Captain Marvel

About

Captain Marvel is a Marvel Comics superhero (not to be confused with DC Comics' Captain Marvel/Shazam). The character name has been given to numerous characters since its inception in 1967, including Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers. A film adaptation of the Carol Danvers incarnation of the character starring Brie Larson as Captain Marvel and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury was released in 2019.
h2. History

Mar-Vell

Captain Marvel made his debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 in December 1967 (shown below, left). The following year, the character was given its own series in May 1968 (shown below, right). In the character's first incarnation, Mar-Vell, he was an extraterrestrial from a race of beings known as the Kree. On Earth, Mar-Vell acted as a spy and had superhuman powers, including flight and superhuman strength.^[1]

Carol Danvers

Carol Danvers, who would later become the modern Captain Marvel, first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 in March 1968. The character, originally a colleague of Mar-Vell, the first Captain Marvel, received her powers when her DNA fused with Mar-Vell's in an explosion.^[2]

In January 1977, Danvers received her own title: Ms. Marvel, written by George Conway. In 2012, Ms. Marvel assumed the role of Captain Marvel.

Film Adaptation

in October 2014, Marvel announced that a Captain Marvel film featuring Carol Danvers would be the studio's first female-led superhero film. Three years later, it was announced that Brie Larson would be playing the character in the film.^[3]

On September 18th, 2018, the first trailer for the film was released. Within 24 hours, the trailer received more than 20 million views on YouTube.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes User Review Block

On February 7th, 2019, Captain Marvel-star Brie Larson, in an interview with Marie Clare,^[9] said that she asked to have a more diverse press room for the Captain Marvel press tour. She said, "About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male. So, I spoke to Dr. Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who put together a study to confirm that. Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive."

Following the interview, visitors of Rotten Tomatoes noticed an uptick in negative reviews on the Captain Marvel page ahead of the film's release. On February 18th, Twitter ^[10] user @camethedawnxp tweeted a series of screenshots of the reviews of user reviews for Captain Marvel. They wrote, ".@RottenTomatoes Captain Marvel is not even released yet and a bunch of recently created accounts w/no profiles are already downvoting it & making alt-right/nazi/KKK arguments. Should really install some vetting process for audience ratings or this will not stop..ever." The tweet received more than 260 retweets and 500 likes in less than two weeks (shown below).

Many of the reviews, which have since been removed argue about the "politics" of the film. For example, one poster writes, "Identity politics in our movies. As a white male (you know the bad gender) I will pass as I'm probably a sexist racist bigot anyway."

On February 25th, in a blog post, Rotten Tomatoes^[11] announced that they will be removing the "Want To See" score for upcoming movies. This "Want To See" score allowed users to post comments on movies prior to release before an "Audience Rating" could be tabulated. They wrote:

As of February 25, we will no longer show the ‘Want to See’ percentage score for a movie during its pre-release period. Why you might ask? We’ve found that the ‘Want to See’ percentage score is often times confused with the ‘Audience Score’ percentage number. (The ‘Audience Score’ percentage, for those who haven’t been following, is the percentage of all users who have rated the movie or TV show positively – that is, given it a star rating of 3.5 or higher – and is only shown once the movie or TV show is released.)

They also announced that they would be "disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date" due to "an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling." Once the movie is released user ratings and comments would be restored.

Fandom

On October 27th, 2014, the official Captain Marvel Twitter account launched.^[5] Within four years, the account amassed more than 500,000 followers.

On October 26th, 2016, the official Captain Marvel Facebook account launched. Within two years, the account has received more than 300,000 likes and follows.^[4]

Cosplay and Fanart

Retro Website

On February 8th, 2019, a promotional website for the film was launched,^[6] which featured a design reminiscent of GeoCities pages from the 1990s, complete with low-resolution sprites and animated GIFs (shown below).

That day, Twitter user Sam Maggs posted a screenshot of the site along with the message "The official #CaptainMarvel website is what my '90s Geocities dreams are made of" (shown below). Meanwhile, Redditor Nubboi submitted the site to /r/marvelstudios,^[8] where it gained more than 1,000 points (98% upvoted) and 170 comments within four days.

"Woman of Color" Petition

On May 1st, 2019, a petition titled "Demand Captain Marvel is Played by a Woman of Color, not Brie Larson!" on ThePetitionSite.^[12] Within days, the petition gathered upwards of 5,900 signatures.

"We need Brie Larson to step down from her role to prove she is an ally of social justice and ensure a gay woman of color plays the role. Let Monica, the original female & BLACK Captain Marvel instead of white-washing characters for the benefit of the straight, white men running Disney."

Also on May 1st, the petition was circulated on various 4chan boards, including /co/ and /pol/.^[13][14] That day, the comic news site BoundingIntoComics^[15] published an article about the petition titled "Petition Demands Captain Marvel Be Played By Gay Woman of Color – Not Brie Larson." On May 3rd, Redditor SchroedingersSphere submitted a post titled "What's going on with people being outraged and demanding Captain Marvel to be recast as a black woman?" to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[16] to which several users replied that the petition appeared to be a "troll."

Related Memes

Captain Marvel Punch

Captain Marvel Punch is refers to a series of jokes, object labeled image macros based on a memorable moment from the 2019 Marvel superhero film Captain Marvel in which the titular character (portrayed by Brie Larson) strikes and elderly woman in the face.

Skrulls

Skrulls are fictional villainous extraterrestrials featured in Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First appearing in the Fantastic Four comics, Skrulls begat a series of photoshop based on a photograph of them previewing the 2019 film Captain Marvel.

External References