Nostalgia Bait: Marvel Announces New Captain Marvel Series With Focus On Her Past As Ms. Marvel

Marvel Comics announced another new Captain Marvel series, with the wrinkle that this one will explore Carol Danvers’ past as Ms. Marvel.

The series, Captain Marvel: Dark Past, is written by Paul Jenkins with art by Lucas Werneck.

An official synopsis from Marvel claims the book will be “an illuminating journey through Carol’s past and present, the saga kicks off when a dark family secret is exposed, forcing Carol to revisit her time as Ms. Marvel. But some memories are better left forgotten, especially when they have the power to threaten the legacy Carol worked so hard to build…”

The company added that this dark family secret is exposed after a group called DNVR aided an attack on New York. With her family secret exposed Carol is “forced to question everything she thought she knew about the Danvers name! Carol suspects that answers lie in an investigation she was forced to drop when she was a journalist, and as lost memories from her past as Ms. Marvel resurface, she’s faced with her toughest battle yet.”

Jenkins commented on the new series, “Captain Marvel is such a great character who has also appeared as Ms. Marvel, Warbird and even Binary. With such a rich and complex past, under the guidance of so many amazing and talented writers, there is a ton of material for me to mine. I hope to bring my brand of characterization and storytelling to this great character, to examine what makes Carol who she is, and perhaps even to bring out a new wrinkle or two."

“I'm very excited to be working on this project,” said Werneck. “First of all, Carol is an incredible and powerful character, with many layers and conflicts, which always presents a good challenge. Also, I'm very excited to be working with Paul Jenkins. The conversations we've had about the comics, the story, and Carol's conflicts for this project have made me very enthusiastic about everything that's to come."

The first issue is expected to arrive some time in April. This new series is the fifth relaunch of Captain America in the last decade.

Back in 2014 Marvel Comics relaunched Captain Marvel with Kelly Sue DeConnick continuing her 2012-2013 run but with a new creative direction. The run ended in 2015.

The character was relaunched again in The Mighty Captain Marvel in 2016 with a series written by Margaret Stohl. It ended shortly after launching in 2017.

The character was then put on hiatus, but was relaunched against in 2019 with a series by Kelly Thompson. It lasted until 2023.

In 2023 Captain Marvel was relaunched against, this time Alyssa Wong writing just 10 issues.

Now, Jenkins will do Captain Marvel: Dark Past that launches in 2026.

Since DeConnick took over the character back in 2012, the character has been associated with feminist lecturing and seen a massive decline in sales.

Clearly, Marvel is attempting to appeal to nostalgia with the Ms. Marvel design and exploring her past in a desperate way to sell the books. However, given the publisher’s past and the current trends of the comic book industry the dark secret of her family will likely be something related to Nazism and she’ll end up denouncing her own family.

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