We are just a few days away from the theatrical release of The Marvels. The new film will bring together Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel to become a new super team to defend the plant and the galaxy.
While the trailers and teasers have shown us some very interesting things already, let’s take a look at 10 Marvel things I’d like to see in The Marvels.
1 – The Kree/Skrull War
Let’s start with the obvious. The war between the Kree and the Skrulls is one of the longest running story arcs in Marvel Comics history. We’ve also already seen it at play in Captain Marvel. However, it doesn’t appear as though it is completely done just yet. We’ve seen that the Kree appear to be serving as the primary antagonists in this film, with Dar-Benn serving as their leader. We’ve also seen a lot of the Skrulls recently in Secret Invasion, so we know they’re still around. And speaking of…
2 – Skrulls still on Earth
Secret Invasion left a lot of fans with a bitter taste as the finale didn’t quite live up to the previous episodes. Still, it did give us just a tease of what the show could have been, with humans panicking with the knowledge of the aliens walking among them. There has been no complete resolution to that situation just yet so it seems possible Nick Fury may just ask Captain Marvel to address it.
3 – SWORD
And while we’re on the topic of Nick Fury, we see that he is operating on the off-Earth base of what is now being called SABER. We saw a version of SWORD in WandaVision, but I’m hoping we get to see a more comic accurate version of the organization – whether it adopts the name of not. The Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division served a very different purpose than the Sentient World Observation and Response Department from the comics. A more intergalactic organization would be fun and good piece to build off of as the MCU venture more and more out into space.
4 – Abigail Brand
And while it seems Nick Fury is currently in charge of SABER, he might be looking for someone else to run the organization in the future. Enter: Abigail Brand. The SWORD agent and director has played a huge role in a number of major comic events over the years, interacting with Captain Marvel and the rest of the Avengers countless time. She’s a cold, business-first character who makes for some great interactions and interesting story developments.
5 – Photon/Spectrum
It’s no secret this film is going to see Monica Rambeau step up as her own superhero. She is, after all, one of “The Marvels.” What I want to see though is her adopt one of her superhero code names from the comics: either Photon or Spectrum. Marvel seems to be going in the direction of Photon, but either one would work. The MCU has a way of kind of poking at these names without actually fully adopting them. Let’s see if Monica does take the name.
6 – Lauri-Ell
Brand isn’t the only interesting character who could show up in this film. In the comics, Carol Danvers has a Kree sister by the name of Lauri-Ell. I have speculated that Dar-Benn may actually be the MCU’s version of Lauri-Ell. With the villain being such a minor character in the comics, adding in a more personal relationship to Carol Danvers would up the stakes quite a bit. Even if she’s not the sister of Captain Marvel, an enemy-turned-ally story arc for this character would add some depth and make this much more interesting.
7 – James Rhodes
Given how little these two character have crossed paths in the MCU, many Marvel fans may not be aware that Carol Danvers and James Rhodes have had a romantic relationship in the comics. Given that we now know Rhodes had actually been a Skrull for some time, Carol could meet the real Rhodey for the first time very soon and that just may be the start of something more for the two Avengers.
8 – Empyre
A recent major comic book crossover event finally saw the Kree/Skrull war come to an end. As is the case with so many intergalactic story arcs, Captain Marvel was of course at the center of it. The result of the story was a merging of the two alien races to create the Kree/Skrull Empyre with Hulkling as their leader (I don’t expect we would see him). If the MCU was to put an end to the conflict with their Kree and Skrulls, they could take a page (or several) out of the Empyre event, which could mean Carol Danvers picks up a cosmi-rod and becomes the Supreme Accuser, making her that much more powerful.
9 – The Shi’ar
And as long as we’re out in space and dealing with various alien races, why not throw another big one in there? The Shi’Ar have played a huge role in a lot of major comic story arcs involving a certain group of mutants over the years. We know the film includes a mysterious new character by the name of Prince Yan. While it’s unclear what this character’s role will be just yet, it seems possible he will have a connection to another alien race. And if the Shi’ar are on the table, that could open the door for…
10 – X-Men
This isn’t one that would have been on my radar if not for a teaser released by Marvel last week. As you can see in the image above, the letters in the message “COMES NEXT” fade away leaving nothing but the ‘X’ for just a split second longer. With the finale of Ms. Marvel telling us Kamala is a mutant, clearly there is a path to get to the X-Men here. In this teaser, we also hear Rambeau saying “there’s a different reality bleeding into ours.” This could be the reality of the existing X-Men, and we could see some familiar faces in this film. Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier has already made the jump into the MCU once. Why not do it again?
The Marvels hits theaters this Friday, November 10.