Arriving just weeks before Avengers: Endgame hits the big screen, Captain Marvel's origin
story is crucial to understanding how the surviving Avengers will regroup and take down
the Mad Titan Thanos.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and now that Captain Marvel's movie is out, we've
got some juicy details on her powers and where they come from.
And when you dig deeper, there's some very compelling evidence hidden in the Marvel canon
about how Carol Danvers' very particular power set will be key to defeating Thanos in Avengers:
Endgame.
Obviously there's spoilers ahead for Captain Marvel, so take care if you haven't seen it
yet.
The big reveal in Captain Marvel is that Carol Danvers acquires her extraordinary powers
when she blows up an engine that was created using power from the Tesseract.
Carol destroys the experimental light speed engine to prevent the technology falling into
the hands of the Kree, but when the device explodes, Carol's body absorbs the energy
which imbues her with superhuman powers.
After Carol gets knocked out from the blast, she's abducted by the Kree and taken to Hala
as Yon-Rogg sees her powers as a means of accessing the power of the Tesseract.
Carol gets an infusion of Kree blood which crucially gives her additional powers that
the Kree enjoy such as super-strength, durability and stamina.
Remember, for example, in Guardians of the Galaxy, the Kree Ronan was able to hold one
of the Infinity Stones directly in his own hands without any injury.
So, Carol Danvers not only has a glowing Iron Fist that can emit photon blasts, but she
also has a hidden power set that remains locked away until the end of the movie.
When she realises that the Kree have been deliberately holding her back and dampening
her powers via the chip in her neck, she pulls it out unleashing her full powers.
In the final showdown between Carol and Ronan, we see the full power set she absorbed from
the Tesseract on display.
She can smash through a series of ballistic warheads Superman-style as well as completely
take out an enormous Kree battleship with ease, plus she can now fly though space and
survive without the need of protection from a spaceship.
In the comics, these abilities are referred to as Binary powers which give her access
to the energies of a white hole and therefore the ability to control heat, gravity and electromagnetism.
So, how will Carol Danvers' Tesseract powers help her and the Avengers defeat Thanos?
Well, for the answer to that, we need to think back to another Marvel character who also
derives her powers from an Infinity Stone.
In the post-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we got our first introduction
to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
HYDRA were using the power of the Mind Stone, which was contained in Loki's Sceptre, to
experiment on the twins giving them superhuman abilities.
Scarlet Witch showed off some of these powers in some truly badass moments during Infinity
War.
But more crucially she also used her powers in a last-ditch attempt to stop Thanos from
collecting all six Infinity Stones when she destroyed the Mind Stone lodged in Vision's
forehead, at least temporarily.
Because Wanda's powers originate in the Mind Stone she was the only one in the Avengers
team who could perform this task.
"I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head."
"About its nature.
But also its composition."
"I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source... something very similar
to its own signature, perhaps... its molecular integrity could fail."
And that's exactly why it's so important that Carol Danvers received her powers from the
Tesseract, aka the Space Stone.
If we look at what Scarlet Witch was able to do to the Mind Stone in Infinity War, we
can assume that Captain Marvel could do something similar to the Space Stone in Endgame.
For example, Carol's photon blasts likely have an energy signature similar or identical
to the Space Stone which currently sits in Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet, so she could therefore
destroy the Space Stone when she goes up against Thanos in Endgame.
Wrecking the Space Stone could severely hinder Thanos, for starters by preventing him from
teleporting between locations.
On top of that, in Infinity War, we witnessed how the Mad Titan used the Space Stone in
combination with other Infinity Stones to particularly lethal effect.
For example, he used it with the Power Stone to tear apart Titan's moon and rain down meteors
onto the heroes.
In Wakanda, Thanos employed the Space Stone to make Banner's Hulkbuster phase through
him and then encased him in rock.
Thanos also used it as a defence against ammo from War Machine as well as Scarlet Witch's
energy blasts.
And he also used it early in the film to freeze Loki's arm and dagger when the God of Mischief
tried to double-cross the Mad Titan and kill him.
Which means the loss of this particular stone would leave Thanos vulnerable against some
attacks he'd previously been able to withstand.
And, if this time, Thor or someone else landed a potentially deadly blow on the Mad Titan,
he wouldn't be able to portal himself away like he did in Infinity War.
What's especially interesting also is that, in the comics, a former Captain Marvel once
destroyed the comic book equivalent of the Tesseract when it was in the hands of Thanos.
In the comics, Captain Marvel's a superhero moniker that's been taken up by many individuals
before Carol Danvers, and the very first Captain Marvel was the alien Kree warrior Mar-Vell.
In Captain Marvel #33, after acquiring the Cosmic Cube, Thanos gained dominion and control
over the universe.
However, Mar-Vell, aka Captain Marvel, was able to destroy the Cosmic Cube, removing
the power that Thanos had acquired and restoring the universe.
Connecting these clues, I can see it's likely we'll see Captain Marvel destroy or disable
the Space Stone in Endgame.
And it could well be that this is the moment when the Avengers get the upper hand on Thanos
and defeat him once and for all.
Destroying the Space Stone would hold some special resonance in the MCU as the Tesseract
was our first introduction to the power of the Infinity Stones and has played a major
role throughout the franchise.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, when Red Skull tried to handle the Tesseract directly,
the artefact opened up a portal and banished the villain to Vormir where he was cursed
to watch over the Soul Stone.
The Tesseract was also a major part of the first Avengers movie and, of course, it made
an important reappearance when Loki stole it again in Thor: Ragnarok and then had to
hand it over to Thanos in Infinity War.
So, it would be especially fitting if Marvel ended this phase of its cinematic universe
by destroying the very first macguffin that has taken the fans on this epic journey.
The one problem with this is that if Captain Marvel does destroy the Space Stone, then
Thanos could simply wind the clock back with the Time Stone like he did with Scarlet Witch
to restore the Mind Stone.
But...
Thanos may not be able to repeat that trick in Endgame.
After all, the Infinity Gauntlet was damaged during the snap and the Time Stone may well
have been affected.
Plus, we don't know what the consequences might be for Thanos having meddled with time
in Infinity War, and there could be something that will stop him doing that again.
Remember, after all, that Doctor Strange was told in his movie that there are consequences
for messing around with time: "You still think there will be no consequences,
Strange?"
"No price to pay?"
"We broke our rules, just like her."
"The bill comes due.
Always!
A reckoning."
Now, do you think Captain Marvel will be able to destroy the Space Stone with her Tesseract
powers?
And do you have any other theories on how the MCU's newest hero will help the Avengers
defeat Thanos?
Let me know in the comments below!
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!