So Brie Larson is taking the role of Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers) very seriously according to interviews. She wants to represent a powerful woman in comics but also every kind of strong woman. Why does this not fill me with confidence that this will be an assurance for a good movie?… Oh… Right…
Welcome to Dude, What the Heck, the segment that analyzes divisive content in comics. Today we will be focusing on the original Ms. Marvel and the current Captain Marvel.
This is Your Rainbow Flight, Carol Danvers
Carol Danvers is a character with a lot of controversy due to her origins and clashing personality. Even in her critically divisive (if positive leaning) movie, the creators put way too much emphasis on her being powerful and stubborn. In her original debut, she is a fighter pilot and chief security guard to Mar-Vell, Marvel Comics’ first Captain Marvel. Now here’s where the controversy begins to role around; in a lab accident some of Mar-Vell’s essence bonds with Carol.
Writer Gerry Conway uses this accident to give Carol the alter-ego of Ms. Marvel in her quest for identity and reflecting the modern woman’s quest for self-liberation from her debut onwards. Unfortunately, the way Ms. Marvel appears is more similar to Carol possessing signs of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Ms. Marvel surfaces whenever Carol blacks-out and has no idea about Ms. Marvel’s activities, common symptoms of DID. In fact, due to the trauma that Carol experiences from the accident and the small exposure to Mar-Vell, Ms. Marvel is more like Carol taking Mar-Vell’s identity for herself via a mental illness.
Whole-Airwoman Concept
And that’s just the internal conflicts, the outer conflicts with fans put on some pressure. One letterhack named Jana C. Hollingsworth questions whether Ms. Marvel is even her own character and her status as a feminist. This is especially relevant to Carol’s revealing costume and the fact that she was essentially a female version of Mar-Vell.
Side note; that’s always been a problem I’ve had with the Batgirl arguments. What is wrong with a cosplayer following the example of someone they admire while forging their own path?
Sigh… most people can’t see past the fact that despite her rocky start; Carol was always strong and never let any setbacks slow her down. She even had her early career as an editor for a woman’s magazine. Eventually, she even gains full control of herself allowing Ms. Marvel to coexist with Carol. For a while she joins the Avengers at the end of a long earned road; complete with a new (if still controversial) look that doesn’t even resemble Mar-Vell’s.
The Fall of Carol Danvers
But after a while, Ms. Marvel wasn’t selling. After some manipulations by the Marvel editorial department; they get rid of her by effectively destroying Carol’s legacy as a strong woman. It was all done by a poorly crafted story of being abducted and brainwashed into a rape victim. Nevermind how stupid the Avengers were acting.
By the time Carol was regaining her footing with new a relationship, her love interest is killed by X-Men villain Mystique. And her powers are later taken from her by Mystique’s daughter Rogue.
Scrambling
Yet Claremont and Carol refused to back down; continuing to develop as an ally to the X-Men all the while forced to leave Ms. Marvel behind. Ms. Marvel even continues to fester like a virus in Rogue to help her develop. Until it was time to let her go and allow Rogue to be her own person. The executives really didn’t think much of Ms. Marvel other than a stain on their reputation, because self-inflicted wounds hurt the most.
Carol eventually gains new powers as Binary after experiments by another group of aliens. With Carol becoming the cosmic juggernaut, she is free to take up a new path untethered to the X-Men. Unfortunately, her time with the Starjammers is short due to poor writing and worse sales.
Riding the Slipstream
Carol later comes back down to Earth as the Avenger Warbird. Yeah despite wearing her old costume and powers, she still doesn’t feel like Ms. Marvel. The sense of failures would continue to haunt her as Carol starts drinking with denial and paranoia. It got to the point of endangering the Avengers and was put on suspension for this. When trying to join the Avengers on a mission to the moon she fails to even get through the atmosphere; she is thus forced to reflect on herself.
Carol’s strong character begins to resurface as a person ready to come back after a personal journey thanks to Marvel’s recognition of her. When forced to confront a familiar stain on her life in the Scarlet Centurion, Carol is able to prove herself by being an asset in the defeat of not one but two time-traveling villains. She even gets a court martial to review her actions and become an Avenger again.
BTZ
Overtime, Carol stays a part of the Avengers but feels stuck in the other prominent members’ shadow. The editing team, different from before was determined to make Carol the center stage heroine. During a reality warping event, she becomes Captain Marvel for the first time and was the most popular hero. When reality hits you with a realization of being stuck, it’s time to make a change. Carol even accepts her past and her old title of Ms. Marvel.
Pull Chocks Carol Danvers!
Carol got an agent and strove more than ever to be accepted. However, she gets involved in messy plots and sides with whatever gets her known; this makes Carol look less heroic and more of a pandering trend chaser. Carol even has to face her inner demons in the form of even more messy plot lines and memory loss. Frankly Marvel really didn’t know what to do with her most of the time.
Squawks Requested
Carol had to once again get her act together and even regains her powers as Binary. This was the Carol that people wanted; someone who had gotten lost and eventually has to confront her worst self to become a better person.
Her character even expands during a flashback. Carol despite her dad’s wishes had to dig her way up as an independent woman in the military to get through college and survive torture by Islamist terrorists. Carol’s relationships with other superheroes even shows a very human side to her. That’s not even including how Carol wrestles her identity from Moonstone, who had her own struggles to deal with.
Tacked On
Carol eventually has to face her past again in the form of Mar-Vell himself. With Mar-Vell becoming little more than a joke, it was time to officially pass the mantle of Captain to Carol. As the new Captain Marvel, Carol takes strides to establish herself as someone worthy to be in limelight.
Flight Line
Unfortunately Carol had to once again confront ghosts from the past. Like a brain tumor that would make her lose her memories… again. Some fans argued that along with the redundant plot lines, there was a presence of forced “girl power”. But really, it’s just wasted potential by playing it too safe. Still, the initial Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick run ended on a positive note. Despite the hiccups, Carol takes her wins where it matters. It’s what helps establish her identity as Captain Marvel and overcome her past hurdles.
After a rocky start, DeConnick would continue to develop Carol as a stubborn yet compassionate person who can be fun to be around, even appealing to Star Wars fans. She also joins the Guardians of the Galaxy and end her run with an emotional tie to a close friend who passes on.
Carol moves up the ladder so high, she actually becomes Earth’s first line of defense from space. She also joins the Ultimates, a team of cosmically connected heroes that use their intellect and wit to solve cosmic level threats. Unfortunately all of that success can become a burden.
Carol Danvers, You’re Breaking Red!
Unfortunately, this takes Carol away from the enjoyable moments she had. Instead we have a character and creatives who are trying way too hard with the strong character stereotype. You know stoic, but quippy. Civil War II makes her go completely off the rails when her crime prevention campaign goes completely south. She arrests a woman with no evidence of the crimes against her while trying to do the same to others; and beats Iron Man into a coma. And the worst part is, she gets out of it rather easily. Even Iron Man had his actions come back to bite him when Thor gave him a well deserved smackdown for the first Civil War.
Operation Golden Flow
Afterwards Carol just kept repeating past mistakes: messy storylines, redundant morals, and ditching all of the character that made her so loved. Carol becomes so focused on being a Marvel mainstay, she became a character to just mess around with like a stale joke. Interestingly enough, this is actually similar to Superman. These characters are so powerful and successful that many writers try to play up the sensationalism. But what’s the point of all of that without the more humanizing aspects that people come to love?
Reporting Statement on Carol Danvers
Fortunately, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in The Life of Captain Marvel. This retelling of her origin has Carol go back to her roots and what makes her stand out in the Marvel Universe. It even shows how Margaret Stohl improves after a not so stellar run with the character. Best of all, it doesn’t make the same mistakes as the old days.
Break out the LOX
The series is actually a good read; it even fixes a couple of messes that are in previous Captain Marvel comics like giving back Carol’s longer hair. It also goes in depth with Carol’s relationships with her family; including her mom who is revealed to be a Kree solider named Mari-ell. Wait did Stohl make a legally safe nod to Superman? Regardless that means Carol (Or Car-ell’s) origin is now fitting with her character. Her powers are not the result of a stupid silver age Macguffin; but awakening something that was in her from the very beginning. All it took was the process of getting out of her dad’s influence; something that Carol had done for more than the last decade.
IYAAYAS
Now it goes without saying that Captain Marvel won’t always be handled as well as she should. This goes for a lot characters in the mainstream comics, especially A-Listers. Carol Danvers certainly earns her place as one of the big heroes of Marvel. But it also means she won’t always get the best writers; and end up getting pulled into whatever crazy event the company wants especially in attempts to appeal to certain audiences. The company has to realize that although Carol no longer needs to prove herself, she needs to be done right. She’s serious, has a good heart, can be very stubborn, but also knows when to just enjoy life. With her appearance in the MCU, I just hope that Carol continues to be someone strong and fun; but not self-righteous enough to drag the world down with her at all times.
The ink’s not dry yet though. Thanks for coming to the end and always remember to look between the panels.