Where We Left Off: Infinity War

The highly anticipated prequel installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has finally arrived. Marvel fans have waited with bated breath to find out more about Captain Marvel. Fans want to know what her role will be in the battle to defeat Thanos. Could she possibly save that half of the Avengers – and the universe – which was turned into a pile of dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity War?

Avengers: Infinity War left most Marvel fans in a very emotional state. The shock, sadness, and anger at Thanos were felt throughout the fan base. Watching your favorite Superheros, who have survived the most epic battles and always come out on top, be reduced to ashes with the snap of a finger was agony.

Captain Marvel is a formidable superhero.

For a quick recap, in Infinity War we witnessed Thanos on a mission to obtain all six infinity stones. The infinity stones are a collection of six gems: The Space Stone, the Reality Stone, the Power Stone, the Mind Stone, the Time Stone, and the Soul Stone. Individually, these stones are very powerful. However, together they wield the power to control/destroy almost anything.

The Importance of the Infinity Stones

Each stone has been protected separately to ensure that no one person ever possess that power. Thanos, wearing a gauntlet intended to harness the power of the stones, is intent on tracking down each stone. He insists that he is only trying to help the universe – by making half it cease to exist.

The Avengers team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman, and Doctor Strange to stop Thanos and protect the stones at all costs. Doctor Strange possesses the Time Stone and wears it during most of Infinity War. He lets Iron Man know that if it comes down to protecting the stone or the Avengers, the stone will take priority. We see Doctor Strange use the power of the Time Stone to look into the future and assess possible outcomes of the war with Thanos. Strange saw 14, 000, 605 possible outcomes and tells Tony they only win in one of those.

Later, when Thanos was about to kill Tony Stark, Doctor Strange negotiates with him. He offers the Time Stone for Stark’s life. This is contrary to his previous statement that he would protect the stone over the life of an Avenger. Thanos gains the last stone from VISION (the mind stone) and completes his mission, causing half of the population in the universe to cease to exist.

We see then that Doctor Strange is not spared but Tony Stark is. Could this mean that Stark is crucial to winning the war and that it is not over? In the one scenario that Strange saw in which they won, did it involve giving the stone to Thanos and ensuring that Tony would remain with the other Avengers to ultimately save the universe?

Extra Scene from Infinity War

Of the many questions Marvel fans were left with after Infinity War, one of the biggest came from the extra scene after the credits. Here we witness agents of S.H.E.I.L.D Maria Hill and Nick Fury driving down the road, and cars start to crash into each other. Confused as to what is going on, they get out of their car to investigate. They notice that no one is driving the cars.

Fury witnesses Hill begin to turn to dust and immediately recognizes that there is a true emergency happening. He grabs a device that looks like an old pager and begins to call someone before turning into dust himself. We are left with the pager sending a call signal. The image on the pager appears to be the symbol for Captain Marvel.

Will Captain Marvel save the Avengers – and therefore the universe? How will this be possible? Can one single Avenger possess enough power to defeat Thanos? He is in possession of all six infinity stones! Many questions were answered in the Captain Marvel film, and many new questions were formed.

Captain Marvel: Who Is She?

This weekends release of the prequel Captain Marvel was a brilliant tie-in to the current film collection. Giving the backstory on who Captain Marvel is and how she gained her powers provides much-needed insight into how her story arc is relevant in the next installment. That next installment is Avengers: Endgame.

The movie starts off a little slow, beginning with Veers (Brie Larson) and the Kree (an alien race) engaging in battle with Skrulls. They are a shape shifting reptilian race who have appeared more than once in the MCU. The Skrulls capture Veers and attempt to tap into her memories. Veers is able to overpower the mind control and escape.

She leaves wondering where foreign memories she’s experiencing came from and what they mean. She lands on plant C-53 (Earth) by crashing through the roof of a Blockbuster (a throwback to the 90’s as the film is set in 1995). It is then her journey to discovering who she is, and the truth behind what gave her the abilities she has, begins.

A young Nick Fury shows up, and we get to watch as he has his very first encounter with Alien life. Veers warns him of the Skrull’s who are ‘invading’ his planet and can shape shift into anything. Their transformation goes right down to the DNA. Fury, of course, does not believe her, and continues in pursuit of Veers as the ‘bad guy.’ It is not until his partner is killed in a car accident and shifts back into his Skrull form that Fury begins to think there is some truth to what Veers was saying.

The Journey of Self Discovery

Fury then embarks on a journey with Veers to stop the invasion of the Skrulls. Using the ‘found’ memories that the Skrulls extracted from Veers, they set off to find Dr. Wendy Lawson. Fury assists in this mission by helping Veers obtain access to files on project PEGASUS. These files are highly classified.

Lawson was working on project PEGASUS when she died. The Skrulls believe that Lawson had developed an engine that would allow light speed travel and help them win the war against the Kree. At this point, Veers is still fighting against the Skrull and communicating with the Kree.

While sifting through the files on Dr. Lawson, Veers comes across a picture of Lawson showing Veers standing in the background. It is discovered that Lawson died while performing a test flight of her engine. Could Veers have been the pilot? Suddenly the S.H.E.I.L.D agents Fury called for backup show up and it is quickly discovered that they are compromised by the Skrulls. Veers then turns back to save Fury, and they go on their way in a stolen aircraft to find more answers along with an orange cat Called Goose.

More Answers Are Revealed

Their journey leads them to the home of Monica Rambeau, where Veers is greeted with excitement and confusion. Monica then tries to fill in the missing pieces, revealing that Veers is actually Carol Danvers, former USAF Pilot. Monica and Carol were working with Dr. Lawson on project PEGASUS when Carol volunteered to pilot the aircraft to test the new engine. Something went wrong and the aircraft crashed, leaving nothing behind but a piece of a dog tag (or so they thought).

Enter Talos, the Skrull that had previously captured Carol and impersonated Fury’s boss. Talos has also realized who Carol is and what her connection to Lawson was, thus changing his plans. After a brief interaction with Goose (the cat), they listen to the information that Talos has. He has obtained the recording from the black box in the aircraft that crashed. While listening to the recording, Carol begins to remember what happened.

During the test with Dr. Lawson, their aircraft started being attacked. Although Carol tried to maneuver the ship in order to avoid damage, they eventually took a hit that caused the aircraft to go down. Carol survived, but Lawson was not so lucky; she was injured. We then see that Lawson is bleeding blue, the color of Kree blood. It is discovered that Lawson is actually a Kree spy called Mar-vell sent to C-53. We see that Carol is bleeding red at this time and is human.

The Kree Are the Enemy

It is then that their attackers are shown. It is the same Kree that was Carol’s Mentor while with them on Halas, the Kree’s capital planet. She realizes he is after the engine Mar-vell created and she uses Mar-vell’s weapon to destroy it. There is a massive explosion and we see that Carol’s body is overtaken by the blast and changed at a molecular level. The same energy source that powered the engine has now been absorbed by Carol.

Carol’s Kree mentor Yon-Rogg then orders that she is to be spared, recognizing that she absorbed the energy source. He picks up one half of Carol’s dog tag and sees that it says ‘vers’ (Danvers), which is where the name ‘Veers’ came from. Carol was taken by the Kree and her memories were scrambled. She was then infused with Kree blood and trained to become a weapon in the Kree wars against the Skrulls.

A New Mission is Formed

Once this new information is discovered, Carol, along with Fury, Talos, Monica, and Goose decide to embark on a journey to find Lawson’s laboratory. Their mission was to discover the source of the energy used to create the engine. Carol and Monica inform Talos that the coordinates he was tracking were actually in space. After some altering to the aircraft used to escape the PEGASUS facility, they head out to space to find the lab. Once Carol unmasks it, they enter the lab and begin looking for the energy source.

However, it is also revealed that the energy source is not the true item Talos is after. Once aboard the laboratory, Talos lets out a Skrull cry and many other Skrull refugees appear, including Talos’ family. Mar-vell had already begun sending homeless Skrull refugees to the lab in order to protect them until they could be re-homed somewhere else.

The Tesseract Makes an Appearance

The energy source is also discovered. The source is the Tesseract! This is not the first time in the MCU that we have come across the Tesseract (more to come on that). They grab a tin lunch box and put the Tesseract in it. Before they can leave the lab, the Kree show up and a fight ensues. We find out that the cat is more than just a cat. It is actually a Flerken.

A flerken can shoot tentacles out of its mouth and consume pretty much anything. After consuming some enemy soldiers, the Flerken consumes the Tesseract for safekeeping. Then a distraction is set in motion. The Kree go after Carol, who has the lunch box the Tesseract was in previously. Fury, Talos, Monica, and Goose try to escape.

Once the Kree learn of the deception, they again gain control of Carol and try to break her. It is then that Carol realizes the Kree did not give her any power, but instead aimed to control it. While under Kree control, she begins to embrace her full power and breaks free from their influence. We see that the power she once had only in her hands (photon blasts) is now spread through her entire body. She is then able to take them all on, alone.

The Battle Continues on Earth

As they all head back to earth in pursuit of the Tesseract, Carol puts on an impressive show. She is able to fly and possesses remarkable strength. After crash landing Yon-Rogg’s aircraft back on C-53, Carol sends him back on his way to Halas with a message. She vows she will return and end their warring ways.

However, the threat was not over. The backup that Yon-Rogg called appears. It is Ronan the Accuser; again, this is not the first time we have seen him in the MCU. They send multiple explosives to Earth, which Carol destroys single handed. She flies up to space to confront Ronan. Ronan orders the ship to leave, but promises to return to collect the weapon- Carol!

Carol Danvers transformation into Captain Marvel is complete. She has changed the colors of her suit to the classic Captain Marvel colors. Some banter with Fury about Mar-vell helps us understand where the name came from. Carol declares that she is going to do whatever it takes to rehome the Skrull.

But before she leaves, she gives Fury back his pager. The pager is enhanced so that the signal will reach several galaxies and will contact her directly. She makes sure to tell Fury to only use it in case of a true emergency. This is the same device we see Fury use at the end of Infinity War.

The Wrap-up and the Tie in

We see Nick Fury working on a new initiative back at his S.H.E.I.L.D office. It is titled ‘The Protector Initiative.’ However, after Fury spots a picture of Danvers in her pilot days, he notices her call sign ‘Avenger.’ Fittingly, he renames the initiative ‘The Avengers Initiative,’ and so The Avengers is born. This ties in the current team of assembled Superheros called the Avengers with Captain Marvel; Fury tells his partner that they will be looking for more heroes. After all, they found Captain Marvel and they were not even looking, so there must be more.

We now know that the Avengers formation had a lot to do with Captain Marvels history. We can also see, from the limited time Captain Marvel embraced her full powers, that she is a formidable superhero. The fact that Fury decided to call upon Captain Marvel, after all this time (23 years later), to help with what appears to be a major disaster, gives us some hope that she will be a major player in the battle to restore what Thanos destroyed.

The Extra Scene in Captain Marvel

Like with all Marvel movies, it’s not over when the credits roll. There is not one but two extra scenes after the credits begin in Captain Marvel. The first scene shows a still-bearded Captain America and a still blonde, short haired Black widow attempting to figure out who is on the receiving end of the pager Fury used to call Captain Marvel.

The pager, which had been sending out signal continuously, suddenly shuts off. We hear Black Widow demand to know the moment it powers back up; she would like to know who is on the other end. We then see Captain Marvel step into the frame. This tells us a few things.

First, although we have not seen Captain Marvel in any Avengers: Endgame footage so far, it would appear that she is a major player right from the start. In the footage released so far of Endgame, Captain America is clean shaven. In this extra scene, he is still sporting the full beard from Infinity Wars. Hopefully, this means that Captain Marvel and all of her powers will be there.

She’ll be alongside our beloved heroes, fighting to save the Universe from Thanos, from the beginning. We also see, in a very short extra scene, that Goose the cat – er – Flerken hacks up the Tesseract. This is important, as the Tesseract has made appearances in multiple other MCU films.

There is More to Come

There is so much to be explored in the MCU. So many films that overlap, tie-in and complete the story. Where is the Avengers story heading in Endgame? Well, that is something we can explore by taking a look at the MCU films. We will look into all the clues that have been given. Check back soon for more!