Carol Danvers Creator Roy Thomas Hates How Captain Marvel Depicted the Skrulls!
Roy Thomas, who co-created Carol Danvers alongside Gene Colan, recently expressed his dislike for the way the Skrulls are depicted in Marvel Studios recent Captain Marvel film.
Thomas worked with Stan Lee in the Silver Age of comics and came up with the idea of the Kree/Skrull War during his run on The Avengers which began in The Avengers #35. He recently discussed seeing Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel with Bleeding Cool.
He specifically did not like the way the Skrulls were depicted in the second half of the film.
Actually, the one thing I really hated in the film was turning the Skrulls into a peace-loving race, with the Kree as the heavies. As far as I’m concerned as the principal conceptualizer of the Kree/Skrull War (and I suspect Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would’ve agreed with me), the Skrulls and the Kree are each as bad as each other, as they say. Having the Skrulls all mushy and family-friendly at the end left a bad taste in my mouth… but I loved ’em for most of the movie, when they were doing shape-shifting stuff that looked (and as far as I’m concerned, were) downright evil.
He did express that he liked Yon-Rogg’s portrayal and was a little disappointed they didn’t use his Intelligence Supreme moniker.
“Still, Yon-Rogg turned out to be appropriately vile, and that’s all well and good. I’m sorry the movie folks didn’t use my improved Kree/Skrull War term for the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence–i.e., Intelligence Supreme–but that’s simply because “Supreme Intelligence” has always just sound to me like an IQ score, not the name of an intergalactic AI entity.”
Thomas essentially expressed some elements of the movie that we were all thinking about when we saw how Marvel Studios ended up portraying the Skurlls by the end of the film. In my own review, I talked about the departure from the original story arc of the alien race the film took.
Thomas’ View of the Film as a Whole
There seems to be a sentiment shared throughout the community of critical reviewers of the film Captain Marvel. It was a mixed bag. Some were praising the performances of Brie Larson, or Sam Jackson. Others were left scratching their heads about how to feel about it. I think it was a consensus regarding the film from Grace Randolph to Marc Bernardin. It wasn’t a great movie, but as Roy Thomas said of it:
“…it was good enough.”
He talked about some points a number of other reviewers hit upon in their writings. It was almost verbatim for some of their issues with the film:
“The reviews are, I think, basically right: It’s not one of the better Marvel movies, not as good an origin as the recent Black Panther (or, dare I say it, the Warner/DC Wonder Woman movie), but it’s entertaining, especially as a setup of things to come–and very soon, at that–in Avengers: Endgame. Brie Larson was fine, although she wasn’t given all that much emotional stuff to do… seeing her and a younger Samuel Jackson interacting was a worthwhile experiment… and there were lots of nice touches along the way. Along with the usual fantastic CGI action sequences.”
A Good Enough Film, but Strong Enough?
This was posited to be the first female-led solo film for Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. And a big feminist film for Marvel. Brie Larson has been outspoken regarding her views, and has caused quite a stir amongst the comic book community. There’s been some speculation about how she’ll work with James Gunn.
And then Kevin Feige wants Larson’s character to be the lead for the MCU going forward. This may get some flak from fans and movie-goers. If we’re talking from her performance in Captain Marvel, I question whether her character can carry the cinematic universe.
I’m of the opinion that it’s a bad move. She may need a Winter Soldier-type sequel to solidify her character in the hearts of viewers. Like Chris Evans for Captain America or Chris Hemsworth ala Ragnarok. But that would take some great writing and dedicated directors to make it happen. Both of which didn’t happen in Captain Marvel, at least not enough, in my opinion.
But what do you think about it all? Is Roy Thomas right about the issues with the film? Do the Skrulls need to be more villainous in future films in the franchise? Sound off in the comments below or let’s talk about it on social media!
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