Summary
- The Marvels trailer confirms that Captain Marvel can absorb energy, explaining how she overpowered Thanos in Avengers: Endgame's final battle.
- The decision to team Captain Marvel up with Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan is meant to address the accusation that she lacks character development due to her powers.
- The reveal of Captain Marvel's energy absorption powers raises questions about their limitations and how they may have affected the outcome of the fight with Thanos.
The second The Marvels trailer's confirmation of MCU superpower canon.
The Marvels will see a different version of Captain Marvel to the supposedly stoic version who briefly returned to Earth to help take down Thanos' army in Endgame. The decision to team her up with two brand-new superheroes in Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan is a precisely designed ploy to interfere with Carol Danvers' usually reserved role as a one-woman intergalactic police force. Having to actually team up with a child as part of her new super-team without choice, and showing Captain Marvel the meaning of family are likely to address the idea that she has limited character development due to her significant powers.
The Marvels Confirms Captain Marvel Can Absorb Energy
The Marvels trailer reveals that Zawe Ashton's new MCU villain Dar-Benn has a bloodthirsty revenge mission to take down Carol Danvers, and ingeniously ties her powers to the "light-based" powers of Ms Marvel and Monica Rambeau to create chaos and weaken Cap in battle. Obviously, that prompts them to team up, and makes something of a mockery of Dar-Benn's plan, given she'll now face three superheroes at once, but it's an interesting in-universe commentary on the idea that Captain Marvel works best alone. And of course, there's a major reveal attached to the villain's plan.
As Teyonah Parris's Monica explains why the three heroes keep swapping places, she introduces the idea that they are all linked by the light-based nature of their superpowers. Kamala Khan can manipulate light into matter, Monica can "see light" (which is clearly not the limit of her powers), and crucially, she says Captain Marvel can absorb light. That's the first in-universe confirmation that Captain Marvel's powers include energy absorption.
How Captain Marvel Really Over-Powered Thanos
Knowing that Captain Marvel can absorb energy - which had been suspected and mentioned in Marvel's accompanying texts but not an actual movie featuring Carol Danvers - explains what happens in Endgame's final battle when she's able to stop Thanos closing the Infinity Gauntlet. Previously, the Gauntlet's powers had been largely unquestionable: it had wiped out half of the universe's existing life, after all, and had almost killed both Thanos and Hulk simply by using it. But Captain Marvel not only stopped Thanos using the Gauntlet, she actually got more powerful while he attempted to grind her down into the ground. Looking back to the scene now, it's obvious that Danver's energy absorption powers kicked in, meaning she could get the upper hand over Thanos.
It was only when Thanos seemed to realize that he needed to change course and removed the Power Stone from the Gauntlet to hit Danvers with directly that he was able to regain control. By taking the Power Stone out of the Gauntlet, Thanos depowered it, taking away Danvers' source of the power boost, and was able to deliver a haymaker that sent her sprawling.
Do Captain Marvel's Powers Create An Endgame Plot-Hole?
The only issue with the reveal that Captain Marvel used her energy absorbing powers against Thanos is that the Power Stone punch should presumably have powered her up, rather than knocking her down. That level of power should be reflected back at the same level, just as Black Panther's Vibranium suit created massive power surges in response to massive power input. The difference, of course, could be in Captain Marvel's free will: if she absorbs all energy, she'd be a walking nuclear bomb who couldn't microwave a burrito for fear of wiping out a few blocks, so it stands to reason that her power absorption would have an off switch.
It's still a little uneven logically to assume she wouldn't have simply used the superpower to mitigate Thanos punching her with the Power Stone, but he did have the element of surprise on his side, and both of Danvers' hands were occupied holding his other gloved fist. There is, therefore, the possibility that Avengers: Endgame's Thanos v Captain Marvel fight does still fit the logic of the superpowered confirmation of The Marvels. It's just a matter of finding out exactly how Captain Marvel's intriguing powers actually work and whether they have a limit.
