The best and worst thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that everything connects somehow. If you’re an avid fan, you’re always half watching the films from a more macro approach, hunting for any references or hints related to other installments in the franchise and geeking out about things like Bruce Banner mispronouncing Wakanda , Howard Stark hanging out with Hank Pym , or Ronan the Accuser making a surprise appearance in the new “ Captain Marvel .”
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While these interconnected moments are awesome if you’re ‘in the know,’ they can make you feel pretty left out if you don’t catch the reference. Since “Avengers: Infinity War” we’ve gotten two standalone movies: “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Captain Marvel,” which is still in theaters. As you’d expect, the latter film carries with it a handful of new information pertinent to the MCU: Infinity Stones , warring alien factions, and timey-wimey stuff. If you just left the theater with your head spinning, or if you want to get caught up before “Avengers: Endgame,” here’s a list of seven things we learned from “Captain Marvel.”
Oh, and spoilers ahead :
1. Captain Marvel is crazy powerful
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in an interview that Captain Marvel “will be the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe” and that promise has definitely been kept. With experience both on Earth and on the cosmic scale, space flight, super strength, deadly photon blasts, and combat training that could give Black Widow a run for her money, she’s certainly not lacking for punch, even next to powerhouse characters like Thor, Iron Man, or Hulk.
As to how she stacks up to someone like Thanos, it’s tough to say. But the mere sight of her was enough to make Ronan the Accuser turn tail and run. And let’s not forget that she was the first person Nick Fury called when things got too dangerous for comfort. Will she play well with others? Thor seems to like her already .
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2. The full path of the tesseract
There have been numerous unexplained jumps in the tesseract’s location throughout the series, and “ Captain Marvel” answered one of the biggest ones. After falling out of Captain America’s jet and being recovered by Howard Stark in “ Captain America: First Avenger ,” the next time we saw the Space Stone was with SHIELD in “ Avengers .” Did Stark give it to SHIELD? Were they fruitlessly studying it for all those decades? The answer is no to both questions, as we learn in “Captain Marvel:”
The tesseract was being studied by a scientist in the covert Project Pegasus. While she went by the name Dr. Wendy Lawson, the researcher was actually the Kree Mar-vell , who was studying the cube in order to uncover its secrets of hyperspace travel. The cube was stored on her orbiting lab, and that’s where we see it in “Captain Marvel” … where it gets promptly eaten by Goose the cat, er, Flerken. If you stay for the post-credits scene, you’ll get to see Goose cough it up on Fury’s desk .
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3. Don’t mess with cats
Among the more important things we learned from “Captain Marvel,” there’s a pretty funny minor detail that finally gets answered: How Nick Fury lost his left eye. Remember the cuddly cat from the above point? Fury got a little too excited about Goose, and the mischievous feline decided to gouge his eye out. No, we’re not kidding.
Is it an epic tale of vengeance and heroism? Eh. Not really, but it is pretty funny.
4. Kree vs Skrulls
As most Marvel fans expected, “Captain Marvel” introduces the famous intergalactic war between the Kree and the Skrull , one of the major ongoing conflicts of the original comics. True to the comics, Carol Danvers herself is a human pilot turned Kree soldier , and the aliens obey the orders and policies of a Supreme Intelligence .
Also similar to the comics are the Skrull, shape-shifting green aliens who are locked in a galactic battle against the Kree. Where the movie veers away from the comics, however, is that the Skrull are not the bad guys here. In something of a plot twist, they’re actually searching for a home while being bullied around and exterminated by the Kree. At the film’s midpoint, Danvers opts to side with the Skrull instead of the Kree, promising to help them find a place to call their own.
5. There are Kree on Earth
It goes like this: Mar-vell was undercover on Earth for years, working to uncover the secrets of the Space Stone. She went unnoticed for all that time, and even had a gigantic invisible Kree science lab orbiting around the planet … which also went unnoticed. Considering that, and that the Kree are actively angry with Danvers after the events of “Captain Marvel,” it seems likely that there are more Kree hiding in plain sight.
And if the Kree had an easy time acclimatizing to Earth, imagine how easy it would be for the shape-shifting Skrull! While the Skrull in Captain Marvel were friendly, that doesn’t mean they’re all like that. It would be very easy (and very in keeping with the comics) for the MCU to cover the Secret Invasion in Phase Four.
6. Fury’s been looking for Avengers since the ’90s
We knew Nick Fury was looking for gifted individuals to put into his ‘Avengers Initiative;’ he told Tony Stark as much as far back as the first “ Iron Man ” movie. What we didn’t know was how long he’d been actively looking. Turns out Carol Danvers was the one who inspired him to start the project ; even her jet was called ‘Avenger,’ as we cleverly see pointed out at the end of the movie.
Fury’s had over 20 years to find more candidates for his program, and he didn’t pick up Iron Man until around 10 years later. Did he find other possible talents during the ten years prior to that? Might we be seeing some of them show up later? We don’t know yet, but it seems unlikely for his efforts to have been fruitless all that time.
7. Danvers has been fighting Kree for over 20 years
A fact that’s been glossed over a bit is exactly how long it’s been since Danvers made an official appearance back on Earth. Taking on the whole Kree empire is a lot of work, and Danvers’ absence from the MCU until now hints at a pretty epic story of her adventures off-world. We’d imagine someone of her power, courage, and determination would be able to make a pretty significant dent in the faction in that amount of time (especially given how much she was able to accomplish so shortly after unlocking her full potential). So what’s the status of the Kree empire now?
We already know Ronan’s fate , which must have hurt Kree morale, but we don’t know specific details about the faction’s military strength, plans, or how they were affected by Thanos’ snap . For that matter, we don’t know how it affected the Skrull either. The fact remains that Danvers was away for a very long time. We expect she’ll fill us in on the details in Endgame.
All caught up? Let us know in the comments below how you think Captain Marvel will fit into “Avengers: Endgame,” and we’ll see you in theaters on April 26!
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