Although Carol Danvers is the Captain Marvel we all know and love today, she wasn't the first to bear that mantle. Back when the character was starting out life in the sixties, the original Captain was a Kree spy called Mar-Vell (puns - they've got them), who was sent to Earth to gather intelligence on the human race.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, Mar-Vell (who assumed the deceased identity of Walter Lawson while on Earth), grew rather fond of the humans, and started with the superheroics. The Kree then dubbed this to be a violation of his duties and subsequently expelled him from the Empire, leading us to believe that the Captain in this film, too, will be sent to Earth as a spy.
In the context of Captain Marvel taking inspiration from 1971's seminal Kree-Skrull War, this would also serve as the perfect introduction to that conflict. Earth is seen as nothing but a resource between the two waging factions during that storyline, and with Mar-Vell's loyalties in turmoil, as well as Ronan's presence, it provides the perfect point from which to address the film's cosmic influences.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
