Captain Marvel #22 cover by Jorge Molina
Captain Marvel is a 2019 ongoing comic from Marvel Comics and the tenth volume of Captain Marvel, written by Kelly Thompson with art by various artists. The series began publishing in January 2019 and concluded in June 2023 with its 50th issue.
Set after The Life of Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers reconciles with the revelation that she is actually half-Kree by birth.
Following its conclusion, the run is followed by Ann Nocenti's Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest mini-series. The ongoing book was then relaunched in October under the creative custodianship of Alyssa Wong and Jan Bazaldua.
Storylines in this run that have their own pages:
- Re-Entry — Carol returns to Earth after a lengthy trip in space, but she soon finds herself trapped on a wasted Roosevelt Island with some of her closest friends and allies, and it's up to them to find a way off. Drawn by Carmen Carnero.
- Strange Trip — War of the Realms tie-in. With Earth taken over by Malekith and his forces, Carol leads herself, Doctor Strange, and Black Widow in a mission to retake South America from The Enchantress. Drawn by Annapaola Martello.
- Falling Star — When her half-Kree parentage is revealed to the public and ruins her reputation, Carol is forced to team up with a long-lost enemy from her past, while a new superhero with similar powers (suspiciously) rises in her place. Drawn by Carnero.
- Captain Marvel: The End — One-shot. In a possible future, Carol returns to Earth after thirty years to find the planet in ruins and facing devastation, forcing her to help prevent a total apocalypse. Drawn by Carnero.
- The Last Avenger — When Carol is given twenty-four hours to kill five Avengers, it's race against the clock for her to emerge victorious without eliminating her longtime allies. Coincides with issue #150note of Carol's solo comic books. Drawn by Lee Garbett.
- Game Night – Single issue. After the events of the previous arc, Carol partakes in a game night with some of her closest pals, but trouble still has its way of finding her. Drawn by Francesco Manna.
- Accused — Empyre tie-in. After being given the Universal Weapon by Emperor Hulkling, Carol fights for the Kree-Skrull Empire in their war against the Cotati and becomes the Supreme Accuser. Drawn by Cory Smith.
- The New World – Follow-up to Captain Marvel: The End. When Carol is transported to a post-apocalyptic future, she's forced to find her way back home, but not before helping a faction of survivors from a threatening new ruler with familiar origins. Drawn by Garbett.
- Mistakes Were Made — Single issue. Newly single and out of her groove, Carol is encouraged to try speed-dating, but eventually finds herself with a strange new bedfellow. Drawn by David Lopez.
- Strange Magic — Shaken by a recent failure, Carol seeks outside help to master what may be her greatest weakness: magic. Drawn by Jacopo Camagni.
- Vacation, All I Ever Wanted! – Single issue. Carol and Rhodey rekindle their romance and take a trip into space, but their relaxation is cut short by a multiversal threat. Drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa.
- The Last of the Marvels — Follow-up to The Last Avenger. An imposter bearing Carol's appearance is threatening the galaxy, and it's up to her to save the Captain Marvel legacy from ruin. Drawn by Sergio Dávila.
- The Trials: Follow-up to Strange Magic. The bill for Carol's foray into magic comes due. Meanwhile, a new ally introduced during The Last of the Marvels must adjust to life on Earth.
- Revenge of the Brood — An crossover with Gerry Duggan's X-Men and Thompson's Grand Finale. Carol and the Mutants find themselves teaming up to deal with new Brood campaign of aggression.
Not to be confused with 2019's Captain Marvel, the character's live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released within a month of this volume's debut.
Kelly Thompson's Captain Marvel contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The Judgment Day tie-in stars Carol's pet Flerken, Chewie.
- Aesop Amnesia: Carol met the daughter of War Machine in a Bad Future, but she wasn't her mother. War Machine had this daughter with someone else. Carol broke with War machine, because she did not want to prevent this daughter from coming to existence, and got a lot of criticism for learning nothing from Civil War II. In fairness, shortly after, she realises that she screwed up and makes amends, and it's part of a running theme of bad decisions related to that future.
- All According to Plan: A villain takes control of Carol and sends her to attack the other Avengers. She easily defeats Thor, but it's revealed in the next issue that this is all part of the plan, Thor knew and simply played along.
- Amazonian Beauty: Lauri-Ell is tall and extremely muscular, especially with arms that both Spider-woman and Hazmat think look incredible.
- Anti-Magic: Since Carol is unable to learn magic quick enough to counter Ove's attack, the Enchantress gave her a pill that made her immune to magic. Well. Showed her where it was and let her fight the monsters to get to it and let her figure her own way out. Carol tricked Ove into drinking it, stripping him of his magical abilities.
- Bad Future: Captain Marvel: The End is a one-shot where Captain Marvel, who was in space, comes back to Earth and finds it devastated, then used her powers to reignite the dying sun. Some months later the Captain Marvel from the present visits it.
- Beleaguered Boss: Hulking gives Carol, the new Accuser, a simple task: go capture a terrorist who is blowing stuff up. She instead runs away with the terrorist, because it's her sister, and she wants to prove that she was being framed. Then she desecrates the universal weapon, a sacred weapon of the Kree, to give similar powers to Rhodes, Jessica Drew and Hazmat. Hulking tries his best to be reasonable and supportive, but none this is of much help.
- Big Bad: Vox Supreme seems to be shaping up to be this for the Thompson run, though Amora the Enchantress is a possible candidate, as is Ove.
- Blind Date: Jessica arranges one for Carol after she breaks up with Rhodes. It doesn't work out well. Then, ironically, she runs into Doctor Strange. And they hit it off. And they make a mistakes (or to be exact, three mistakes. Then a fourth).
- Conqueror from the Future: Ove escaped from the Bad Future, where he was born, showing up in the present day.
- Control Freak: Both Carol and Strange are this, which is why Black Widow finds Enchantress bodyswapping them so funny.
- Doppelgänger Attack: Trapped by Vox Supreme, Carol innovates the creation of an energy duplicate of herself to escape her bonds. At the end of the arc, this duplicate is shown to be fully independent, and is deemed Binary.
- Empathic Weapon: The Universal Weapon, which has a semi Only the Chosen May Wield effect - that is to say, it'll put up with whoever's got it, but it only really "sings" for the person it chooses. It also has an influence on the wielder, to Carol's distinct unease, which is why she splits it and its powers into four. Lauri-Ell takes it up, and wields it comfortably.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Carol wants to learn magic, to prevent the Bad Future, but Dr. Strange refuses to teach her. It takes a patient and committed person to learn magic, which Carol is not. She asks all the other magic heroes for help (Jerico, Magik, Talisman, Nico, etc), but none of them help, since Strange already warned them and instructed them to say no. But what about the Scarlet Witch? She's Carol's friend. She doesn't follow Strange blindly, so she might help, right? Nope. She not doing it "because Strange says so", but because she actually agrees with him.
- Evil Counterpart: Star hits every button from appearance to power-set, and seems set to become Carol's Archenemy (though she pulls a Hazy-Feel Turn in her miniseries and the new Thunderbolts).
- Eye Beams: Out of desperation during a grapple with one of Vox's controlled Marvels, Carol channels an energy blast through her eyes. She describes it as an uncomfortable experience, and points out the obvious issue that this maneuver leaves her unable to see, making it useless as a ranged attack because she can't aim it.
- Fish out of Water: Lauri-Ell on Earth, though it doesn't bother her.
- Funny Background Event: While Carol and Doctor Strange are having a long discussion, Black Widow is struggling with a crocodile in the background without them noticing.
- Gentle Giant: Lauri-Ell towers over her older sister, who's no munchkin at almost six feet tall, and is more built than most iterations of She-Hulk. However, she is very gentle, and despite being engineered for war, she really, really does not like it.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Carol and Lauri-Ell - clearly something that runs in the family.
- Long-Lost Relative: The Life of Captain Marvel establishes that Carol doesn't just have Kree powers, she's actually a Kree. And during the Empyre tie-in she meets her long lost sister... Lauri-Ell, a giant, She-Hulk-style Kree!
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Or alternatively, Carol's energy absorption, projection and manipulation turns out to be much more flexible than she'd previously believed, forming hard light constructs, absorbing the brain electricity of a powerful opponent, and most dramatically, projecting an energy form of herself while her physical body is trapped.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Subverted with Lauri-Ell, surprisingly enough - she's a giant genetically engineered Kree warrior, but her personality is that of a Gentle Giant and a Kind Hearted Cat Lover. However, this just means that she prefers not to fight - she is, in fact, very, very good at it.
- Rank Up:
- Carol gets promoted to being the leader of the Accuser Corps during Empyre, though later cedes that title to Lauri-Ell, her sister.
- On a lighter note, Kit a.k.a. 'Lieutenant Trouble' is now 'Captain Trouble'.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Amora the Enchantress, usually an opponent of Thor and Doctor Strange, ends up fighting and teaming up with Carol as it suits her.
- Rousing Speech: Parodied. Carol wonders why people keep expecting her to do the St. Crispin Day speech (and if it's the only speech people know).
- Self-Disposing Villain: Carol obtained an anti-magic pill to be able to stand against Ove. The Enchantress summoned her and he prevented Carol from taking it, but then (ignoring what the pill was for) he consumed the pill. Now he's completely incapable to use magic anymore.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Amora sees Carol and Strange coming for her in the middle of War of the Realms and tries to prevent them by pulling a "Freaky Friday" Flip, which initially works brilliantly - Strange's magical knowledge, for instance, did not travel with his mind. However, it ultimately turns out to be her downfall.
- Spock Speak: Lauri-Ell, the genetically engineered Kree half-sister of Carol, speaks very formally and practically, verging on Antiquated Linguistics, drawing comparisons to Asgardian dialogue.Binary: Lauri-Ell said contractions are for the weak.
- Super Window Jump: Carol is depressed at home and refuses to talk with anyone or to answer Jessica Drew on the phone, so Jessica lets herself in. And she likes it, because she enters Carol's house the same way later on.
- Swiss-Army Superpower: Carol's energy powers, as she slowly discovers.
- Unreliable Narrator: In the Bad Future, Ove explains to Carol how the world came to its current state and the settlement they had organized. And it's true... he just skips or is vague on several important details.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Carol ultimately defeats Ove by tricking him into drinking a potion that'll forever strip him of his ability to use magic. Enchantress swears revenge, and Strange tells her that this is considered a heinous action that magic users of any morality in the community would hold against her.
