Beta Ray Greg Presents : The Life of Captain Marvel #4

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THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR: THE ORIGIN OF CAPTAIN MARVEL!
Published: October 17, 2018

Hala at your girl!…. I’ll see myself out.

I know, I know. You’ve read the opening line and now you’re like “but you said…”  and I did. Everyone knows the origin of Captain Marvel especially since the movie was announced. But for those of us that have known that origin forever, it’s a pretty M. Night Shyamalan…ey twist. They take what is known and BAM! The curtain opens and reveals the missing pages of the story. Margaret Stohl just brilliantly adds to the legend of Carol Danvers. Lets get into the meat of it kids.

MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS : THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARVEL #4

We’re opening to a flash back of Hala, Capital planet of the Kree. Essentially it’s a ‘danger room’ training situation with a blonde female teenager. She has no stop…only goes. She fights and she wins. Weeks into training she’s shown her worth and she’s promoted to Champion of the Kree Empire. Captain Mari-ell, first of the Supreme Protectorate. She is given a mission to Earth by Intelligence Supreme Empress Pam’a. She accepts and dreams of all of Hala singing the legends of Captain Mari-ell.

Mari-ell is Carol’s mother, Marie Danvers, secretly a former Captain of the Kree Empire. I’ll hold for dramatic effect….WHAT!?! At this moment we find out, the family is being attacked by a Kree Kleaner. I can only assume it’s the Kree version of Dog the Bounty Hunter. This encounter forces her mother to drop her cloak and reveal her true nature after an entire lifetime as Marie Danvers. Mari-ell has a real ‘Molly Weasley’ moment screaming ‘stay away from my daughter’ (you bitch). She fights off the Kleaner who retreats.

The kids, Joe and Carol, finally have a moment to process. Our mother isn’t human. Carol addresses her mother as captain, who addresses her as captain like a Captain Morgan commercial. Joe is still like WHAT IS GOING ON. Me too Joe. Marie tells a tale of growing up on Hala and her appointment to the Protectorate. How she met their father, Joe, Sr., by almost sinking his boat on the harbor when her landing went awry.

Joe loved carol from the beginning. She said he knew she was different but he didn’t know how different. She still reported back to Hala and told them Joe was her cover to assimilate, and she eventually tells Joe her secrets. He loved her more. They marry and have kids. Carol came first. Her Hala name is Car-ell. It means champion. Oh goodness, right in the feels.

Marie knows Carol is going to be special. She turns off her communicator with Hala. She knows they’ll come for them, eventually. Joe vows to protect them not really knowing what he’s saying. As Carol grew up, Mari-ell became Marie more and more. No different than in real life, we become who we need to be over time vs who we were meant to be. She made a choice. Joe Sr. agreed with her choice, but disagreed with what he saw as losing the woman he fell in love with, Mari-ell. He started drinking and with that turning into the man Carol knew far too well.

Her mother gave up everything to make sure her and Joe Jr. had a mother even after their father checked out mentally. At the end of the issue the Kree Kleaner comes back and takes Joe Jr. hostage. Announcing by decree of Empress Pam’a, Mari-ell is sentenced to death.

Now, there is one thing I skimmed over. The true origin of Captain Marvel. In her origin as we knew it, she is involved with an explosion with a Kree device which infused her body with Kree DNA. HOKAY. That’s what we know we knew. Doors blown off, there’s Stohl, standing there like Ripley in Aliens, burning down the walls that held those memories. Carol’s mother tells her that since she was half Kree DNA anyways, the bomb only activated her powers. She didn’t steal or borrow her powers as Carol has felt in the past. Her powers were no accident. She is who she was meant to be.

Holy cow. Pure genius. The depth of stories is endless. Will Captain Marvel take the fight to the Kree? Only time will tell.

Carol is truly a super hero. Well, Carol Corps I hope you enjoyed it. The future is bright.

8/10

BRG

Beta Ray Greg is the Comic Critic for SoBros Network, the ‘Fangtastic 5K 2018 Mr. Irrelevant.’ The man has the single most impressive spreadsheet in existence that is used to document his historic collection. He’s a big time Spider-Verse guy. Follow on Twitter: @BetaRayGreg.
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