The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week

The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week, or just Fury's Big Week, are a set of eight comics which are a prequel to The Avengers. It was written by Christopher Yost & Eric Pearson with art duties covered by Luke Ross & Daniel HDR.

Plot
It starts off seeing The Destroyer after Thor. It is taken away by Phil Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D., and a year later (around the time Captain America is found), Coulson checks in with the research team to find that they can actually control the Destroyer. The level of control they have isnt specified, whether they can just turn it on or actually choose its targets. Coulson tells the scientist he wants them to "Dismantle the thing and make it about a hundred times smaller...And put a trigger on it!"

The Leader is also shown in the series. After we see him mutating on the floor in The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow shows up and organises a team to seize all of the property. The Leader begins to give a speech about he will take over the world, at which point Romanoff shoots him in the leg. He is taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D..

Black Widow is sent to run interference by Fury at Culver University but ultimately fails and Banner is taken in by General Ross. It is at this point we see Fury looks at Ross as more of an enemy and goes to speak to him about his actions.

Characters

 * Nick Fury
 * Phil Coulson
 * Black Widow
 * Tony Stark
 * James Rhodes
 * Captain America
 * Hulk
 * Thor Odinson
 * Jasper Sitwell
 * Senator Stern (mentioned)
 * Hawkeye
 * Hammer Drones
 * Ivan Vanko/Whiplash
 * Justin Hammer (mentioned)
 * Loki Laufeyson
 * Jane Foster
 * Darcy Lewis
 * Erik Selvig
 * Thaddeus Ross
 * Abomination
 * Samuel Sterns
 * Betty Ross

Organizations

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * World Security Council
 * HYDRA (in flashbacks)
 * United States Armed Forces

Items

 * Destroyer
 * Tesseract
 * Mjølnir
 * HYDRA Parasit

Vehicles

 * Valkyrie

Trivia

 * Volume 1 shows 1943 as the year when Captain America was frozen in the Arctic. However, given the years shown in Captain America: First Vengeance and Captain America & Thor: Avengers!, this is most likely a mistake.