March 8, 2019. This day has two particular meanings—not only is it International Women’s Day, it is also the day Captain Marvel (2019) arrives in theatres in the USA, UK, Canada, China, and more nations across the world.
This was certainly intentionally done. It’s no secret that Captain Marvel is about Carol Danvers, a skilled, otherworldly heroine who takes her empowerment into her own hands (much like DC’s Wonder Woman did in 2017). Both official trailers even identify Carol’s femininity and womanhood with her pure heroism (the trailer slogan words, “DISCOVER WHAT MAKES HER,” animate seamlessly into “DISCOVER WHAT MAKES A HERO,” emphasis mine). After seeing the film for myself, I must say that Captain Marvel did a brilliant job in portraying a truly powerful and human female superhero.
Of course, it was a movie done by Marvel Studios, which means a few things. Was it more focused on thrilling action than murky-yet-inevitable and psychologically complex character evolution? Yes, probably. Was there the shoehorned humor that accompanies every Marvel movie? Absolutely. Did it fall into the same formulaic structure that Marvel is notorious for? Of course!
Still, there is veritable merit in having a rote, run-of-the-mill superhero action flick where every important character is a woman instead of a man, especially including women of color—and besides, I would make the argument that Captain Marvel breaks the formula in subtle but meaningful ways. I think Carol’s story is standard-defying and satisfying, and that it does more than the generic Marvel origin movie.
Spoilers ahead for the film!
One of the most remarkable things in Captain Marvel is Carol’s literal and figurative journey to self-realization. When Carol is introduced to the audience, she is a soldier struggling to place the memories that surface in her nightmares. (Hint: they’re from her suppressed past life on Earth.) She has no idea who she was before her arrival on Kree, the warrior-saturated planet led by one artificially intelligent supreme leader. Indoctrinated by her commander and the honorbound, war-oriented society of the Kree, Carol believes the shape-shifting alien race, the Skrulls, are her enemies. She also mistakenly believes the Kree gave her her superheroine powers.
Her (male) commander, Yon-Rogg, is a mentor figure who preaches rational control over her emotions. He criticizes Carol for having a sense of humor, for having anger, and for using her unique super-abilities in sparring and on the field. (I also must point out that women being over-emotional is still a common and unfair criticism of women today.) His eventual reveal as an antagonist makes the journey Carol embarks on all the more poignant.
Why? Yon-Rogg was the one who abducted her from Earth, having witnessed the inciting incident that gave Carol her powers. He believed she was a key to Kree’s success in their war against Skrulls, in one way or another. Presumably tinkering with her mind, and frequently telling Carol that her own memories are nothing worth worrying about, Yon-Rogg effectively brainwashes and continually gaslights Carol to keep her playing her manufactured role in Kree’s society. Even as she rebels against his definition of her place in Kree, she is punished; the supreme leader tells her that what was given to her can be taken away, referring specifically to her super-abilities.
If Carol being forced to play a role that society arbitrarily decided for her sounds too familiar, I can’t say that wasn’t all intentional on Marvel’s side.
As Carol continues to unveil her past—working with humans on Earth who laugh, get angry, and never try to restrict her natural abilities—she reconnects with figures from her old life. (It is notable that her best friend, Maria Rambeau, is a single black mother with a bright daughter, and that Maria flew with Carol in her Air Force days.) Carol learns that the Kree have been brainwashing her, and that Yon-Rogg has been lying to her: the Skrulls are more refugees than terrorists, and the Kree are a conquering, war-hungry society that swallows planets. (It is also remarkable that the Marvel Cinematic Universe changed Carol’s idol and Kree turncoat, Mar-Vell, into a woman instead of using the original man.) Carol makes it her quest to save the Skrulls, betraying Yon-Rogg and the Kree.
This plot is important. Not only does Carol break from the mold that was forced onto her by Yon-Rogg and Kree society, she discovers her true self and true powers because of her break. She discovers that the Kree did not give her her powers; they chose to lie to her as a form of control. When Carol breaks from Kree’s role for her, she finally takes full control of her powers and becomes a truly formidable heroine.
Literally, Carol betrays the Kree, and gained preternatural abilities. Figuratively, Carol breaks free from the restrictions that society forced on her and becomes the best version of herself. In my opinion, the duality of Carol’s journey is not seen in any other Marvel film—and Carol’s journey is especially relatable for women all over the world.
One other way in which Marvel breaks norms with Captain Marvel is in one of its final confrontations. Other Marvel movies involve heroes grappling with their greatest rivals for prolonged amounts of time, bashing each other bloody or fighting until one party is dead. Carol’s final confrontation with Yon-Rogg, surely, must be similar…
But it is not. Not only does Carol display mercy and respect for even her enemies’ lives by the end of the film (at the start, she is much more disposed to the violence that Yon-Rogg and her comrades in arms display), her big fight is hardly even a fight.
Yon-Rogg taunts her by sheathing his weapons and raising his fists, yelling at Carol to “prove herself.” She could never win in her spar matches with him without using her powers, so her moment is now; can she beat him with just her fists? Carol has none of it. She blasts him with her powers and ends the fight immediately.
As she walks up to Yon-Rogg, she says she has “nothing to prove” to him, and offers him a hand. (Yes, she drags him across the desert landscape and back into his ship with a message, but she treats him first and foremost with mercy.) There is no grand, VFX-heavy fight like in all the Avengers films, and even in great solo films like Spiderman: Homecoming or Dr. Strange, no final fight is quite as rife with complex poignance. Besides offering mercy to her enemies, Carol says a lot when she states that she has “nothing to prove.” Not only does she mean that she has given up Kree’s ideals and her old life in the Starforce, she also means that anyone who tries to restrain her, or anyone who puts their expectations on her, can screw off.
And if that isn’t a resonant message with plenty of female members in the audience today, I don’t know what is.
All in all, the writing in Captain Marvel may follow a general standard for all Marvel Studios films, but there is much more in the subtext than I had ever expected it to have. The inspiring changes Carol Danvers goes through in the course of the film mean it works both as a fun, thrilling superhero movie and as a fantasy and ideal that all women watching can identify with and hope for.
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