Marvel Nearly Had A Very Different Captain Marvel

09/09/2017 05:15 pm EDT

Over the past five years, Marvel has solidified Carol Danvers, the Avenger formerly known as Ms. Marvel and Warbird, as Captain Marvel. However, before the Carol Corps was born, there were some very different plans in place for another Marvel hero to become the new Captain Marvel.

According to writer Sean McKeever, Marvel at one point planned for Greg Willis, the character McKeever co-created with artist Mike Norton in 2005, to become the new Captain Marvel.

McKeever acknowledged these plans earlier today on Twitter.

When asked for further details, McKeever revealed that he was to write a Captain Marvel series starring Willis as the titular hero following Gravity's death in the Beyond miniseries and resurrection as Captain Marvel during the events of Civil War, but these plans were scrapped for reasons that remain unclear. Gravity was instead revived in the pages of Fantastic Four.

Marvel Comics did stage the high-profile return of Captain Marvel in the pages of tie-in one-shot Civil War: The Return. However, the Captain Marvel who appeared in that issue posed as Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel, but was revealed to be a Skrull sleeper agent as part of the Secret Invasion storyline. Perhaps Civil War: The Return was originally intended to be the return of Greg Willis as Captain Marvel rather than the introduction of a Mar-Vell imposter.

It should be noted that the decision to allow Carol Danvers to become Captain Marvel, and the later decision to make a movie about Carol Danvers, most likely had nothing to do with Gravity not become Captain Marvel since Carol wouldn't take over in the role until 2012, five years after the end of Civil War.

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