Thanos pretty much won at the end of Avengers: Infinity War and his victory left some fans wondering why Nick Fury waited so long to call on Captain Marvel. One Marvel fan has made a pretty convincing argument though as to why Fury never used the pager before.
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Reddit user StrikeFirst recently put together a post breaking down why Fury has waited to call on Captain Marvel all these years, and it all starts with the Captain Marvel solo film coming up next year, which takes place in the 1990s alongside a young Nick Fury.
“Let’s say Captain Marvel takes place in 1998 (we’ll find out in the movie),” StrikeFirst writes. “I would say Captain Marvel and Nick Fury get involved in all kinds of shenanigans exposing Fury to the world of Super People. She ends up leaving earth to pursue other endeavors for lack of better wording. But before she leaves she gives Fury the pager to contact her in case of any world-threatening issue occurs. (we can basically assume this already).
It is her departure to the cosmos (we’re assuming) that inspires Fury to put together a superpowered team that can handle bigger threats. As StrikeFirst notes, it takes around 10 years or so before he comes upon Iron Man and Hulk, paving the way for his famous line in Iron Man.
“You think you’re the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger Universe you just don’t know it yet.” – This line left the window open to him knowing about plenty of other Superheros. ie. Captain Marvel and Hulk at the time maybe more.”
After this, the Avengers have to deal with several bigger than life threats, but StrikeFirst gives reasons in each case that show Fury trusts the team to take care of it and doesn’t see the need to call on Captain Marvel. In Avengers Fury stops the government from unleashing a nuke on New York City because he trusts the Avengers can contain the attack. He was right here.
In the time leading up to Avengers: Age of Ultron nothing has happened to warrant calling her in, and Fury shows up just in time to bring the Avengers back together to stop Ultron. When it is revealed that Ultron is trying to lift Sokovia and leave a crater in the Earth, it is already too late to call her in so Fury just has to hope that they will find a way to win.
As for Civil War, there are a few reasons actually, which StrikeFirst breaks down.
“Infinity War the events happen so fast he doesn’t have time to page her until we see it on screen. But why did he in fact call her? Fury just watched his team tear each other apart in Civil War. Earth hasn’t seen of Hulk or Thor for more than 3 years. Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow have all been MIA for 2 years. Fury isn’t in Shield anymore so he doesn’t get updates on a daily so even though SHIELD knows Thanos is coming right before he does. Coulson is busy never had time to relay that to Fury.”
Everyone being scattered to the wind and Fury being on the down low and out of SHIELD command coupled with the quick turnaround of these events (it happened within two days) is a compelling reason as to why Fury wouldn’t have hit the emergency button sooner, and overall it’s a pretty compelling argument.
Thankfully we’ll find out all the details when Captain Marvel hits next year.
