Captain Marvel: 12 Major Characters From The Comics You Need To Know

One of the more complicated members of the -Vell family line, Genis-Vell was an artificially created, artificially-aged child created from Mar-Vell's genetic material by his lover, Elysius of Titan. In the absence of his father, he took the name Legacy, before taking on the role of Captain Marvel.

At one point, he was driven insane by the entities Entropy and Epiphany, and created an entirely new universe in which the original Captain Marvel was still a hero, and Elysius made Phyla -Vell instead of Genis. Because of his insanity, Phyla was forced to face him as an enemy, and was eventually able to help him recover from his madness.

Immediately after, he would encounter beings from the future and merge with his own future self and become like a god. Complicated, and a little confusing, but this storyline allowed readers to understand the breadth and scale of the cosmic energy and power Captain Marvel could possess.

He would later join the Thunderbolts as Photon, taking the name from Monica Rambeau. Seen as a threat by Helmut Zemo, Genis was eventually killed and dismembered so that his power could not reassemble him.