Major Marvel crossovers continue to be set up as we get deeper into Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Marvels is pretty much its own contained adventure with Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) teaming up with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) to save the galaxy, but that all changes right at the end of the film. In two post-credits scenes, we get a pair of game-changing revelations that answer the fandom’s questions about when we might be seeing two highly anticipated crossovers. One of them even had an extra surprise wrapped inside one of the reveals we’ve all been expecting for a while.
Spoiler warning ahead, of course.
Ms. Marvel and the Young Avengers Initiative
At the end of the film, we pick up with Kamala—armed with Nick Fury’s not-an-iPad filled with every hero’s totally not-info-collected-under-surveillance files—as she sits in Kate Bishop’s apartment. And we’re really relieved that she didn’t get an arrow through the chest, but we’ll leave that to Lucky the Pizza Dog knowing Kamala was safe.
Kate (Hailee Steinfeld) and Kamala meet and it’s everything because Steinfeld and Vellani have immediate chemistry. It’s such a joyful moment to see Kamala be the Fury as she makes her Young Avengers recruitment speech, while Steinfeld brings Bishop’s deadpan responses to the table. We bet internally Vellani was fangirling so hard at channeling Sam Jackson’s vibe asking Bishop to join her initiative and name dropping Ant-Man’s daughter. Seeing the beginning of this wonderful friendship makes us look forward to who’s next on the docket to reach out to—perhaps America Chavez?
Monica Rambeau in the OG X-Men Fox Universe
After Monica becomes trapped in a parallel universe, the post-credits scene picks up on her waking up in a lab, except it’s not just any lab: it’s a lab in the X-Men compound in what seems to be the X-Men universe. She wakes up with Beast (Kelsey Grammer) informing her she’s recovering from her fall, and none other than Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) by her side.
Seeing Lynch was the surprise wrapped inside the confirmation that yes, we’re dipping into the X-Men universe we know to continue to expand their presence in the MCU. But Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel was a revelation. When we sped up time and lost her to age and cancer as explored in WandaVision and The Marvels, we were bummed to not have been able to get her back. Thankfully, as Monica is freaking out that her mom is alive and looking really young, Maria reveals she’s not her mother.
Okay, so who is she then? is quickly answered as she stands up to reveal her identity as Binary wearing that universe’s Quantum bangles!
For Marvel fans, this was a no-brainer. Carol Danvers was involved with the X-Men in the comics for a while as Binary, her cosmic identity form from the ‘80s and ‘90s after she’d been depowered and came into contact with the Brood, which ran experiments on her to make her powerful. So instead of Carol becoming Binary, Maria in the X-Men universe steps into that role—probably after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. With eyes that glow white, similar to Monica’s, we get a really cool moment where Maria shows off a bit of her power, which in the comics is the ability to tap into the power of white holes to fuel her energy attacks. It’s so exciting to see Lynch return and set up how Maria and Monica will likely come into play in Deadpool 3 and Avengers: Secret Wars bringing the mutants into the MCU.
The Marvels is out in theaters now.
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