WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Infinity Countdown: Captain Marvel #1 by Jim McCann and Diego Olortegui, in stores now.
In 2016, the heroes of the Marvel Universe were once again split down the middle in a conflict that pitted friend against super-friend. In Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez's Civil War II, Tony Stark and Carol Danvers found themselves standing on opposite sides of an argument that involved a new Inhuman named Ulysses who had the ability to see the future. On one side, Captain Marvel wanted to use this new resource as a pragmatic way to prevent any and all catastrophes or attacks coming their way. On the other side, Iron Man believed that the future was never set in stone, and that people shouldn't be punished or arrested for crimes they might never commit.
This led to many people -- both Marvel's heroes and fans -- siding with Tony Stark, a bit of a surprise after almost everyone had sided with Captain America in the first Civil War. For many readers, the very character of Captain Marvel was lessened in the event, her beliefs and core values reduced in order to facilitate a superhero disagreement. An argument was made equating her actions to racial profiling, and it didn't ring true that someone as strong as Carol, both of body and mind, would make such rash decisions.
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By the end of the event, her actions inadvertently led to the death of the Hulk at Hawkeye's hands, a manhunt for Miles Morales due to a vision that indicated he would kill Captain America, a full-on war between friends, and the near-death of Tony Stark... at Captain Marvel's hands.
Ever since the end of the event, Carol Danvers has been viewed by fans as someone in great need of redemption, so that her character could once again be set on the righteous path she was on before.
In this week's Infinity Countdown: Captain Marvel #1, Carol finally comes face-to-face with her actions in Civil War II. But while she sees and understands the mistakes she made, she isn't exactly asking for forgiveness either.
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In the one-shot, we pick up with Carol after the most recent events of her own solo series. She is back on Earth and in possession of the Reality Stone, a powerful cosmic artifact that allows her to communicate with countless other versions of herself across infinite parallel realities. But as Carol finds herself questioning everything since the end of Civil War II, she takes things further by actually visiting some of these alternate realities.
Throughout her visits, her guide Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel, attempts to steer her on the right path, showing her what was and what could have been. This almost reads like a Marvel Universe twist on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, except here, the ghosts she talks to are herself from other universes, and they show her the different choices they made in important moments of Carol's life.
She sees a world where the second Civil War ended not with Tony in a coma, but Carol instead, who sacrificed herself at the last minute to save Miles Morales. There's another where darkness took her over in House of M, and a reality where she put it all on the line to save Mar-Vell. At every turn, her "spirit" guide tells her it's impossible to make the right decisions every single time. She didn't make the right decisions during Civil War II, and she can't change them, but instead of allowing the choices of the past define her, she instead chooses to go forward, to forge on and make new decisions that will allow her to live up to the mantle of Captain Marvel.
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As the issue comes to a close, it becomes clear that its goal was not to redeem Captain Marvel for her actions. She doesn't try to make up for them, or even ask to be forgiven. Instead, she accepts her failures and her shortcomings. She trusts herself to make the right call going forward, but there is no way to tell for certain. She is human after all.
This isn't exactly the redemption that some fans might have wanted, but the one-shot still addresses the out of character role Carol played in Civil War II. It attempts to start a new chapter in her career, and it's a reminder that Marvel's heroes are as popular and relatable as they are because of their humanity, because of their propensity to question themselves, to doubt and fail, and to, ultimately, rise up above it all.
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