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Fun Fact: "Captain Marvel" Doesn't Appear In This Movie ;)


Annette Bening plays "Dr. Mar-Vell/Dr. Wendy Lawson."
Brie Larson plays "Vers/Carol Danvers."

Not sure what Marvel was thinking, but Brie's name is not Marvel, Mar-Vell, or any variation. And she may/may not even be a Captain, either in the Kree or American armed forces.

Somebody didn't think this through. . .

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I was wondering if this would be addressed in endgame....but no.

Given that the whole movie was sloppy, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't even bother to try to justify the name Captain Marvel. In The First Avenger they managed to do the legwork to justify the absurd name of "Captain America", but this film couldn't even bother to tackle the much easier task of giving her the mantle "Captain Marvel". All they had to do was make her a Captain, make her adopt the name Mar-vell, and have someone mispronounce it "Marvel".

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Been trying to figure out WHY. . .what's your read? On reflection, is it as simple as "it didn't occur to anyone," or "they didn't bother"??? That seems insane to me.

Maybe something to do w/Shazam?

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No, nothing to do with Shazam. I think it was just beyond the writers of the film to work it in. Considering how many elementary things they messed up, it's conceivable that they just ignored it to be explained in a later film, or didn't think actually giving her her superhero name in the film even matters, because they are not big comicbook fans.

There is a precedent in the MCU, Scarlet Witch is never called Scarlet Witch. She hasn't appeared in a film called Scarlet Witch, Even her TV series is called "Wandavision", not Scarlet Witch. It is quite a difficult name to work in though. I think Tony called her a "witch" once or something like that. But "scarlet witch"? Kind of difficult.

Also in the comics, "Spider Gwen" is never galled Spider Gwen, because Gwen is actually her name. So it would be a bad superhero identity.

Maybe they didn't want to have two Captains while Captain America is still around? That's my last best guess.

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Yeah, the Marvel movies rarely say the codenames names of the heroes.

Wanda is never called Scarlet Witch (Tony says she's a witch at one point and that's it).

Sam is never called Falcon.

Natasha is never called Black Widow.

Clint is never called Hawkeye (Dr Selvig refers to him as "the hawk" once and that's about it).

Even Tony and Steve are rarely actually called Iron Man and Captain America. Those names do pop up but 9/10 times it's just Tony and Steve.

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Natasha is called "Widow". Ant-man says "it's the Falcon" in Ant-man. We also see the name "Falcon" on the files in The Winter Soldier. EVERYONE calls Steve Rogers "cap". Ant-man calls him Captain America all the time. Buck calls him "captain America" in the First Avenger. Obviously they are not going to use each others superhero names when they are talking intimately to each other. Clint's code name is Hawkeye. That's enough, we don't need to hear people calling him Hawkeye all the time.
Iron Man says "I am Iron Man" in 3 different films. The newspapers call him Iron Man. In Spiderman homecoming the girls are talking about who they would fuck marry and kill and they say "Iron Man Thor and Hulk".

We don't need to hear Nick Fury calling her "captain Marvel" in every sentence, we need to know how she got the name, or even if the name exists.

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Hawkeye's wife calls him Hawkeye in Age of Ultron. So actually all of the other heroes have been called by their superhero name except for Scarlet Witch(and quicksilver, but he is dead so whatever).

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I didn't say no one ever calls them Captain America or Iron Man. I said it was rare, which it is.
And "Widow" isn't the same as Black Widow. I missed Ant-Man saying Falcon, though. As for Hawkeye, the best we get is a playful pet name from the wife? That's not much.

At any rate, my point still stands that the codenames don't come up much.

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I don't see what that has to do with anything. I don't know of any other Superhero film where the name of the superhero is never even referenced in the film.

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More common than you might think: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames

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It's possible you're missing the point.

The trope you're referencing notwithstanding, what's going on in This movie is interesting: "Captain Marvel" has very definite origins, for the individual And the name. In every other Marvel movie, either the character, a confidant, adversary or member of the public affirms the main character's name. This is the first time that not only does None of that happen, but There's NO REASON FOR THAT NAME FOR THE CHARACTER.

You see the difference?

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The term Wonder Woman apparently isn't uttered across three movies. It's interesting but not that weird.

As for this movie, I recall Fury and Carol discussing the pronunciation of Marv-El. That's more than what Pietro Maximoff got.

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"The term Wonder Woman apparently isn't uttered across three movies. It's interesting but not that weird."

Good catch. Gives me an excuse to watch it again ;)

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Superhero names are just code names... these superheroes are friends too so it makes sense they will use their original names when referencing each other but outside of their group like the public their superhero names are used

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Superhero names are just code names... these superheroes are friends too so it makes sense they will use their original names when referencing each other but outside of their group like the public their superhero names are used

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Wasn't she the captain of her team of Kree soldiers? Seemed like it anyway. Also Mar-Vell is responsible for Carol's powers.

Whats funny to me is DC is the one responsible for losing Captain Marvel. They sued Captain Marvel for being too similar to Superman so Fawcett comics canned the series. With no Captain Marvel comics the name got scooped up by Marvel. DC ends up owning Fawcett Comics and acquires the old Captain Marvel comics but can't use the name any more :)

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"Wasn't she the captain of her team of Kree soldiers?"

Firstly they never called her Captain. If this was in fact intended, then it's even more unforgiveable that it wasn't mentioned and that you have to ask this question.
But given that she has no loyalty to the Kree, in fact the opposite, keeping her Kree rank title would make absolutely no sense from a story point of view.

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I see it as a symbolic rank. We start off with a character who is "normal" with some military background. Something happens and they become stronger. They then use this new ability to become a symbol. This happened to Captain America in the MCU. He was declared a Captain before he was anywhere close to being a Captain. Then he leads a squad to face off against Red Skull before being frozen. Is that all Carol needed to be Captain Marvel? To lead some tiny squad before shooting off into space? Seems like something is missing there. I just see it as symbolism which is the very reason the government labeled him as Captain America in the first place.

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"Is that all Carol needed to be Captain Marvel? To lead some tiny squad before shooting off into space? "

She was never actually the leader of the squad. She was a brainwashed captive.

The title Captain America was obviously symbolic. He got given the name before he had anything to do with leading a military squad. He was a stage performer, and "captain America" was a gimmick. Then later in the film he rescued a squadron of soldiers and gained the respect of the soldiers, who then started calling him "captain america" as a mark of respect, where as it had previously been a jingoistic title.

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And all of that makes sense. Danvers? Not at all. There's no reason for the name. . .and a puzzling absence of an attempt to explain it. Never read Spider-Gwen, so I wasn't aware of any of that. Huh.

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It is weird. But they dropped the ball a lot of times in the film, on things that the MCU has already long since honed to a fine craft. I can only think that Kevin Feige was preoccupied with the two Avengers films when this was being shot, and didn't have time to correct all of the blunders they made.

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I just don't see a reason to hold her hero name to such scrutiny. Captain America was a jingoistic label like you said. It wasn't a reference to his "captainhood" but rather a reference to American patriotism. Captain was placed in front of it because it sounded good. Her connection to "Marvel" is Mar-Vell. Its also a wink to the name of the studio. You're right that they do address him as Captain America in his movie but don't address her as Captain Marvel. But thats hardly anything new. Wolverine, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, all kinda feel like the same situation. And don't get me started on the ending of 2015's Fantastic Four with the cringiest part of that godawful movie. lol.

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Aquaman is an man who breaths underwater. His name explains itself. Wonder Woman is a Woman who is a wonder. Wolverine has claws. Captain Marvel is not a captain and is not called Marvel or even Mar-vell. I think the problem is obvious.

Also, none of those movies are MCU. In the MCU they have actually put in the legwork to make sure that the characters justify their names. They didn't just brush over "Captain America" or "Doctor Strange". Strange is his name, and he is a doctor. He makes a point of insisting on being called "Doctor" in his movie. They didn't have to do that. But they did.

And actually there is a scene in Logan where pierce says "as I live and breathe, the Wolverine". And that film isn't even called Wolverine. I'm pretty sure it's referred to elsewhere, but I can't remember.

I haven't seen Aquaman. I guess in Wonder Woman they were hamstrung by her appearance in Justice League. It would have had to be a name that was given to her by news outlets, like Iron Man.

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Honestly, I'd prefer if she was using her powers and somebody said: "wow, you're such a Marvel", instead of saying "Mar-vell".

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I just read this entire thread and honestly one word is all I need to sum up my feelings.- So?

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which means you have nothing to contribute to it, so why did you bother?

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Because the whole thread is a waste of time. There is nothing to contribute to this very pointless topic.

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LOL. . .and yet here you are, "contributing." AFTER you "read this entire thread." The internet is truly a hilarious and wonderful place, populated by astounding creatures. Carry on. . .

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Very true. I just asked what it even mattered that she was never referred to as a captain. No one has an answer for that. Just more incessant complaining and not one point made for the reason behind it. Astounding indeed.

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Who's complaining? I pointed out an interesting factoid; a bunch of people chimed in. . .then you decided to tilt your head back and bray irrelevant foolishness about how you didn't care about what we were discussing. You are an incredible muppet. Pray continue; you are the reason the internet is endlessly amusing. Bravo.

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Danvers is officially known as Captain Marvel, and yet they never call her that in the film?

Damn, what a real G. She owns that name and haters can’t do nothing about it except piss and moan (the way manbabies have been throwing baby tantrums - that’s an insult to babies - over this film in general tho... LMAO).

Keep at it, Marvel!!

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. . .I think the point is, Danvers *isn't* officially known as Captain Marvel. Brie Larson is; but she's never called that during the movie, and for that matter, there's No Reason For Her To Have That Name. This keeps getting missed, in this discussion >shrug<

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Exactly. People make the comparison with Wonder Woman, who is in fact a Wonder and a Woman. Captain Marvel is not a captain, and Mar-vell is the name of a completely different character in the film who is not her.

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do you mean "Carol Danvers" never got called by her superhero identity name?

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It's even crazier than that. . .did you see the movie? Don't wanna spoil plot points

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yes I saw the movie.

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I assume he/she means that she is not a Captain and Mar-vell is another character. It would be like Steve Rogers being a French pilot and being in a film called Captain America despite no reference to this in the film.

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Exactly. Baffling, when you stop to think about it. Which I guess the writers didn't. . .

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Neither did Diana in Wonder Woman either.

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Sure, but Wonder Woman is not the MCU. Every other single character got called by their superhero name in their solo movie. Even the Guardians called themselves "The Guardians of the Galaxy". Doctor Strange made a point of being called Doctor Strange. Ant-Man's name is a running joke in his movies. Spiderman and Black Panther are both called by their names. This is the only movie that didn't manage it in the MCU. Not only that, it wasn't even hinted at. She is never even called Captain. Marvell is the name of another character that is never associated with Carol Danvers. It's kind of weird. At least Wonder Woman is a woman and she is a wonder.

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Frankly there was a better Captain Marvel movie that came out. It was called Shazam.

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