Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) Appreciation - "Higher, Further, Faster, More!"

[Ascended]

Ow. Avengers#35 looks like things are about to get nasty. Presume this is fallout from the New Avengers/Original Sin stuff.

Milo Manara pic. This is what he can do when not making Spider-woman look like she's posing for a porn shoot. Still a bit hinky but at least it's an action shot.

My daughter has this poster hanging over her bed. She's only a little over a year old but she loves it.

[Fordel]

At Cons she's a popular cosplay choice, both in the old costumes and the new ones. The Carol Corps is made of brand new fans who never picked up a comic in their lives before, which is something the industry as a whole has been trying to do since the 90's imploded.

Hey, I resemble that remark


I'm literally that guy, the dude who hasn't touched a comic ever. Anything I knew about super heroes was learned from TV, movies or cartoons. The actual comics though? Those were just fan wank for man children and people thinking their shiny foil #1 issue was going to be worth a billion dollars in five years. Not a high opinion of them at all.

Then one day I randomly come across this picture: http://terrydodson.deviantart.com/ar...-WIP-295072065

I love it, the pose, the smirk, the way bullets are bouncing off her, the way Spider-Man is hiding behind her, that little finger waggle. It's a fantastic picture and it makes zero sense to me. I have NO idea who this woman is! "Why is Spider-Man using her as a human shield? Why are those planes shooting at her? How have I never seen this hero before?" So in the artists notes it says that this is a cover for a Spider-Man comic and it introduces Captain Marvel. "She's Captain Marvel? Marvel has a Captain Marvel? I thought he was a DC guy?" It's all a mystery to me. There are more covers though, great looking art:

http://quin-ones.deviantart.com/art/...NDED-337912473
http://quin-ones.deviantart.com/art/...o-11-342191448
http://terrydodson.deviantart.com/ar...over-330653893
http://terrydodson.deviantart.com/ar...lors-316906386

Okay artists, you've done your job here. I'll give this one a fair shake, at worst I'll still have the art to look at. So I find the collected bundles on amazon and order them. Read up on the character while I wait for them to arrive. It turns out I did know this 'Captain Marvel', sort of. "Oh, it's the lady Rogue stole her powers from! I guess she got them back, got some pants too thankfully." So that was the extent of my knowledge on Captain Marvel going into the comics, as the lady who 90's cartoon Rogue stole her powers from. I knew nothing else about the comic, at all. When they arrived and I started reading, I expected the worst basically. I just expected gratuitous cheesecake and terrible dialogue, like every other comic I had ever looked at before... but the covers, the covers were so good! Maybe there's a chance this isn't awful?

More then a chance apparently. She's a person, she has friends, team-mates, neighbours, a life. Has actual conversations with other actual persons. The interior art is nothing at all like the covers, which surprised me admittedly... but it grew on me. The different styles and variety kept things looking fresh and didn't detract from the story and dialogue. The story itself was great for me, as the brand spanking new reader. It gave me just enough history on various things so I wouldn't be lost, but it never overloaded me with all the nit-picky details either. Here's Carol, she used to be this, now she's this, lets go on an adventure! Hurrah adventure!

So I'm in, I'm sold. This is nothing like the comics I knew about before. I'm a fan. A Character I knew virtually nothing about, has now become my favorite, easily. Sign me up for the Corps and all that. All because I randomly came across that one picture, where she looks like a total boss saving Spider-Mans behind.



As a little aside, the one thing I wish I did, or didn't do... I wish I had never actually gone digging through Carol's previous Ms. Marvel books. THOSE actually were everything I feared her Captain Marvel books were going to be. Then there's the even older dead horse with the mind control and forced pregnancy and all that horribleness... what were they thinking? /shudder

Still, that's all in the past, the distant forgettable past. Hurrah new adventure!

[lilyinblue]

Hey, I resemble that remark

Welcome to the Corps, Fordel!

[Fokken]

An article supporting and encourage Carol's inclusion on the big screen, from our very own Chief Jon:

http://www.marvel616politics.com/201...-feature-film/

[Tiamatty]

An article supporting and encourage Carol's inclusion on the big screen, from our very own Chief Jon:

http://www.marvel616politics.com/201...-feature-film/

All points that have been made in this very thread. All points made by me, too. So, obviously, I agree.

[ed2962]

An article supporting and encourage Carol's inclusion on the big screen, from our very own Chief Jon:

http://www.marvel616politics.com/201...-feature-film/

Interesting article, but I'm not buying the idea that Black Widow is a poor role model or is "sending the wrong message."

[Punisher007]

"Person regretful for past mistakes and trying to redeem themselves by helping others." Yeah that's SUCH a "bad message" for people, please.

[heiro5]

Fordel, that's awesome. Glad to hear actual accounts of new fans. I think this is specifically what Marvel is going for with their current Captain Marvel push, and it's new fans coming in that move us closer to the Captain Marvel movie.

[Fokken]

I believe the point (among the many, many, many points) he's making is that Carol's journey is simply the more positive one.

[Mark]

Not a bad article, but it brings to my mind 2 things, 1 that Carol does have a rich history, but it's also a rich and very detailed history with multiple power changes, costume changes, personality changes and mind alterations, they could do three films on her mental problems alone, let alone her power changes.

2, It's sort of ironic, Carol's been danced around many titles and many names, before cw the writer had her hire a publicist in the comics to try to get into the A list, during cw the writer damaged her reputation with many fans by having her beat up other superheroes and afterwards she was on the A-list in that she had her own title and was head of an Avenger team, but the title was weak and she was just Tony's puppet on the Avengers. All that recent history until KSD took over and now she's doing ok I guess, but apparently the only way Carol gets into the A list for the movies or the comics is to abandon her original name, original costume set and take the male name of Captain Marvel with a male inspired costume instead of keeping the Ms. Marvel name with a costume that she originally chose as a way to distance her self from Mar-Vel.

I really think that if she had avoided Avengers 200 and stayed with the Avengers and grown into the leadership role we'd be looking at a Ms. Marvel film series right now. After Avengers 200 everything's been down hill for the character, at least for me.

[ed2962]

I believe the point (among the many, many, many points) he's making is that Carol's journey is simply the more positive one.

Well...maybe you can make the argument that Carol's back-story is more squeaky clean than Natasha's but I don't think that's anything that will bother the movie going public. Look at it this way, the trailer for GoTG described the main characters as a thief, 2 thugs, an assassin, and a maniac. It didn't keep folks from seeing the film.


I think more importantly though, it shouldn't be a BW vs CM thing...both characters are fun and interesting and there's no reason that Marvel can't have more than one prominent female hero out there at the same time. They didn't stop promoting Spider man in order to get the Hulk out there.

[ed2962]

I really think that if she had avoided Avengers 200 and stayed with the Avengers and grown into the leadership role we'd be looking at a Ms. Marvel film series right now. After Avengers 200 everything's been down hill for the character, at least for me.

I dunno...I respectfully disagree with that. Claremont brought her back and made her Binary. She faded into the background for a few years, but I'd say that since Busiek started using her in his Avengers run, she's gradually built up a decent fan base.

[Thennary Nak]

I think more importantly though, it shouldn't be a BW vs CM thing...both characters are fun and interesting and there's no reason that Marvel can't have more than one prominent female hero out there at the same time. They didn't stop promoting Spider man in order to get the Hulk out there.

THIS. I get so annoyed that fans seem to think it has to be either a Black Widow movie or a Captain Marvel movie when there is no reason it could not be both. I would want to see both movies as I know they will be very different in style and tone as the characters are quite different. And then I would want to see any other solo female lead movie Marvel would come out after those as they would be as wonderfully varied as the movies we have gotten with male leads. No matter who gets to be first female character to get that solo lead status I am going to be happy, because I sure as hell won't settle for them to be the only one to get that chance.

[Mark]

I dunno...I respectfully disagree with that. Claremont brought her back and made her Binary. She faded into the background for a few years, but I'd say that since Busiek started using her in his Avengers run, she's gradually built up a decent fan base.

Not arguing that, I just think that take away Avengers 200 and Rogue's theft of her powers and soul and Carol would be in a lot better place right now. Once Claremont tossed her away I lost interest, Binary was never really Carol to me, in fact nothing after Rogue was really Carol to me (of course part of that was that I gave up on the X-men after they chose Rogue over her and shortly after that comics got too expensive for me for a long time) until her series just before cw. Right now the only thing left of Carol in her current book in my opinion is the name.

That being said that also means there are a lot of different Carol movies to make because of how many changes the character has gone through.

[Tiamatty]

Interesting article, but I'm not buying the idea that Black Widow is a poor role model or is "sending the wrong message."

"Person regretful for past mistakes and trying to redeem themselves by helping others." Yeah that's SUCH a "bad message" for people, please.

I think the issue is that she's still a Femme Fatale. She's a spy, which means she relies on her ability to deceive and manipulate people, often through the use of feminine wiles. Carol's a soldier. She's honest and honorable, and none of her heroism will ever require wearing a slinky dress.

Black Widow sends the message that girls should get what they want be looking good and manipulating people. Captain Marvel sends the message that girls should get what they want by stubbornly bulling through any obstacles.

THIS. I get so annoyed that fans seem to think it has to be either a Black Widow movie or a Captain Marvel movie when there is no reason it could not be both. I would want to see both movies as I know they will be very different in style and tone as the characters are quite different. And then I would want to see any other solo female lead movie Marvel would come out after those as they would be as wonderfully varied as the movies we have gotten with male leads. No matter who gets to be first female character to get that solo lead status I am going to be happy, because I sure as hell won't settle for them to be the only one to get that chance.

It's not a matter of which one gets a movie, it's a matter of which one gets a movie first. While Black Widow probably should get a movie, Captain Marvel should be the first woman in the MCU to get a solo movie.