‘Captain Marvel’ Originally Included Key Marvel Comics Character

Captain Marvel originally included a key character from Kelly Sue DeConnick‘s run with the character in Marvel Comics: Helen Cobb.

On the pages of those comics penned by DeConnick (the very same pages which play a huge role in influencing the Captain Marvel movie), Carol Danvers is left investigating one of her greatest inspirations. In a story which sees her travel back in time, she encounters Helen Cobb, the woman responsible for nabbing the record for the highest flight of all-time at 35,000 feet — a record Carol sought to break. While shades of Helen Cobb are present in other characters in Captain Marvel, such as Annette Bening’s character calling Carol “Ace” whereas Helen would call Carol “Kitten,” the character is not in the final cut of the movie. Originally, she was.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige sat down with Comicbook.com to discuss the upcoming film, where he admits the comic influence is “for sure a lot of Kelly Sue DeConnick.” Then, of course, comes the live-action changes over “years of developing the movie, and years of thinking about it,” before directors come into play. “Then bringing on new voices and when Anna [Boden] and Ryan [Fleck] came on, really bring it into focus,” Feige said. “You know, there’s a lot of discussions about Helen Cobb and bring her in somehow. And, she was in some drafts.”

Feige was quick to look over at executive producer Jonathan Schwartz for confirmation. “She was,” Schwartz said. “She was in there for a while.”

“Yeah,” Feige adds. “But ultimately, the story is about Carol Danvers, so everything had to focus and funnel through her.”

Directors of Captain Marvel, Boden and Fleck, agree with Feige on the source material which inspired the film (as seen in the interview in the video above).

“We read a lot and felt like which parts of it we gravitated towards, which things excited us, which elements we felt like we could live with for two years,” Boden explained. “And the most important element is really the character of Carol Danvers and this particular version of the character which really was inspired by Kelly Sue DeConnick’s.”

While the story is ultimately altered from the comic book run of DeConnick as a means to fit Captain Marvel into the Marvel Cinematic Universe while also telling its own standalone story, it is the character-design which needed to shine through. Boden wanted to focus on “her humor, her grit, but also just her humanity and her relationships with other women that [DeConnick] wrote so well.” As fans will see when watching the film, the inspirational origin story is loaded with heart. “There are moments in those comics that aren’t about action at all and are just about feeling the emotion of the death of a friend, and those are the moments that stick with me as much as the action-oriented kick-ass moments,” Boden said.

Captain Marvel opens in theaters on March 8, 2019.