Words can barely describe just how terrible The Marvels really is — although we certainly tried in our review of The Marvels, as well as my roundup of five reasons why The Marvels went wrong. But there are reasons why The Marvels isn’t the worst movie Marvel has ever made, and two of the three reasons are directly related to the film’s mid-credits scene.
Fair warning: There are full spoilers ahead for The Marvels’ mid-credits scene. That was by far the most thrilling moment of the film, and we can’t expand on that without going into detail about what it means for the future of the MCU. So consider this your final spoiler warning before we dive into the three things that The Marvels got right.
Iman Vellani is an absolute star
Considering how dour Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is for most of the film, it’s amazing how much life Iman Vellani brings to this film as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. Vellani had never appeared in a movie or a TV series before she headlined Ms. Marvel on Disney+, but she has undeniable charisma on-screen and she’s the only performer in The Marvels who looks like she’s genuinely having fun.
The vast majority of The Marvels‘ best moments revolve around Kamala, and she tends to get the best jokes as she fangirls over her idol, Captain Marvel, and tries to will the makeshift group that also includes Carol and Monica into a real team. Whatever happens next for Ms. Marvel, Vellani is going to get more offers for film and TV based on the strength of her performance here. And she deserves all of it.
Monica Rambeau finally has her own story
After Carol Danvers made her comic book debut in 1968, Monica Rambeau became the second Captain Marvel in the comics in 1982. However, Monica subsequently surrendered the code name to the original Captain Marvel’s son years before Carol adopted the code name for herself. And it’s been a long time since Monica has had a major role in the comics. In the MCU, Monica was similarly used as a supporting character prior to The Marvels, rather than getting her own show or movie like Kamala and Carol.
But in the mid-credits scene of The Marvels, Monica finally has a major storyline as she awakens in a universe that is not her own. It’s a world where her mother, Maria Rambeau, is still alive as the heroine known as Binary. In the comics, Binary was the second code name of Carol after her powers evolved. It’s also worth noting that Binary did not recognize Monica, so it seems likely that the Maria of this universe never had a daughter. Assuming this storyline gets a proper follow-up, it’s an opportunity for both women to get to know each other while Monica looks for a way home.
The X-Men are finally in the MCU
The biggest shocker in the mid-credits scene is that Kelsey Grammer reprised his role as Beast, aka Dr. Hank McCoy, from the 20th Century Fox-era films X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s something that Grammer has campaigned for as recently as last year in this interview with Movieweb. There isn’t a picture of The Marvels‘ Beast online yet, but he was the most comic-accurate depiction of the character to date. As another thrill for fans, John Ottman’s X-Men movie themes were also played in that brief scene.
This was not the same alternate world glimpsed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The biggest clue, of course, is that Professor Charles Xavier and Maria Rambeau’s Captain Marvel were killed in that movie. In The Marvels, Beast mentions in passing that Charles wants answers about Monica’s sudden appearance, which confirms he’s alive as well. It’s likely that the other 20th Century Fox X-Men live on in this world as well. We may even get to see it again next summer in Deadpool 3. There wasn’t a lot to get excited about in The Marvels, but the implications of this scene were easily a high point of the film.
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