The Marvel Cinematic Universe expands once again this March, as Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, makes her way to screens and, hopefully, can also be of assistance with that thorny little snap issue that the Avengers, the Guardians and the likes of Doctor Strange have got themselves into. But who is this character? Where does she come from? And what does she have to do with Shazam!?
Captain Marvel: Who Is She?
This is a tricky one, as there have been several characters called Captain Marvel through the years. What can we say, except: it's comics. The list is too long to go into at this time, but suffice to say, there was a character in DC Comics called Captain Marvel, but the company lost the trademark to that and switched to calling it Shazam. He's getting his own movie, out in April.
For the purposes of this feature, we're focusing on Carol Danvers, a US Air Force pilot who is initially also a NASA security officer, Carol investigated numerous attempts made by the alien Kree and Skrull races to infiltrate Kennedy Space Center and disrupt America’s space program. During a battle between the heroic Mar-Vell and his rival, Yon-Rogg, Carol was exposed to the Psyche-Magnetron, a Kree device that could make imagination into reality. Carol subconsciously envied Mar-Vell’s powers, and the machine responded to those desires by rewriting her DNA to make her a human/Kree hybrid with abilities similar to his. The new powers included superhuman strength, flight (she can also survive the vacuum of space), absorbing and re-channeling energy. At one point, she was going by the name Ms. Marvel, and wearing a surely impractical black swimsuit. She got the full Captain Marvel title in 2012, but more on that shortly.
Captain Marvel: Who Created Her?
She was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gene Colan, and debuted in the pages of Marvel Comics via Marvel Super-Heroes #13 in March 1968. There, her introduction via Mar-Vell's storyline was that of Security Chief for a restricted military base. After the explosion that caused their DNA to fuse, she resurfaced as Ms. Marvel in a self-titled series written first by Gene Conway and then Chris Claremont. A human-Kree hybrid thanks to the fusion, she would show up regularly in stories featuring the Avengers and the Defenders (think the Netflix shows, but with different characters), which then included Spider-Man and the Thing. She's also had run-ins with the X-Men and has gone under various other names, including Binary, Warbird and, more recently, Captain Marvel. Her character history is certainly a chequered one, including one much-criticised storyline from the 1980s where she's captured, brainwashed, raped and impregnated.
2012 saw writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Dexter Soy (with Marvel's look designed by Phonogram and The Wicked + The Divine's Jamie McKelvie) take over the title, which finally granted her the name Captain Marvel. DeConnick's story saw Danvers exploring her past, contemplating when the Captain Marvel legend means to her and how she will wield those powers. Since then, she's been through a variety of new adventures in her latest guise, including more work alongside the Avengers, joining the Guardians Of The Galaxy and leading an elite squadron of female fighter pilots as part of the Secret Wars storyline of self-contained tales and various dimensions of the broader Marvel universe meeting up – conveniently without directly affecting ongoing plots elsewhere, hence the title. She's also starred in a run of comics written by Agent Carter bosses Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas.
A lot of more recent tales featuring the good Captain have seen her reflecting on her life and figuring out her place in the world. It sounds as though the first Captain Marvel film will also feature some of that. Which brings us to...
Captain Marvel The Movie: What Will It Draw From?
While the actual plot specifics have yet to be fully confirmed (it is, after all, Disney and Marvel, notoriously secretive about their upcoming films), the movie version stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers. It does seem to draw heavily from a couple of sources, including Roy Thomas' Kree-Skull War storyline, though giving her the focus over Mar-Vell, and DeConnick's work, which is where her look and attitude come from (while the writer also consulted on the movie). That, and her cat, which is garnering plenty of attention online. Known in the comics as Chewie, he's actually a Flerken, an alien. In the film, he's apparently called Goose and is a cutie, according to a well-placed source. The film's storyline also explores part of her origin, albeit in a backwards fashion, kicking off with her as part of the Kree Starforce with powers (from that DNA fusion) in place. She'll somehow return to Earth in the 1990s to explore her past and help SHIELD agents battle the evil Skrulls.
You can learn everything we know about the movie right here.
Captain Marvel: How Will She Fit Into Avengers: Endgame?
Look, do you think we have the character's occasional psychic flashes of the future? All we know is that Nick Fury (who appears as a younger man in Captain Marvel) paged Carol Danvers at the end of Infinity War just before he was dusted out of existence. One assumes that Danvers' particular skill and power set would be useful for taking on any mission to try and reverse what Thanos achieved. Larson has said she interacted with various characters on set, so she clearly has plenty to do with the story. But the film has constantly been in flux, so the only people who truly know what's going to happen at this point reside within the MCU cone of silence.
Captain Marvel will be out on 8 March. Avengers: Endgame follows on 26 April.