Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #391: Cosmo The Spacedog

So, there was an announcement not that long ago that Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova had joined the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. That led to some speculation in the Gabbing Geek bullpen–mostly myself and Watson–over what role she would be playing. The big assumption was Moondragon, the telepathic (and bald) Avenger who may be Drax the Destroyer’s daughter. She has a bit of a history with this incarnation of the Guardians. It makes sense.

Well…we got the powerset right. Turns out she’s voicing Cosmo the Spacedog. Who is that? Well, I have used lesser inspiration to write up one of these…

First appearing in Nova #8 (fourth volume) in January of 2008, Cosmo is a dog, a golden retriever to be precise, who was once part of the Soviet space program. He’d been blasted into space as part of the Russian space program in the 60s, but then his ship just drifted off into the vacuum until it found Knowhere. Along the way, cosmic rays hit Cosmo and turned him into a telepathic dog with, what I am guessing, was a very extended lifespan. I mean, dogs don’t generally live that long.

Yes, he has a cartoon Russian accent in his telepathic voice.

Regardless, that was enough to make Cosmo the chief of security on Knowhere. His first appearance had him assisting Richard Rider’s Nova during one of those Annhilation events when Rider was accused of murder on Knowhere. Cosmo was the only one who believed the human was innocent, and between the two of them, they managed to sniff out…um, no pun intended…the real killer. During this whole thing, Cosmo was mostly concerned with the citizens of Knowhere, at the time stashed away in a dimensional envelope inside the dog’s collar. Cosmo would later try to delay Drax and Gamora as they were under Phalanx control while Nova went off to find a cure.

Of course, as a telepath and Knowhere head of security, that meant he had to deal with Star Lord’s Guardians of the Galaxy team while they used Knowhere for a base of operations. He wasn’t exactly a member of the team, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t occasionally sucked into and dragged along on various missions. Knowhere’s overall safety was always his top concern, but he didn’t mind the Guardians so much as long as they cleaned up their own messes.

Actually, if I remember right, he didn’t much care for Rocket.

So, that’s basically Cosmo. He’s actually appeared in a number of animated Guardians cartoons and video games, but now he’ll be coming to the big screen. Or she will since Maria Bakalova is doing the voice, and I am sure reasonably-minded comics fans have no problem with that casting at all.

EXCEPT…Cosmo has already been in the movies. He was part of the Collector’s stash of stuff in the first Guardians movie, appeared in the closing credits for the second and in the animated What If? series, and was cut out of one of the Russo Brothers’ Avengers movies to keep the film focused. The only difference now is Cosmo will get to speak.

Oh, and the movie Cosmo…really didn’t care much for Rocket.