Captain Marvel: 10 essential Captain Marvel comics to read before her MCU debut

2. The Mighty Captain Marvel

Carol Danvers’ turn as Captain Marvel has undoubtedly solidified the character as an icon. As Earth’s Mightiest Hero, she’s strong, empowering and nothing short of inspirational. However, when we refer to her as mighty, we aren’t just talking about her physical strength, we’re also talking about her internal might: her ability to question her decisions, her actions and, ultimately, overcome any emotional obstacle that gets in her way. And we got to see her do all of this (and more) in 2017.

Following on from yet another reset, The Mighty Captain Marvel was written by Margaret Stohl and centers on Carol’s attempts to balance her new role as a TV star with her duties as Commander of the Alpha Flight station in space. However, her hands are also full with the fact that Earth is in the midst of an alien refugee crisis (many of which are Kree people) – something that gets much worse when a bounty hunter begins targeting them.

Carol also experiences a lot of internal conflict throughout the arc, questioning herself and struggling to figure out where she truly fits in on Earth. This is highlighted to perfection when she ends up fighting the shape-shifting bounty hunter who takes on her form – thus, in effect, she is literally fighting herself. Moreover, the fact that these moral dilemmas come straight after Civil War II is quite poetic, considering she made some questionable choices in that arc.

In The Mighty Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers is tested in a way that she has never been tested before and, as a result, is pushed to her emotional limits. But despite the inner turmoil, the public pressure and the refugee crisis, she remains steadfast in her approach and proves that, even in the darkest of times, she is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Earth’s Mightiest Hero.