Marvel Comics began releasing limited comic series to tie-in with
Marvel Studios'
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films in 2008, and by 2010 had discussed the plan to have them be "not necessarily direct adaptations of the movies, but maybe something that happened off screen and was mentioned in the movie". Then editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics
Joe Quesada explained that the publisher would be working closely with Marvel Studios and the creators behind the films when developing the tie-ins. For ''
Marvel's The Avengers'' (2012), Marvel's senior vice-president of sales David Gabriel described a "more focused" approach to tie-ins than previously, with the intention to reach fans of 'all walks of life'. In February 2012, Marvel announced ''Marvel's The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week'', written by
Chris Yost and
Eric Pearson. Yost and Pearson had both been members of Marvel Studios' in-house Writers Program, developing feature films such as
Thor and
Captain America: The First Avenger (both 2011), so when it came to ''Fury's Big Week'' Marvel "realized they had two writers in house that knew the cinematic universe better than anybody". Pearson, who had never written a comic before but did write several
Marvel One-Shots for the company, was responsible for the final scripts, with Yost assisting him with plotting the series. The pair worked together to develop the format of each issue, and then Pearson "just kind of went until I didn't know what to do and then ask for help." Yost and Pearson hoped to introduce long-established comic elements such as "the full extent of S.H.I.E.L.D." to fans of the films. Art for the series was provided
Luke Ross, Daniel Hdr, Agustin Padilla and Wellinton Alves. The comic retells the events of
The Incredible Hulk (2008),
Iron Man 2 (2010),
Thor and
Captain America: The First Avenger from the point-of-view of S.H.I.E.L.D., with extra scenes added to weave them all together. Yost and Pearson "saw the [MCU] timeline, [and] just tried to approach it from a very logical standpoint". On the title and premise, Yost explains that "There are seven days where S.H.I.E.L.D. had the worst week of their lives...you're seeing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history and how it all leads right into ''Marvel's The Avengers'', so we start in 1943 with
Captain America and go all the way through all of the Marvel movies that you've seen to date". Pearson said, "Hopefully, [readers will] see the respect that the studio has for the cohesive universe. It's a comic book tying all of the events of several different features, and you really get to see how they're all in the same world." Yost added, "there's something going on behind the scenes [of the films] that people aren't aware of, and starting with this comic, you're going to become very aware of it". Yost noted that the comic "got the seal of approval" from
Kevin Feige and
Jeremy Latcham at Marvel Studios, "so this is the real deal" in terms of the MCU
continuity. The concept of "Fury's Big Week" had been conceived by executive
Brad Winderbaum when he was hired in October 2008, with one of his first tasks to create a timeline for the MCU. The first of eight issues was released digitally on the Marvel Comics app on February 5 to coincide with the release of a new trailer for the film on that day. The rest of the issues were set to be released on the app each Tuesday beginning February 14. New Marvel editor-in-chief
Axel Alonso described the comic as "an exciting story set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that sets the stage perfectly" for the film. The comic introduced a red 'Avengers' stamp on its cover, indicating it as an
official tie-in to the MCU. The comic was then published in hard copy as four chapters on March 7, March 21, April 4, and April 18, 2012. ==Plot==