Goose, the beloved and adorable marmalade cat in Captain Marvel, has a lot more to her than you might originally think. She’s been with Carol for quite some time, and when she’s not charming people like Nick Fury, she’s freaking other heroes out.
Fans of Captain Marvel may not be aware of Goose’s past, so we’re here to help fix that. Here is a list of ten things you may or may not know about the one and only Goose. Some of the list items are obvious, like her change in name. Others have become somewhat infamous among comic readers. All are amazing.
Goose’s Name In the Comics Is Actually Chewie
This may be a little confusing, but they actually changed the name of Goose between the comics and the movie. Obviously, fans of the movie are well aware that Goose is the name for the movie – the posters have not been subtle about that. However, in the comics Goose is actually known as Chewie. As in, short for Chewbacca. Carol named her, and Chewie simply kept reminding her of her namesake… so it stuck.
The powers that be behind the Captain Marvel movie opted to change Chewie’s name to Goose for the movie. The main reason was to make the name more thematic. Goose is a Top Gun reference – something they found to be more fitting to Carol’s history.
Goose Terrifies Heroes
Okay, that might be a slight overstatement, but it’s still warranted. In the comics, Carol Danvers finds herself given a unique opportunity; she has the chance to head out into space and assist the Guardians of the Galaxy. How could Carol ever turn down an opportunity like that?
The only problem? She couldn’t get anybody to cat-sit for her. Not even Rhodey, as in War Machine Rhodey, was willing to watch the cat. In fact, none of Carol’s superhero friends were willing to take the risk. So instead Carol had to bundle up her angry cat and take her along for the ride. Not an ideal situation by any means.
Carol Doesn’t Know Goose’s Original Owners
Believe it or not, Captain Marvel doesn’t know who the original owners of Chewie/Goose were. At least, not in the comics. She also never formally adopted the cat, more like she couldn’t figure out how to bring her home, and couldn’t find a better home for her.
Carol first came across Chewie/Goose during Giant-Size Ms. Marvel #1. She was battling Sir Warren Traveler and well… let’s just say that during a desperate moment Carol, who was Ms. Marvel at the time, threw the nearest thing at him. The nearest thing happened to be a fat orange cat. When Sir Warren Traveler eventually appeared again, the cat was once again with him. This left Carol with limited choices for what to do with her new sidekick. And frankly, she kind of owed it to the poor thing, she did chuck her at a supervillain.
Goose Went To Space
Item number nine on Goose’s list already gave this one away a bit, but we’re going to come back around to it anyway. Like in the movie, Goose found herself out in space. She is surprisingly well suited for space travel, all things considered.
Now, this may make Carol seem like a bad kitty mom. After all, she took her cat into space where she was likely going to end up in conflict. But in her defense, she did what she could for her cat. The travel case for Goose was capable of creating its own shielding and would hold its own atmosphere for a short period of time. That’s about the best she could do, all things considered.
Goose/Chewie ended up causing and helping her fair share of troubles while traveling the galaxy with Carol. But we’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Goose Made Some Intergalactic Friends
While traveling the cosmos with Carol, Goose made plenty of friends – and enemies. Rocket is counted among the enemies, but a lesser known character came to truly know and care about Goose/Chewie. Her name is Tic. That may sound like a weird name, but it suits the quirky girl it belongs to.
Tic was a refugee, and she and her people found a new home planet to call their own. The only problem was, not everybody was willing to let them stay on Torfa. Carol helped them defend their new space, which was how Chewie got to know one of their own so well. It’s a friendship that will never fade.
That isn’t the only friend that Goose has made. She also made friends with a lonely orphan from Hala. Their relationship is sweet, and in many ways, Goose provided some of the love and support that girl needed.
Goose Is Not From This Universe
Did you know that Goose/Chewie is not from this Earth? They’re not even from this universe. This may be a little difficult to believe, but trust us, it’s only going to get crazier from here. Chewie originated from Earth-58163, but through a series of very strange events (some of which was shown during Giant-Size Ms. Marvel #1) Chewie made her way to Earth-616.
Earth-616 is the main Earth for most of the Marvel characters we know and love – including Carol Danvers. Chewie quickly settled into her new home, so all is well that ends well we suppose.
Rocket And Goose Do Not Get Along
We mentioned it earlier, but Rocket and Chewie were not friends in the comics. Rocket was convinced – right from the start – that Chewie was not a cat. He kept insisting that Carol’s pet should either be killed or sold, and quickly. You know Rocket – he’s not quiet about his opinions, and he didn’t exactly ask for permission before trying to kill Chewie. This didn’t start the new group off at the greatest point, since Carol took some offense to the attempt (who can blame her?).
Eventually, the two did come to some sort of an understanding, but it was an uneasy truce at best. Rocket did make one attempt to sell Chewie, but he did eventually promise to leave the cat alone. And so far he hasn’t broken that promise.
Goose Is A Mother To Many
A lot of people tend to assume that Goose/Chewie is a boy, but she is actually a she, and in the comics she’s even a mother! The one litter she has during the course of the comics (so far) yielded a whopping one hundred and seventeen babies. Yes, you read that right. Since Chewie was still out in space at this point, they didn’t exactly have enough room for all those cute bundles of energy.
Thankfully Tic and her friends were more than willing to help out. You would think that Carol would have been the most relieved member when it comes to finding a solution to this issue. And you’d be wrong. Chewie opted to go along with Carol, leaving her babies with her friend Tic. Apparently, motherhood wasn’t high on her priorities.
Goose Is NOT A Cat
By now you’re probably starting to realize that Goose/Chewie is not what you’d call a normal cat. Cats don’t have litters that size, they’re probably not too chill about space travel, and while some could probably terrify heroes into submission… they’re probably one in a million.
Chewie/Goose is in fact not a cat at all. She’s a Flerken. A flerken is a species that looks very much like a cat, so the unknowing could easily be confused. Granted, so far it seems like Earthlings are the only ones to make that mistake.
Flerkens are smarter than your average cat, and they have a few different defensive tricks up their sleeves as well. The most iconic feature is probably their ability to sprout tentacles from their face. Yep. You read that right. They have face tentacles; they’re just really good at hiding them. Naturally this protective ability makes the flerkens considered highly dangerous.
Goose Can Access Pocket Dimensions
Flerkens have one other trait they’re well known for. It’s also the ability that makes them so valuable (remember how Rocket wanted to see Chewie?). They have the ability to open dimensional gateways. In short, they can open up small pocket dimensions. These dimensions can be used for travel or storage. As you can probably guess, the process is probably not that pleasant, since it appears to involve the item or traveler getting swallowed by the Flerken. It sure raises some questions about how the Flerken can travel in that method, doesn’t it?
The ability would be highly useful to a number of different people – especially smugglers. So it’s no surprise that Flerkens, while being considered highly dangerous, are also highly valuable. High risk, high reward and all that.
