Captain Marvel: Being Super by Being Human (Spoilers)

This past weekend, I saw the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe creation, Captain Marvel. It has been doing well in the box office both nationally and internationally, and it has also received attention for having a female character as the title heroine, similar to DC’s blockbuster success Wonder Woman a few years ago. I saw Captain Marvel for two reasons: 1) I am a sucker for superhero movies and am likely to see any one unless I hear that it’s horrible 2) I wanted to see how Captain Marvel would fit into one of the most anticipated films of the year, Avengers: Endgame. Although these were my express purposes in seeing the movie, I was pleasantly surprised that the movie exuded some fruitful themes for reflection regarding human nature.

                Unlike most superhero origin stories, we first meet the title heroine (Brie Larson) not in her secret identity but in her super alter ego, insofar as she is already seen to have powers. She goes by the name of Vers (pronounced “Veers”) and is a warrior of the Kree, an alien race in almost constant warfare with another shape-shifting alien race called the Skrulls. During her training session with Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), it is shown that Vers can shoot powerfully destructive photon blasts from her hands, which is not something that every Kree can do. In this same training session, Yon-Rogg reminds Vers that she needs to control her emotions to not be overtaken in battle. It seems like sane advice; after all, if one becomes too impassioned with anger in the midst of a fight, one can lose the focus he or she needs to defeat one’s opponent. However, this ban against emotion is shown in the wider context of the Kree ethos, which places heavy emphasis on the good of the state over and above the individual. In fact, the individual Kree is meant to see his or herself as a simple extension of the Kree Intelligence and be willing to sacrifice everything for it. Again, love for one’s country and seeking the common good of the society are good and noble things, but in the course of the film, the Kree civilization is revealed as more of a totalitarian state than anything, where individuals are unquestioningly assumed into an ultimately imperial ideology.

                Because Vers’s reality is basically ideological, we, as the audience, do not really know who she is for the first half of the movie. Besides her cool photon hands, she could really be anyone else from the Kree civilization for all intents and purposes. However, Vers herself is not content with this state of affairs, and after she arrives on Earth, her search for her true identity and history becomes more intense and intentional. After searching a highly secure military facility with Nick Fury (a necessary plot device for any sci-fi movie), she finds a photo of herself as an Air Force pilot that puts her in contact with one of her best friends from her past life. To make a long story short, Vers actually remembers her former life as Carol Danvers and comes to terms with the fact that she had been kidnapped and indoctrinated by the Kree.

                The hermeneutical key for this film comes toward the end when Carol has been captured by Yon-Rogg and his companions. She is held captive by the Kree Intelligence, who taunts her by saying that Carol’s powers are theirs to take away. The Intelligence also shows memories of Carol’s past childhood and adulthood where she was physically hurt, using those memories to mock Carol as weak. However, in that same moment, Carol sees the rest of each memory where she got up again after falling down, and this provides her escape from the Intelligence’s grasp and access to the full potential of her superhuman abilities. In fact, Carol’s true abilities are powerful enough to take down a Kree warship and fly through space at hyper speed, revealing her to be one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe (and likely a major player in Avengers: Endgame).

                This was probably an unnecessarily lengthy synopsis to get to the point I would like to make. I think one of the strengths of Captain Marvel is that it teaches us that realizing our full potential does not come from suppressing our humanity, but accepting it. The things that Carol was suppressing from ideological indoctrination (e.g. properly ordered emotions, memory, and individuality) are constitutive of what it means to be human as God made us. In the film, it is not explained why Carol suddenly receives the fullness of her powers after she accepts her humanity, but I also think that it does not need to. It seems to be a fact of experience that accepting that I am human is the condition for realizing my full potential. I must take into account my existence as body and soul to strive for anything. If I attempt to deny or go beyond anything that is part and parcel of being human (not concupiscence and disordered desires), then I simultaneously deny the goodness of Creation and the design of Redemption. God not only created us good, but in assuming a perfect human nature in Jesus Christ, He shows us that only in being fully human, as Jesus is fully human, can we receive the divine life of salvation. The Eternal Son of God, in willingly and fully taking human nature to Himself and offering Himself to the Father, becomes the locus of salvation for the whole world. In other words, through His Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection, the sacred Humanity of Jesus is the unique, unsurpassable Way by which God communicates Himself to humanity, and humanity to God. All of the above would not have been possible had the Son not accepted human nature fully.

                Carol Danvers became Captain Marvel by accepting herself as human. Jesus Christ is where divinity and humanity meet. What will happen if you and I accept being human and become who we were created to be?