This past week, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had a whole lot to gush over thanks
to the release of exclusive photos of the Captain Marvel set via Entertainment Weekly.
We also got some exclusive details about what to expect from the film, including a shot
of Carol Danvers working as part of an elite military team called Starforce on the Kree
Plant of Hala.
According to the directors of the film, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Starforce is kind of
like the SEAL Team Six of space.
It was also revealed that the Captain Marvel movie, which takes place during the 90s, begins
with Carol already having her powers, and already on Hala with the Starforce.
We also found out that Jude Law, who plays Mar-Vell, is the commander of Starforce, and
acts as Carol’s mentee.
But what about the rest of the team?
What else do we know about the Starforce?
Starforce For starters, the Starforce is a team that
exists in the comics.
Traditionally, it’s a super villain team made up of Kree members, who initially appeared
in Avengers issue 346 back in 1992 as part of the Operation: Galactic Storm story arc.
The Team was brought together by the Supreme Intelligence, who is an artificial intelligence
that rules over the Kree.
Who the hell is that, you may be wondering?
Also known as the Supremor, the Supreme Intelligence was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back
in 1967.
It was created over a million years ago in the city of Kree-Lar on the planet of Hala
by the Kree as a means of creating a Cosmic Cube, similar to one that their enemies the
Skrulls had crafted to use against them.
It is made up of brains, actually, of the greatest Kree minds, meaning philosophers,
scientists, generals, you name it.
When one of these thinkers dies, they would be assimilated by the computer, who would
add their knowledge and experience to its mind bank.
Anywho, back in the day, it was tight with Ronan the Accuser, who it sent out on a mission
to kill the Fantastic Four (which was the series it first appeared in).
Eventually Ronan’s true colours became apparent to it, and instead it honored Mar-Vell with
a new uniform.
At the time, Mar-Vell was still a hero as far as the Kree were concerned.
Now the original team in the comics consisted of Captain Atlas, Doctor Minerva, Ronan the
Accuser, Supremor, Ultimus, Korath the Pursuer, Shatterax and Deathbird, who joined later
on.
As you can tell, most of those individuals aren’t the biggest of characters in the
Marvel Universe.
Side note, Ultimus recently became the antagonist in the game Marvel Strike Force earlier this
year, so yay for him.
The team in the Captain Marvel film varies.
Aside from Carol and Korath, the other individuals making up the team have yet to debut in the
MCU.
They are Minn-Erva, Att-Las, and Bron-Char.
Mar-Vell is the team’s commander.
Mar-Vell According to an interview with Jude Law, Mar-Vell
sees Carol as a pet project.
I quote, “These extraordinary powers she has, he sees them as something of a blessing
and something that she has to learn how to control.
That’s the motif throughout the piece, the element of learning to control one’s emotions
and to use your powers wisely.”
If you’re familiar with his role in the comics, you’re probably questioning whether
or not Mar-Vell will have a similar impact on Earth as he did in the panels.
As we mentioned earlier when discussing the Supreme Intelligence, Mar-Vell was once an
honoured hero in the Kree’s eyes.
But he falls from their graces.
In the 1960’s, when Marvel first got the rights to use the name Captain Marvel, they
introduced a character named Captain Mar-Vell who was sent to Earth by his race, the Kree,
to spy on them and decide whether or not they were a threat to the empire.
In the comics, this is where he encounters Carol Danvers, a pilot for the military who
ends up working with him and his human persona.
Because he adopts the identity of a deceased scientists named Walter Lawson, he ends up
growing an admiration for humanity, which eventually results in the Kree Empire accusing
him of treason.
He’s sentenced to death by a firing squad but escapes, returning to Earth.
In an explosion, his DNA ends up mingling with Carol’s, which is how she gets her
powers.
The name Captain Marvel comes from how humans interpreted his name Mar-Vell.
Now many people are wondering whether any of his origin story will come into play with
how Carol got her powers initially, and if his fall from grace will be a catalyst in
why Carol eventually stops working with the Starforce, choosing to align with her mentor.
In the comics, Mar-Vell eventually gets cancer and dies, and later on down the road, Carol
ditches her Ms Marvel alias, adopting Captain Marvel’s instead.
Perhaps similar events will also occur in the film.
Att-Lass Att-Lass, also known by his alias Captain
Atlas, is one of the original members of the Starforce from the comics.
He’s part of the Kree race, and from the city of Kree-Lar . Duing Operation Galactic
Storm, Att-Lass would discover that the war between the Kree and Shi’ar (shee-ar), which
was the premise of this story arc, was instigated by the Supreme Intelligence as a means of
jump starting the evolution of the Kree.
This hit him hard, disillusioning him, leading to him committing suicide by activating the
self-destruct program in his battle suit.
But it has been speculated by readers that instead of it being a self-destruct program,
it’s actually a teleportation device, because the character would later join a team of supervillains
in the 2013-2014 Infinity Heist comics, becoming Titanium Man.
He would then be vaporized, dying for good in Infinity Heist issue 4 of March 2014.
While we most likely won’t see his Titanium Man ways, it could be plausible that he dies
in a similar fashion, and the reason why Carol ends up working solo (and dons her Captain
Marvel suit) is because the other members of her team die.
Or, at least, everyone who isn’t Korath.
Minn-Erva Minn-Erva, played by Gemma Chan, is also a
Kree, and is most commonly known in the comics as Doctor Minerva.
She’s a gifted geneticist with superhuman strength and durability, the ability to fly,
has enhanced intuition, and knows how to pilot varies Kree starships.
Initially, she was the enemy of Mar-Vell, first appearing in Captain Marvel issue 50
in 1977.
She first came to Earth seeking him out, with the intention of mating with him and using
his altered genes to progress the Kree race.
Betcha that won’t be in the movie.
Anywho, she eventually became partners with Captain Atlas, and after the Starforce, she
would return to earth during the Civil War 2 story arc, and took on Carol Danvers in
a fight, later being arrested and imprisoned by the Kree.
Bron-Char Bron-Char is an even lesser known character
in the comics.
First appearing in 1998’s Captain American issue 8 volume 3, Bron-Char is a solider for
the Kree Empire, and a member of the Kree Lunatic Legion.
He was part of the Kree invasion on Earth, and had broken Captain America’s shield,
but only later learned that the shield was actually a replica from the Smithsonian Institute.
Bron-Char is the character who will likely be the most different from his comic counterpart,
mainly because there isn’t much to run with from that anyway.
He’s the bearded Kree fellow that appears in the group photo.
Korath Last but not least, we have Korath the Pursuer.
Since the film takes place in the 90s, we now get to see Korath alive and well, and
on the side of good.
In the comics, Korath is a Kree cyber-geneticist, and founded a project to develop cybernetic
warriors for the Kree military.
He himself is part cyborg, and fun fact, according to the concept art for Guardians vol 1, he
was meant to have blue skin, but that idea was later abandoned.
According to the MCU Guardians prelude comics, Korath spent his earlier years training alongside
Gamora and Nebula.
Whether or not that’ll remain canon and somehow tie into how Korath ended up on the
Starforce is yet to be explored.
But perhaps the connection through Thanos is what ends up aligning him with Ronan once
again.
Ronan Speaking of returning characters, it was no
secret that Ronan also appeared in these exclusive photos.
Fans of the MCU were aware that both he and Korath would be returning; the two had both
been killed in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 movie.
Ronan isn’t a part of the team, but he’s an ally, and as we can see from the photos,
dons a version of his costume that aligns with the same colours as the Starforce’s.
As we can see from the EW photos, Ronan is a friend of the Starforce’s, and is a high
ranking member of Kree society.
In Guardians vol 1, he was an outcast with extremist views, so perhaps Captain Marvel
will depict the early makings of Ronan’s separation from the Kree empire.
If you recall from the Guardians’ film, Ronan was disgusted by the peace treaty made
between the Kree Empire and Xandar after the Kree-Nova War, and had forged an alliance
with Thanos in an attempt to wipe out all of the Xandarians.
Leaked Scene Description In addition to all of this, there was a scene
description leaked that teased a Starforce mission on the planet Torfa, which in the
comics, is a poison planet that refugees from the war against the builders in the 2013 Infinity
story event.
Turns out it wasn’t poisonous as everyone initially thought; rather, it was because
of intense pollution thanks to the extraction of vibranium.
The planet was introduced in a 2014 issue of Captain Marvel.
According to the description, the planet, which has blue streaked sand and huge stone
archways, the Starforce are searching for a missing spy, traversing through a fog heavy
area.
Their comms are down, and Jude Law’s character gives the team the go-ahead, and Danvers springs
into action, itching for a fight.
So, nothing too revealing, but it’s cool knowing that we’ll get to see all of these
characters in action together at least once.
Now despite being in space and running around with the Starforce, we also know that something
draws her back to Earth; likely, the Skrulls, who we know will be primary antagonists in
the movie.
Ben Mendelsohn plays Talos, the leader spearheading a Skrull invasion of Earth.
The Kree have a long time grudge against the Skrulls; the film is set to explore the war
between them, and this invasion of Earth, which sounds like its taking cues from the
Secret Invasion comic story event, is most likely the reason why Carol ends up on her
home planet once again.
But more on that in a sec.
What else did these photos reveal?
Nick Fury We got to see a de-aged Nick Fury!
He’s a desk jockey working at SHIELD, before he’s climbed the ranks.
We can only speculate that his meeting with Carol will be pretty career advancing, that’s
for sure.
And considering he’s been carrying around a space beeper to get a hold of her, their
interaction must be pretty meaningful.
And the eye patch isn’t there!
There’s been a lot of speculation that we’ll see how exactly his eye gets wounded in the
film, too.
Carol Danvers Pilot Extraordinaire An image of Brie Larson, who plays Captain
Marvel, was revealed of the character inside a fighter jet.
We know that the film will be sticking to her origin of being an accomplished Air Force
pilot prior to her gaining her powers.
In the interview published by EW, Brie Larson also revealed more about how her Danvers will
be characterized in the film.
I quote, “She can’t help but be herself.
She can be aggressive, and she can have a temper, and she can be a little invasive and
in your face.
She’s also quick to jump to things, which makes her amazing in battle because she’s
the first one out there and doesn’t always wait for orders.
But the not waiting for orders is, to some, a character flaw.”
We’ll take a guess and suggest that this is something that causes a bit of conflict
between her and her mentor Mar-Vell from time to time.
Monica Rambeau Lastly, a photo of Monica Rambeau, one of
Carol’s oldest friends and fellow pilots, was revealed, and perhaps the most interesting
fact about it was her call sign, printed on the side of her plane.
It’s Photon.
In the comics, she actually briefly became Captain Marvel, but eventually adopted the
alias of Photon.
In between Mar-Vell and Carol, there was a series of other characters who took up the
Captain Marvel mantle, including ones that were related to Mar-Vell, hence why she gave
it up and switched to Photon.
She would fight alongside the Avengers on multiple occasions, and even replaced Wasp
as their leader in 1987 in Avengers issue 279.
Hala There’s one last thing we wanted to talk
about concerning the reveals, and that’s the planet of Hala, where the Starforce are
based.
Hala is located in the large magellanic cloud that is part of Kree territory, and it’s
also the place where the conflict between the Kree and Skrulls originate.
The Skrulls had initially come there looking for trade partners, and a contest between
the two ensured.
The Kree lost, and tried to steal the Skrulls technology, which was the catalyst for the
conflict.
Hala is also home to the capital city state of Kree-Lar, which takes up most of the planet’s
surface.
In the Operation Galactic Storm arc, Hala gets hit pretty hard by a Nega-Bomb that decimates
98% of the Kree population, devastating the planet, which was part of the Supreme Intelligence’s
plan.
Whether or not the Supreme Intelligence will play a similar role is yet to be confirmed,
but it would make sense as a catalyst to get the members of the Starforce to eventually
split up, have Ronan go on his way and cause Carol to adopt her own identity as Captain
Marvel.
Anywho, what do you guys all think of these reveals?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know your thoughts!
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