If there's one character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to make a huge impact from their very beginning, it's Captain Marvel. Brie Larson has honored the comic book roots with the advantage of not being bogged down by adherence to a half-century of continuity. Still, her portrayal honors the source material while diverging from it.
Sometimes the line where it diverges and stays faithful gets blurred as the comics retroactively write history to reflect the success of the MCU. The line gets blurred between the adaptations and the source material. Here are cases where Brie Larson's Captain Marvel is faithful and diverges from the comics.
10 Not Accurate: Knew Monica Rambeau
The inclusion of Monica Rambeau in the Captain Marvel film is more of a nod to the legacy of the Captain Marvel name. Monica Rambeau was a New Orleans Harbor Patrol officer who gained electromagnetic abilities helping to stop a criminal scientist's energy disruptor. She became an Avenger, even once leading the team.
She only had any type of working relationship with Carol Danvers upon forming The Ultimates at Carol's suggestion. She is an absolute powerhouse in the Marvel Universe. With her energy abilities, she has accomplished things like turning her body into a believable hologram, duplicating the properties of neutrinos, and penetrating a force field that stopped the Vision.
9 Accurate: Amnesia
For the bulk of the film, Captain Marvel deals with amnesia about her past. This serves the story well, but it has precedence in the comics. When she first gained her powers, Carol would retain no memory of her time as Ms. Marvel and vice versa.
This instance gives the six years her MCU counterpart spent with no recollection of her past some context. Carol Danvers did have issues with her memory and that doesn't get into the time her memories and powers were stolen by Rogue.
8 Not Accurate: Served The Kree
In the comics, by the time that Carol Danvers encountered the Kree, she had fallen in with the renegade Captain Mar-Vell. She did get her powers from thwarting a Kree weapon. Of course, there are reasons that the film gave her missing time to Kree service.
This builds the premise that the Kree are the heroes in the war against the Skrulls. With the Skrulls historically the villains of the Marvel Universe, it's easy to forget that they only entered the war with the Kree after the Kree slaughtered their delegation and stole their technology.
7 Accurate: Roots in Feminism
In the film, there is a running theme that Carol Danvers has been in a constant battle with misogyny. Her father treats her differently and she's told that she'll never fly in the Air Force, sometimes with crass jokes. Even a biker tells her to smile more.
In the initial Ms. Marvel series, Carol Danvers was the editor of a feminist publication from the Daily Bugle. Her negotiation with J. Jonah Jameson shows her strength of character. While her costume was far from a feminist ideal, the series battled to represent feminism as a positive force for change.
6 Not Accurate: Close Ally of Nick Fury
In her retroactive history, Carol Danvers did work with Nick Fury once to help Logan against several threats that converged on him. This didn't build a close relationship with Fury so much as build a close relationship with Logan.
Of course, the film's use of Nick Fury helps to tie Captain Marvel into the Marvel Cinematic Universe retroactively. It's done well and allows Samuel L. Jackson to play the character a little differently. Before Captain Marvel, fans of the MCU didn't get to see Nick Fury being affectionate with a cat.
5 Accurate: Got Her Powers During A Battle Between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg
While it's staged differently, Carol's powers come from the explosion of Kree technology. In the film, the tech is a faster-than-light drive powered by an Infinity Stone. This change is necessary to keep the existence of super-powers in the Cinematic Universe pretty much in line with its history.
In the comics, the tech is the Psyche-Magnetron. Yon-Rogg planned to use the device to give himself great power. Thwarted by Captain Mar-vell, the Psyche-Magnetron was damaged and gave Carol Danvers the powers she would have as Ms. Marvel, even altering her genetic structure.
4 Not Accurate: Her Call Sign
In the film, Carol Danvers has the call sign "Avenger," which prompts Nick Fury to name his super-hero initiative as such. The reason for this is probably that it helps tie together some loose ends for the Cinematic Universe.
In the comics, her call sign was "Cheeseburger." It was an ignominious nickname that the other pilots gave her after she threw up a burger during flight training. Thankfully, readers didn't get to see this in a flashback.
3 Accurate: The Flerken
If there is one character that steals Captain Marvel's film, it's Goose. Appearing to be a cat, it was let slip by action figure accessories that something was up. Comic fans guessed that the surprise was that Goose was a Flerken, an alien creature introduced in the comics.
Carol Danvers has a pet that appears to be a normal house cat. Given his furry appearance reminding her of Chewbacca, she names him Chewie. It's only later revealed that Chewie is a Flerken, capable of ingesting massive items through may tentacles and teeth kept in an interior pocket dimension.
2 Not Accurate: Pre-dates the Avengers.
In the MCU, Captain Marvel pre-dates the Avengers. Much of this is the convenience of how the films were released. When crafting her story, it helped to place her origin in the 1990s, which allowed for some loose ends to be tied up going into Avengers: Endgame.
In the comics, Carol didn't join the Avengers until many years after their founding. She replaced Scarlet Witch, who took some time off to explore her origins. Carol left for the first time in a rather embarrassing story that made light of her assault by the son of Immortus. She would return years later and even lead the team.
1 Accurate: Binary-Level Powers
Many of the powers that Captain Marvel demonstrates in the films are accurate to her comic book counterpart. The origin of those incredibly impressive powers is a little different.
Carol got new energy-based powers on a trip with the X-Men to the Shi'ar Galaxy. The Brood experimented on her unique genetic structure and bonded her with cosmic forces. She took the name Binary and started adventuring through the universe before returning to Earth eventually resuming her career as Ms. Marvel. Eventually, she would become the Captain Marvel that fans are so familiar with today.