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

Cover for Captain Marvel Volume 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More. Image via Marvel.

2. Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Higher, Faster, Further, More

Kelly Sue DeConnick has been rightfully lauded as the person who relaunched Captain Marvel as a successful, admirable superhero in today’s comics world. Honestly, if it weren’t for DeConnick’s work on many different Captain Marvel stories, chances are good that we would be getting a very different superhero film premiering this year.

This 2014 story arc is at the heart of this change. At the beginning of the series, Carol Danvers is definitely Earth’s Mightiest Hero in many respects, but that’s the catch: she’s distinctly Earth-based. Things really start cooking when she moves beyond the bounds of our solar system, becoming a cosmic figure throughout the galaxy and beyond.

Personally speaking, Danvers has a lot of decisions to make. There’s all of the big and weighty stuff that comes with expanding your career realm, so to speak. Then, there’s all of the romantic things, which keep cropping up thanks to a new love interest in her life. But, flying around the cosmos, fighting galactic-sized baddies, teaming up with other superbeings doesn’t leave a lot of room for an equally healthy personal realm.

Far from making this a melodramatic interpersonal drama at the expense of a character’s integrity, DeConnick does a fantastic job creating the Captain Marvel that we all now know and love. Carol is incredibly strong and capable, but remains human and, as a result, utterly fascinating. Between that and the artwork of David Lopez, this first major reboot is definitely a grand place to start before you watch the movie.