Captain Marvel: How Does Nick Fury Lose His Eye?
Wanna know how he got that scar?
Ever since he walked into the MCU in the post-credits scene of Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury has been an eye-patch wearing badass. It's a hugely recognisable part of the character - his eye-conography, you might say but probably shouldn't - but just why does he have to wear it?
Across the MCU, we've had a number of references to Fury's missing eye. Tony Stark questioned whether to look at it, Fury's made jokes about it ("keeping an eye on you" puns), and it came in handy during The Winter Soldier, when it was revealed he'd kept the eyeball, which gave him greater security access after Alexander Pierce attempted to shut him out.
But in terms of what actually happened, the closest we've come is in an exchange with Captain America during The Winter Soldier, where he tells him: "The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye."
That only added to the mystique around it though, with various theories concocted as to how he might've lost it. For a long time, it didn't look like they'd ever give a proper answer, instead allowing it to remain ambiguous like the Joker's scars in The Dark Knight, but then Jackson was cast in Captain Marvel, a story taking place in the 1990s.
If any film was going to show how he lost his eye, it was this one, since he was being de-aged and would start off with both eyes intact. Another clue as to how it might happen came with the trailer: there, Fury got close to the cat Goose, and instantly there was a theory that the cat would be responsible. Another notion was that it'd be a Skrull, with Fury's 'trust' being because they were imitating someone close to him.
The film has some fun with this, because Fury gets involved in a fight with a Skrull early on, and wouldn't you know it, sustains an injury to his eye. It gets a scratch, but he's able to laugh at off. Nudge nudge, wink wink, eh.
Across the rest of the film, Fury then goes on to build a great relationship with Goose. In short, he absolutely adores that cat, constantly fawning over how cute he is, and continuing to do so even when he realises he's not a cat and is a powerful alien creature known as a Flerken. In other words, he completely trusts in the cat, especially since Goose saves him on a couple of occasions. And then Goose pounces, sick of the constant attention (which is entirely fitting with being a cat, alien or otherwise), and scratches Fury's eye.
Even then, though, he shrugs it off as nothing major at first. Just another scratch. Except, of course, Goose is an alien, with a bacteria contained in his claws that leads to an incurable infection, and a few days later Fury has had to lose his eye. Agent Coulson asks him what happens, citing a story of Fury's heroics in a battle with the Kree, which Fury will neither confirm nor deny, and thus a legend is born.
It's a brilliant way of answering the question: the Fury/Goose relationship is great throughout Captain Marvel, and after a lot of speculation as to what really happened, there's something very funny about the fact that it was just a cat (admittedly, an alien cat) that led to him losing his eye, and that's why he'll never talk about it.
What did you think of the Fury eye reveal? Let us know down in the comments.