Summary
- Ultimates are recruiting erased heroes, with evidence that Captain Marvel may be a villain in the Ultimate Universe.
- Captain Marvel previously posed as a villain, hinting towards a potential dark turn in the new storyline.
- The Ultimate Universe could explore Captain Marvel's redemption arc, showcasing her heroism and internal struggles.
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Ultimates #1! The the Ultimates (the Ultimate Universe’s version of the Avengers) are currently recruiting heroes (who were otherwise scrubbed from existence) to their cause, it doesn’t seem as though Carol Danvers will be one of them - here’s why.
In a preview shared by ComicBook.com for The Ultimates #1 by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri, the Ultimates are gathering intel on a number of prospective heroes to recruit, despite the fact that the Maker ensured nearly all of them were eradicated upon his arrival in Earth-6160. As shown in the miniseries Ultimate Invasion, the Maker came to this world to reshape it in his image, using time travel to eliminate any threat to his power. And now, the Ultimates are working to undo what the Maker has done.
The first step the Ultimates take is to unfreeze Captain America, all while making sure Thor is healing from the injury he suffered in the one-shot prelude comic Ultimate Universe. Once that is done, the Ultimates turn their attention to a number of screens showing the aforementioned prospective teammates. One screen shows Spider-Man, another shows Hawkeye (ironically walking away from his superhero costume in the style of “Spider-Man No More!”), and the third screen features Captain Marvel. However, there’s something a bit off about that last one, leading one to assume Danvers isn’t a hero in this universe at all.
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Why Captain Marvel Could Even Be Considered a Villain in the Ultimate Universe
The video the Ultimates are watching of Captain Marvel shows (presumably) Carol Danvers using her cosmic power against a crowd of people. While it could be assumed that these people were trying to attack her in some way, or were somehow villainous themselves, the still image readers see doesn’t seem to indicate that. These people just look like normal, scared civilians who were unlucky enough to feel the wrath of Captain Marvel. But, why would Carol do something like that? Well, a few other Marvel ‘heroes’ could probably answer that.
In Ultimate Invasion (the miniseries that kicked off the new Ultimate Universe), the Maker not only eradicates any threat to his power, but he also recruits them wherever he can. For instance, he turned Colossus and Magik into corrupt leaders of Russia before making them a part of the Maker’s secret ‘world order’. He did practically the same with Captain Britain, and even the Hulk, making both of them of this secret society of people who control the world from the shadows as well - all of whom answer directly to him.
The heroes who were corrupted to serve the Maker’s purposes in the Ultimate Universe only prove that this is something that has happened in this continuity before, meaning there could be many more instances of it occurring that fans aren’t even aware of yet. Did the Maker corrupt Captain Marvel and turn her into his ultimate weapon? The aforementioned secret society of world leaders did say at the end of Ultimate Invasion that they would effectively destroy the United States to split the territory between them - could Carol be their living weapon of mass destruction to achieve that end?
While readers aren’t given any specifics about who Captain Marvel is attacking, or if she’s secretly a weapon used by the Maker’s World Order, the evidence this newly-established Ultimate Universe has presented thus far is enough to give one pause to wonder.
The Ultimate Universe Wouldn’t Be the First Time Captain Marvel Turned Against the Avengers
Captain Marvel: The Last Avenger by Kelly Thompson and Lee Garbett
It may seem crazy to consider that someone as good as Captain Marvel could become such a seemingly heartless villain in the Ultimate Universe, but this isn’t the first time fans have seen Carol Danvers go dark.
In the storyline Captain Marvel: The Last Avenger, Carol is forced by the evil Vox Supreme to find and kill every member of the Avengers, or else the villain will murder innocent Kree refugees on Earth - a number of them children. So, Captain Marvel puts on a symbiote-like suit given to her by Vox Supreme (which is used to monitor and track her, and even contain her if need-be), and proceeds to kill every one of the Avengers one-by-one, starting with Thor.
Of course, it turns out that Captain Marvel wasn’t actually killing her fellow Avengers, but was instead beating them to a pulp before bringing them to a pocket dimension outside Vox Supreme’s line of sight, at which point she’d bring Vox a clone corpse of the Avenger she was supposed to have killed. It was a solid plan, but at first, readers had no idea what was really going on. The first issue of this storyline ended with Carol ‘killing’ Thor, and then bringing his severed head to Vox Supreme, making fans think that Captain Marvel had really been corrupted.
While The Last Avenger was more of an ‘Evil Captain Marvel’ fake-out, it still presented that idea, which made fans realize for the first time how truly detrimental it would be if Captain Marvel actually was a villain hellbent on killing the Avengers for her murderously sinister master - and that’s exactly what they may be seeing play out in real-time in the Ultimate Universe.
The Ultimate Universe Has the Chance to Prove How Good Captain Marvel Truly Is
This entire theory hinges on the fact that Captain Marvel is actually killing civilians in this preview, along with the knowledge that corrupted heroes are nothing new in the Ultimate Universe, even now in its infancy. And while she may very well be a villain, that doesn’t change the fact that the Ultimate Universe has the chance to give fans a storyline that proves how truly good Captain Marvel is.
Even if Captain Marvel is a villain, the Ultimates have her pulled up on their screen for a reason, meaning they still see potential in recruiting her. Perhaps her entire storyline could be one of redemption, where Carol turns her back on her potential programming and the villains seeking to use her to kill innocent people, and instead s the Ultimates. That would be a great way to prove Captain Marvel’s nearly unparalleled heroism in a new and fresh way, while also making her an extremely flawed character who’s haunted by the demons of her past (not dissimilar to Wolverine).
However, even if the Ultimate Universe introduced Captain Marvel as a murderous villain just to redeem her later down the road, she’d still have been a villain to begin with, which would categorically prove this theory completely true. Of course, there’s always still the chance Captain Marvel was heroic all along, that those people in the Ultimates’ video deserved to face the cosmic might of a full-power photon blast, and Captain Marvel is someone the Maker just didn’t bother to neutralize.
While that’s a possibility, it just doesn’t seem likely, as those people were unarmed and seemed pretty frightened, and the Maker isn’t dumb enough to discount a powerhouse like Captain Marvel - which means that the Avengers revamp in the Ultimate Universe is more than likely recasting Captain Marvel as an official villain.
The Ultimates #1 by Marvel Comics is available June 5, 2024.
The Ultimates #1 (2024) |
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Source: ComicBook.com
Captain Marvel
United States air force officer Carol Danvers gains superpowers after an explosion fuses her DNA with a superhero colleague. With her super strength, speed, flight, and other abilities, Captain Marvel (also known as Ms. Marvel) has fought alongside the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Guardians of the Galaxy. She also appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ing the films' other heroes to fight evil.
