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Captain Marvel
Gender	Male
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Origin	City of Rad-Nam on the planet Kree-Lar
First Appearance	Marvel Super-Heroes #18
Creator(s)	Stan Lee and Gene Colan
Alter ego	Mar-Vell
Aliases	Dr. Walter Lawson
Abilities	Enhanced strength of a Kree warrior, further increased with the power of flight by the Nega-Bands, and then by Dr. Savannah’s treatments to absorb solar energy and use it to fly, increase strength even further, and fire force bolts. He also had special knowledge provided by Eon’s “Cosmic Awareness”.
Affiliations	Former Captain in the Kree Military

Captain Marvel, also called Captain Mar-Vell or just Mar-Vell, is a fictional comic book superhero, owned by Marvel Comics. Stan Lee invented a character with that name to ensure they would retain the legal copyright to it after the original Fawcett character's name came up for renewal. Stan Lee's version was an alien spy who develops a sympathy for the humans he is infiltrating and eventually winds up a protector of Earth. His original green and white uniform was actually the military uniform of a soldier, and his "Captain" title was an actual military rank. Slowly, writer Roy Thomas developed the character so that he payed homage the original (see Captain Marvel (DC Comics)) in some fun ways, like the ability of Earth boy Rick Jones to "switch molecules" with him, seeming to transform the way young Billy Batson would magically transform into the original Captain Marvel. Thomas would also give him a unique red and black uniform, with a shooting star or sun on his chest. The character is said to have reached its full potential in the hands of writer and artist Jim Starlin, whose use of Marvel's "cosmic concepts" has enhanced the Marvel Universe mythology in ways that continue to influence the medium today. Since the character Mar-vell’s death, they have assigned the “Captain Marvel” to various other Marvel characters, though Mar-Vell remains the one most fondly remembered and forever associated with the name.

Character Origin and History

Mar-Vell was a member of the Kree, an ancient alien race who had built a vast empire in the galaxy known as the Greater Magellenic Cloud, sometimes merely referred to as the “Kree Galaxy”. The Kree had reached the end of their evolutionary process, and were genetically unable to progress beyond their human state. The Supreme Intelligence, th eruler of the Kree Empire, was interested in Earth, whose race was creating mutants and other super-powered beings, and therefore had the genetic potential that he required hopefully to lift the Kree out of their genetic dead end. He had complex plans to make use of this genetic potential for the Kree race’s benefit. He also wanted to make sure human race did not achieve its full potential, so as to never allow it to rival or supplant the Kree.

Captain Marvel in his original Kree military uniform.

For these reasons and more, a Kree military vessel had been assigned to observe Earth. Captain Mar-Vell’s mission was to spy on Earth and its development. He posed as scientist Dr. Walter Lawson, and infiltrated Caped Canaveral to monitor human development in space travel. On the monitoring ship was his lover, Una, part of the medical staff, and his commander, Yon-Rogg, who lusted after Una and hoped that Mar-Vell would be killed in action. In his guise as Dr. Lawson, Mar-Vell would make a connection with Carol Danvers, head of security on the base. Eventually, Carol would gain powers from a Kree device encountered during a battle between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg, and become the superhero known as Ms. Marvel.

As Mar-Vell spent more time on Earth, he began to sympathize with the human race, and found himself subverting orders from Yon-Rogg that might harm the humans. Eventually, Yon-Rogg caught Mar-Vell disobeying orders, and had him sentenced for execution. The execution was interrupted by an attack of one of the Kree’s enemies, during which Una was killed and Mar-Vell ended up using a missile to escape Earth, ending up on a planet at the outer edge of the Kree Galaxy. He became part of the Kree Imperial Minister’s complex plan to overthrow the Supreme Intelligence. Mar-Vell risked his life to help the Supreme Intelligence thwart this plan, and was honored by him with special uniform and enhanced powers, allowing him to fly through space and hyper-space unprotected.

Upon leaving the home world, Mar-Vell was drawn into the Negative Zone, an anti-matter parallel universe. The Supreme Intelligence arranged for Mar-Vell to attain mental contact with Earth youth Rick Jones, who had been a friend to the Hulk and Captain America. An image of Mar-Vell guided Rick to a secret Kree base on Earth, where Rick found the Kree “Negative Bands” (usually called “Nega-Bands” for short), two powerful metal bracelets that went around his wrists. When he put them on, Rick found he could “switch molecules” with Captain Mar-Vell, and remain in telepathic contact with him at all times while temporarily trading places with him in the Negative Zone. Mar-Vell could stay on Earth for a maximum of three hours before he would have to switch back. The Nega-Bands further enhanced Mar-Vell’s powers. So Rick Jones spent most of his time on Earth, while occasionally switching with the powerful “Captain Marvel” when a superhero was needed. At this point, Rick would be transported to All this turned out to be manipulated by the Supreme Intelligence, who wanted to use the Kree’s link to the human’s to exploit the human potential and increase his own psionic power.

Jim Starlin's graphic novel, where Mar-Vell became the first superhero to die from cancer.

Eventually, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four would use his knowledge of the Negative Zone to free Mar-Vell so that both he and Rick could be together on Earth. . The Supreme Intelligence would eventually tap in to Rick’s human psionic potential to end a war with their inter-stellar rival’s the Skrull empire, in a battle known as the Skrull-Kree War. At the end of this experience, Rick was no longer strong enough to survive without his link to Mar-Vell, so Mar-Vell went back into the Negative Zone to re-new their relationship and save Rick’s life. Rick was still too weak to survive long, but Professor Benjamin Savannah bathed Rick in electro-magnetic radiation, making him strong enough to survive and granting Mar-Vell the additional power of absorbing solar radiation and use it for strength and firing force bolts.

Later, Mar-Vell was involved in a battle with the being Thanos, a powerful alien whose plan was to end all life in the universe. During this battle, Mar-Vell came into contact with an ancient being named Eon, which raised Mar-Vell’s consciousness so that he would reject the war-like ways of his Kree heritage and become the “Protector of the Universe”. Eon granted him the power of “cosmic awareness” to further his ability to do this. With this new perspective and power, Mar-Vell was able to defeat Thanos.

Still later, in a battle with the super-villain Nitro, Mar-Vell was exposed to a nerve gas. He seemed to recover, but the exposure gave him cancer. He would eventually die in bed, surrounded by friends and loved ones.

Other Captain Marvels

The name “Captain Marvel” would be assigned to Avenger Monica Rambeau, the Avenger with light powers eventually known as Photon and then Pulsar. Later, Mar-Vell’s son Genis-Vell, originally called Legacy, would take the name Captain Marvel and use it for some time in his own on-going series. He would later give up the name when the Cosmic Awareness begins to drive him mad. Of late, Mar-Vell's daughter Phylar-Vell has adopted the name Quasar, and taken on her father’s old role as “Protector of the Universe” and wearer of the quantum bands.