Movie Rants: How to Make Captain Marvel Amazing

There’s a lot of back and forth about whether or not Captain Marvel was incredible or awful. I won’t spend any time here turning over any of the rocks or pulling on threads that so many others have already done, but I think I’ve come up with one change that would have made Captain Marvel amazing (and possibly fix a plot hole in the process).

Just to summarize, Captain Marvel is Marvel’s take on a buddy-cop movie wherein Captain Marvel and Nick Fury work together. The movie ends with Captain Marvel leaving on a space mission and Fury determined to gather a team of superheroes that might fill the hole left behind by Carol Danvers. In other words, it’s a mostly happy ending that ends with our heroes on a good note.

Enter the Avengers, some aliens, a killer robot, political espionage, drama, relationship problems, and some more aliens and Fury finally decides that it’s time to phone a friend. Captain Marvel shows up (too late) and insists that things would have gone differently if she had been there.

The question I’ve seen asked many times is, “So, why wasn’t she?” Obviously, she couldn’t have made it in time to deal with Thanos, as Fury didn’t even know they were dealing with Thanos until it was too late. But why didn’t Fury call her when the aliens invaded New York or when Ultron was trying to destroy the planet?

The simple answer is that he just didn’t need to. The Avengers obviously had it covered. Fury trusted them to do what they needed to do and they did it. Still, it seems odd that the movies don’t address the cannon that Fury was secretly carrying into all of the knife fights of the MCU.

My one change is this: That at the end of Captain Marvel, Fury and Danvers need to hate each other. Something on a fundamental level needs to have caused a schism between them, and might help to explain why Danvers never stops by Earth for a cup of tea now and then.

What could this schism be? I think it could have something to do with Shield. Shield has been the “bad guy” scapegoat enough times in the MCU that it wouldn’t have been a difficult sell. At the end of Captain Marvel, Danvers could be absolutely anti-shield whereas Fury is absolutely pro-Shield. Neither will bend, so they go their separate ways, BUT, they still respect each other deep down. Carol gives Fury the beeper and Fury, from then on, has to decide when to swallow his pride and ask for her help.

This would have been incredible. All it would have taken is one flashback montage of Fury watching each of the MCU global disasters, with one hand in his pocket holding the beeper. Always considering. Always wondering if this time is the time when he’ll need to call her back.

This way, he doesn’t gather a team of superheroes because he’s inspired by her, he gathers a team of superheroes so that he’ll never have to call her. He gambles on the Avengers winning again and again, because if he called Danvers he’d have to face her and just the thought of it hurts his pride. On the flip side, she might have come back for a visit now and then. She can cross the universe in ten seconds, so why not? Because Fury hasn’t called her, and she doesn’t want to make the first move either.

Beyond addressing the question of why Fury hasn’t called her yet, this also gives an added emotional punch when Danvers shows up in Endgame.

On the one hand, Fury finally calls her back to Earth. Who knows what flood of emotions she feels when the beeper finally goes off, but even more so when she gets there and finds him gone. What are the first words out of her mouth? “Where’s Fury?” But he’s gone and in his last moments he finally acknowledged that whatever happened between them wasn’t worth holding a grudge over. She's the one he trusts to fix whatever is going on.

Let’s be honest with each other for a bit here. Whether you love Captain Marvel or hate Captain Marvel, her entrance in Endgame is rough. She shows up, knows Fury, and doesn’t flinch away from angsty Thor. That's it. She's on the team and everyone has to like her. But what if she could have come to them with something deeper?

The Avengers have been torn apart from the inside. Iron Man and Captain America aren’t speaking to each other anymore and Earth is in shambles. They need to make up, work together, and save the world. Which they eventually do, but imagine if Captain Marvel had come to the team with insight into the damage a grudge can have? What if she had come to the team with an understanding of how much it hurts to lose someone you care about, before you’ve had time to make amends?

Danvers could have been a mentor to Tony and Steve as they worked through their own relational schism. This would have, in my opinion, given her far more rapport with the team than just, “I’m stronger than all of you, kay bye.” Her power level was useful, but the team didn’t need it. Thor alone with Stormbreaker had enough power to defeat Thanos with all six stones. More power is always good, but they didn’t need more power. What they needed was someone who could help them become the Avengers again… which is something the movie glosses over. They become the Avengers again because it’s time for them to become the Avengers again. If they had let Danvers shepherd that recovery, I don’t think she would have become the MCU’s most divisive character.

One final thought is what this change would mean for the future. With Fury back, Danvers would have an opportunity to take those lessons she taught Tony and Steve and apply them to herself. She and Fury would have the chance to mend what was broken and start their relationship over.

So, what do you think? Would this one change make Captain Marvel amazing or is it unnecessary?