A Brief History of Captain Marvel's Amnesia

Based on what we’ve seen in the new Captain Marvel trailer, the first Marvel female superhero to headline her own film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be suffering from a bout of amnesia. In the trailer, Carol Danvers says, “I keep having these memories; I see flashes. I think I had a life here, but I can’t tell if it’s real.”

The viewer then gets a glimpse of those flashes. We see snippets of her childhood and the time she spent training to be a pilot, which are important elements of her backstory. However, Carol losing her memories is not unique to the upcoming film. There is, in fact, a history of Marvel Comics messing with Carol’s mind, going all the way back to her first solo series, Ms. Marvel, in 1977.

Ms. Marvel (1977)

The 1977 comics established that Carol’s dual physiologies -- Kree and human -- did not work in harmony at first. These sides would fight for control over Carol’s body, leading her to black out and not remember her actions as Ms. Marvel. For Carol, this is a cause of concern, especially when, in one instance, she wakes up in her apartment having no recollection of how she got there.

Ms. Marvel #2 gives new readers who may not have followed Mar-Vell’s comics the Ms. Marvel origin story. In the issue, Carol seeks a psychiatrist’s help. Doctor Michael Barnett puts her under hypnosis to suss out what’s causing her blackouts. Carol relives Mar-Vell trying to save her from the Psyche-Magnitron explosion, only to see they are both flooded with the device's radiation. This is how Carol got her powers: Mar-Vell’s Kree DNA affected Carol’s genetic structure, giving her Kree powers.

Doctor Barnett witnesses firsthand Carol fainting and turning into Ms. Marvel, and it’s not a peaceful process. Carol is initially scared and reluctant to let the Ms. Marvel identity take over. Later on, Barnett recommends giving up her Ms. Marvel identity, but Carol refuses -- she doesn’t think she could stop Ms. Marvel even if she wanted to. It takes 13 issues for Carol to fully reconcile her identity as both Carol Danvers and Ms. Marvel.

In Ms. Marvel #13, Carol fights Hecate, Queen of the Witches. Ms. Marvel knows that, by choosing to fight Hecate, she’s dooming Carol’s best friend to death, since she can’t be in two places at once. In a rage, Carol takes over. She lifts a boulder, something that only Ms. Marvel can do. Hecate points this out to her, and the person Carol’s fighting becomes the person who helps her consolidate her identity.

At the end of the day, the sisterhood between two powerful women, a Kree warrior and a Witch Queen, is what allows the warring sides of Carol’s brain to come together. Witch characters are, by and large, considered feminist symbols. Considering the time period in which this comic was written -- with the Women’s Liberation Movement fully underway -- it is wholly appropriate that one feminist symbol would help out another. Yet, this would not be the last time that Carol would lose her memories.

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Avengers Annual

Just a few years later, Ms. Marvel loses her memories again, this time through a fight with Rogue. 1981’s Avengers Annual #10 established Rogue as a villain, not the hero some of us grew up watching on X-Men: The Animated Series. Rogue misjudges how long this fight would take and how powerful Ms. Marvel is. Consequently, Rogue absorbs both Carol’s powers and her memories. Oh, and she also tosses her off the Golden Gate Bridge.

With Charles Xavier’s help, Carol is able to recover her memories, but she has no emotional connection to them. This is understandably frustrating for Carol. She decides to stay with the X-Men for a while, feeling betrayed by the Avengers, who failed to protect her. Though she had no powers and was left with emotionally empty memories, she found a home helping the X-Men by using her piloting and fighting skills. Unfortunately, this feeling of belonging doesn’t last long. Like what happened with the Avengers, Carol inevitably feels betrayed by the X-Men when they recruit Rogue.

The '80s and '90s were dark times for Carol Danvers. She jumped from identity to identity (Binary to Warbird) and joined and rejoined different teams -- the X-Men, the Starjammers and then back to the Avengers. Carol had nothing to ground her and, as a result, she constantly took to the skies. She also took to the bottle, as she suffered from alcoholism.

Captain Marvel

Kelly Sue DeConnick reintroduced Carol Danvers to the world as Captain Marvel in her 2012 solo series. Captain Marvel #1 shows Carol struggling to take the name of her former friend and brief love interest, but she does so at the urging of Captain America.

In this run, Carol begins suffering from headaches, wooziness and overall weakened powers. After running some tests, her doctor tells her that there’s a Kree structure in her brain that activates when she uses her powers. This puts her at risk for a brain hemorrhage. While her Kree DNA would heal her brain post-hemorrhage, she would lose her memory. Meaning, every time Carol uses her powers, she risks losing everything that makes her Carol.

Carol Danvers will always try to save people, even if it poses a huge risk for herself. At the end of Captain Marvel #14, Carol flies into space to save everyone. Sadly, her doctor's warning comes true: Carol loses years of memories. She had no time to process this, though, because she was immediately thrust into the Infinity events. The Builders posed a much more present danger than her amnesia.

Ultimately, the loss of her memories makes Captain Marvel a more efficient hero. Carol’s decision-making is faster in the Infinity event tie-ins because there are no emotions, such as when her best friend Jessica Drew was in danger. However, we have to question if this is worth losing what makes her human.

Based on Carol’s history, the Captain Marvel film could set up her Kree side and human side to “fight” each other in the wake of her amnesia. If so, it will be interesting to see how the MCU will reconcile these two significant and inseparable parts of Carol Danvers' identity.