Originally Posted by
VirusChan
I really hate the retcon of Carol being a born half kree, and just the story of the Life of Captain Marvel in general. The tumblr post from illuminatingcomics a while back conveys most of the main issues I have on it but there is so much more fundamentally wrong with it.
It seems to fail to understand Carol’s kree nature or the nature of what the kree are about. The kree are not kryptonians and should not be treated as such. Carol does not and has never gotten her powers because she kree, she is kree because she has superpowers. The Kree are at an evolutionary dead end, it has been an incredibly consistent aspect to the race and has driven many of their actions throughout their publication history. From the creation of the inhumans, motivations of characters like Minevra and the Supreme Intelligence, the events like the original Kree-Skrull War and Operation Galactic Storm. Hell, even the reason given to why Mar-Vell and Rick Jones were bonded together was explained by the Supreme Intelligence trying to gain access to the latent potential of humanity which the Kree lacked. The reason the Carol was special to the Kree was that she represented an anomaly in the universe of all that the aimed for, circumventing their evolutionary stagnation as revealed in Ms. Marvel volume 1 issue #19. Carol got her powers from Mar-Vell more specifically the Psyche-Magnetron replicating the powers of Mar-Vell’s Nega Bands as well as grant her the knowledge of the Kree ,and because this is a machine created by a bunch of racist, xenophobic aliens it tried to make her Kree as her wish was to stand as Mar-Vell’s equal so how better to do that than to make her a Kree, or at least try.
Having Carol get her powers from being Kree opens up too many questions that really can’t be answered. If Carol’s mother was Kree how was she able to naturally produce a child with a human? If it was that easy wouldn’t the Supreme Intelligence have tried that originally? Or Minevra? You have to remember that while the Kree while they look human aren’t and they don’t have the Skrulls shapeshifting powers as a crutch for hybrids. I mean Genis and Phylla were produced through the technology of Titan, plus are non base human to begin with. Even if I ignore the whole breeding thing, why would Carol if she was half Kree born exhibit powers like flight? The Kree can’t fly, they use technology for that, always have. If I accept the retcon I have to completely redefine the Kree as a people, throw out Mar-Vell’s entire original run because it now makes very little sense as well as Carol’s whole first run as a huge conflict in that run is Carol coming to terms with a new part of her that is alien.
Even ignoring all of that, the simple fact is anything that is gained by making Carol’s mother a Kree is better done just by using Mar-Vell. Why was Carol’s mother on Earth? I don’t know, earth was a backwater nothing planet that the Kree had not visited in thousands of years far from any of their trade routes. Why did Mar-Vell come? As a direct reaction to the Fantastic Four’s defeat of a Kree Sentry and Ronan, with him there to investigate humanity. The love affair between Carol’s mother and father, why would I not just expand on Carol’s and Mar-Vell’s romance. He has to be important enough to her that she opted to take a variation of his name and costume when becoming a superhero. The idea of Carol’s mother being a great traitor to the Kree, well that is just blatantly ripped off from Mar-Vell’s character, less well explained too as Mar-Vell actively went against the Kree on multiple occasions, while Marie simply seemed to fall off the map. Well what about the idea of introducing a whole new Kree family around the idea. With Mar-Vell you already have Hulkling, Genis, Phyla, the potential tension between Carol and his former love Elysis, his almost never mentioned scientist parents, and any number of siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces. They aren’t Carol’s family but still could be used for some fascinating dynamics. Why do I need to introduce a bunch of Kree family members when her relationship with brother is so underdeveloped and I can just have her interact with Mar-Vell kids and have her teach them about their father so that they can see him as more than just a legacy but understand through Carol what the man he was.
The Life of Captain Marvel seems to think that Carol getting her powers from Mar-Vell is somehow a bad thing, that it is disempowering, that by changing the origin story in this way Carol will become a stronger character. But how I have always seen Carol’s origin all it really does is strip away what is essentially her Uncle Ben moment. Let me explain. Carol was someone who even since she was a little girl was fascinated by outer space, she consumed all forms of sci-fi literature (her childhood crush being someone like Flash Gordon), took up stargazing, and astronomy. She decides that she is going to become an astronaut so that she can reach out and touch the sky. She excelled in the air force, becoming a pilot at a very young age, but instead of the narrative that she experienced sexism in the air force quite the opposite happened, her excellence is noted and she is brought into military intelligence. She finds herself so wrapped up in her duty, so wrapped up in saving the world and protecting her country that she loses sight of her dream. Then after a failed mission Carol is captured by terrorists, and while they are unable to break her spirit, they do break her body to the point where she would no longer be able to be an astronaut or even fly planes anymore. Think how Dr. Strange lost his ability to be a surgeon. Carol gets herself a post at the Cape, surrounded by the prospect of everything she ever wanted but unable to live it. Then Mar-Vell shows up, and reignites Carol’s passion for the unknown. This mystery man who turns out to be from another world would become her Superman and through his actions eventually gives Carol her powers. Carol now has the ability to explore the depths of space something that she never dreamed would be possible, all because of this one man. Then Mar-Vell dies, and it's not that he died that is important but how he died. Exposure to a canister of nerve gas that Carol was supposed to be guarding. The fact that she had her powers but was not aware of them, that if she had just acted then she could have saved him, but she didn’t and he died. The man who gave her everything. That fulfilled her heart's desire and she failed him. So now as Captain Marvel (or even as Ms Marvel) she opts to try to pay it forward because she can never pay him back. This is her Uncle Ben moment, this is why she goes by the name Captain Marvel and I don’t like writers changing it for no good reason.