Carol Danvers
Carol Susan Jane Danvers is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gene Colan, the character first appeared as an officer in the United States Air Force and a colleague of the Kree superhero Mar-Vell in Marvel Super-Heroes #13. Danvers later became the first incarnation of Ms. Marvel in Ms. Marvel #1 after her DNA was fused with Mar-Vell's during an explosion, giving her superhuman powers. Debuting in the Silver Age of comics, the character was featured in a self-titled series in the late 1970s before becoming associated with the superhero teams the Avengers and the X-Men. The character has also been known as Binary, Warbird, and Captain Marvel at various points in her history.
Carol Danvers has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful female heroes, being labelled as a symbol of female empowerment. Since her original introduction in comics, the character has been featured in various other Marvel-licensed products, including video games, animated television series, and merchandise such as trading cards. Brie Larson portrays Carol Danvers in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and The Marvels. Mckenna Grace portrayed a young Carol in Captain Marvel. Alexandra Daniels voices alternate reality versions of the character in the Disney+ animated series What If...?.
Development
In an interview, Gerry Conway recalled the reason why Danvers was turned into a super hero, "It actually came about for fairly uncreative reasons... there was this idea, that I was kicking people off books in order to take over writing their books, this was of course not the case, at least from my point of view but given that how was they felt, I said to Stan," "well is there any way that we could create some stuff so I'm not kicking people off books?" Stan had either just created She-Hulk or was thinking about creating her," and we thought, 'can we come up with another female super hero, that can use the Marvel name?'"Publication history
1960s
The character debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gene Colan. In the story, she is an officer in the United States Air Force and Security Chief of a restricted military base, where Danvers meets Dr. Walter Lawson, the human alias of alien Kree hero Captain Marvel. In a later story, Danvers is caught in the explosion of a Kree device after trying to get close to Captain Marvel. Although Captain Marvel manages to save her life, Danvers sustains serious injuries.1970s
Danvers resurfaces with superhuman abilities and becomes the hero Ms. Marvel in a self-titled series in January 1977, at first written by Gerry Conway and later by Chris Claremont. In the series, she is the editor of Women Magazine, a spin-off of the Daily Bugle. It is revealed that the energy exposure from the explosion of a device called the "Psyche-Magnetron" caused Danvers's genetic structure to meld with Captain Marvel's, effectively turning her into a human-Kree hybrid. Ms. Marvel had a series of semi-regular appearances in The Avengers, with additional appearances with the Defenders, Spider-Man, the Thing, and Iron Man.At the time of the publication of Ms. Marvel #1 in 1977, the title was self-consciously socially progressive for its time. This was reflected in the use of the word "Ms.", at the time associated with the feminist movement, and in Danvers fighting for equal pay for equal work in her civilian identity.
1980s
In The Avengers #200, which was written by Bob Layton, David Michelinie, George Pérez, and Jim Shooter, Ms. Marvel is kidnapped by a character named Marcus and taken to an alternate dimension, where she is raped by Marcus and impregnated. She gives birth on Earth to a child that rapidly ages into another version of Marcus, who is ultimately unable to remain on Earth after Hawkeye mistakenly damages his machine and takes Ms. Marvel back to the alternate dimension with no opposition from the Avengers, who perceive Ms. Marvel and Marcus to have fallen in love. Comic book historian Carol A. Strickland criticized the storyline in an essay, "The Rape of Ms. Marvel", due to the storyline implying Marcus to have potentially brainwashed Danvers into falling in love with him. Citing Marcus' line, "Finally, after relative weeks of such efforts—and admittedly, with a subtle boost from Immortus' machines—you became mine", Strickland posited that this constituted rape. As a former writer of the solo title, Chris Claremont also commented on the inappropriateness of the storyline, having been disallowed from having the character have a normal child and be a single mother.Claremont wrote a follow-up to the Marcus story in The Avengers Annual #10. In that story, Danvers is revealed to have returned to Earth—courtesy of Immortus's technology after Marcus continued to age and die of old age—but is attacked by the mutant Rogue, who permanently absorbs Danvers' abilities and memories. Danvers' memories are restored by Professor X, and an angry confrontation with the Avengers concerning their failure to realize Marcus had brainwashed her follows.
In a later published flashback story, written by Claremont and Simon Furman, it was shown that Carol's enemy Mystique had slowly and gleefully sadistically beaten Carol's psychiatrist and boyfriend Michael Barnett to death while being disguised as Carol herself. After this brought Carol in conflict with Mystique's Brotherhood of Mutants group, Rogue stole Carol's powers and memories and afterwards tried to kill her by throwing her into the San Francisco Bay, but Carol's life was saved by Spider-Woman.
Claremont continued to develop the character in the title The Uncanny X-Men. Danvers enters the Pentagon and, while wiping the government's files on the X-Men, also deletes all records of herself in a symbolic break with her life as Ms. Marvel. During an adventure in space with the X-Men, Danvers is changed courtesy of experimentation by the alien race, the Brood, into a newly empowered character called Binary. Drawing on the power of a cosmic phenomenon called a white hole, Danvers becomes capable of generating the power of a star. As Binary, the character has a number of encounters with the X-Men, the New Mutants, and the British team, Excalibur, as well as a solo adventure.
Claremont expanded on the incident with the character Rogue by having the Carol Danvers persona manifest itself within Rogue's mind, sometimes overpowering Rogue's personality. This happens to Rogue on several occasions, which results in an uneasy armistice between the personalities within Rogue's mind. After Rogue passes through the ancient, supernatural gateway called the Siege Perilous, the Ms. Marvel persona is separated from her as an independent entity. Within the same issue, the Ms. Marvel persona is killed by Magneto.
1990s
Carol Danvers continued to make sporadic appearances, including being featured in the two issue mini-series X-Men Spotlight On... Starjammers Two issues of the original Ms. Marvel title—never previously published due to the original series' cancellation—were printed in a quarterly anthology series. That same year she appeared extensively in the storyline "Operation Galactic Storm". Near the conclusion of the story, Danvers lost her connection to the white hole she drew her powers from while diverting anti-matter from the Earth's sun left by the passing Nega Bomb, reverting to her original Ms. Marvel powers. She retained the energy manipulation and absorption powers she had as Binary, but on a smaller scale.After several more team and solo appearances she rejoined the Avengers with the new alias Warbird. Busiek explored the character by having her develop alcoholism, struggling to come to terms with the loss of her cosmic powers and memories. Danvers disgraced herself during the "Live Kree or Die" storyline and was suspended from active duty.
After a brief appearance in Marvel's alternate universe title What If?, the character was featured in Iron Man, Wolverine, and The Avengers before making a cameo appearance in Mutant X.
2000s
As Warbird, the character returns to the Avengers and plays a key role in the "Kang Dynasty" plotline. Kang the Conqueror's son Marcus, the Scarlet Centurion, falls in love with her, but she rejects him, in part because he reminds her of Marcus, son of Kang's older alter ego Immortus, who raped her. The Scarlet Centurion nonetheless helps her to defeat the Master of the World, a supervillain whose alien technology becomes the key to defeating Kang. In the course of the fight, Warbird kills the Master, and after the final victory over Kang she demands a court martial to review her actions. The court martial finds her killing justified as an act of war, and Carol continues as an Avenger. After the Avengers disband, Warbird leaves the group, and, along with other prominent former Avengers like Wasp, Hank Pym, Falcon and Wonder Man, is not included in the New Avengers group soon formed by Iron Man and Captain America.The character was then featured as "Captain Marvel" in a false reality created by the mutant Scarlet Witch in the 2005 miniseries House of M. In this reality, Danvers' had glimpsed at her potential, becoming its greatest hero. After seeing how great of a hero she can really be, she decided to fulfill her potential in the main Marvel universe. Together with fellow Avenger Iron Man, Danvers also becomes a principal advocate of the Superhuman Registration Act during the events of the 2006–07 "Civil War" storyline. The story also continues in Ms. Marvel's own title as the character battles the anti-registration heroes led by Captain America.
The storyline has major consequences for the New Avengers, which debuts in the 2007 series The Mighty Avengers, with Danvers as a member. Danvers enters into a relationship with fellow member Wonder Man, appears in a crossover series with the Transformers, and becomes leader of the Mighty Avengers. The character makes an agreement with Tony Stark, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., to lead a covert strike team called Operation: Lightning Storm, its designated mission being the elimination of supervillains before they become global threats.
Ms. Marvel is captured by the Brood on Monster Island, whereupon she found the Brood Queen. An intense confrontation ensued during which Ms. Marvel's powers are temporarily disabled, forcing her to fight the Brood Queen as Carol Danvers. At one point, she is stripped of her civilian clothing and forced to drift through space until she was able to access her powers.
Ms. Marvel also plays a significant role in the 2008 storyline "Secret Invasion", in which members of the shapeshifting alien race, the Skrulls, are revealed to have secretly infiltrated Earth by impersonating humans. She befriends Captain Marvel's Skrull impostor and proves to him that she is not a Skrull by revealing intimate details about their life together. At the conclusion of the war with the Skrulls, Norman Osborn is placed in charge of the registered Avengers team. Refusing to serve under Osborn, Ms. Marvel flees Avengers Tower, and joins the New Avengers, becoming second-in-command. Osborn appoints former Thunderbolt member Moonstone as the "new" Ms. Marvel to his Dark Avengers team; Moonstone wears a variation of Ms. Marvel's original costume. Osborn engineers a battle that results in Danvers's powers overloading, causing her apparent death. The character Moonstone takes over the title role in the ongoing Ms. Marvel series. Danvers returns with the aid of the New Avengers, a group of MODOK embryos, and a character known as the "Storyteller", and she reclaims the title of Ms. Marvel from Karla Sofen.
The increased use of Carol Danvers as a prominent character in many story arcs throughout this decade eventually prompted one commentator to note that "she's now the House of Ideas' premier heroine".