WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Captain Marvel, now in theaters.


In stories where someone has lost a significant portion of their memories, it often falls to their significant other to help them remember who they are. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this responsibility has been, up until this point, most famously shouldered by Steve Rogers in helping Bucky Barnes recover his memories. In that relationship and others, the MCU films have done a good job showing us different types of relationships: best friend love, romantic love, familial love, etc.

Yet, these relationships are dominated by male characters. Women do play a role as love interests or in family dynamics, but the MCU is sorely lacking in depictions of female friendship. Captain Marvel is a groundbreaking film in many ways, including how it finally gives the MCU movies an authentic female friendship dynamic. After all, the love between Carol and her best friend Maria Rambeau is the one that matters most in this film.

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Notable MCU Friendships So Far

The MCU friendship that’s gotten the most attention (and the most amount of ships) is the one between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Steve was the key to unlocking Bucky’s memories amidst all the memory wipes and brainwashing Bucky endured as the Winter Soldier. Captain America: The First Avenger sets up their friendship well, with Bucky acting as Steve’s protector and having a natural banter with him: “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” “How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Bucky refuses to leave Steve even as a building falls down in flames around him. Plus, he always tried to find him a date. That’s a good friend.

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The closest we’ve come to a real friendship between two women in the Marvel films is Darcy Lewis and Jane Foster from the Thor franchise. Darcy began as Jane’s intern, but she is definitely concerned for Jane when Thor leaves; she sticks around to help Jane in the aftermath. In Thor: The Dark World, Darcy applauds Jane when she actually puts on “lady clothes” to go on a date. However, we don’t see much of Jane caring for Darcy in the same way. (To be fair, she was busy trying to find an Asgardian.) While they’re not really best friends, Darcy and Jane were at least good friends. Unfortunately, they were booted from the Thor franchise before this friendship could grow any further.

More recently, in 2018’s Black Panther, Nakia and Okoye fought together and had a sincere conversation about loyalty. Nevertheless, there’s not much evidence to prove that they are best friends. When it comes to being a best friend, it should be obvious; almost everyone knows what it’s like to share that closeness with someone. And honestly, this type of relationship between two women can’t be fleshed out properly when women got only 10% of screen time in the MCU’s first decade.

NEXT PAGE: Monica's Critical Role in the Film

Carol and the Rambeaus

Brie-Larson-and-Maria-Rambeau-as-pilots-walking-in-Captain-Marvel

It is altogether fitting, then, that the MCU’s first set of female best friends debuts in its first film headlining a female superhero. Carol struggles with her identity throughout the movie. When she arrives on Earth in 1995, she only remembers fragments of her time there. She denies that those pieces of her memories are even hers after the Skrulls infiltrated her mind. The only person who helps her accept and consolidate her identity is her best friend Maria.

Unlike female friendships in the MCU’s past, Carol and Maria entered their relationship as equals. They trained together, did drunken karaoke together and took on the patriarchy of the Air Force together. They signed up for Wendy "Mar-Vell" Lawson’s mission together because it gave them a chance to do something meaningful, since the Air Force didn't allow women in combat yet. This is a dynamic that a lot of women can recognize: you and your best friend doing something in spite of people saying you can't because you’re girls. That kind of partner is just as important as a romantic one — one that will be there in the trenches with you as you experience and fight back against gender discrimination.

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During that time in the Air Force, Maria and her daughter Monica took in Carol as part of their family. This is another recognizable aspect of best friendship, where you become each other’s family. It’s something that we promise each other when we’re young, but it actually does happen: we become aunties to our best friend’s kids, like how Monica calls Carol “Auntie Carol.” When Carol disappears, Monica is the one who holds onto Carol’s possessions. Monica is also the one who goes through the box with Carol to jump-start her memories.

NEXT PAGE: How Monica Sets Captain Marvel Apart

A First in Many Ways

Though it takes a while for the film to get to her, Maria is arguably the most important character in Captain Marvel. Even before she lost her memories, Carol would be lost without her. The black box with the recording of the crash helps Carol piece together what happened, but her identity put back together more by Maria. Maria reminds Carol of who she is -- “smart, funny and a pain in the ass” -- and tells her that she was powerful before she had “supercharged fire hands.” Her encouragement is what prepares her for the big fight ahead, where Carol also discovers she can fly.

There’s even a call back to their conversation when Carol confronts the Supreme Intelligence about the lies. When Carol says, in a powerful moment, “My name is Carol,” it echoes when Maria asserted, “You are Carol.” It reminds us of the pep talk our best friends give us when we lose self-confidence. Sometimes, our best friends know us better than we know ourselves. And in Carol’s case, this was literally true.

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Unlike the other solo superhero films, Captain Marvel doesn’t have a love interest, so it’s clear that the love in this film is meant to be showcased through the studio’s first depiction of close female friendship. While it’s frustrating that it took so long for this to be represented in the MCU films, it set Captain Marvel apart from the other MCU heroes.

Carol does not need to be involved romantically with someone for her to experience love. She does not need to be involved romantically with someone to have an interesting story. There was plenty for her to do in the film and plenty of issues for her to work through -- and she had a best friend to help her along the way.


Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck from a script they wrote with Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch, Meg LeFauve, Nicole Perlman and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jude Law as the commander of Starforce, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, Algenis Perez Soto as Att-Lass, McKenna Grace as a young Carol Danvers and Annette Bening as Mar-Vell/the Supreme Intelligence.