15 Captain Marvel comics you need to read before seeing the movie

The Mighty Captain Marvel (Cover image via Marvel)

4. The Mighty Captain Marvel

Okay, so this is actually the fourth reset for Captain Marvel. Marvel really isn’t making things easy for readers, from newbies to crotchety old fans alike. Still, this 2016 reworking by Margaret Stohl (who also wrote The Life of Captain Marvel mentioned earlier) has an important place in the canon. So, set aside some brainpower to work The Mighty Captain Marvel into the narrative. Plus, some savvy readers are wondering if this is the run that could be reflected the most onto film screens this March. We’ll see.

Part of The Mighty Captain Marvel, first published in January 2017, deals with the intense public pressure of becoming Earth’s biggest superhero. Danvers herself is attempting to handle various emotional issues, with only some success. On top of all of that, there’s the persistent sense that Captain Marvel has drifted quite a lot from the original Carol Danvers that many Earth-based people knew. It does not help that a TV crew is following her around for a significant portion of the story.

On top of the emotional complexity of the story is the moral conflict concerning alien refugees. The “Alien Nation” arc that starts off the series concerns a group of mostly Kree people who are displaced when their planet bites the dust. They end up at the Alpha Flight Space Station in orbit around Earth, which is naturally commanded by Captain Marvel.

That’s complicated enough, but Captain Marvel and Alpha Flight soon learn that someone is hunting the refugee children. Specifically, children with a unique genetic marker are being snatched by cyborg units. It has something to do with the millennia-long war between the Kree and Skrull people, but that’s only the beginning of the mystery.