Avengers: Infinity War - The One Big Question Captain Marvel NEEDS To Answer
Paging Carol Danvers.
Avengers: Infinity War leaves a number of big questions behind. The shocking, devastating ending completely changes the complexion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4 has a lot of work to do in resolving the fallout.
However, while it’s that movie with most of the weight on its shoulders, such as reviving the dead heroes, bringing the likes of Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Wasp back into the fold, and dealing with the threat of Thanos once and for all, infinity War also creates a slight issue for Captain Marvel.
The post-credits scene picks up with Nick Fury and Maria Hill on the streets as the impact of Thanos’ snap starts to hit. As chaos descends, a helicopter crashes down, and Hill begins to disintegrate, we see Fury dive into his car to retrieve a device of some sort, sending out what we can only assume is a distress signal.
As he himself disappears the device falls to the floor, where we see it was some kind of modified pager, and that the person he was contacting was none other than Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
It’s a clever bit of setup for the character, who’ll be appearing in Avengers 4 (played by Brie Larson) after first being introduced in her solo movie next March, but it leaves a massive question behind.
Why has Fury (as far as we know) never contacted her before now?
Although Thanos is unquestionably the biggest threat Earth has faced, it’s not the first time that we’ve seen the ‘biggest threat’, because that’s exactly what Loki and the Chitauri and then Ultron were. Both were deemed so dangerous that the Avengers Initiative was put into action, but Captain Marvel herself was never mentioned. Arguably the closest we’ve got is Fury’s line about the universe being much bigger than Tony Stark realises, and that’s only looking at it retroactively rather than something intentional at the time.
The obvious, out-of-universe explanation is that Captain Marvel wasn’t a part of the MCU until recently, when the solo movie was announced and Brie Larson cast. But that doesn’t suffice as an in-universe explanation, which is something the Captain Marvel universe needs to offer.
We know that movie is set in the 90s and, alongside the Kree-Skrull War, will feature Danvers working alongside Fury and the returning Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), so there has to be something which happens in the film that means Fury never contacted her until now.
One possible explanation is that she, well, hasn’t really been contactable. Theories abound regarding Carol Danvers’ location, ranging from her being off in deep space to being in the Quantum Realm, which this movie could end with, although even that wouldn’t necessarily explain why Fury didn’t at least try to make contact. Unless, of course, he couldn’t even attempt until now.
For all the movie is set some 20 years ago, it has a lot to do in connecting to the future, based on Captain Marvel’s (non-)involvement in Infinity War and subsequent appearance in Avengers 4, which will presumably be setup by a post-credits scene of its own. But the one thing we really need to know isn’t just where she’s been all this time, but why.
What do you think about Captain Marvel’s location and why Fury hasn’t contacted her? Share your thoughts down in the comments.