**Warning Major Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame Below**
Let’s talk about what everyone was wondering about and some folks were afraid of. Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Carol Danvers and her role in Avengers: Endgame.
Carol Danvers’ impact on the film is probably as important to the plot of Endgame as much as her solo movie was. Her presence is required to advance the plot, but she only appears in small segments.
Our first real look at Captain Marvel and her involvement in Avengers: Endgame came in the post-credit scene of Captain Marvel. She showed up in response to the beeper she had left Nick Fury and asks about his whereabouts.
Her first appearance in Avengers: Endgame is a little disappointing. She single-handedly rescues Tony Stark and Nebula, who are stranded in the vast expanse of space. Tony is malnourished, running out of air, and drifting off to die. All of a sudden, as he lays in the silence of death’s sleep, a light starts shining on his face.
It’s the aura of Captain Marvel outside of the craft.
A slight disappointment for those of us waiting for something similar to the original Iron Man cave scene where he builds his first suit from scrap. Danvers carries the Milano back to Earth, and her approach is loud. Loud enough to be noticed by the un-snapped Avengers. They go out to see what the commotion is and they are joined by Pepper Potts. They embrace the emaciated Tony and welcome Nebula.
After some banter between the original Avengers, Carol decides to go after Thanos. I’m sure everyone has seen the Good Morning America footage from the first few minutes of the film explaining the first mission of the team. I’m happy to say that she only serves as a contributor to his first demise, as Thor delivers the final blow to the farming Mad Titan. She scouts out the planet where Thanos fled too, and reports back to the Avengers that he is alone.
And that’s pretty much it for her character for the bulk of the movie.
She shows up reporting to Black Widow in a makeshift council scene, joined by Okoye, Rocket Raccoon, and War Machine. Her presence there with the short hair serves nothing more than to show off the pixie cut. Rocket makes a comment about her hair and her scene ends. She does indicate that she’s acting as sort of a Green Lantern style space cop, dealing with all of the other planets who are suffering from Thanos’ snap.
And that’s pretty much it for Carol Danvers until the final fight.
Final Fight: Thanos vs. the Assembled Avengers
We know there’s a huge fight at the end, because that’s how super hero films go. There’s a lot that goes on that brings Thanos, or more accurately, pre-Guardians of the Galaxy Thanos, to Earth to battle against the survivors of the snap. It involves time travel and Quantum Realm stuff that needs some of those 3 hours to really explain. I’ll just say if you want more details about it, just see the film. I probably need to see it a few more times to get a better handle of everything going on.
So, there’s a heroes versus the villains scene. Thanos brings the entirety of his Chitauri forces and the Black Order to Earth for the battle. Prior to this scene, Hulk unsnaps the half of the population that had been gone for 5 years, using a new Infinity Gauntlet. The Avengers compound is blasted to hell by Thanos’ craft, and it’s all looking hopeless for the main Avengers as his forces start coming in hordes. Then Captain America hears a radio call, as the heroes are finally assembled en masse, via Doctor Strange opening up portals to New Asgard, Wakanda, the Sanctums, and whatever other locations heroes happen to be at right after Thanos snapped. They all come to battle. All of them.
And approaching Thanos is an enraged Wanda Maximoff.
And Scarlet Witch wrecks him. He’s unable to get out of her grasp and in retaliation, orders Ebony Maw to fire down on the landscape. The bombardment endangers his troops but effectively stops the heroes as well.
All of a sudden, the firing aims towards the sky. Blasts start aiming toward the clouds, seemingly hitting nothing. Someone on the radio calls in saying something is entering the atmosphere rapidly.
Of course, it’s Carol Danvers coming to save the day. She rips through Thanos’ craft, bringing it to the ground in a burning heap. And this is a call back to her abilities to rip through ships in Captain Marvel, when she tore through the Kree spaceships.
A Battle with Thanos
There’s a nod to A-Force when the women of the MCU come to defend against Thanos getting the new Infinity Gauntlet. They are somewhat effective in blasting him away, but the Mad Titan gets closer to getting the gauntlet. He eventually wears it, but Danvers holds him off from closing his fist and gets into a power struggle against him.
Thanos tries headbutting her, but its ineffective. He finally gets a hit in on her and sends her flying after he uses the strength of the Power Stone.
And that’s pretty much it for her involvement in the rest of the film.
My fear, amongst other concerns, is that Carol would be promoted as a Deus Ex Machina for the plot of the film. That somehow, she would land the final blow on Thanos and end the entirety of the phase of the MCU. Fortunately, the writers and directors did the original six Avengers justice. We get a little sparkle from Danvers, but that’s about it. The other Avengers shine in comparison. And I appreciated that they give her a moment, but not so much that it robbed others of the moments that their respective films over the course of the MCU history have earned.
The Future Leader of the MCU
MCU boss Kevin Feige touted Brie Larson’s character as the leader for their films going forward. Whatever Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films looks like, it’ll have Danvers as the backbone of it. And that was made apparent in the reference to the A-Force as Captain Marvel leads the charge against Thanos when all the female characters assemble.
Although, this movie only put her in for a few short moments compared to the time we spend with the other Avengers. Heck, she isn’t really an Avenger during the course of the film. Even when Captain America cries out “Avengers Assemble,” she doesn’t show up.
Everyone seeing the movie, let us know your thoughts on the Captain Marvel situation. What do you think of the Russo’s decisions with her character? How do you think the future of Marvel Cinematic Universe will fare with her as its lead? Sound off in the comments below or let’s talk it out on social media!