROSTER!

The Featured Fact

In 1959, acting on orders traced to President Eisenhower, Nick Fury quietly assembled an Avengers Initiative years before Thor, Iron Man or Captain America ever answered that name together. The roster he and Dum Dum Dugan recruited reads like a threat assessment: the feral mutant Sabretooth, master hunter Kraven, Atlantean princess Namora, immortal monster-hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, fortune-hunter Dominic Fortune, the first Silver Sable, and the Blonde Phantom. The line-up debuted in flashback in New Avengers Vol. 2 #10 (2011) and headlined Avengers 1959 Vol. 1 #1–5 (2011).

Their quarry was the war's unfinished business: Nazi operatives and super-soldiers who had slipped the noose at Nuremberg and were regrouping under a Red Skull impostor armed with a cocktail of Nazi super-soldier serum and Fury's own Infinity Formula. A team containing two professional predators made a certain brutal sense — nobody on it needed to be taught how to hunt men, only pointed at the right ones.

The unit was built to vanish. It operated off the books, struck in places like Helsingborg and Latveria, and dissolved back into civilian life and worse once the Nazi networks were broken. When the name Avengers finally went public years later over a fight with Loki, not one member of the 1959 crew stood in that line-up — Fury had test-driven Earth's mightiest brand with expendable monsters and kept the receipts buried.

Why It's Obscure

The squeaky-clean founding myth skips the prototype, because the prototype had Sabretooth in it.

1959

Eisenhower's quiet order — The Avengers Initiative starts as a presidential errand with total deniability, not a superhero unveiling.

The roster

Villains, on salary — Sabretooth and Kraven took government orders alongside Namora and Bloodstone, decades before either hunted Spider-Man or Wolverine for sport.

The target

Nazis with a formula — The impostor Skull's brew mixed super-soldier serum with the Infinity Formula that kept Fury young — the hunters were chasing his own secret in enemy hands.

2011

Revealed half a century late — New Avengers Vol. 2 #10 surfaces the mission in flashback, and Avengers 1959 expands it into a five-issue campaign.

Gallery

Fury's eyepatch anchors both covers — front and centre over the 1959 crew in the first, and behind the wheel of the team's car, flanked by Sabretooth and Kraven, in the second.

Avengers 1959 cover with Nick Fury eyepatch in front and his team behind him — **The director and his deniables**The Avengers 1959 #1 cover: Fury's patched face fills the foreground while Kraven, Namora, the Blonde Phantom and the rest of his off-book crew mass behind him.

New Avengers issue 10 cover showing the 1959 Avengers team with Sabretooth Namora Fury Dugan and Kraven around a car — **First sighting of the secret team**The New Avengers Vol. 2 #10 cover, where the 1959 roster first surfaced: Sabretooth lounging on the hood, Namora above him, Fury with rifle in hand and Kraven crouched at the bumper.

Nick Fury with eyepatch holding guns comic art — **The patch, up close**Fury in his S.H.I.E.L.D. prime, eyepatch front and centre and a cigar clamped in his teeth — the face the 1959 recruits learned to take orders from.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Avengers 1959 — WikipediaSeries overview: Howard Chaykin's 2011 miniseries, Fury leading an early Avengers incarnation against escaped Nazi war criminals, with the full team roster.
Avengers (1950s) (Earth-616) — Marvel DatabaseTeam history: Eisenhower's Avengers Initiative, the recruitment stops in Madripoor, Paris and Boston, and the Helsingborg mission against the Skull impostor.
Avengers 1959 Vol 1 #1 — Marvel DatabaseIssue record listing the featured 1959 Avengers — Fury, Bloodstone, Kraven, Namora, Sabretooth, Silver Sable and Dominic Fortune.