Marvel Fans Throw Tantrum Over “Feminist” Decision to Gender Swap ‘Guardians’ Character

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Guardians of the Galaxy crew

Credit: Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios definitively won San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Their massive announcement includes tear-jerking trailers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. However, director James Gunn’s third Marvel Cinematic Universe outing has caused backlash as comic book fans to complain that one character will be genderswapped going forward.

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Guardians of the Galaxy staring up into the sky
Credit: Marvel Studios

The trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 showed Marvel fans gathered in Hall H the first clip of actress Maria Bakalova voicing Cosmo the Space Dog. Maria Bakalova is best known for her role as Anika in The Bubble (2022) is a woman, and for some Marvel fans, this is a major issue.

Cosmo the Space Dog first appeared in Marvel Comics Nova (Vol. 4) #8 (2007) by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett, and Wellington Alves. Cosmo was a former test animal from the Soviet Space Program who was launched from Earth during the Space Race of the 1960s. He eventually landed on the Knowhere and mutated after being exposed to cosmic rays giving him psionic abilities. He became Knowhere’s security chief and defacto leader.

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Cosmo the Space Dog in Guardians of the Galaxy 2014
Credit: Marvel Studios

Cosmo allowed the Guardians of the Galaxy to use Knowhere as their base and helped them where needed as an honorary member and worked with Richard Rider/Nova. Cosmo first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as an easter egg but had no lines. Cosmo was voiced by James Arnold Taylor on the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series, currently available to stream on Disney+. Carlos Alazraqui voiced him in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes.

While Cosmo has always been a boy dog but James Gunn has been quick to defend his decision to genderswap the super pup. Cosmo was based on a real female Soviet space dog named Laika, who died in orbit in 1957 and was one of many Russian space puppies. But it does not matter that the real dog Cosmo is based on was a female dog; some Marvel fans are still in a tizzy over the change.

User DissocialSpace suggested the decision was “feminist,” saying:

“They gender swapped Cosmo the Dog, another win for feminism”

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And other users like CJ Batpunk are siding with him

“ROTFLMFAO!!! Disney is gender flipping a dog? LOLOL Cosmo the space dog will be female in GOTG vol 3. LOL Wow Marvel just wow. LOL A DOG!!!”

And users like Forever Marvel have taken issue with the amount of genderswapped characters in Marvel Phase Four like Ajax (Selma Hayek), Mikari (Lauren Ridloff), and Sprite (Lia McHugh) in Eternals (2022), saying:

“Ummmm, last time I checked, Cosmo the Spacedog is supposed to be a dude. But I guess they’re genderbending dog characters too, huh?”

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Marvel fans have been complaining that the MCU has become the M-She-U as Phase Four has focused more on female characters like Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany), Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be the last outing for some of the Marvel Universe’s cosmic heroes. The cast includes Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Karen Gillen as Nebula, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel as Groot, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, and Sean Gunn as Kraglin. It will introduce Will Poulter as Adam Warlock and Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary.

Let us know in the comments if you think fans should calm down about Cosmo the Space Dog being genderswapped in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on May 5, 2023. 

You can stream Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the seven series in Marvel’s Phase Four so far — Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s WandaVision, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Marvel’s What If…?, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight, and Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel  — on Disney+ anytime

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