Warning: Spoilers for Avengers Annual #1!
Meticulous planning is a notable skill for both Marvel’s Nick Fury and DC Comics’ Batman, and now Fury has copied a wild and dangerous plan of Batman’s that’s only ever utilized in the event he loses his mind. Good thing both characters are paranoid geniuses, though, because having a contingency plan in place in case of some casual brainwashing or a surprise mental breakdown is way handier than fans might think.
Seen in the second story of Avengers Annual #1 titled “Infinite Fury: Part VIII,” by Jed MacKay and Juan Ferreyra, Nick Fury has just betrayed Marvel’s version of Batman known as Nighthawk after being forcibly brainwashed into working with him to help bring back the recently restored Heroes Reborn universe. Revealing that he’s no longer on Nighthawk’s side once he pumps a few bullets into Nighthawk’s (unfortunately) bulletproof costume, Fury reveals that he had a very Batman-esque plan in place to bring his mind back to him in the event of it being totally compromised.
Telling Nighthawk that losing an arm or a leg in the field is something he can deal with as both are relatively “easy” to replace, Fury goes on to declare that losing his mind is something else entirely. Saying that he needed a “fail-safe” in case his mind was lost, Fury reveals that he used “some serious proscribed technology” to train his mind in order to build “myself a contingency in my own brain, Nighthawk. A hard reset,” one that would help him in a situation exactly like this.
Going on to further explain to Nighthawk that when coupled with the mental training described above, seeing the “Remember” tattoo on his chest would immediately act as a trigger to start a “cascading neurological failure and a full mnemonic reboot,” which would, in turn, bring the Fury fans know and love back to his senses. Successful in the way his plan was supposed to work, Fury shows that while he’s one-upped pretty much any other Marvel hero with this one, he totally took a page out of Batman’s book by mimicking a plan of his that also saw him develop a way to save his mental self should the problem arise.
Similar to Batman’s idea in that using a specific trigger would set off a chain of events that would bring Fury back to himself, Bruce Wayne once had a contingency plan in place that saw him turn into the ruthless Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh in the event he ever lost his mind. Developed so that Batman could still live on in case Bruce ever forgot himself via nefarious means or was mentally compromised enough to be unable to carry out his vigilante duties, Batman’s backup personality is one that’s way more intricate and over-the-top compared to Fury’s, yet still acts in a way that sets in motions events that eventually allow the real Batman to fully regain himself mentally.
So although Fury’s plan is slightly different in the way he recovers his mind, Batman totally had the idea of giving himself a way out of losing his marbles first. Menticide is something that Batman and Nick Fury know all too well, so it’s of no surprise they both have a backup plan in place in the unusual event their mental states were ever compromised beyond repair.
