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CAPTAIN MARVEL: CAROL DANVERS DECLASSSIFIED / Written by KELLI FITZPATRICK / Art by VARIOUS MARVEL ARTISTS / Published by SMART POP AND SIMON & SCHUSTER
It is rare that I review print books instead of comics. Given that, I was surprised when I was contacted about a sneak-peak at Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers Declassified. However, I’ve never been one to turn down a chance to try something new. Particularly when it involves a book about comic history and a character of whom I know relatively little.
I know who Carol Danvers is, of course, and have seen all the MCU movies with Brie Larson playing her. I also knew a fair bit about her backstory in Marvel Comics. Enough to know that it was fairly convoluted, even by the standards of comics. Over the years, Carol bounced from book to book, switching jobs, teams, code names, and powers like most people change their hairstyles. Explaining all this in a cohesive narrative is a daunting task, but writer Kelli Fitzpatrick tackles it with aplomb.
Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers Declassified is built around a frame story, in which J. Jonah Jameson is trying to get back into producing long-form journalism. To that end, he recruits freelance journalist Ripley Ryan (a.k.a. the semi-supervillain Star) to conduct an expose on Carol Danvers’ life. Jameson figures, given Ryan’s history with Danvers, she’ll jump at the chance to take her down a peg. The story unfolds through Star’s interviews with Captain Marvel and various documents and photos, as she (and we) learn just how Carol Danvers was forged from a tomboy with dreams of becoming an astronaut into one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Fitzpatrick does an admirable job of laying out Carol’s history and justifying some of the more extreme changes in her life. Chief among these is how she went from being head of security at NASA in Captain Marvel to the editor-in-chief of a women’s interest magazine in Ms. Marvel. There are also some throwaway references to flashback stories, such as a comic where Carol teamed with a pre-Thing Ben Grimm and Logan for a covert mission while in the USAF.
The materials punctuating the interviews are all interesting and capture the voices of the characters involved well. One which particularly impressed me was a letter, written by Logan, where he told Carol he understood why she quit the X-Men after Rogue was welcomed into the team. You wouldn’t think of Logan being the letter-writing type, but the dialogue is quick, to the point, and rings true. Such is the case with all the dialogue in this book. The book also does not shy away from some of the more questionable stories involving Carol. (Indeed, Star notes a disturbing trend toward villains who wanted to use Carol as a breeder or a power source, which is notable given her own history.)
Ironically, it is as the book moves into discussing modern times after Carol took on the Captain Marvel name that it begins to falter. While Fitzpatrick does a fair job of justifying a lot of Carol’s stranger life choices (like joining the space pirate Starjammers after being a law-and-order soldier all her life), even she can’t justify Carol’s out of character behavior during the Civil War II event. The book also becomes more concerned with recapping continuity than exploring Carol’s personal evolution as we enter into the modern age.
Despite this loss of focus near the end, Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers Declassified is a wonderful study of Carol Danvers’ history and character. It will serve as a good guide to the comics for movie fans who want to know more. However, there are enough deep cuts that even longtime comic readers who love Carol Danvers may learn something new about the Cosmic Avenger.
Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers Declassified releases on March 4, 2025.
“]] A new book explores the long and often weird history of Carol Danvers and how she became Captain Marvel. Read More