Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers, aka, Brie Larson, and boy did she make right choice in ditch her given name, is Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel is a character formerly known as Ms. Marvel, as there was already someone else with the mantel of Captain Marvel.
The first Captain Marvel was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (December 1967).[4] This character is an alien military officer, Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree Imperial Militia, who is sent to observe the planet Earth as it is developing technology to travel into space. Mar-Vell eventually wearies of his superiors’ malign intent and allies himself with Earth, and the Kree Empire brands him a traitor. From then on, Mar-Vell fights to protect Earth from all threats.
Yup, the first Captain Marvel was Mar-Vell, because Stan Lee is as subtle as a hippo playing hopscotch. A bunch of other stuff happened but the long and short is: someone figured this was a character with a cool name, decent costume, and essentially unlimited powers, that no one really cared about nor would they miss, so let’s just give Cap some titties and move on with life. They did and, honestly, no one gave a shit. You change characters people like, they care; you “update” those no one noticed, and they don’t. There’s a lesson there, somewhere, if you’re looking for one.
Before we go any further, let me quote a bit from Wikipedia so as to get a flavor for just who IS Brie Larson.
Her parents were homeopathic chiropractors who ran a practice together
So she comes from crazy.
Soon after their split, [her mom] relocated to Los Angeles with her two daughters to fulfill Larson’s acting ambition.
Totally normal for a parent to follow a 7 year old’s acting dream. Why, I remember when my parents moved the family to Japan. It was 1990 and I was insistent that my purpose in life was to be a ninja.
In her mom’s defense, Brie did grow up to win an Academy Award for Best Actress before she turned 30. Shocker: I didn’t become a ninja.
She was initially skeptical to take on such a high-profile role but agreed after viewing it as a platform to empower young women.
Let me rewrite that for everyone: She was initially skeptical to take on such a high-profile role but agreed after seeing Robert Downey Jr. throw out his back pushing around his wheelbarrow full of thousand dollar bills he has to deposit every week.
I’m happy as hell this is getting made. I don’t care about “female empowerment” so much as I like that this character – including her sex/gender/whatever – will open up new stories for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can watch the trailer and decide for yourself what you think about Marvel’s offering, but I will note that it is depressing to see Blockbuster Video now only used as a cultural reference point to denote, “This happened a long time ago.” It’s fascinating to see my youth being marketed in a way to play up nostalgia.
I’m getting old and someone out there wants to make money off my aging.
