The Marvels Pays Homage to One of Captain Marvel’s Saddest Comic Moments

The Marvels is now in theaters, and its narrative ramifications on the Marvel Cinematic Universe are continuing to be felt. Even though the plot of the Captain Marvel sequel involves a lot of zany power-swapping and unconventional Marvel Comics lore, it still found ways to be emotional at pivotal times. This included a throughline that, in a roundabout way, may have homaged one of the saddest parts of Captain Marvel’s comic history. Obviously, spoilers for The Marvels lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

The film sees Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) dealing with their powers being entangled, and needing to use the Skrulls’ memory-retrieving device to retrace their footsteps and find information. The devices go haywire and show the trio a scene of Carol meeting an older Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) during The Blip. During their reunion, Maria reveals to Carol that her cancer has returned, and asks her to help take car of her belongings — as well as Goose the Flerken — until Monica gets back. Carol insists that Maria will survive and defeat the cancer once again, however, we know from the events of WandaVision that Maria ultimately succumbs to the cancer during the five years of The Blip.

Did The Marvels Homage The Death of Captain Marvel?

While not technically comic-accurate, Maria’s cause of death — and Carol getting the chance to say goodbye — can be seen as an homage to The Death of Captain Marvel. The 1982 graphic novel from Jim Starlin saw the original Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell, succumb to cancer caused by his exposure to otherworldly elements.

Mar-Vell ends up taking his pending death in stride, and revisits with many of his friends and former foes before passing away. This death led to Monica Rambeau taking on the mantle of Captain Marvel.

What Is The Marvels About?

In The Marvels, which arrived in theaters on November 10th, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as “The Marvels.” The Marvels will also see the franchise returns of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, and Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. New cast members include Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, and Shamier Anderson. Produced by Marvel Studios, The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script from DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.

What did you think of Maria Rambeau’s cameo in The Marvels? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!