The Marvels is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fluffier movies of late. Lacking the emotional stakes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or the bland, obligatory table-setting of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest MCU flick instead leans into the comic book-style silliness that the franchise has relegated to its TV entries of late.
But this slight-if-fun romp—in which Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) fights a forgettable Big Bad in space with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani)—ultimately gives way to two of the biggest plot developments seen in any post-Endgame MCU entry.
(Warning: Spoilers for The Marvels below.)
In the movie’s final scene, Kamala Khan (a.k.a. Ms. Marvel) picks up where her hero Carol “Captain Marvel” Danvers leaves off, after Carol retires to a Louisiana farm. Inspired by the loss of Carol’s honorary goddaughter Monica Rambeau, who gets stuck on the other side of a space-time continuum in the film’s climax, Kamala decides to put a new superhero team together. Thus, she stops by New York City, where she confronts her fellow “young superhero” Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). (“I’m 23,” Kate argues.) We last saw Kate in the delightful MCU Disney+ show Hawkeye, in which Clint “Hawkeye” Barton (Jeremy Renner) takes her on as his protégé. Since then, she’s been using her excellent archery skills to protect New York.
This makes her an excellent choice to join Kamala’s supercrew, and Kate seems down. Kamala suggests that they go reach out to Scott “Ant-Man” Lang’s daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) next, and thus, our next group of heroes begins to form. Let’s just call ’em what they are: the Young Avengers.
Then comes the mid-credits scene, which presents a possible problem for these Young Avengers to go solve. It also answers a question fans have had since Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2017, granting Marvel ownership of Fox’s X-Men movie license. The MCU’s first official X-Men entry will be next year’s Deadpool 3, which will feature Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. But how will Marvel bridge the gap between Fox’s universe and its own?
The answer lies with Monica Rambeau. The mid-credits show Monica waking up in a hospital bed next to her mother, Maria (Lashana Lynch). Monica is shocked to see her mother alive, as she died of cancer after Monica disappeared during the Blip. Just as shocking is that Maria doesn’t seem to recognize Monica at all, let alone understand why she keeps calling her “Mom.” In walks Monica’s doctor, who is none other than Hank McCoy—a.k.a. Beast (voiced by Kelsey Grammer, as he was in the original X-Men films).
Admittedly, it was hard to make out any of his dialogue amid the cheers from my viewing audience. But rest assured that Hank was as surprised as we were, albeit for different reasons. His assessment was that Monica had arrived there from some parallel dimension to his and Maria’s own. That dimension is the one belonging to the mainline MCU; the one Monica, Hank, and Maria are in is that of Fox’s pre-First Class X-Men movies. The other big difference is that, to Monica, Carol Danvers is Captain Marvel. But to Hank and Maria—or who we know as Maria—there appears to be no Captain Marvel. Instead, there’s Binary, the alternate version of Captain Marvel assumed by Maria.
Depending on which comic book canon you subscribe to, Binary either is Captain Marvel or a clone of her. She first appeared in an X-Men comic book storyline from the ’80s, in which Carol joins the mutants for a quest in space. A villainous race of parasites capture and experiment on Carol, transforming her into Binary: a superpowered being whose powers draw on the stars. (Read: She is very strong.) An alternate backstory for Binary comes from the recent Captain Marvel comics, where Binary is a super-strong, cosmic clone of Carol, whose photon powers resemble that of Monica Rambeau.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Maria Rambeau assume a Captain Marvel role in the MCU—or a version of her, anyway. In one of the alternate universes featured in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Maria Rambeau appears as Captain Marvel herself. Bringing it all full circle, Maria’s Captain Marvel sits alongside none other than Patrick Stewart’s Professor Charles Xavier as part of a superhero council called the Illuminati.
In a word: Phew! That’s a lot of lore referenced in a relatively short mid-credits scene. Perhaps we’ll see Hank, Binary, and/or Monica in Deadpool 3—but even if we don’t, it’s exciting that The Marvels brings us one more step toward the beloved X-Men team’s onscreen return.
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