Captain Marvel Comic Series Canceled Again, Future in MCU Likely Limited
Remember when Marvel said they wanted to make Captain Marvel their new flagship character, as if they could just will someone into taking Spider-Man’s place? Well, they just got another sign that it’s not gonna happen. ComicBookMovie.com reports that the latest version of the Captain Marvel comic book series has been canceled after just ten issues. This launch was designed to be a tie-in of sorts with The Marvels, the massive box office bomb from last year that teamed Captain Marvel up with Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau. (The writers at ComicBookMovie.com do their part to cover for Marvel in the article by acting like they can’t understand how a movie that had so much going for it failed to become a blockbuster; I can’t imagine faking my way through that kind of puff piece without a huge bar tab.) The news was revealed in the letters page of Captain Marvel #10, where the book’s editor, Sarah Brunstad, wrote:
“Ah, dear friends. Here we part, for a short time. Captain Marvel stories will continue in the gangbuster Avengers series and elsewhere (check out the new ongoing Avengers Academy, Marvel Unlimited subscribers!)… But her solo series needs a hiatus while we build the next great story. Keep the faith, True Believer. Keep the Corps strong. We’ll see you soon.”
This had been the formula for Carol Danvers for decades until Marvel decided to change her from Ms. Marvel to the new Captain Marvel and make her one of the pillars of their comic book franchise. She had her own book for a while, and it lasted about twenty-seven issues before Marvel pulled the plug; after that, she showed up in The Avengers and other lines but never had one of her own. But after her 2012 revamp, Marvel tried their hand at a Captain Marvel series and ended up having to relaunch it at least eight times because it didn’t sell, the most recent instance being last year. Now, they’re once more keeping her a member of the Avengers rather than a solo hero.
And that’s fine; not every character is meant to be a star, something even more evident in the movie world. This is why Sam Wilson had to be teamed with Bucky Barnes for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; they’re side characters who work best as Captain America’s buddies as opposed to the leads of their own adventures. And even paired up, their show felt lightweight and missing an anchor; I can only imagine how Sam’s upcoming movie is going to feel resting on his shoulders. It’s the same with Carol Danvers; her movie didn’t make her a particularly strong lead, so her sequel had her be part of a team with two TV characters, and even together, they never felt like iconic heroes we wanted to follow through space.
That’s probably why it sounds like the movies are going in a similar direction to the comics. Brie Larson was recently asked about her future as Captain Marvel in the MCU, and she suggested she’ll be back, but not on her own:
“I just loved being with those ladies so much… And I think that the sentiment of it is so right to me and is much more where I’m at in my life, which is, there’s no one superhero that can save us. It takes all kinds of people that have their own special skill sets and the ability to understand that the brink of disaster cannot be stopped by one. It’s all of us coming together… And you know, as for the future, there’s things that I know, but I can’t tell you… I can’t say anything and I can’t even say that I don’t know anything, because that might mean that there’s something to say or not say. So I’ll just say that I can’t say.”
If recent reports that the MCU is moving away from the All New, All Different push that helped sink Phases 4 and 5 (I say “helped sink” because it was also terrible writing, inexperienced directors, shoddy special effects, and a studio that forced changes on completed films) and going back to what works, I don’t see a sequel to The Marvels happening anytime soon. It does sound like Carol Danvers will be back – unfortunately – but it’ll probably be in Avengers: Doomsday and/or Avengers: Secret Wars. I think the latter is more likely, especially if it’s only one; rumor has it that they’re basing this film on the new Secret Wars instead of the classic one from the 80s (Marvel Studios seems to think that comic books were invented in 2012), and Carol is a big part of that story. But as with the comics, her days of leading her own adventures may be over, despite Sarah Brunstad’s insitence that they’re “building the next great story.”
Tell us what you think of Captain Marvel having solo adventures in print or on film in the comments!
Comments (4)
They’d prefer writers with an agenda other than storytelling and character building.
I mean to say like John Byrne was with She-Hulk. A character deserves a fully committed writer. Don’t know if Carol Danvers ever had that.
As I’m reading your article, and seeing how Shulkie and Ms. Marvel struggled, I do wonder why we never got like Gaga as Dazzler, or even some other young diva as Dazzler. Would’ve been a good career for Miley Cyrus, even though I do not like Miley at all, but thinking of what they would have done with Dazzler to add to those female teams.
Even then, that is girl stuff and Marvel needs to think about who their real fans are. They said at one time that comic book fans were the most loyal out of all fandoms and it is literature, too, so it occupies headspace. It’s not like sports.
They cast Halston Sage as Dazzler in Dark Phoenix, but then they didn’t do anything with her. She was basically a cameo, which sucks for her and for Halston Sage.
She was just never a major character. I only remember her from fighting Rogue, but in maybe a flashback. It was a Jim Lee issue, I think.
You know what Carol Danvers deserved? She deserved a writer like John Byrne or a writer like Claremont was with the X-men. Those writers loved characters so much, that they become like your friends. They really brought them to life.
This is maybe the biggest problem I have is that, somewhere out there, there are writers like that. Why wouldn’t you just pay them?