{"id":155237,"date":"2021-09-04T23:31:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-05T05:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=155237"},"modified":"2021-09-05T12:21:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-05T18:21:03","slug":"marvellous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2021\/09\/04\/marvellous.html","title":{"rendered":"Marvellous"},"content":{"rendered":"

I honestly don’t get the Captain Marvel \/ Carol Danvers \/ Brie Larson hate thing, be it in comic books or the movies. I never have. It just always feels like it boils down to horrible resentment and fear of strong women who recognize themselves as such.<\/p>\n

That observation was inspired by yet another article — “Comic Book Fans Reject Captain Marvel | Cosmic Book News<\/a>“– with that theme. “Everyone hates the Captain Marvel because she sucks and she hates men and Marvel is ruining my childhood.” But I’ve been reading this kind of “analysis” for years, ever since (a) Carol got her new name and outfit and (b) she got her own MCU movie announced, too.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/a>
Brie Larson as the MCU’s Captain Marvel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And I find that outlets that actually echo those sentiments tend to be a click-baity toxic stew of such feelings, largely just amplifying a relatively small number of hating, if vocal, broflakes, who seemingly can’t stand the very concept of a superhero who can trade punches (or energy blasts) with the best of them, but is a girl<\/em>, and almost certainly has girl cooties.<\/em><\/p>\n

(I’ve taken to asking Google News to exclude those media outlets, since I rarely find myself in agreement with any of their other pronouncements, including, frequently, how Zack Snyder is a cinematic god.)<\/p>\n

Is Captain Marvel (comic or movie) my bestest ever experience? No. I think the character (originally as Ms Marvel) has rung through too many changes over the years (female version of a male hero, early feminist icon, bathing suit-wearing flying brick, amnesiac victim, hyperpowered cosmic hero, alcoholic … then, finally, as Captain<\/em> Marvel, fearless pilot and icon for girls).<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/a>
Alex Ross does a nice, if incomplete, survey of Carol Danvers’ outfits over the years<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That current iteration of the character in comics has gone through a series of writers and artists and, well, series, and attracted both fierce fans and fierce detractors, but only so-so readership. I’ve bought its various incarnations because I’ve<\/em> enjoyed it, but I’ve never put it at top-of-stack as the best thing of the week.<\/p>\n

(That the comic has gone through multiple volumes and directions and creative team is much hallooed by the character’s critics, as in the original article noted, without any consciousness of how many other characters and titles go through similar things without being condemned as a threat to All that is Right and Good (and, of course, Masculine).)<\/p>\n

Similarly, I thought the movie was good, but not spectacular<\/a>, though it did decent box office — not top-tier, but quite respectable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"mcu<\/a>
Pretty sure those aren’t *bad* numbers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But I can say, “Hey, this is only good, not great” without the need to pin down a binary “best of breed” or “dirty mongrel” … perhaps because I don’t see Captain Marvel as a threat to my ego or the rest of my comic book \/ movie franchise experience. I can see a comic \/ movie starring a strong woman — one who’s not showing a whole bunch of skin, at that — and not feel like my masculinity is being threatened, let alone attacked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel was supposed to be a tentpole for the next wave of Marvel movies, something that COVID-19 put into a tailspin. It’s strong but not blockbusting performance may have also led to the next installment pivoting to not being another Carol solo film, but The Marvels,<\/em> which will include two other related characters: Monica Rambeau (seen getting her powers in WandaVision),\u00a0<\/em>who in the comics held the Captain Marvel name for a while*, and Kamala Khan (a teen who in the comics got powers and took on the moniker of Ms Marvel).<\/p>\n

I hope that’s all setting up a whole bunch of new goodness, not a response to dudes who think Captain Marvel doesn’t fit their toxic view of womanhood.<\/p>\n

Original Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

* Short history lesson: The first superhero named Captain Marvel was originally a knock-off of Superman back in the 1930s, published by Fawcett. DC ended up suing Fawcett over it, quashing the comic, and eventually buying the rights to the character. Meanwhile Marvel decided it<\/em> should have a character by that name, obviously and created its own Captain Marvel, a Kree spy who “went native” and defended Earth. Carol Danvers was a character in his book, and eventually got exposed to McGuffin technology, and became the similarly-powered Ms Marvel. DC started up its Captain Marvel comic again, though usually not as part of its mainstream universe. Marvel, who couldn’t make a huge commercial go of its Captain Marvel, killed him off with cancer (great comic), but realized it needed to keep the name in use in order to defend the trademark. So Monica Rambeau got created to be called Captain Marvel, though she later changed her hero name to Photon. Various other Captains Marvel showed up in Marvel, until someone had the obvious idea a few years back of renaming Ms Marvel to Captain Marvel, putting an end to all that. Meanwhile, DC finally agreed to rename their<\/em> Captain Marvel to the name he invoked to trigger his powers, Shazam. And now you know. And knowing’s half the battle.<\/p>\n

\"captains<\/a>
Captains Marvel: Marvel’s Kree Mar-Vell; Carol Danvers; and Fawcett Comics’ Billy Batson Captain Marvel, now called Shazam.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some vocal bros sure seem to be constantly threatened by strong female heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[78,11,525,348],"tags":[1819,326,1234],"class_list":["post-155237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tweets","category-media-comics","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-women","tag-captainmarvel","tag-comics","tag-mcu","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Ms-Marvel-and-Captain-Marvel-uniforms.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136909,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/05\/waiting-for-captain-marvel-2019.html","url_meta":{"origin":155237,"position":0},"title":"Waiting for “Captain Marvel” (2019)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-18 2:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"(And, just to be clear, I'm talking about the Marvel movie by that name, not the Shazam movie coming from DC, starring a character who used to be called \"Captain Marvel\" but now is called \"Shazam.\" Got it? Though I'm looking forward to that one, too.) The pix make it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/captain-marvel-brie-larson.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37805,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/13\/marvel-cinematic-universe-even.html","url_meta":{"origin":155237,"position":1},"title":"Marvel Cinematic Universe even…","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Jun-13 10:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Marvel Cinematic Universe evening, rewatching \"Captain America\" and \"Thor\". Both appeal to different comic geek aspects of me.","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138515,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/01\/on-captain-marvel-and-the-future-of-the-marvel-cinematic-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":155237,"position":2},"title":"On “Captain Marvel” and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Apr-19 9:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"What Carol's success might mean for the X-Men and FF, oh, and what about her romantic life?","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-black-panther.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-black-panther.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-black-panther.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-black-panther.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-black-panther.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46092,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/28\/the-marvel-cinematic-universe-strikes-back.html","url_meta":{"origin":155237,"position":3},"title":"The Marvel Cinematic Universe Strikes Back","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Oct-14 2:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Following up on DC's recent fleshing out of their slate of films, Marvel has further detailed their coming entries, adding both some new heroes to the MCU as well as giving titles for some of the sequels.2015- Avengers: Age of Ultron- Ant-Man2016- Captain America: Civil War- Doctor Strange2017- Guardians of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131259,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/13\/the-cinematic-captain-marvels-origin-will-not-be-green-lanternish.html","url_meta":{"origin":155237,"position":4},"title":"The cinematic Captain Marvel's origin will not be Green Lanternish","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 13-Aug-16 5:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's very cool that Carol Danvers (once Ms. Marvel, now Captain Marvel) will get her own movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She just won't have the same origin as she does in the comics.Which, to be honest, is understandable. Ms. Marvel's origin was dependent (literally) on the original Mar-Vell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138562,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/04\/the-tangled-histories-of-the-captains-marvel.html","url_meta":{"origin":155237,"position":5},"title":"The Tangled Histories of the Captains Marvel","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Apr-19 8:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"One who was first called it isn't any more. One who is now called it wasn't before.","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-and-captain-marvel-shazam.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-and-captain-marvel-shazam.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-and-captain-marvel-shazam.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-and-captain-marvel-shazam.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-and-captain-marvel-shazam.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/captain-marvel-and-captain-marvel-shazam.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155247,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155237\/revisions\/155247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}