Have taken the first steps in my research by identifying key moments in American history that have impacted the Nick Fury and support characters. Some questions i've had and hope to answer in my paper...

1. what is a pinch-hitter, Stan lee had hired one and it made Steranko mad.
2. Cultural fascination with gadgets and spy's
3. what was the american stigma on war
4. What happened with the Economy to make the comics come to a crashing halt
5. what inspired HYDRA
6. Feelings towards blacks, jews, italians, english, and homosexuals.
7. raids into German territory during WWII
8. Effects of Steranko's Art style on comic industry
9. Psychedelic style of the late 60's early 70's
10. Why David Hasselhoff for the 1998 version of Nick Fury
11. Why reimagine Nick fury as Black, and why did Samuel L. Jackson inspire the new image of the character during the creation of the Marvel Ultimate Universe?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3151459/

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xzCQR3uF1esC&oi=fnd&pg=PT5&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=AKEMOhYS-x&sig=dG8uhHFVXVmTHQ3fodpVq76rYeU#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7i3H_rizyoMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA15&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=LiuXzBIP0f&sig=_dBAcXBcJypkoE14tkdQLt5hWcg#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false

http://mensstudies.metapress.com/content/et12112246113264/

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CTLHJon610gC&oi=fnd&pg=PA4&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=BE1CxSt_4b&sig=UHm-pHzO6uDXe0CqnalC-KSu0Qs#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false


http://library.kiwix.org:4201/A/Stan_Lee.html

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gQD0WX6czQAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA36&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=JuensW3eHB&sig=52vGWeOD2jYBV50rUDgS4-yqvjs#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false

http://altcasey.com/works/alt_bp.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WBSaLF7MAigC&oi=fnd&pg=PA98&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=78YE8BtZQw&sig=NMOzsxmWKbvm2iEDgN6OosHb2OQ#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XLumYSrVuasC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=p7fmtcZIfD&sig=OqffaCk_OXRC4e_3_ea91DDrs44#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wtKyfVZ0fUoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1919&dq=%22Sgt.+Fury+and+his+howling+commandos%22&ots=_JFb_YqXo0&sig=CEP5G6RjnVLyqg2RabTRRL0BQ18#v=onepage&q=%22Sgt.%20Fury%20and%20his%20howling%20commandos%22&f=false

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/4/5951-6724-6508-1-sgt-fury_super.jpg

Have narrowed down my topic to the Adaptation of Nick Fury to Social events and issues in american history. starting with being Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos in WWII, to present day Director of shield. His re imagination from White man to Black and back to white again. Diving into the comic books themselves as well as the portrayals in multimedia (Video Games and Movies) primarily from David Hasselhoff  in the 1990's film Nick Fury:Agent of Shield and the latest of Samuel L. Jackson in the upcoming 2012 film of The Avengers as the Director of  S.H.I.E.L.D. Which stands for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division, a group in the marvel universe that combats H.Y.D.R.A which is not an acronym but is loosly based on the James Bond Universe organization known as S.P.E.C.T.R.E or Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.

http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ablit/amerlit/comics.html

Way to go Stanford.

Going to start looking into a few things dealing with the emergence of the Captains; Captain America, Captain Britain, and Captain Canuck. Stanford University has the complete collection of Captain America as Ben pointed out, so ordering that Micro fische will be a good start. Now i know where my Weekend is going. Other sources i thought of are Interviews of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the recently deceased Joe Simon...some of which are on Youtube.com

Late night ideas
            - X-men = Theory of Evolution and is a Portrayal of The Civil Rights Movement. Xavier is Dr. Martin Luther King and Eric (Magneto) represents Malcom X. Idea came via a Journal article entitled Americans Dream in Mutants.
            -For the paper i could take a couple themes in American History and show how they are portrayed in the works of Marvel. Would most likely do; WWII, civil rights movement, The Cold War, and something  else that i haven't decided...possibly Outer Space and exploration.

Some works I want to include...X-men, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, and Captain America (and the other captains from various countries ex: Captain Britain and Captain Canuck.)

http://thenewamerican.com/history/american/8351-when-marvel-comics-was-anti-communist

http://comicbooks.about.com/od/cultureofcomics/a/societyissues.htm

http://skullsinthestars.com/2010/02/13/captain-america-has-a-tradition-of-social-commentary/

http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/Captain_America.htm

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Sgt._Fury_and_his_Howling_Commandos

http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Sgt_Fury_and_his_Howling_Commandos_Vol_1_125.jpg

I decided to write my paper on social issues for american through the medium of comic books. Then i narrowed that down into just Marvel Comics because they are more issue oriented than their DC rival who have been known to have more chaotic story lines. Knowing that the topic is still broad i figure that i would either pick a couple social issues and show how all of marvel's comics show them. Another possibility is to approach a couple different Titles and explore their series and how they tackle social issues. So far i have found several journal articles that i need to read through, then post my findings on here and see if i can come up with something more concrete.