The announcement of the upcoming ‘Captain Marvel’ prelude leaves us a little hopeful, but mostly confused.
This news article contains spoilers for ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’
Ever since Nick Fury summoned Captain Marvel in the post-credit scene of Avengers: Infinity War, everyone has been losing their minds. The amount of fan theory videos and speculations about the fate of all of our favorite faded away characters is insane. But I mean, it’s all warranted. You can’t just have sweet Bucky Barnes say “Steve?” and have him fade into dust and expect us all to be okay for the next year until the fourth installment of the Avengers movies comes out.
Maybe I’m just bitter, but I have a lot of questions and I’m suffering a lot just from thinking about what could possibly be happening in the future of all things Marvel. But with The Hollywood Reporter revealing a Captain Marvel prelude comic book to be released later this year, we could be getting answers a lot sooner than the next film’s release in May 2019.
THR shares that the official announcement for the upcoming comic states:
“Before CAROL DANVERS takes flight in 2019’s first Marvel Studios film, immerse yourself in this all-new adventure! Spinning out of the mysterious events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ NICK FURY and MARIA HILL set off on life-or-death missions that lead directly to the appearance of CAPTAIN MARVEL!”
This is a little confusing, so let’s go over what we know. Captain Marvel will be taking place in the 1990s, following the story of Carol Danvers and her exposure to Kree technology, thus giving her the powers to become one of the universe’s most powerful heroes as Captain Marvel. The solo film will contain younger incarnations of MCU characters Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and Ronan of Guardians of the Galaxy.
As of now, there hasn’t been anything in the news regarding Cobie Smulders making an appearance as her character Maria Hill in the upcoming film — it wouldn’t make much sense — but this comic’s description is giving me some second guesses. Given the ’90s setting, that would put Hill around the age of a teenager, maybe even younger. So what exactly would she be getting into in a Captain Marvel prelude, especially if as far as we know she’s not even in the film?
We could be dealing with a few things. For starters, it could be what we’re all assuming and be a prelude to Captain Marvel, explaining Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s tie with Carol Danvers and why he resorts to calling her when people don’t feel so good in Infinity War. But that also doesn’t make any sense since that link should be explained within the core plot of Captain Marvel.
Maybe the comic will share what Fury and Hill have been up to prior to the Infinity War post-credits scene and be more of a prelude for what’s to come in Avengers 4. We haven’t seen much of the duo recently, and it came as a shock to see them in that Infinity War scene given that they hadn’t been in the rest of the movie. Where were they that whole time? Were they on some sort of mission separate from Thanos taking over? What could possibly take priority over that? Maybe this comic will give us an explanation.
But the whereabouts of Fury and Hill aren’t the only people I’m curious about. The question on everyone’s mind is: Where has Captain Marvel been? With her solo film being set in the ’90s and Infinity War being in 2018, that’s a pretty big gap for one of the most powerful superheroes of all time to just be MIA. I’m sure that question will be answered in Captain Marvel, but at this point, I’m more curious about that than I am about what Fury and Hill have been up to.
The phrasing “NICK FURY and MARIA HILL set off on life-or-death missions” is part of my confusion, as I don’t know if that means the life-or-death situation that they get themselves into when Thanos decides to ruin the lives of every Marvel fan out there, or if it could be referring to something in the ’90s, or something totally unrelated.
Another question is whether the comic will also connect to the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home — making it a prelude collectively to Marvel’s next three movies — since we recently learned that Fury and Hill appear in some capacity in that Spider-Man sequel.
I know that we watched Fury and Hill fade away in the post-credits scene of Infinity War, and I know that we wept over the Tom Holland-improvised fading of Spider-Man, but the fact that Far From Home has a release date after the release of Avengers 4 doesn’t mean that it will take place afterwards within the Marvel Universe.
What I mean is that since we know nothing about when the sequel is taking place within the MCU, there is a possibility of Far From Home taking place after Spider-Man: Homecoming but before Avengers: Infinity War. Confusing, right? It’s really not much of a long shot.
Right at the beginning of Infinity War, Peter Parker is psyched to hop out of his school bus and help Tony Stark with whatever he needs, which doesn’t seem too abnormal given Peter’s desperation to be anything other than your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in Homecoming. However, if you recall at the end of that same film, Peter declines his invitation to join the Avengers.
Yet in Infinity War, Peter has absolutely no problem with doing so, and if anything, he is proud at his sudden induction into the squad. Does this mean that something happened between Homecoming and Infinity War that made Peter more comfortable with the idea what he could balance being a regular teenager as well as a superhero that the world depended on?
There isn’t much to go off of when it comes to the plot of Far From Home, and I’m sure Marvel and Sony will keep it that way for as long as possible. Yet, if done the right way, their marketing with trailers could leave us unsure of when the Spidey sequel takes place up until the release of Avengers 4.
But, back to the main point at hand: Fury and Hill are in Far From Home. What does this mean? Like most plot pieces related to Marvel, we don’t know. This is another clue that the Spidey sequel taking place before Infinity War, because Fury and Hill would still be alive. If Far From Home instead takes place after Avengers 4 in the MCU, that will mean Fury, Hill, and Spider-Man all come back to life.
That would be too easy. Or maybe it isn’t and Marvel is trying to make us second-guess ourselves because of what seems to be too easy and what seems to be impossible? Or could the Spidey sequel take place in a different timeline, an alternate universe, perhaps a completely different Spider-Verse where Fury and Hill also still exist? I have a headache.
What I’m getting at is that the events leading up to the post-credits scene in Infinity War could involve Fury and Hill in Far From Home and could be something that we get a hint at in this new comic. And the description could be referring to the appearance of Captain Marvel in Avengers 4 post-Infinity War, even if the art implies they mean the appearance of Captain Marvel in her own movie.
I know that that was a lot to take in, but these are all possibilities to take into consideration. Not that Marvel is going to let a comic book coming out half a year before its big 2019 movies will be the key to much.
However, most of these new questions we have about the comic (but probably not the ongoing Avengers 4 and greater future-of-the-MCU questions) will be answered upon the release of the 32-page “Marvel’s Captain Marvel Prelude” on November 14th.
And whatever isn’t answered? We’ll find out sometime between Captain Marvel‘s release on March 8, 2019, Avengers 4‘s release on May 3, 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s release on July 5, 2019.
Related Topics: Avengers 4, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Marvel, Spider-Man
