Captain Marvel’s Rebirth

In July 2012, Captain Marvel will be reborn as a Marvel-only name. Previously referred to as “Ms. Marvel,” Carol Danvers will take up the Captain’s role and be the only female in the Marvel universe with a solo title. Marvel Comics made the big announcement at Wondercon, passing the Captain Marvel torch to writers Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy.

Captain Marvel was introduced as alien visitor Mar-Vell in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 in 1967. Sent by the Kree empire to spy on Earth, he popped on his other-worldly military uniform to help out when things on Earth got out of hand. His kindness got him waist-deep in numerous traps and escapes, fights and rescues, wars and friendships. Notably, he fought alongside the Avengers in the Kree-Skrull War.

While working at an US Air Force base, then-totally-human-coworker Carol Danvers developed a crush on him. Carol was later kidnapped and rescued by Captain Marvel, but not before absorbing some of the power from her captor’s weapon and being transformed into Ms. Marvel. (Lesson here, ladies: dreamy men are nothing but trouble, though it’s a quick way to super powers. At least, I think that’s the lesson.)

Captain Marvel also exposed himself to a cancerous nerve gas for the good of humanity, and his life ended on Saturn’s moon, Titan. He received such honors as Skrull medal of valor (as the greatest enemy of the Skrull Empire) and posthumous Avenger membership. He also left the world his children Genis-Vell, Phyla-Vell, and Hulkling.

But back to Carol – since her kidnapping and super-power obtaining, she’s been busy. She’s run with the Avengers and X-Men under the names of Binary and Warbird in addition to Ms. Marvel.

Her struggles with alcoholism have been an exceptionally interesting part of her storylines. After losing some of her powers and memories in the Operation Galactic Storm story, she tries to keep her loss a secret from the Avengers. With no one to confide in, she reaches for alcohol, acts like an idiot, and eventually receives a court-martial from the team. It will be fascinating to see if she can stay sober under the new pressures that being Captain Marvel will produce.

Danvers took on a meaty role during Civil War, pairing up with Iron Man as a chief advocate of the Superhuman Registration Act. Proving herself by battling against Captain America’s platoon of renegades, she ends up leading her own team, The Mighty Avengers. Her leadership helped earn her a top spot on the a covert strike team to take out supervillains before they became too much of a threat. Clearly, her skills with directing a group to being awesome are top-notch.

She joined the New Avengers after giving Norman Osborn the proverbial finger when he took over after Secret Invasion. Rising to second-in-command quickly, Osborn noted the threat she was, and sent a dark Ms. Marvel (Moonstone, or Karla Sofen) after her and caused what appeared to be the death of Ms. Danvers. But with a little help from her friends, she comes back, whoops Moonstone, and reclaims her Ms. Marvel title.

So on top of leading some of the most elite teams in Marvel history, battling alcoholism and defying death, she also punched Rogue into orbit. Anyone who can achieve this is, in short, marvelous.

(See what I did there?)

Giving Ms. Danvers the title of “Captain Marvel” is a logical move for Marvel, with all the heat the ladies of DC’s new 52 are getting. An especially smart [art is the costume she’s wearing – specifically, how modest it is. Granted it’s still skin tight, which makes sense, but there’s not so much as a cleavage-window that many comic book women get. It’ll be great to see a strong female at the head of her own series, and one who doesn’t have to worry about how much dress-tape is on her costume before she goes out to kick ass.

And Kelly Sue DeConnick is an inspired choice to take the helm, as her work on graphic novel Castle: Richard Castle’s Deadly Storm and miniseries Osborn have won her critical acclaim and heaps of fans. For the first superheroine solo series since X-23, Marvel is putting all the right pieces in place to have a hit on their hands.