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

Generations: Captain Marvel and Captain Mar-Vell (Cover image via Marvel)

12. Generations: Captain Marvel and Captain Mar-Vell

Okay, as mentioned previously, the Kree Captain Mar-Vell died in the super emotional and groundbreaking graphic novel, 1982’s The Death of Captain Marvel. Furthermore, I argued that Captain Mar-Vell holds the rare distinction of being really, definitely, super dead, meaning he is currently enjoying a nice rest that is almost never afforded to his fellow superheroes.

Turns out I was lying. Just a bit, really. Besides, you should blame Marvel for this mix-up, not me.

What’s the deal? Why are we bothering Mar-Vell in the first place? It was all part of Marvel’s Generations miniseries, released back in 2017. In each issue, a classic Marvel superhero from the past teams up with her or his modern counterpart. Far from being a one-off novelty, some of the issues had some really interesting stories and surprising revelations from and about the characters.

In Captain Marvel’s tale, Carol Danvers gets sent back in time, where she ends on up planet Mydon, in the Negative Zone. It is, essentially, a sparsely-populated antimatter universe with a few unique features like “the Crossroad of Infinity” and the eerily-named “Distortion Area.”

Carol gets caught up in a battle between groups almost right away. Things start to look pretty bad when none other than Captain Mar-Vell shows up. They defeat the bad guys, but things are still weird. Mar-Vell doesn’t recognize Carol, despite having met her before. It’s true that the current Carol Danvers has a very different thing going on from her time as Ms. Marvel. What’s going on? And how does the Negative Zone mean that Mar-Vell is back again, even if only for a short issue?