For most of her existence, Carol Danvers was only occasionally a headlining character as Ms. Marvel. However, that changed in 2012 when Kelly Sue DeConnick and artst Dexter Soy launched a new Captain Marvel series with Carol in the lead. Jamie McKelvie redesigned Carol’s costume for the series, and she quickly became one of Marvel’s most prominent heroines. However, DeConnick apparently had even more ambitious plans to separate Carol from her predecessor, Mar-Vell.
While speaking with i09, DeConnick shared her idea for an origin retcon that would have involved a time paradox. Carol originally received her powers when her DNA was merged with Mar-Vell’s during an explosion. But if DeConnick had her way, Carol would have gotten her powers from herself.
“In ‘Pursuit of Flight’, it was actually supposed to be that [Carol] goes back to the moment of the explosion and it’s a time paradox where she’s witnessing her own origin,” explained DeConnick. “What I wanted to do was I had Carol time travel, so she’s in the scene where she’s getting her powers. She’s there with Helen Cobb, who is another pilot hero of hers, and she and Helen are watching the moment. Helen wants the powers, so she intentionally runs into the scene to be caught in the explosion. I wanted Mar-Vell to grab Helen; which would leave Carol needing to go in and rescue her younger self.”
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“When the machine exploded, it would transfer Carol’s powers from Carol to Carol,” continued DeConnick. “So that she would become the source of her own powers. It was an intentionally feminist reboot.”
Marvel shot down DeConnick’s retcon, but the company did its own retcon last year. The Life of Captain Marvel miniseries revealed that Carol’s mother was a Kree warrior with her own super powers. In that story, the explosion didn’t give Carol super powers, it simply awakened the powers she had already inherited from her mother.
Whether either retcon was a good idea is subjective, but it seems that Marvel also wanted to diminish Mar-Vell’s importance in Carol’s origin. Regardless of whether Carol got her powers from Mar-Vell, he still played a major role in her life. He was already the inspiration behind her Ms. Marvel persona. Carol also took the Captain Marvel name as a tribute to Mar-Vell. Even the rebooted origin hasn’t completely severed their connection.
Would you have preferred DeConnick’s retcon over the one that Marvel used? Does it even matter where Carol got her powers from? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Captain Marvel Vol. 1
