With Avengers: Infinity War now in theaters, fans are asking “Where is Captain Marvel?” Here is everything you need to know about Captain Marvel before she makes her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. If you’re wondering exactly who the character is, we’ve got the perfect guide just for you.
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To help tide you over until her initial film appearance, we’ve compiled a 101 course on who Carol Danvers really is as well as why you should care. To do that we have to go to the beginning, specifically Marvel Super-Heroes #13. The “Where Stalks the Sentry” issue was the first ever appearance of Danvers, who is serving at the time as head of security for NASA. This would bring her into contact with Mar-Vell, who would ultimately change her life forever.
Carol Danvers is also an experienced pilot who served in the Air Force and former CIA agent. All of these previous positions would serve her well in future years, and they are also the reason why she’s been an Avenger several times. Unlike some, Danvers can be just as deadly without powers of any kind, something she’s shown on numerous occasions. She even fought alongside people like Logan during her CIA years, so powers or not, you didn’t want to mess with Carol.
The character of Carol Danvers was created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan in 1968, where she would star alongside Captain Marvel in his ongoing title. Eventually, Marvel shifted gears and wanted a big-time female superhero, so Danvers, now going by Ms. Marvel, was given her own series, a book that launched thanks to the help of Gerry Conway, John Buscema, and Chris Claremont.
The character’s changed a great deal over the years, but hit the next slide to see just how she got her powers!
Becoming a Hero
Danvers first got mixed up with Mar-Vell during her time at NASA, where she ended up embroiled in battle between Captain Marvel and his deadly enemy Yon-Rogg.
During the battle between the two longtime enemies, Carol came into contact with the Psyche-Magnitron, a device designed by the Kree that could turn thoughts into reality. That sounds great in theory, but it also happens to give off immense radiation — radiation that is deadly to humans.
In an effort to save her, Captain Marvel tried to shield her from most of the radiation, but in doing so she actually absorbed some of his genetic makeup, and the Psyche-Magnitron also reacted to her own wish to have powers like Captain Marvel. The two elements combined and changed her DNA, now making Carol Danvers half-Kree and half-human.
She could now fight just like a Kree warrior, and had super strength, flight, and extreme durability, and would use these powers under the guise of Ms. Marvel in a costume that took after Captain Marvel.
The Definitive Ms. Marvel
Now Carol Danvers had superpowers and was near unstoppable. She would fight all sorts of supervillains in her original Captain Marvel-themed costume, and would even reunite with him at one point along the way.
Ms. Marvel teamed up with Captain Marvel as a result, but that battle would leave her original costume in tatters. At this point, Danvers figured she was more than due for an identity apart from Mar-Vell, and so recruited Janet Van Dyne to help make her a new costume. This would result in one of her most iconic looks, as Van Dyne designed her signature black one-piece suit and red sash combination, which also featured a yellow lightning bolt.
The Controversy
Most superheroes have a story or two that they would rather forget, and for Ms. Marvel that comes in the form of the Immortus storyline.
At one point, Carol is surprised to learn that she is several months pregnant when she wasn’t the day before. The baby is growing at an accelerated rate, and she gives birth a few days later.
Unfortunately, it gets even creepier, as the child she had continues to grow at an accelerated rate, revealing himself to be Marcus. Marcus is the son of Immortus, a Time Lord, and tells Danvers that he was trapped in the Limbo dimension thanks to the disappearance of his father. He eventually discovered that he could leave by teleporting someone from Earth to limbo and impregnating them, thus being reborn on Earth.
To do that, he teleported Danvers to Limbo and tried to woo her, but she rejected his advances. He then used some of his father’s mind control tech to make her fall for him, and then afterward wiped her memory of the event and sent her back to Earth.
It was made even worse when there was an attraction between Danvers and Marcus, though it is revealed later that she is still under his mind control during this time. She would return to Limbo with him, but would ultimately free herself from his control, returning to Earth. This would also cause a rift between her and the Avengers, as they didn’t help her at all throughout all this, even after she explained to them what was going on.
Ms. Marvel vs Rogue
Throughout her superhero career, Ms. Marvel managed to make a few enemies, but few would do as much damage as Mystique. Thing is, Mystique didn’t really do the direct damage though, as that was handled by Rogue.
Mystique swore she would destroy Ms. Marvel, and thanks to Rogue overhearing Mystique’s plans to do it without her, she went on to ambush Ms. Marvel at her apartment. The two fought for a long time, and since Rogue has the ability to absorb her opponent’s mind and powers after touching them, this fundamentally changed both of them.
Rogue would end up permanently absorbing Ms. Marvel’s powers, but she also absorbed Ms. Marvel’s memories. This would put Ms. Marvel into a catatonic state, but luckily, Charles Xavier was able to restore her memories. He could not restore her powers or her emotional connection to her memories though, and this would drive both Ms. Marvel and Rogue to the edge of sanity at times.
Binary
Carol would eventually adapt to life without powers, but that was disrupted when she was abducted by The Brood. They wanted her for her half-Kree genetic structure, and their experiments had unplanned results.
Logan would come to her aid and take her back to the X-Men, who discovered that the experiments had unlocked immense power, even giving her abilities that she hadn’t possessed previously. Her power was compared to a binary star system, so she decided to go by the codename Binary. In addition to now having control over cosmic energy, her skin had turned red and her hair was essentially pure energy.
During this time she would return and then leave the X-Men, the latter of which occurred after they took in Rogue, the person who had taken her powers in the first place. She would then journey into space, teaming up with Quasar to save the Earth. This would result in her being badly injured, and eventually, she would lose her Binary abilities. Still, even after losing those, she was still left with her original powers and joined back up with the Avengers.
The Warbird Years
She would leave the Avengers once more to join the United States Department of Homeland Security. That change in role also came with a costume change, ditching the Ms. Marvel look and going for something a bit more militaristic and low profile.
This was followed by a new position with the Thunderbolts, who brought her on to be the reforming villains’ parole officer.
House of M
House of M was a huge turning point for Ms. Marvel, both for her and for fans of the character.
It all started when Scarlet Witch went mad and rewrote reality, making mutants the dominant class. This reality changed things for everyone though, not just mutants, and in this universe, Ms. Marvel wasn’t just one of many superheroes. Instead, she was the preeminent superhero, and that stuck with her when reality was returned to normal.
She would look back at her time there as a motivation to become that kind of hero in the here and now. This time set the stage for what she would ultimately become.
Becoming Captain Marvel
Carol’s road after House of M was a varied one, leading her to all sorts of places, and even death at one point. Amazingly those were all minor stops on the road though, with the next real milestone coming in after the dawn of the Heroic Age.
This was when Ms. Marvel decided to undergo a costume change, taking colors reminiscent of her original suit and of Mar-Vell’s. Captain America would ask her to think about taking on the Captain Marvel mantle, but she would initially decline. It would ultimately take the words and actions of her old friend Helen Cobb before she would accept it, but accept it she did.
Afterwards, a brain lesion was discovered, one that would get worse if she used her power of flight. She would end up fighting both Deathbird and a returning Yon-Rogg, and while she defeated them she also lost her memories for some time.
Civil War II and Secret Empire
Carol would find herself at odds with half of the Marvel universe during the events of Civil War II, which revolved around an Inhuman who could see glimpses of the future.
This would divide Captain Marvel and Iron Man, as Captain Marvel wanted to use this as a way to stop crimes before they happened. Iron Man was against this from the beginning, but a Thanos ambush gone wrong thanks to one of these visions cemented his stance, and though Captain Marvel’s boyfriend James Rhodes is killed in that battle, his last words affirm her position as well.
Things get even more chaotic when another vision shows Bruce Banner transforming into the Hulk and killing thousands, and this leads to Hawkeye killing him. This divides the two heroes even further, and ultimately they come to blows over the city. The battle takes out Iron Man, causing him to fall into a coma and only surviving thanks to a device of his own making.
Carol is again at the center of things when Captain America reveals he is really Hydra and uses her own planetary shield to keep her and the rest of the high-powered heroes off Earth. He then plants something on Earth that continuously draws the Chitauri army towards them, almost killing them until the shield is dropped and they are able to return to Earth.
Captain Marvel MCU
While Captain Marvel continues to be a prominent figure in the comics, she is also set to hit the big screen, and fans are excited to see her finally debut.
The character will be played by Brie Larson, who will debut in the upcoming Captain Marvel solo film. Captain Marvel film will be helmed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and will also star Ben Mendelsohn, Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Jude Law (Walter Lawson / Mar-Vell), and DeWanda Wise.
Captain Marvel will actually be set in the 1990s and tell the story of the universe’s first superhero. Danvers will take on the Skrulls in the film, set around the Kree-Skrull war, and will most likely also feature parts of the Quantum universe referenced in Ant-Man.
Captain Marvel is expected to hit theaters on March 8, 2019, and we can’t wait to see the hero take her place amongst the heroes of the MCU!
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