Captain Marvel Costumes Through the Years

With the release of the first photo of Brie Larson in costume in the upcoming Captain Marvel film (it was a candid set photo, so we don't know for sure what the context of the costume will be), it made us think about the many different looks (and identities) of Carol Danvers (and Captain Marvel) in Marvel Comics history. So let's take a look at the evolution of Carol's looks over the years to put any costume she ends up with in the film in the proper context.

Hoenstly, Carol Danvers did not exactly have the most impressive debut. She showed up in the second appearance of the Mar-Vell version of Captain Marvel, in 1967's Marvel Super-Heroes #13, as the head of security for the military base that Mar-Vell worked at under his secret identity of Walter Lawson...

For a head of security, it's probably not great that she doesn't know that one of her main scientist's identity has been taken over by an alien who is secretly here to evaluate whether Earth should be invaded by the Kree. To be fair, she at least did object to a civilian scientist being there period.

From that same issue, here's the original costume that the alien, Captain Mar-Vell, used on Earth. It is literally just his Kree military outfit, adapted to serve as a superhero costume as he can't keep himself from helping humans while he is here on Earth (even though he knows he might have to attack humans later on if the Kree empire decides to invade)...

Eventually, Mar-Vell grows sick of the Kree Empire and decides that no matter what, he will stand with Earth. By this time, of course, Carol has figured out that Captain Marvel might not be here for good reasons, but she can't prove her suspicions. Meanwhile, Mar-Vell gets banished to the Negative Zone as a punishment by the Kree's Supreme Intelligence. Roy Thomas and Gil Kane used this opportunity to dramatically alter the Captain Marvel comic book series. Now, Mar-Vell has these powerful Nega Bands that, when clicked together, switch places between Mar-Vell and Rick Jones (with one of them stuck in the Negative Zone while the other is doing their thing on Earth). Kane came up with a new costume for Captain Marvel, a much brighter and snazzier look...

Thomas wrapped up some of the outstanding Kree invasion plots the next issue by having Mar-Vell take on Yon-Rogg, his villainous former comrade. Yon-Rogg built a machine called the Psyche-Magnitron and it explodes with Carol Danvers present...

While there were no hints at the time in that 1969 story, seven years later we learn that, oh yeah, by the way, Carol gained powers in that explosion! You see, the Psyche-Magnitron exploding ended up sort of merging Mar-Vell's alien physiology with Carol, giving her the same Kree powers as Mar-Vell. So she debuted as her own superhero in 1976's Ms. Marvel #1! The great John Romita adapted Mar-Vell's Kane-designed costume into a female version of the costume...

As you can see, however, the costume had some major issues, specifically the fact that the odd cut of her top would never work as any sort of practical outfit, as it would clearly always open up whenever she moved (Dave Cockrum complained about the costume to Marvel editorial by drawing what he thought would happen in real life with that costume - it was very much an X-rated drawing).

Marvel went with Cockrum's idea and he introduced a new design of the costume that essentially only changed one aspect of the costume - giving her a full top....

Cockrum, however, was far from finished with Carol's costume...

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After Dave Cockrum left X-Men, he briefly re-teamed up with his X-Men collaborator, Chris Claremont, as the new creative team on Ms. Marvel. In his first issue, Cockrum re-designed Carol's costume, giving her the costume that she would be most identified with for decades in Ms. Marvel #20...

The comic famously opened with Carol admiring her new costume which, of course, like all great Dave Cockrum costumes of the era, came with a sash...

Soon after, Ms. Marvel ended, but Carol's adventures continued as part of the Avengers. She was then written out of that title, as well, in a controversial issue where she was mentally manipulated by a powerful being from another dimension into leaving our dimension to go live with him. The Avengers foolishly believed that they were in love and agreed to let them go. When it all ended up wrong, Carol returned to Earth. Sadly, soon after she got back, she was assaulted by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, whose newest member, Rogue, absorbed all of Carol's powers and most of Carol's personality, as well!

A devastated Carol took refuge with the X-Men, where her old friend, Logan, was now a member of the team. She worked with them for a while in her capacity as member of the Air Force and even confronted Rogue again...

Carol was with the X-Men when they were abducted by Earth by the Brood. While there, Carol discovered that she had new superpoweres - energy-based ones that led to a new costume, again designed by Cockrum (who had returned to become the artist on Uncanny X-Men again)...

She took on the new superhero name Binary and began to serve with the Starjammers for a number of years.

Eventually, she returned to Earth to try to reconnect with her family. Along the way, her Binary powers reduced in scope, leaving her still very powerful but not to the same extent as she was before. She would not even be able to turn into her Binary form any more. So Carol decided to return to her previous Ms. Marvel costume...

She then re-joined the Avengers, now calling herself Warbird...

This stint with the Avengers opened up poorly (she was briefly kicked off of the team for hiding the fact that she had become an alcoholic and was drinking while on duty), but she soon redeemed herself and ended up having a distinguished tenure with the team.

Towards the end of her run as part of the team, she was given a brand-new costume by artist Olivier Coipel as part of his stint as the new Avengers artist (back during Geoff Johns' run on the book)...

That would be it for Carol as part of the Avengers before they rebooted the team into the New Avengers.

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During the House of M, when the Scarlet Witch gave her friends ostensibly their fondest wish, Carol's wish was surprisingly to become the most popular superhero in the world, which she was, using her old Ms. Marvel costume...

When the House of M altered reality was fixed, the heroes involved remembered that other reality and Carol was inspired by that world to become the best superhero that she could in this reality. She took back the Ms. Marvel name and re-joined the Avengers.

She got her own series (which lasted for 50 issues)...

and even led her own team of Avengers...

Now that she was firmly established as one of the elite superheroes in the Marvel Universe, Carol ultimately agreed with Captain America that it was probably time to make the next step and take on the now-vacant superhero name, Captain Marvel.

She took on a more militaristic version of the Gil Kane Captain Marvel costume, designed by Jamie McKelvie...

The costume came with a special helmet that let her fly in outer space...

The McKelvie costume has basically been her costume that she has used since 2012, with a few subtle changes (for one, she doesn't really use the helmet anymore, even when flying in outer space and for another, her sash/belt has underwent some mild alterations along the way).

At first glance, the movie costume that we have seen (which we don't know what it will look like in the film itself or what point in her career that costume is meant to be worn for) looks like a mix between Mar-Vell's original costume and Carol's current costume, but only time will tell precisely how Carol's many superhero costumes will be translated to the silver screen.