Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. finally made superhero movies with female leads in their cinematic universes - Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, respectively - but where one film improves its character by changing her origin story, the other does not.

Upon its release, Wonder Woman was met with widespread acclaim and became the highest-grossing superhero origin movie at the time. Captain Marvel is doing much of the same, earning rave reviews despite an effort to sabotage the film's critical reception and it's on pace to become one of Marvel's highest grossing movies. Suffice it to say, audiences are big fans of both women and it's exciting to speculate about what the future has in store for these first ladies of superhero movies. Audiences won't need to wait very long, either, because Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) returns in Avengers: Endgame and Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) in 2020's sequel, Wonder Woman 1984.

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In both Carol and Diana's big screen debuts, changes were made to their origin stories. However, the changes made to Carol's origin story in Captain Marvel improve the movie and make it a more empowering film for women to watch. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, remains an excellent and empowering film, but it does so in spite of the changes made to Diana's origin story, not because of them.

Wonder Woman's Origin & How It Changed

Wonder Woman Zeus New 52 Origin Change

Since her creation in 1941 through the early part of comics' modern age, Wonder Woman's origin remained largely unchanged. As the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, Diana is the only child among the Amazons - a society of women who live in seclusion on Paradise Island (later dubbed Themyscira). She wasn't born by traditional means, but instead came in to being thanks to her mother's strong desire for a child. In most versions of Wonder Woman's origin, Hippolyta sculpts Diana from clay and the goddesses of Olympus bring her to life, blessing Diana with virtues like beauty, strength, and wisdom. That origin and its total lack of male involvement is unique to Wonder Woman and it makes her emblematic of what women can achieve when free of men and patriarchal constraints.

Related: Wonder Woman: New Movie Origin & Powers Explained

When DC Comics relaunched their line under the New 52 banner, Wonder Woman's origin was overhauled. Her humble beginning as a lump of clay became merely a story she had been told and not the whole truth - now, Diana was the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus, with her divine powers coming from her father. It was this Wonder Woman origin story that served as the basis for the 2017 film, cementing Diana as the daughter of Zeus in the minds of audiences worldwide. And, to be fair, changing Wonder Woman's origin so that she's now a demi-god born of Zeus' relationship with her mother doesn't make her any less of a feminist icon or powerful role model. But it does remove an element of her origin that was unique in its absence of male influence.

Captain Marvel's Origin & How It Changed

Annette Bening in Captain Marvel and Comics Mar-Vell

As originally created, Carol Danvers wasn't herself Captain Marvel but rather an associate and potential love interest for the Kree warrior, Mar-Vell, who operated as a hero on Earth using that name. Under the alias of Dr. Walter Lawson, Mar-Vell began working at a U.S. Air Force base where Carol was security chief. During this time, Carol is caught in a explosion from a Kree device, genetically altering her DNA into a Kree-human hybrid and giving her powers similar to those of Mar-Vell's. Carol goes on to become a superhero, working predominately under the name Ms. Marvel but with short stints as Binary and Warbird, eventually claiming the title of Captain Marvel for herself. It's a fascinating origin and Carol's journey is a compelling one, but everything from her powers to her name were derived from this earlier male hero.

Related: Captain Marvel's Origin Story, Powers & Movie Changes Explained

For the Captain Marvel film, changes were made to this origin story not just to better align it within the MCU's timeline, but to better establish Carol as the one and only Captain Marvel. The biggest of these changes is the gender-swapping of Mar-Vell. Now a Kree woman, Mar-Vell uses the alias of Dr. Wendy Lawson while working for Project Pegasus where she brings in Carol and other female fighter pilots (who under U.S.A.F. regulation cannot participate in combat missions) to test her aircraft. Mar-Vell mentors these young woman, Carol especially, and while the film purposely obfuscates their relationship in order to maintain the mystery surrounding the accident, it's very clear how much Mar-Vell means to Carol. This change is an incredibly important one, placing a focus on female mentorship when it's still so underrepresented in media - not to mention, basically absent from mainstream superhero movies altogether.

Page 2 of 2: How Changing Captain Marvel's Origin Improves The Film

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel

How Changing Captain Marvel's Origin Improves The Film

Superhero origin stories are often changed or altered in some fashion when the character is adapted to film, but the changes made to Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman's origins are both significant and strangely similar. In the case of Wonder Woman, while her origin wasn't specifically altered for the feature film, the decision to include the New 52 version demonstrates an acceptance of this version as the definitive origin. Zeus is now intrinsically linked with Wonder Woman in a way he never was before, and it can be argued that the inclusion of the male god (and one of the more reprehensible male gods, if we're being honest) somewhat diminishes Diana as a beacon of feminine power.

Luckily, the Wonder Woman film is ripe with strong women and even makes a point of illustrating how influential and important the women are in Diana's life. For example, her relationship with her aunt, Antiope, is just as powerful a representation of female mentorship as Carol's is with Mar-Vell. And, of course, Diana herself is no less powerful for being Zeus' daughter. But then, the true scope of her power is something that's hidden from her, as if were she to learn the truth she wouldn't be able to handle either it or her incredible abilities. That, too, strikes a similarity with Captain Marvel, who in her film is repeatedly told to calm down lest her powers get out of control. Thankfully, Diana proves she's capable of not only harnessing her father's powers but mastering them, but it's still a shame that they need to come from a father figure at all.

Related: How Captain Marvel’s Characters Compare To The Comics

When it comes to Captain Marvel, the changes made in the film only enhance Carol's origin story. Instead of having been gifted her powers in a freak accident related to a male hero, Carol now earns her powers through a selfless sacrifice when she destroys the light-speed engine. And though we don't yet know exactly how (and if) Carol will come to use the name Captain Marvel in the MCU, assuming she does, it will be to honor a cherished female mentor and not because there was a previous male Captain Marvel from who she's adopting the name. Along with the refreshing depiction of Carol's friendship with Marie Rambeau and her daughter Monica, Captain Marvel is an empowering film for women to watch because they are seeing themselves represented in a manner they so rarely are in mainstream superhero movies.

Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel

Looking to the future of the MCU, Carol is also positioned to become something of a mentor herself. Captain Marvel already showed the strong rapport she shares with Monica - a character who in the comics gains her own powers and actually becomes Captain Marvel for a short time - and it's hard not to imagine a Captain Marvel sequel continuing to cultivate that relationship. Additionally, there's the Kamala Khan-version of Ms. Marvel from the comics, a young teen who is herself inspired by Carol, taking the name Ms. Marvel in her honor. Were either Ms. Marvel to appear in the MCU or Monica to grow into her own superhero, then there's an opportunity for female mentorship to again get brought to the forefront as Carol takes a young protégé under her wing.

It should be stressed that none of this is meant to suggest Wonder Woman is a worse film than Captain Marvel or that it's somehow less feminist or important. Both films and characters are indispensable when it comes to seeing women depicted as the powerful super-beings that they're male counterparts are so often shown to be. Not to mention, there's more than enough room for a variety of superheroines on the big screen. But it can't be denied that the changes made to Captain Marvel give an even stronger emphasis on women and their relationships with each other, and these are important points that we can only hope future female superhero movies continue to include.

Next: How Captain Marvel’s Characters Compare To The Comics

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