Panel Vision - 11 Possibilities for Captain Marvel 2

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By this point, the success and sequalization of Marvel films feels almost like a given.  Marvel has gotten so good at making quality movies that manage to thrill us without skimping on characterization that the fact we’ll be seeing these heroes again in new installments is the norm and not the exception.  As such, and combined with its record-breaking success so far, it doesn’t seem too earlier to start speculating about what we can expect from the next entry in the blossoming Captain Marvel franchise.  

The first film has been a major success for Marvel, planting their flag firmly alongside Wonder Woman and Black Panther in the realm of relatively more diverse superhero blockbusters and promising a whole world of potential for the next installment in this new and exciting franchise.  Combined with the extensive collection of comic book history that Carol Danvers and the Captain Mar-Vell brands have been wrapped up in and the recent changes in ownership at Marvel and Disney and there’s plenty of places to take this series next: here are 11 possibilities.

MONICA RAMBEAU – CAPTAIN MARVEL

If you’ve already seen Captain Marvel chances are you probably already know that Monica Rambeau and her mother Maria Rambeau were a big part of the plot.  What you might not know is that Monica Rambeau was actually the first woman to wear the Captain Marvel name, premiering back in 1982.  She’s always kind of struggled to find lasting permanence in the Marvel Comics universe, undergoing multiple name changes such as Photon, Pulsar, and Spectrum but she’s managed to stick around till today.  

She’s enjoyed a serious fan resurgence alongside Carol Danvers’ ascension to the rank of Captain Marvel and it seems pretty clear Captain Marvel was setting up Monica in the new movie to gain powers of her own and fly alongside Carol in future sequels.  This is actually a pretty common Marvel move, giving their white heroes a black best friend/partner hero like War Machine or Falcon.  I’d still hope that Monica could be a defining character in her own right and not just Carol’s back-up but the idea she’ll be in the sequel seems pretty secure as it’s been years since we had a Marvel movie with only one hero in it. 

MOONSTONE

A semi-obscure villain from the 1970s, Moonstone is arguably the closest thing Carol Danvers has to an archenemy.  Much like Carol and Monica, she’s worn many names over her 50-year history but Moonstone seems to be the one she most often comes back to.  She was originally introduced as an evil psychologist working alongside Dr. Faustus, a mind control psychologist villain who’s already been alluded to in Agents of SHIELD, before graduating up to a full blown super villain in her own right when she acquired the Moon Stones.  The Moon Stones are a pair of cosmically powerful stones that grant her powers more or less similar to those of Carol Danvers: flight, super strength, energy blasts, with the added wrinkle of intangibility.  

The idea of an evil psychologist villain sounds like a really solid evolution of Yon-Rogg’s gaslighting and manipulations in the first film with the added benefit of giving us a woman villain.  What’s more, it’s long been rumored Marvel wants to adapt the popular Dark Reign/Dark Avengers comic in some way for Phase 4, an event where various villains masquerade as heroes to convince the public they were the new Avengers.  Moonstone was the designated stand-in for Carol Danvers during that event so bringing together the pieces for that could easily start here, especially if Carol is going to be leading the MCU going forward. 

THE NOVA CORP

One of the curious things about Captain Marvel being a prequel is that we actually already know the ultimate fate of its villains, the Kree Empire, thanks to the events of Guardians of the Galaxy.  In case it’s been awhile, the powerful and vast Kree Empire of Captain Marvel eventually gave way to its own aging decadence and was defeated in a war with Xandar and its main force the Nova Corp, an intergalactic police force that took possession of the Power Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy.  The Nova Corp are basically Marvel’s own Green Lanterns but the concept has enjoyed some impressive longevity.  There was a time in the mid-2000s when Nova was one of Marvel’s premiere comics and the face of their cosmic stories and more recently a younger Latinx Nova has again helped the character find popularity among younger readers.  

In the movies, the Nova Corp got completely knocked out by Thanos in the events immediately prior to Avengers: Infinity War, which is a real shame given how excellent their design and conception is.  However, their ties to taking down the Kree and the fact that the most successful Nova comic sprung out of devastation to the Corp could be an easy set-up for a role in Captain Marvel 2, maybe focusing on a renewed threat or Carol Danvers taking the last of the Nova Corpsman under her wing. 

THE CELESTIALS

Another refugee from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, these guys were introduced and seemingly discarded far too quickly for characters that are so fun and engaging in the comics.  The Celestials (I don’t know what their MCU name is) are a race of cosmically powerful titans that travel from world to world seeding the potential for new life and destroying the worlds they deem unsuitable for evolutionary development.  They’re a weird blend of the kind of big cosmic mythos stuff that Captain Marvel deals with Marvel’s bizarre evolutionary fixation that sprung out of the X-Men.  

However, the big reason I think we might see the Celestials again is The Eternals, a race of super-powerful god-like beings hidden on Earth created by the Celestials after they looked into mankind’s genome and saw the potential for mutants.  The Eternals will be getting their own movie in Phase 4 so bringing back such a core part of their mythos as the Celestials would absolutely make sense and Captain Marvel 2 is a good place to do it and get people hyped up.  However, if that isn’t the direction the Eternals movie plans to go, there is another group of genetically modified Earthers that would fit more naturally into Carol’s mythos.

THE ETERNALS

Like I just said, the fact there’s an Eternals movie coming sometime soon means I expect we’ll be seeing more threads of these characters woven into Marvel’s cosmic web as we go forward.  Their relative obscurity and similarities to the Thor franchise mean that selling the world on the Eternals is probably going to be a task and a half for Marvel and having them spin out off the now very popular Captain Marvel series seems like an easy solution.  Their powers are similar in nature to Carol’s and their hidden city on Earth is a pretty great location to just have on hand, plus their ties to genetic manipulation and cosmic power make them an easy fit for a lot of the stuff Captain Marvel already established as its brand.  

I’m not sure we’d get a full on partner movie like Nick Fury enjoyed in Captain Marvel but something establishing them or their enemy race, the Deviants, could be an easy element to just drop into the film, especially if the Eternals are going to be playing a big role in Phase 4 as has been rumored.  However, there is another race of genetic augments that might fit a little more neatly into Carol’s background. 

THE INHUMANS

Yeah, remember these guys?  They were supposed to be Marvel’s next big TV thing back in 2017 that more or less blew up on the launch pad despite YEARS of development and lead-up in the likes of Agents of SHIELD.  At this point, the Inhumans push feels like the product of another time, mainly driven by Marvel’s mad scramble to create a viable stand-in for the mutants, which has become a non-issue since the Disney/Fox merger.  As such, the Inhumans basically have no clear function despite their elevated status so I’m not sure there would be demand for a follow-up on their show.  

However, the big thing the Inhumans have going for them is Kamala Khan, the incredibly popular new Pakistani Ms. Marvel.  Though not a member of the Inhuman Royal Family her powers do come from her ties to the genetically augmented super race and at this point, there’s SO much demand for her to appear in the MCU it’s downright ridiculous.  What’s more, the Inhumans have a history with the Kree as they were created by Kree scientist to essentially be a race of super soldiers.  Digging them up as a way to revitalize the Kree war machine after the loss of the Xandar war would be a really solid way to fold these folks back into continuity in a less vital capacity.  It worked in the comics multiple times and speaking of which. 

THE SHI’AR

As I just mentioned, a lot of things have changed now that the long talked about Disney/Fox merger has finally gone through.  With its completion, Marvel Studios has regained access to both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men along with their attendant materials.  As such, a lot of the space and cosmic properties Marvel had been locked out of are now up for grabs and an introduction to the MCU, which honestly seems like the best way to integrate this new material given how often the X-Men have felt like problematic pariahs in their own universe and how dated the Fantastic Four can come off.  

One such IP are the Shi’ar, a space empire of bird people from the X-Men comics who’ve played a major role in the cosmic comics history.  The Shi’ar have been enemies of the Kree on multiple occasions, fighting them first in the event Galactic Storm, which embroiled the Avengers, then again when the Kree press-ganged the Inhumans into service.  That second story ultimately ended with the Inhuman as the new Kings of the Kree Empire and set-up a whole new era of really popular stories called War of Kings and The Thanos Imperative, which I could definitely see Marvel Phase 4 or 5 wanting to work their way towards. 

SUPREME INTELLIGENCE / SENTRY

Circling back around to the Kree, they definitely felt a little under-developed in the final version of Captain Marvel, we got a hint of what their culture and tech was like but not nearly enough of a clear picture.  The big question I was left with was: what is the Supreme Intelligence in this context.  In the comics, the Supreme Intelligence is a giant head in a jar with weird tentacles that come out of its top, which it seems the movie version might’ve been at one time as well?  The lingering threads about how no one had ever seen the real Supreme Intelligence and the design of the communion wiring definitely felt in line with the original character and it’d be really nice to see this thing show up in live action.  

What’s more, the other big problem the Kree had as antagonists by the end was they were so thoroughly outclassed by Carol’s power it was downright ridiculous.  A good way around that might be the introduction of something called the Kree Sentry.  They’re big robots designed for serious devastation that give most Marvel heroes a serious run for their money.  If Captain Marvel 2 really plans to follow up on Carol’s threat to go back to Hala and seek revenge on the people who lied to her something like the Sentry could make that a much more even fight. 

THE MAR-VELL FAMILY

So, one of the really clever things Captain Marvel did was streamline Carol’s powers to just come from an already known and easily explained source.  In the comics, her abilities and heritage are part of this elaborate and tangled web of interconnected characters that are all somehow deeply unrewarding to learn about despite being interesting as people.  As such, while I doubt we’ll such much of a deep dive into the Nega-Bands or the forces of Maelstrom and Epoch there are a handful of Mar-Vell Family types I think we might see.  

Quasar was a very popular Marvel character in the ‘70s and ‘80s who took up the mantel as a protector of the universe from the original Captain Mar-Vell that would make for a nice fit to the MCU’s cosmic side.  Phyla-Vell was the daughter of the original Mar-Vell and served as a hero in her own right, briefly acting as Quasar before eventually becoming an agent of death called Martyr.  Phyla is also one of Marvel’s few out gay characters so getting her in a Captain Marvel sequel would definitely be a big deal.  Finally, there’s Noh-Varr, sometimes known as Marvel Boy.  Noh-Varr never had cosmic powers like the others but his origin as a genetically augmented Kree is a pretty solid fit to the movie mythos and he also served as one of the Dark Avengers like Moon Stone so it’d be another stepping stone in that direction. 

SUB-ATOMICA

I know I said we probably wouldn’t see any greater delving into the cosmic mechanics of the Captain Marvel comics but I’m making an exception for Sub-Atomica.  Originally introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four, Sub-Atomica is basically what it sounds like: a subatomic universe complete with civilizations and peoples that can be explored and walked among.  

This seems to be a mild inspiration for the Ant-Man & the Wasp’s Quantum Zone concept, which looks to be playing a key role in Avengers: Endgame so there’s definitely a reason for its inclusion here.  What’s more, after its introduction in the comics it was used as a big part of the original Captain Mar-Vell’s mythos, with his powers drawing directly from Sub-Atomica.  Sub-Atomica also served as the setting for the popular 1980s toy and comic line Micronauts so it’d be interesting to see Marvel dive back into that well. 

GALACTUS

At this point, the MCU is basically in a “countdown to Galactus” loop.  He’s inarguably one of the biggest and coolest threats in the entire Marvel Comics canon so the second the rights to his character reverted back to Marvel Studios everyone started marking time till he premiered in the movies, to the point many have speculated he’ll play the Thanos role in the upcoming Phase 4.  

I’m not sure I’d go that far but I’d definitely love to see Galactus make an appearance in the MCU, especially after how disappointingly he was rendered in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and I think Captain Marvel 2 could easily be the perfect place to do it.  He’s a cosmic level threat whose power could definitely rival Carol’s and his collection of heralds would make or a solid fighting force for her to clash against.  What’s more, Galactus’ role destroying the Skrull’s home planet in the comics could be an easy entry point for him into the Captain Marvel movie mythology. 

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