Comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick: "Captain Marvel will be in my obituary"

Fans of Marvel and DC comics will be familiar with the complications that surround the character Captain Marvel. For a long while, Captain Marvel was the name of the hero Shazam, but due to one reason and another it was renamed into the acronym hero that routinely tussles with Black Adam we know today. This left the Captain Marvel name available and eventually filled by Carol Danvers, who was previously known as Ms. Marvel.

This genius promotion that feels so fitting now was the brainchild of writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, who decided in a reboot of Carol Danvers' story in 2012 that she should inherit the Captain Marvel namesake in part to honour the death of the original Kree-based hero Mar-Vell, which in turn left the Ms. Marvel moniker to be filled by the effervescent Kamala Khan.

This change and rebranding was a fantastic idea that basically reshaped how we look at the Marvel-based superheroes names, and it led to the creation of Captain Marvel and The Marvels films and the television series Ms. Marvel too.

As part of the recent San Diego Comic Con Malaga, we had the absolute pleasure of getting to speak with DeConnick, where we had to ask about Captain Marvel and how she went about rebranding the character.

"Yeah, I think, I mean, for me, no matter what I do for the rest of my career, Captain Marvel will be in my obituary," DeConnick began. "I think it is, I am very, a long time from now, a very long time from now. But it's something I'm really proud of, and really grateful to have been given the opportunity to be in that moment, and to see it from so close up. And to have worked with the phenomenal teams and editors and artists who helped make that book happen. And then in terms of what that has done. In some ways, I think it gets too much credit, and in some ways, I don't think it gets enough. Like, I think it's interesting, people think the book sold better than it did at the time. It didn't. You know, I was there. We were barely keeping alive. But what it did do, was it invited a lot of women who had maybe tried comics and given up, or not ever really found their way in. It was like, oh, if you want to be part of this sort of superhero part of comics, you are welcome here, and here are some stories that will center your experience. And then, to have that go on and be a Marvel movie that made a billion dollars."

DeConnick then talked about the creation of the Marvel movies and what it was like teaming up with Marvel Studios and Brie Larson to bring the rebranded Captain Marvel into a live-action format.

"I worked on both films, Captain Marvel and The Marvels. I had a tremendous, wonderful experience with Marvel Studios. Brie Larson was incredible, and the directors on both films, absolutely incredible. But I have to say Mary Livanos, the producer from Marvel, who I worked with on both of those films, is just a very quiet superhero who is really making things happen. She's a smart, smart lady, very savvy, really understands comics, really does the work, and she's got a real good sense of humor about the whole thing, too.

"But, yeah, to have a whole generation of young women be able to see themselves as heroes, and a whole generation of young men to see a woman carrying that role. We were talking about this earlier today, too, one of my favorite things about Carol is she's not perfect, right? You don't have to be an anti-hero to be like an imperfect, you know?

"Like I love Black Widow, but Black Widow is such a, from my perspective, that's such a male fantasy, you know? And Carol is just, it's like, you know, when Black Widow lands in the superhero tripod pose and she flips her hair back, she looks like Rita Hayworth, you know? Yes, and it's perfect. And, like, there's nothing wrong with that. It's only wrong when that's all we have, right? And so to be able to then see Carol, who tries to do the same thing, and it's like, you know? Like, oh, that's my lived experience, right? And I love that. And I love that it's like, yeah, no, we're all doing our best. And you can do this too. I think that's really important."

On the topic of portraying more authentic female superheroes, be sure to check out the extended interview with DeConnick below, where she also teased what the future will hold for her...