A full-on nerd out about Captain Marvel and the future of the MCU
Okay. My bias towards Marvel movies is pretty obvious. I am a committed fan and because of that I am unlikely to call out the series on any shortcomings, of which I will admit it has some. Instead of opting for a traditional review then, I’m going to add fuel to my addiction and lay out the implications of this film within the larger framework of an already ballooning cinematic universe.
**This contains A LOT of spoilers**
So what was I expecting from this? It has been established early on that Captain Marvel would feature the Kree (who he had previously seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the best MCU films) and their eternal enemies, the Skrull. This was a big deal as the shapeshifting race of deviants had not yet been featured on screen. An adaptation of Roy Thomas’s Kree-Skull War was likely going to play out with Carol Danvers (Vers?) at the center of the intergalactic conflict.
There were larger implications for the MCU. The Skrulls of the comics eventually went on to infiltrate some of Earth’s mightiest heroes in the 2008 series Secret Invasion. As the movie was set in 1995, fans went wild speculating which of our favorite characters had been Skrulls all along (my personal bet was Rhodey). It was expected that Captain Marvel would set up this conflict that would play out across the next phase of Marvel films and become a replacement for Thanos as the looming threat of the entire series.
This didn’t happen.
We begin on the Kree homeworld of Hala. Previous cosmic-set MCU films had been very lighthearted (Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: Ragnarok) so it was quite an adjustment to see it from a more dramatic perspective. Danvers is a supposedly Kree warrior and part of a Special-ops team tasked with hunting down squads of the evil Skrulls.
In the ensuing (and admittedly generic) conflict, Danvers is captured by the Skrull leader Talos, played here by the amazing Ben Mendelsohn in his second film with director-duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck after Mississippi Grind (an underrated masterpiece). Using her memories as a guide, they discover she originated on Earth and travel there to find an energy-core that had been developed by a gender-swapped Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening is perfect casting for Danver’s comic book mentor I might add).
Again, I’m not going to review the entire plot. There’s another relatively generic battle scene and a de-aged Nick Fury who is absolutely terrific to watch. Although I would’ve paid good money for them to give Samuel L. Jackson his Pulp Fiction Jheri curls.
Danvers and Fury find themselves in New Orleans, continuing to pursue Lawson and the Skrulls plan, when Talos, armed with a large soda, reveals to them what will upend the entire course of the MCU.
In the comics, the Kree and Skrull both had their issues but it was generally agreed that the latter was worse. The film went in the opposite direction.
Talos reveals to Danvers and Fury that his people had no intention of fighting a war, but that the Kree had destroyed their home world and they were forced to resist in their continuing efforts to find a new one. I kept trying to deny this as the film went on, it was obviously a trick. Carol would lead Talos to the energy-core and he would betray her. Instead, we find more refugees; husbands, wives and children all boarded on Lawson’s floating laboratory. The Skrulls weren’t bloodthirsty invaders, they were persecuted refugees.
I was wrong. And I’m so glad for it.
Upending the expected narrative of the comics was enlightened. They took one of Marvel’s most infamous villains and gave it something we often don’t see in these films: sympathy, humanity. There are many political implications that come out of this (beyond the already important task this film faced of being the first female-led Marvel movie). This is a perfect allegory for the time and place we are in. It shows how gung-ho distrust often leads us to vilify good people. The Kree are symbolic of the brutal nationalism our own world is facing.
But now that the Skrulls are our friends, I feel like we should have seen it coming.
Guardians of the Galaxy had already shown us that the Kree are a despotic race of warriors whose only goal is to eradicate any life that stands in the way of “Kree justice.” The primary antagonist of that film, Ronan the Accuser, makes a small appearance in Captain Marvel as well. I assumed that this would be before he became a fundamentalist and that he was an isolated incident that did not represent the values of all Kree. Again, I was wrong.
This turn of events was also set up by a prediction made last month on Reddit that was widely reported on. It stated the following:
Skrulls will pop up from time to time, but there are no plans to do Secret Invasion anytime soon.
It appears that this is true. Talos and his family did survive the events of Captain Marvel so there is a good chance they will reappear but now that they have been revealed to be allies, it would not make sense to introduce the Secret Invasion plotline.
Going further down the rabbit hole, that post predicted that the next slate of MCU stories will be divided into two camps: a street-level side introduced in Spider-Man: Far From Home (likely featuring films for Moon Knight, Shang-Chi, Ant-Man, and maybe a new Captain America as well) and a cosmic side introduced in The Eternals (which will probably include Nova, Adam Warlock and hopefully a third Guardians film).
Each camp will have a a story arc led by a primary antagonist. The street side will build towards Norman Osborn (and, for Spider-Man specifically, the Sinister Six) and the cosmic side will focus on Annihilus (who I’m going to recommend right now should be played by Michael K. Williams) and the Negative Zone. I’m not sure exactly where Black Panther and Doctor Strange fit into this but with their sequels all-but-confirmed, I’m sure they’ll be off doing their own things before another big team-up in Avengers 5.
With all this happening, there really isn’t a need for Secret Invasion. Marvel has enough material and strong villains to span another decade. Honestly, this twist is refreshing. It has created a unique ally for our heroes in the future and also set a precedent that the comics are no longer scripture.
I was wrong in a lot of my predictions. That’s a great thing. It proves that Marvel is still able to keep us on our toes and I look forward to seeing how they continue to shock us this April.
