10 Super Hero Animals You Should Know

In the super hero world, animals often play a key role. Sometimes they can be comical sidekicks and other times they are integral to parts of the story, helping to save the day with their own abilities.

Previously on a podcast episode we gave you our Top 10 Super Hero Pets, but this is a list of 10 more super hero pets we think you should know.

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Jumpa the Kanga

Jumpa is the Sky Kanga of Wonder Woman. Her first appearance is in Sensation Comics #6. Jumpa resembles a very large kangaroo, but she is a Themysciran creature known as a Sky Kanga. Jumpa can leap extraordinary distances and can even fly.

Sky Kanga were kept both as pets and used for transportation on Themyscira. They even carried Amazon warriors into battle wearing special armor. Diana and Jumpa have a very close bond. Jumpa has even debuted on the big screen in DC Super Hero Girls.

A hero in her own right, Jumpa became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, and can also be found in the DC Super-Pets series.

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Redwing

Redwing is Sam Wilson’s falcon. Redwing first appears in Captain America #117 from 1969. Redwing and Falcon share a telepathic link due to the Cosmic Cube, and they also share a warg-like relationship where Falcon can see through the eyes of Redwing and other birds in the area.

Redwing has over 200 appearances in the comics. He can be found throughout multiple volumes of Captain America comics. Most notably, he shows up in Captain America and the Falcon Vol 1, Captain America: Sam Wilson, Falcon, and Avengers Vol 1.

A version of Redwing was seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but as a tactical drone created by Tony Stark. It is likely fans will see this more mechanical Redwing appear in the upcoming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series on Disney+.

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Dawg

Dawg is Lobo’s bulldog. He first appears in the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special #1. Dawg is not a terrestrial bulldog, but an alien of unknown origin. Dawg, being an alien, can survive in space just like Lobo.

While not possessing Lobo’s invulnerability/immortality, he does have superhuman durability for the most part. Dawg is easily recognizable by his iron cross dog collar and usually appears with a Band-Aid on his face. Lobo constantly denies that Dawg is his dog, especially when Dawg has gotten up to no good.

Dawg mainly appears in Lobo Vol 2. He also makes an appearance in Green Lantern Vol 4 #54 – 55.  The alien also appears in the New 52 Universe in Harley’s Little Black Book #6, where he takes a liking to Harley Quinn and even saves her from drowning.

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Comet the Super-Horse

Comet is Supergirl’s horse. He first appears in Adventure Comics #293 from February 1962. His regular appearances with Supergirl began with Action Comics #292 in September 1962. Comet is telepathic and was originally a centaur from ancient Greece named Biron. Biron had prevented an evil sorcerer from poisoning Circe’s (a witch) water; but, when she attempted to turn him fully human, the sorcerer made it so he was turned fully into a horse instead.

The spell was unable to be reversed, however, Circe was able to grant him superpowers which included becoming immortal. The sorcerer attempted to imprison Biron on a constellation, but Supergirl’s rocket passed by and broke the force field allowing Biron to escape.

Later, on a mission with Supergirl, Comet had a magic spell cast on him which turns him human, but only when a comet passes through the solar system he is in. His human identity is “Bronco” Bill Starr.

Comet became a member of the Legion of Super-Pets. His powers are like those of Superman and Supergirl, but he does not have their same weaknesses to Kryptonite or red suns. In addition, he is telepathic and has telescopic vision.

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Beppo

Beppo is a super-monkey from Krypton. He was one of Jor-El’s test animals who eventually escaped the destruction of Krypton by stowing away in Kal-El’s ship. Upon landing on Earth, Beppo left the ship and lived in the jungle for some time on his own. Beppo has the same powers and abilities as a Kryptonian, but his physical abilities match his physical size.

When Kal-El was a toddler, Beppo found him in Smallville using his telescopic vision. He journeyed to Smallville to be with Kal-El, who was blamed for many of Beppo’s shenanigans early on before Ma and Pa Kent caught on. There was a concern that Beppo would expose Kal-El’s secrets to the world, but eventually Beppo set off fireworks in the garage on accident. This spooked him so badly that he took off into space.

Several years later, Beppo ran into Supergirl, who introduced him to Krypto and Streaky, two more empowered animals. After this, Beppo went on to join the Legion of Super-Pets.

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Jonathan

Jonathan is a wolverine who is also known as Jonathan the Unstoppable. He first appeared in All-New Wolverine #7. Jonathan was being experimented on in a lab when he was rescued by Squirrel Girl. She brought him to Wolverine (Logan’s daughter Laura Kinney wore the mantle at this point in time, formerly X-23) because she assumed she could communicate with animals of his namesake.

Gabby Kinney, clone to Laura, and Jonathan took a liking to each other. Gabby and Laura then adopted Jonathan. After the girls saved Logan from Fin Fang Foom, Jonathan was the one to wake him up. Jonathan also fought against Captain America & S.H.I.E.L.D. when they attempted to detain Logan.

Jonathan even accompanied Gabby and Laura when they joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. He was injured during this adventure and was tended by Rocket Raccoon, who provided him with a Universal Translator. This translator allows him to speak and understand English.

Jonathan has all the strength and abilities of a regular wolverine, but one rather unique trait of his is that he can see Spider-Ham. Jonathan can be found throughout the series All-New Wolverine and makes appearances in other series such as X-23 and Uncanny X-Men, now a staple of the mutant family.

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Throg

Throg was originally a man named Simon Walterson, who was a college football star whose life went south very quickly. Walterson suffered a serious injury ending his career. After his wife and unborn child died, Walterson found a witch and was able to communicate with his wife one last time, but he was cursed into frog form when he was unable to pay the witch for her services. His first appearance is in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1.

He ended up in Central Park and was accepted into the frog clan there. They gave him the name Puddlegulp. Here, Thor meets and befriends Puddlegulp while Thor is in frog form (an entirely separate adventure, thanks to Loki). Thor assists Puddlegulp and his clan in defeating vicious rats. After this, Thor departed, but a sliver of Mjolnir broke off when his goat Toothgnasher tapped it with his hoof. Puddlegulp was able to lift this sliver, which became Frogjolnir and transformed Puddlegulp into Throg.

Throg becomes one of the Pet Avengers joining Lockjaw, Redwing, Lockheed, Hairball and Ms. Lion. They search out the Infinity Gems with Lockjaw at the head of the team. The team recovers the gems and turns them over to Reed Richards after a series of adventures and encountering Thanos.

Throg also appears in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Unleashed, Avengers vs. Pet Avengers and a few issues of Thor.

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Bats

Bats is an elderly basset hound who comes under the care of Dr. Stephen Strange. His original owner suffered a heart attack and left him in a shelter. He was adopted twice before he was left under the care of Dr. Strange when the man became a veterinarian after losing his title of Sorcerer Supreme. Bats first appears in Doctor Strange #381.

Dr. Strange enchanted Bats so that his barks could be translated into English. When Dr. Strange confronted Loki, Bats attempted to help Dr. Strange, but Loki’s force field caused Bats to be agitated and caused his heart to give out. When Loki and Strange resolved their dispute, Loki apologized for what happened to to the dog. Bats eventually ended up returning to Strange as a spectre.

As a ghost, Bats can possess the bodies of people. Bats has 33 appearances in comics, most of them being in the Doctor Strange series. You can also find Bats making an appearance in single issues of War of the Realms, Savage Avengers, and Strange Academy.

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Storm

Storm is Aquaman’s seahorse who first appears in Aquaman #23 in 1965. Aquaman and Storm share a close telepathic relationship, and the Atlantean is often accompanied into battle by the creature, who is giant and often more closely compared to a sea dragon.

While Aquaman has other companions who appear more often within comics, such as Topo the octopus, Storm is arguably the one that most people think of first. Storm appears alongside Aquaman in both comics and television. Storm is also in Aquaman the Animated Series and the Super Friends.

In sea dragon form, Storm can be seen in the live-action Aquaman movie.

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Chewie

Chewie is Carol Danver’s pet cat. Chewie appears in the Captain Marvel film renamed as Goose, a reference to the film Top Gun. Chewie first appears in Giant-Size Ms. Marvel #1. Danvers named the cat Chewie as she reminded her of Chewbacca and she couldn’t think of a better name to give the cat. Danvers did not discover for several weeks that her “cat” was actually a Flerken.

Chewie had laid over a hundred eggs inside a spaceship and Captain Marvel took Chewie and her offspring to a rescue center, as Flerkens were an endangered species. Chewie chose to teleport back to Danvers.

Flerkens have access to pocket dimensions inside their body. In one issue, Danvers becomes trapped inside Chewie after Venom infects the Flerken with a symbiote. Danvers removes the symbiote from the inside and Chewie removes her from the pocket dimension.

This pocket dimension was seen in the Captain Marvel movie, as the film’s Flerken is seen swallowing Kree warriors and even holding the Tesseract inside of its body.

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This list is just ten of the amazing super animals we think you should know. There are plenty more out there throughout the multiverse- in both Marvel and DC Comics!

Which super animals do you think deserve a mention? Let Your Geek Sideshow and tell us in the comments below!