Carol Danvers | From Hero to Zero
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‘Captain Marvel’: A brief history of Carol Danvers
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment...
Carol Danvers did not have any superpowers when she made her Marvel Comics debut, but she was always meant to be a star. Since her first appearance as the security chief of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center over 50 years ago, Carol has gained powers, traveled through space, led the Avengers, battled alongside the X-Men, lost her memories and helped save the world — all before even assuming the mantle of Captain Marvel.
First introduced in 1968’s “Marvel Super-Heroes” No. 13 by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan, Carol was a NASA security chief keeping watch over an alien robot when she meets Dr. Walter Lawson — the human alter ego assumed by undercover Kree soldier Mar-Vell.
During her adventures with Mar-Vell, the first Captain Marvel, the pair got caught up in the explosion that destroyed an alien device called the Psyche-Magnetron. But it wasn’t until years later when the “Ms. Marvel” series launched that Carol discovered that the exposure to this device gave her superpowers.
It was long believed that the blast grafted Mar-Vell’s alien DNA onto Carol, altering her genetics and turning her into a half-Kree superhuman. But during the 2018 comic-book miniseries “The Life of Captain Marvel,” Carol’s mother was revealed to also be a former undercover Kree soldier.
“She isn’t your average super-heroine,” “Ms. Marvel” No. 1 writer Gerry Conway said of Carol in the letters section of the 1977 issue. “Ms. Marvel … is influenced, to a great extent, by the move towards women’s liberation. She is … her own person. Herself.”
One of the most controversial was 1980’s infamous “The Avengers” No. 200. This issue saw Carol suddenly (heavily) pregnant with no recollection about how it happened. It turned out she had been kidnapped, brainwashed and impregnated with a version of her captor.
If that wasn’t problematic enough, after she gives birth she “willingly” leaves with her captor back to his original dimension and her Avengers teammates don’t bat an eye at the whole thing.
Former “Ms. Marvel” writer Chris Claremont later attempted to rectify some of the damage by having Carol call out the Avengers and cut ties with the team.
Losing her powers and memories in an encounter with Rogue brought Carol to Professor Xavier and the X-Men. There she was able to regain her memories but not the emotions attached to them.
1982’s “Uncanny X-Men” No. 164 (by Claremont and Dave Cockrum) saw Carol tap into some new cosmic-level energy-wielding powers and take the new name Binary.
After some adventures in space, Carol’s powers return to those that she had initially as Ms. Marvel. So when she rejoins the Avengers in 1998’s “Avengers” No. 4, Carol switches to another new code name: Warbird.
A number of comic book creators have had a hand in shaping Carol and her story over the years, but the writer who has arguably had the greatest effect on her legacy so far is Kelly Sue DeConnick.
When DeConnick launched her landmark “Captain Marvel” run in 2012 with artist Dexter Soy, she described Carol as “an incredibly driven individual.”
It was under DeConnick’s watch that Carol officially claimed the name Captain Marvel as her own, and this fan-favorite incarnation is what transformed her into a superhero destined to become a household name.
#caroldanvers #captainmarvel #marvelcomics
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