Captain Marvel opens up a whole new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as we learnhow a young Nick Fury first had his eyes opened to the larger extraterrestrial threats out in the universe – and subsequently lost one eye in the process. Fury’s missing eye has been one of the biggest pieces of MCU lore since the franchise’s beginning – but the actual explanation is something few fans would’ve never predicted…
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Warning: Massive Captain Marvel Spoilers follow!
The looming threat of Nick Fury losing an eye is probably one of Captain Marvel‘s best running gags. Several times throughout the film, Fury gets injured or seemingly takes a hard hit, creating the expectation of a dramatic moment he nobly sacrifices an eye in battle. However, as it turns out, the myths and legends about Fury’s lost eye are about as far off the mark as impressions of the man himself. In true fact, Fury loses an eye because of his love of cats – or in this case, a cat-like alien.
Throughout Captain Marvel, Fury is seen bonding with Goose, the cat he discovers in the archives of Project Pegasus, where Carol was a test pilot before gaining her powers. As it turns out, Goose is actually an alien called a “Flerken,” which has a pocket dimension in its belly, and a mouthful of hideous tentacles to attack with. Goose proves to be quite dangerous, except with Fury, for whom he has a strange affection. The man-cat love story goes smoothly – that is until the mission is over, when Fury, Maria Rambeau, Carol and Goose are all headed home. Apparently, Goose doesn’t appreciate the way Fury is handling him at one point, because the Flerken reaches up and scratches Fury right across the eye!
Due to it being an alien who inflicts the blow, Fury’s eye never heals properly and at the end of Captain Marvel he’s seen sitting in his office at SHIELD, trying to decide on a prosthetic eye to wear (which, we know he never does). Coulson comes in and asks Fury if it’s true that he lost the eye resisting torture by the alien invaders; Fury simply gives a non-answer, thereby catalyzing the series of myths and legends that will follow him around SHIELD thereafter.
The best part is how the real explanation of Fury’s lost eye syncs up to his famous quote from Captain America: The Winter Soldier: “The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.”
Not quite the betrayal you were expecting, huh? So much for all those fan theories that Fury got hurt by a Skrull in disguise…
Avengers: Infinity War is now available on home video. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8th, Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.
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