MCU Rewatch Issue #21: Captain Marvel

So, here we are.  I’m typing this well before I see Avengers: Endgame.  This article will go live a few hours before I do.  Captain Marvel isn’t on any sort of home or digital video.  I haven’t seen the movie again since it came out.  And, quite frankly, Jenny should probably be writing this one since she is the biggest Carol fan I know.

But I’m here anyway with some thoughts that are hopefully new and different.

See, there were a few reasons I didn’t want to write this one.  Mostly because I’ve already written a review and a separate retrospective on this movie.  Is there anything else I could say that I haven’t already?

Heck, is there anything else I could bring up that wasn’t used in a somewhat recent podcast episode.

So, what can I say?  I can predict how much or how little Captain Marvel will bring to the table for the final battle with Thanos.  Sure, she seems a hell of a lot more powerful than most if not all of the other Avengers (Thor might be a match for her.  Might), but I doubt she’ll be some solo act to save the day by herself.  Endgame is most likely the last time for Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, at the least, and as such the last time we’ll see the original Avengers cast together doing as a group, so having someone other than them save the day will be a narrative cheat for longtime fans.  My best guess is that the Russos will do what they do best with these characters and make it a real group effort with some creative action scenes.  She’ll play a role, probably even an important role, but it won’t be Carol somehow saving the day alone after the others all fall.

If there’s something really radical going on, it’ll be Carol getting knocked out by Thanos more or less right away just to remind everyone how strong he is.  I doubt that will happen, but you never know.  The trailers told us nothing, as good trailers should.  I’m looking forward to the movie.

Now, there’s been some speculation about where the MCU goes without Downey and Evans (and who knows who else).  There’s been talk that Brie Larson is being set up as the new centerpiece of the MCU, replacing Downey.  And…I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Not for the reasons you might think.  I actually think Captain Marvel fits a different role better.  See, Downey’s Tony Stark may have been more or less at the center of the MCU up until this point, but what little seems to be coming out of what the MCU is going to be going forward suggests to me that having any character at the center is a bit more difficult.  But if we’re looking for a new character to be the inventive brain at the center of everything, perhaps a new Avengers line-up that could include Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Spider-Man, I think Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther might fit that role better.  Besides, most of Downey’s solo movies as Iron Man were at the very least a bit divisive in terms of quality.

The way I see it, I think Larson is a better fit as a replacement for Chris Evans.  Tony Stark may have been the brain and the personality at the center of everything, but I’d like to see Carol Danvers fit into the Steve Rogers role as the moral center of the MCU.  Her solo movie was in many ways about treating people right and standing up for equality, freedom, and basic human dignity.  That is way more a Steve thing than a Tony thing.

Then again, Carol spent most of her solo movie with amnesia, and one of the weaknesses of any amnesia plot is, well, we may not have seen much of the real Carol yet.  I could be very wrong.

But I won’t be upset if I am.