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

1. The Life Of Captain Marvel

Let’s be honest, with the multiple personas she has adopted over the years and the many resets her stories have undergone, it’s hard to deny that Carol Danvers’ backstory is pretty darn confusing. Even the most die-hard of comic book fans could be forgiven for having trouble following along with the character’s history. However, that’s where The Life Of Captain Marvel comes in.

Written by Margaret Stohl, this recently released five-parter is nothing short of a complete reinvention, as it rewrites her origins in a more concise manner, ironing out the kinks in her backstory and amending them for a modern audience. As a result, it documents Carol’s young life as she grows up in Boston as a science-nerd before a certain run-in with a certain Kree gives her certain super-powers.

Moreover, it humanizes the present-day Captain Marvel to a greater degree than ever before, as an unexpected anxiety attack ultimately propels her to confront her past. In doing so, it allows us to fully grasp the struggles that she went through and how it turned her into this hero in the first place – an arc that, much like Stohl’s Mighty Captain Marvel series, ultimately makes this larger-than-life superhero all the more relatable to readers.

Not only does The Life Of Captain Marvel finally make the character’s complicated backstory a little less, well, complicated, the fact that it was only released last year (its final issue was unveiled in December) makes it perhaps the most timely and relevant Captain Marvel story of them all – a perfect starting point for new fans.

What was your favorite Captain Marvel comic? Are you excited for the upcoming film? Let us know in the comments below!