The Insane Captain Marvel Who Almost Destroyed Everything
If you only know the MCU version of Captain Marvel, then you don’t know Captain Marvel. The title of “Captain Marvel” has been held by no less than seven different characters in the Marvel universe (and at least one over at DC, but that’s another story), with Carol Danvers, the most famous incarnation of the character, being only the most recent person to use the name. Of all the Captain Marvels, however, only one has ever been directly linked to the end of the universe as we know it—twice!—and that’s the less-than-mentally stable Genis-Vell.
In order to talk about Genis-Vell, we first have to address the most important character in Marvel Comics, who never made a single solitary appearance in the MCU, Rick Jones. Rick Jones was introduced in 1962’s The Incredible Hulk #1 as the stupid kid joy-riding in the desert right before the gamma bomb test that transforms Bruce Banner into the Hulk.
For someone who’s technically the catalyst for the creation of one of Marvel’s most famous characters, it’s kind of weird that most Marvel fans under 40 have never heard of him.
Mar-Vell’s lover Elysius, heartbroken over the death of her boyfriend, takes some of Mar-Vell’s “genetic material” and uses Titan science to help her conceive a child – Genes-Vell.
Jones was the Hulk’s sidekick for a while before tagging along with Captain America for a spell and then eventually becoming a superhero himself…sort of. Rick Jones finds a pair of special bracelets called Nega-Bands that allow him to swap atoms with the original Captain Marvel—a Kree superhero with the super original name of Mar-Vell—who has been imprisoned in the Negative Zone because, comics. Eventually, Mar-Vell died, and Rick Jones passed on the mantle of Captain Marvel to Monica Rambeau, starting a trend that would happen five more times.
One of those times, the Nega-Bands found their way back to Rick Jones, bonding him to the son of Mar-Vell, Genis-Vell, and making them the third incarnation of Captain Marvel. Genis-Vell’s origin is crazy, even for comic books.
Mar-Vell’s lover Elysius, heartbroken over the death of her boyfriend, takes some of Mar-Vell’s “genetic material” and uses Titan science to help her conceive a child. Genis-Vell just might be the only superhero conceived through artificial insemination—although, knowing comics, probably not. Still, it’s definitely not a very common superhero origin, to say the least.
Genis-Vell was artificially aged up by his mom, given his dad’s magic bracelets, and basically told to go off and make a life for himself as a superhero. At some point, Genis becomes unwittingly linked to Rick Jones like his dad was, and the two go on to fight evil as Captain Marvel. For a while, at least until Genis-Vell had an existential breakdown and went insane.
Genis-Vell’s Cosmic Awareness
Genis-Vell’s genetics came with a power called cosmic awareness. It’s basically the ability to know what’s going on everywhere, at everybody at once. The power becomes too much for Genis, and after struggling mentally over who to help and who to let die, the hero eventually falls into a catatonic state.
The Punisher of all people is the one who helps Genis-Vell snap out of his funk by teaching him ‘discipline’ and ‘single-mindedness’—which for the Punisher means unapologetically killing everyone you dub “bad” with no sense of nuance or context.
Eventually, Genis discovers that a cosmic being named Entropy was the one driving him insane, hoping that the new Captain Marvel would help him destroy the universe because he was getting “bored” waiting for it to die.
Considering just how insane Captain Marvell III’s life is, it’s no wonder he’s never been introduced into the more grounded MCU. In fact, there’s a good chance that Genis-Vell will never make his way onto the big screen unless it’s as a quick multiversal cameo.
The two succeed in destroying the entire 616 universe, with the exception of Genis, Entropy, Rick Jones, and Entropy’s sister Epiphany. Entropy still isn’t happy, though, and Rick Jones convinces him to help Genis-Vell recreate the universe exactly how it was before—which they do because, again, comics.
Further down the road, Captain Marvel gets separated from Rick and decides to drop in on his future wife and mother of his kids, Songbird, while she’s a member of the superteam, the Thunderbolts.
Genis-Vell succeeds in getting the life literally beat out of him by Songbird’s teammate Atlas over some harmless flirting and experiences his second death. Marvel baddie Helmut Zemo revives Genis-Vell but accidentally uses energy from the end of time to do so, damaging the fabric of reality in the process.
Zemo realizes his mistake and destroys Genis-Vell, scattering pieces of him across the Darkforce Dimension, where Cloak of Cloak and Dagger get his powers in the hopes that the pieces can never be reunited and the universe will be safe. Eventually, Genis-Vell is resurrected thanks to a woman named Mario, who happens to be bonded to the personification of Death.
Considering just how insane Captain Marvell III’s life is, it’s no wonder he’s never been introduced into the more grounded MCU. In fact, there’s a good chance that Genis-Vell will never make his way onto the big screen unless it’s as a quick multiversal cameo.
Rick Jones, on the other hand, has been done dirty and deserves to be a part of the MCU as soon as possible. Kevin Feige, if you’re reading this, give us a call. We have some ideas.
