Captain Marvel's Comic Book Origin Story Has Been Revamped To Match The Movie
Some comic book characters' backstories are simple. Batman's parents are murdered in front of him, inspiring him to become The Dark Knight. Superman's home planet explodes and he crash lands on Earth, etc.
The Captain Marvel origin story is...well, it's considerably more complicated than that. But now Marvel Comics has decided to tweak it just a few months before the character takes center stage in her own solo movie – and the changes in the pages of the comic books now reflect Brie Larson's movie version.
The Hollywood Reporter brings word that in the fourth issue of Margaret Stohl, Carlos Pacheco, and Erica D'Urso's Life of Captain Marvel comic, Captain Marvel's backstory is altered so Carol Danvers' transformation into the superhero no longer relies on the actions of a male character. In the film, Larson's Carol Danvers will be part human and part Kree, and after more than 40 years, the comic version's origin has been changed to match.
Captain Marvel's Original Backstory
Like I said, the comic version is pretty complicated. But here's a very streamlined summary: In Cape Canaveral, Florida, Air Force pilot Carol Danvers meets an alien Kree warrior named Mar-Vell who is posing as a human scientist. A Kree weapon is detonates close to Danvers, and when her DNA becomes fused with Mar-Vell's, she's turned into a human/Kree hybrid and gains superpowers. That happened in Ms. Marvel #2, which debuted in 1977, and it's remained the character's origin story ever since.
The New Origin Story
But in this new comic, it's revealed that Carol's mother is a member of the Kree race, making Carol half human, half Kree from birth. Instead of her DNA fusing with Mar-Vell's during the explosion, it turns out that the explosion simply "activated" Carol's latent powers. It may seem like a minor change, but as THR points out, it's "a purposeful shift that befits the company's repositioning of the character as a model of female empowerment."
One other humorous detail worth noting: due to her Kree heritage, Marie Danvers' name is now Mari-Ell and Carol's true name is Car-Ell. This name, as THR says, "brings Captain Marvel closer to Superman's birth name of Kal-El just years after the CW show Supergirl changed Supergirl's secret identity to 'Kara Danvers.'"
Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel, the company's first solo female-led superhero movie, is set to arrive in theaters on March 8, 2019. This issue is available digitally and is in comic book stores now.