Comics Explained: Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)

As of writing this week Marvel released the trailer for Captain Marvel marking the debut of Captain Marvel into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Carol Danvers has had a long, and complicated, history in the Marvel universe. For decades she has been an integral part of the Marvel universe constantly being regarded in the top spots of the most important Avengers being referred to as 'quite possibly Marvel's mightiest Avenger'. Due to her having a long history in Marvel we won't go over everything that has happened in her publication history so we'll go over the major parts of her history.

Debut

Carol Danvers appeared in 1968 in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 where she worked for the US Air Force coming into contact with the secret identity of the Kree hero Captain Marvel. The Kree Empire had sent Mar-Vell to Earth to check if the human race was a potential threat but while on Earth he became enamoured with the planet. Seeing him as a hero and mishearing his name the people of Earth named him Captain Marvel. Danvers had left the Air Force and became the head of security at NASA where this brought her into contact with the internal power feuds of the Kree Empire which spilled over onto Earth. In a short story in Captain Marvel #16-18 Captain Marvel fought his rival Yon-Rogg resulting in Carol being thrown into a device called the Psyche-Magnitron. The Kree's technology comes almost straight out of fantasy and the Psyche-Magnitron is an example of this - it can rewrite DNA on the fly and give people superpowers. As Carol had been in contact with Mar-Vell it rewrote her DNA so she became half-Kree, and later giving her superpowers. Until she finally became a superhero afterwards she would make bit appearances in the comics. 

Before we go onto how she became a hero we should go over her childhood and other aspects of her life. Most of her life was revealed in the Ms. Marvel comics, mostly volumes one (in the 1970s) and two (in 2007). Carol was born to a former US Navy officer and a current construction worker who was controlling, abusive to his three kids and very misogynistic. Despite being strong, independent, and smart he preferred her brothers to her, even though that didn't prevent him from beating her brothers, so much so that he paid to put her brother through college but not her despite Carol having superior grades. With no other choice she joined the Air Force on her eighteenth birthday as it was her dream to fly and see the stars. In several prequel comics it was revealed that she took up a few contracts with Nick Fury meeting the pre-X-Men Wolverine. Fastforward past her encounter with the Psyche-Magnitron. In Ms. Marvel 1-5 it was revealed that she did wrote an expose on NASA and started working for the Daily Bugle's feminist publication, Woman Magazine. 

Ms. Marvel

In 1977, during a new feminist wave, Carol Danvers became Ms Marvel - Ms. magazine was one of the most popular feminist publications so Marvel wished to create a connection. Written by Amazing Spider-Man's Gerry Conway and later by X-Men heavyweight Chris Claremont Ms. Marvel became a quick hit. The Psyche-Magnitron had not just changed Carol biologically. By mixing her DNA with that of the Kree Mar-Vell she developed a second personality: that of a superpowered Kree warrior. Carol would experience black-outs where she would become a Kree warrior with the ability to fly and have super-strength. She adopted the name Ms Marvel in reference to Captain Marvel who gave her the powers she now had. In later comics her black-outs would come under control with the help of the Kree Ronan the Accuser. In her other life she would be one of the major feminist figures in New York campaigning for equal pay and rights for women. In Ms. Marvel #16-18 in a story by Chris Claremont she would come to blows with a mysterious woman called Raven Darkholme who could change her appearance. We found out that Darkholme really had dark blue skin, amber eyes and red hair, and she would later become one of the X-Men's major opponents: Mystique. Issue #20 also changed Ms Marvel's costume to her iconic costume, her original costume was often voted the Worst Female Super Hero Costume. She did repeatedly team-up with other heroes until she became an official member of the Avengers in Avengers #183 when Scarlet Witch briefly went on a leave of absence. Ever since Carol Danvers has remained one of the most powerful and integral members of the Avengers. Ms. Marvel #23 would be the last entry in her solo publication until the 2000s through a mixture of sales dropping and the fact that she was now an Avenger.

The debut of her most well known costume

This brings us to one of Marvel's most controversial moments which they've tried to sweep under the rug. Comic book historian Carol Strickland described Avengers #200 as 'The Rape of Ms. Marvel' and there is no other way to describe it. A character called Marcus, implied to be the son of the villain Immortus, kidnapped Ms Marvel and took her to a different universe where he brainwashed, 'seduced', and then impregnated her before sending her back to Earth. Back on Earth she went through a rapid pregnancy and gave birth to a boy who rapidly aged into Marcus who revealed that this was his attempt to escape his realm. The two then returned to his universe. This was rightly criticised as Carol Danvers was literally raped and the Avengers did nothing. Chris Claremont loathed this so much that he tore apart the story as soon as he could. Avengers Annual #10 revealed that returning to his universe did not stop Marcus's rapid ageing and he aged so much that he turned to ash; Carol then used that to escape. Returning to Earth she ended up chastising the Avengers saying: You screwed up, Avengers. That's human. What is also human is the ability to learn from those mistakes. To grow. To mature. If you do that -- even a little -- then perhaps what I went through will have a positive meaning. It's your choice.

Powerless, X-Men, Binary and After

In Avengers Annual #10 the unconscious body of Carol Danvers fell from the Golden Gate Bridge until saved by Spider-Woman and given to the X-Men as all of her identity had been removed. At the same time the Avengers were attacked by Mystique and her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants where manages to roundly defeat several of the team, Rogue. You may recognise Rogue from the X-Men movies but she actually started out as a villain; she was originally meant to debut in Ms. Marvel #25 but the comic was cancelled beforehand. Rogue had the ability to absorb an individual's powers and memories on touch, and too much contact could result in Rogue taking them all. However, when trying to use Carol's powers the memories of her victims clouded her mind allowing the Avengers to defeat the Brotherhood. Going to the X-Men Mansion the Avengers handwaved what happened to Carol rightly enraging her so she quit to remain with the X-Men. With Claremont writing Uncanny X-Men Carol became a key player in the X-Men despite being powerless since Uncanny X-Men #150. Carol would remain with the X-Men until #163 when she encountered a new alien race: the Brood. The Brood are an insect species that uses hosts for their spawn and the X-Men were given to the Brood for that reason. The Brood accidentally sparked the latent augmented genes in Carol's body granting her superpowers again: linked to a white hole she could generate heat, light, radiation and access all other forms of energy as well as control gravity, to an extent. In #174 she decided to leave Earth to join a team of space adventurers called the Starjammers.

The return of her own solo series

Eventually, Carol would lose her connection to the white hole and return to Earth with her old powers returned. Rejoining the Avengers she would adopt a new title in Avengers Vol. 3 #4 called Warbird. During this time she would also develop alcoholism as a way to cope with what had happened to her and her losing her powers once again. By the time of the Avengers Disassembled story in 2004 she was back to being Ms Marvel, and during that story she would help the Avengers try and resist the reality warping effects from an emotionally and mentally broken Scarlet Witch. Although she would not later join the New Avengers she would regularly fight alongside them. Then we come to House of M; in this story Magneto convinced the broken Scarlet Witch to warp reality where now mutants were in control. Despite this Carol became loved acting as Captain Marvel and being the world's most loved hero even though she was a human, not a mutant. An underground resistance against Magneto's rule 'awakened' her to the original reality so she joined the resistance. When reality was restored to normal, albeit with the world's mutant population largely depowered, she missed the prestige she had in the House of M world. As a result her new solo series, Ms. Marvel Vol. 2, revolved around her trying to be one of the world's major heroes. It was during this period that she went from one of Marvel's 'B-heroes' to its 'A-heroes'. During Civil War she would side with the government becoming one of the major pro-registration fighters and after she would lead the Mighty Avengers in New York. Again, she would prove to be a key figure in World War Hulk, Secret Invasion and Siege joining the New Avengers afterwards.

Captain Marvel

In Amazing Spider-Man #9 she would finally don the moniker of Captain Marvel. After seeing a resurrected Captain Marvel sacrifice himself she knew that she had to become the new Captain Marvel. Since then she has become one of Marvel's key characters alongside Captain America and Iron Man having her own title as well as being a major figure in several key stories, including Secret Wars. She also led one side during Civil War II. An Inhuman called Ulysses has the ability to predict the future with a certain degree of accuracy so Carol wanted to use Ulysses to neutralise threats before they emerged straight out of Minority Report. However, Iron Man disagreed viewing this as being dispensing justice before someone has actually done something wrong, and although accurate Ulysses's visions aren't entirely accurate. Things came to ahead and the superhero community became divided which escalated further and the two sides fought. She fought Iron Man and thanks to the fight he went into a coma. In July a new series entitled The Life of Captain Marvel started so I would advise keeping an eye on that.

As Captain Marvel has had a long publication history here's a reading list if you want to get into her stories:
-Ms. Marvel Vol. 1
-Ms. Marvel Vol. 2
-Uncanny X-Men #164
-Captain Marvel (2012-2014)
-The Life of Captain Marvel

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