Monica is a New Orleans Harbor Patrol lieutenant who gets exposed to extra-dimensional energy that gives her super speed, the power of flight, and the ability to transform into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. in 1982, the second Captain Marvel - and Marvel’s first African-American female superhero - was Monica Rambeau. Created by writer Roger Stern and artists John Romita Jr. Mar-Vell’s death cleared the way for a new hero to take over as Captain Marvel - but it wasn’t Carol (yet). So, unusually for a major comic character, Mar-Vell died for real, from cancer, in Marvel Comics’ first-ever graphic novel, 1982’s “The Death of Captain Marvel,” written by Jim Starlin.Īlso Read: 'Captain Marvel': What It Could Mean for 'Avengers: Endgame' That Carol Has Tesseract Powers Unfortunately, during one of his adventures Mar-Vell was exposed to powerful carcinogens, and because he was considered a traitor, the Kree denied him access to their advanced medical technology. A lot of crazy-as-hell comic book stuff happens over the years, and he even becomes the arch enemy of Thanos (yes, that Thanos). He develops feelings for Carol, and sympathy for humanity as a whole, and eventually turns on the Kree to protect the earth. Mar-Vell goes to work for NASA, where he meets Carol Danvers, NASA’s head of security. He soon uses those powers to save a bunch of people, and because they mispronounced his Kree name, he became known as “Captain Marvel.” But Mar-Vell was also enhanced with Kree tech, which gives him abilities that on earth look a lot like superpowers. Mar-Vell disguises himself as a recently-deceased human named Walter Lawson. Because of course.Īlso Read: Let's Talk About Why the Avengers Are Wearing Those White Suits in the New 'Endgame' Trailer (More on that later.)Ĭreated in 1967 by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, Mar-Vell was a Kree warrior sent to earth on an observation mission with the ultimate goal of destroying the planet. Mar-Vell’s comics counterpart is male, but just like in the film, he’s a mentor to Carol Danvers and partly responsible for how she got her powers. In the film, Mar-Vell is the Kree scientist, played by Annette Bening, who rebels against her people’s imperialistic wars of conquest and comes to earth disguised as a human named Wendy Lawson. To start, in the comics Carol Danvers isn’t the first Captain Marvel, or even the second - she’s the seventh.
Strap in because it’s complicated, weird as hell (this is a good thing), and occasionally ahead of its time.Īlso Read: It's Super Weird That 'Captain Marvel' Doesn't Have Anything to Do With 'Avengers: Endgame' The answer involves not only characters like Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers, but a cosmic badass partly inspired by actress Pam Grier, some extremely convoluted alien relations, and the first Muslim character to headline a Marvel comic book. But what is the actual history of Captain Marvel? It does a fine job of bringing together characters who are only loosely-connected in the comics, and it boasts a strong, diverse cast to boot. Like every other film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Captain Marvel” only loosely adapts from the comic books, streamlining a hell of a lot. So you’ve seen “Captain Marvel” and now you have a bunch of questions about Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, her history - and wait who was Marvel… or was it Mar-Vell? And what about Monica Rambeau.