Captain Marvel Incoming

Marvel's latest offering is heading out way, and unfortunately there's controversy around it.  I've been busy and unfortunately by the time said controversy came onto my radar, both camps had dug in and gone full retard making up all sorts of weird stuff.  It boils down to the lead actress, Brie Larson, having some concerns about things possibly not being inclusive enough.  Some study was brought up.  A few things probably could have been worded clearer, but unfortunately that's more than enough for battle lines to be drawn.  Larson has clarified things, and I was going to see it anyhow, but it did kinda damper my excitement for the film.  Early trailers were kinda lackluster.  Too much time was spent by the press focusing on the feminism aspects.  Not enough was spent trying to get everyone excited.  Marvel has recently put out a lot of great behind the scenes stuff that has really caught my eye in a good way.

It is way too easy to get caught up in the pointless bickering, and I was guilty to buying into the articles and headlines that has a vested interest in keeping the fight going for the sake of views.  The main concern I have is that any legitimate criticisms that may arise from the film will result in the person voicing said criticism as "sexist".  I've had a few people online claim my dislike for BLACK PANTHER is the result of some sort of weird latent racism on my part.  This is ridiculous, of course, and a symptom of the current culture of "everyone who doesn't agree with me must have some sort of terrible character flaw".  With the movie still yet to be released however, we'll have to wait to see how it turns out.

There are a couple of issues that I have seen brought up online that I do want to address: "Carol Danvers is a c-list character" and "Captain marvel is a white guy".

Captain Marvel is indeed a white guy... if you're talking about the DC Universe.  Actually, I'm pretty sure that they are just referring to him as "Shazam" now to avoid confusion.  In the Marvel Universe, Captain Marvel hasn't been a white guy for decades.  The character was killed off about 40 years ago.  When I was a kid reading comics, Captain Marvel was Monica Rambeau, a black woman and really cool.  She was an Avenger, part of the SECRET WARS event back in the 80s.  The character is still very active and now known as "Spectrum", and still very cool.  Carol Danvers took up the title a few years ago and currently uses it.  So, it makes sense that the current version of the character is what will be featured on screen. We're still hoping beyond hope that people may watch a superhero movie and then actually buy a comic book.  One day, it may happen!

Now let's address the "c-list" bit.  This seems to be stemming from people trying to shoehorn Captain Marvel in being Marvel's answer to Wonder Woman.  Wonder Woman is a trinity character.  She is the direct representation of one of the three key aspects of the superhero genre in the DCU.  In the Marvel Universe, that particular aspect (science fiction) is represented by Ironman, and I don't think anyone is going to be replacing him any time soon.

So, Carol isn't a trinity character, but "c-list"?  No.  This is a character that has been around for decades.  My first exposure to her was in the pages of THE AVENGERS.  It was right around #200, but fortunately not that particular issue because holy crap how did that weird story make it past editorial?  Seriously, I'm old and jaded, but I even I read that thing and said "This thing is problematic".  She was still Ms. Marvel at the time, but not for long because a few years after I discovered her character, the battle with Rogue happened, and Rogue stole her powers.  This was a huge deal, because Carol spent years without her powers.  We've seen those stories where a character loses their powers only to get them back a few issues later.  This went on for years.

She was still active though.  Years later, Carol received a new power set and became Binary, and went off to have awesome adventures in space.  She has since regained her old power set, as well as the Binary power set.  She was known as "Warbird" for a while and recently took the title of Captain Marvel.  She's currently a member of the Avengers and head of Earth's defenses against alien threats.  So, she's a big deal.

This brings us to the problem: this character is at her best in a group dynamic.  Her solo titles have struggled a bit.  Meanwhile, her tenures in THE AVENGERS, THE ULTIMATES, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY have always been really cool.  This isn't a bad thing.  Some characters just work better under those conditions.  In this regard, she's top notch and definitely an asset for writers to use to play off of other characters, and great for beating the crap out of baddies and blowing stuff up in dramatic fashion. 

So why feature her in a solo film?   

With the Thanos saga winding down in the films, the MCU is going to need a new direction to explore.  This film may give a few clues as to what's to come with more of the Kree explored and the introduction of the Skrulls.  Also consider, Ant-Man is also in the group of best on a team, and the movies of that character were both really great.  Carol's also a character that's fully realized and while she started in relation to Marvel's original Captain Marvel, she's moved up to make the title her own.  There is a market wanting woman led superhero films.  Many fans have really wanted a Black Widow film (I'm definitely among them), but with the character's popularity, Marvel seems to be taking their time wanting to really get it right.

Ultimately, we hoping that its a good movie.  I've been keeping my expectations low in hopes of being really pleasantly surprised.  We'll see soon when it hits the theaters.