The Marvels is here and, with the depressing familiarity of the world’s worst clock, the discourse has come with it. The one element of the lukewarm takes we’ve seen that has some validity is the worry some folks have that this is the first Marvel movie with ‘homework’. Two of its characters were introduced in Marvel TV shows after all, and also Secret Invasion happened. Alasdair Stuart explains…

Fear not, gentle readers! We’ve got you covered. Below you’ll find two lists. The first is everything that ties into The Marvels with a very short assessment of whether you need to see it. The second is a little more detail on where everyone is at the start of the movie. For all their recent wobbles, Marvel is really good at bringing folks up to speed so you can, we’re sure, go in cold. But just in case you want the info, and to feel empowered about where to go next, we’ve got you covered.

The Road To The Marvels

Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers shows up here. It’s great fun, you should see it.

Avengers: Endgame: Carol headbutts Thanos which is a good time but you don’t need to see Endgame to get The Marvels.

WandaVision: One of the most creatively brave MCU shows. Worth your time. Monica is introduced and gets her powers here but that’s literally the only thing you need to know.

Ms. Marvel: The BEST time. Introduces Kamala Khan to the MCU, is visually inventive, very funny and sweet as hell. Again though, this isn’t essential. You’ll get as much from it watching it after The Marvels as before.

Spider-Man: Far From Home: All the Holland Spider-Man movies are fun. This might be my favourite. There’s a very light Skrull moment. Tremendous fun. Non-essential for The Marvels.

Secret Invasion: Carol and Nick Fury fail to find the Skrulls a new planet for three decades. This show is our punishment. A plodding waste of its cast and the only thing you need to know is Fury knows some Skrulls and they’re mad at him and us.

The Key Characters

Carol Danvers

Captain Marvel herself. A USAF test pilot who was caught up in a war between the Kree and Skrull alien races. Danvers was part of a project run by a renegade Kree scientist in disguise on Earth who was trying to help the Skrulls find a new world. Carol attempted to protect her, was injured in the ensuing fight and lost her memory. She was taken by the Kree, given a new identity as one of their soldiers and had almost no memory of her time on Earth before a mission took her back there in 1995. There she met a young Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, regained her memory and discovered she was on the wrong side of the war. She also bonded with her former squadron mate and best friend Maria Rambeau who had thought she was dead, and Maria’s young daughter Monica, who she nicknamed ‘Lt. Trouble.’ Carol left with the Skrulls to help them find a new world along with her cat, Goose, actually an alien called a Flerken. Despite this happening in 1995, she and Fury had singularly failed to do so by 2023, meaning that Secret Invasion happened.

Kamala Khan

The MCU’s puppy in human form. Kamala Khan is a teenager from a Pakistani Muslim family in New Jersey. She is also the single largest Avengers fan on the planet. Completing a cosplay with the bangle she was sent by her aunt Sana, she inadvertently activated her own superpowers. Ms Marvel, which is a tremendously good time, followed her getting used to her new life, discovering the bangle is closely tied to her family’s evacuation from Karachi and is incredibly powerful, including granting the ability to travel through time. Weirdest of all, Kamala discovers the bangle activated her power but aren’t the source of it. In one of the best scenes in the series, her best friend Bruno reveals that she has a mutated gene that’s the source of her powers. Then this plays and every X-Men fan who has seen the cartoon cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtfFSaVAvO4

The bangle seems pivotal to The Marvels. The villain, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) has a very similar looking one that may be the pair to Kamala’s own bangle. That in turn appears central to why Carol, Kamala and Monica keep swapping places.

Monica Rambeau

Maria founded SWORD (Sentient World Observation and Response Department) after Carol’s 1995 return to Earth and led them until her death. Monica also served in the organisation and, as a Captain in SWORD, was sent to investigate the small town of Westview. This was where Wanda Maximoff had fled with the dead body of her husband, Vision and had been manipulated into creating a shifting reality for them based on different decades of sitcoms. In puncturing that bubble and becoming part of the new reality, Monica gained energy based powers.

Monica has not had an easy life. She is, justifiably, angry at her Aunt Carol for not being there when her mom died. She’s also adjusting to the events of the Blip, and was one of the half of the universe’s population snapped into non-existence by Thanos.

Nick Fury

Former head of SHIELD, current head of SABER. Named the Avengers Initiative after Carol’s callsign, ‘Avenger’. Is weirdly terrible at his job as, like Carol, he’s had three decades to find the Skrulls a home and hasn’t. That being said he did marry a Skrull and seems to be employing a Skrull crew of sorts on SABER, the ‘aerospace defence system’ he’s building. Monica works for him at the start of the movie.

The Kree

Super militaristic space fascists. Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy was a Kree and they’ve made appearances in those movies, Agents of SHIELD, Captain Marvel and Secret Invasion.

The Skrulls

Shape changing aliens who thrive on radiation and were victims of the Kree Empire. Danvers and Fury’s abject failure to secure them a home led to an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers style cold war with dissident Skrulls depicted in Secret Invasion. You don’t need to watch Secret Invasion. Please don’t.

So there you go. The Marvels is out now and if you liked it, or want to know more, you’ve got some good places to start.