Captain Marvel‘s titular hero is a new kind of superhero. Not just because Brie Larson‘s Carol Danvers is the first solo female hero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But because she’s angry. And because she may not be fully human.
In the upcoming Marvel film Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers is a part-Kree, part-human warrior with the powers of a god — though she won’t likely act like one. Instead, it’s her human side that best categorizes her: aggressive, impulsive, and hotheaded. She’s got “two sides warring against each other,” Brie Larson revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly,
“You have this Kree part of her that’s unemotional, that is an amazing fighter and competitive. Then there’s this human part of her that is flawed but is also the thing that she ends up leading by. It’s the thing that gets her in trouble, but it’s also the thing that makes her great. And those two sides warring against each other is what makes her her.”
But it’s the part-Kree, part-human detail that sticks out here. In the comics, Carol Danvers gains her powers when her DNA accidentally fuses with a Kree hero known as Mar-Vell, aka the first Captain Marvel. So in a sense, she’s always been part-alien, but it seems like Captain Marvel will be leaning heavily into this dichotomy. The emotional, impulsive side of humans would always be difficult to reconcile with the nature of a logical alien race, but Carol Danvers has even poorer impulse control. Which is what makes her such a fascinating superhero.
A Flawed Female Superhero
Because there are so few female superheroes, they’re held up to an impossible standard: fight hard, keep her emotions in check like a man, but smile. But Larson’s Carol Danvers is a flawed hero who rushes into battle and disobeys her orders. These flaws are what drew Larson, an Oscar winner for Room, to the film, she said:
“That is something that is really exciting to me about this film: We did not cut corners on that stuff. Like, when it’s funny, it is funny, but also when there’s deep emotional things happening, it’s real. So I was able to bring some of those same things that I’ve brought to full dramatic roles into this, which I’m really proud of because I think it will really set this film apart.”
These inherent character flaws allow Larson to do a lot of heavy emotional lifting, especially when Carol returns home to Earth after spending time in space with the elite Kree military team Starforce. Unsure of her identity, Carol questions her past and herself, all while trying to grapple with her conflicting identities. It’s meaty stuff for a superhero film, and one that Larson seems more than up to the challenge to tackle.
Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8, 2019.
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