When Captain Marvel Returned to Her Home Town

We've spent the last several weeks showcasing some of Carol Danvers' greatest moments from across her 51-year comic book history. Now, with more eyes on her than ever, we're looking back at last year's THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARVEL by Margaret Stohl, Carlos Pacheco, Marguerite Sauvage, Erica D'Urso, and Marcio Menyz.

This five-issue limited series dives into Carol's personal past, exploring some of her core character traits as well as revealing a few shocking secrets.

When conducting her regular Super Hero business, Carol remembered the feeling of powerlessness against an abusive father. And when those old memories began interfering with her ability to control herself on the battlefield, Carol decided to return home to Harpswell Sound, Maine.

There, she enjoyed a bit of family time with her mom Marie and older brother Joe, Jr.—until she started talking badly about her father. When JJ ran off, she knew he'd be visiting their dad's grave. After catching up with him, Carol saw Joe drive off...then she could smashed up her father's grave stone. While she was there, however, Joe, Jr. accidentally drove off a bridge and received a brain injury in the process. Carol stuck around for nine months after that to watch over him, ignoring her heroic duties in favor of familial ones.

However, her two lives would become intertwined when Carol found a strange device in a box of her dad's things, accidentally activating it and kicking off the birth of a new accelerated life in space that soon landed, fully formed, on Earth...

Eventually, Carol brought her father up in conversation with her mother, asking why she always defended him instead of her kids. The only answer she could give was that she was in love with him and sad for his desire for more from life. This set Carol off for some moon-punching that didn't help quell her rage. When she got back to her mom's house, though, her anger slipped away when her brother spoke for the first time since his accident!

Things were looking up with JJ on the mend and Carol having real talks with her mom. Everything went askew, though, when the alien made her way to their house and Carol's mom turned into a full-on Kree warrior herself! After the action died down and the alien left, Carol's mother explained her story.

A young warrior Kree, Mari-Ell, became the youngest Captain in Empress Pam'a's elite guard. Her mission involved traveling to Earth with her identity concealed by the Amulet of Pam'a. After crashing near Boston, she met Joe Danvers, a young widower with two sons, and accidentally fell in love. She decided to forgo her warrior ways and focus on her new family, especially after finding out she was pregnant with a little girl she named Car-Ell in Kree.

Mari-Ell continued explaining that Joe became super paranoid, thinking that Kree forces were everywhere. The problem was exacerbated with his personal problems, leading to the man Carol remembered from her youth. Though Mariel know that Carol would become whoever she wanted to be, Joe worried that her desire to go into space might get her in trouble with the Kree. As such, he told her that there wasn't enough money for her to go to college. At the same time, Mariel pawned her ring for tuition, but Carol had already run away by the time she arrived home.

The history lesson ended when the alien returned and snatched Joe Junior from his wheelchair. The Kree representative explained that Mari-Ell had been charged with high treason in absentia and sentenced to death. With that, the alien released Clone Drones. The mother and daughter duo then flew into action and combined their energy to fight the opposing being. However, the alien upgraded her gear and threw a sword into Mari-Ell's chest before fleeing... Car-Ell held her mother while she passed away.

Eventually, with a whole new outlook on her own life and past, Carol agreed to return to her role as Captain Marvel. Newly resolved to making the world a better place than she ever thought it could be, she serves alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers!

Read the latest issue of CAPTAIN MARVEL at your local comic shop now!