As the date for Avengers: Endgame approaches, we are left to wonder just how the remaining contingent of superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will defeat the Mad Titan, something they could not do when they even had double the numbers in Avengers: Infinity War. A big boost to their ranks will be the addition of Captain Marvel, touted to be the strongest superhero of the Marvel Universe. She has defeated an entire Kree Space armada by herself. She is not to be taking lightly. Thanos has a credible opponent this time. But is he completely helpless against Carol Danvers? The truth may surprise you. Captain Marvel herself is susceptible to several weaknesses pretty well-known to everyone who ever read a comic book. If you think Captain Marvel is invincible and Thanos is going to get his a** handed to him in Endgame, we are here to burst your bubble. Presenting – 10 insane weaknesses of Captain Marvel that will help Thanos defeat her pretty easily!!!
10. She prefers emotion over logic
One of the trademark traits of Carol Danvers is her ability to rush head-on into any situation, no matter how much the odds are against her favor. This “No matter what happens, I am doing it” attitude has put her in tight spots several times in the comic books. In 2019, a comic book series featuring her showed Captain Marvel ending up in an alternate dimension after she went through a mysterious portal. No one knew where the portal led to but Carol decided to jump in because there was a ‘possibility’ that her friend might be in there. In another 2012 series, Carol ended up being permanently stuck in the past after she tried breaking one of her hero’s aeronautic world records. Carol has a history of letting go of logic and acting on pure instinct. Against a cold and calculating villain like Thanos, that approach will only lead to her own death.
9. Her powers come with a deadly side effect – A Brain Lesion
Comic book science is pretty enigmatic if you ask us. There is no way you can get superpowers from a radioactive spider’s bite. In the real world, you do not become Spider-Man. You just end up doing 4 hours of Chemo every day in the Hospital. Carol got her powers from an alien spaceship explosion and it gave her the power to manipulate energy to perform a variety of effects. But thankfully, the comic books at least grounded her superpower origins a bit. An explosion that releases that much amount of radiation has to have some lethal effect on your body. In Carol’s case, it gave her a brain lesion. The more she used her powers, the more the brain lesion grows. The lesion is now taken care of but the damage it had already caused keeps giving her untreatable bouts of amnesia.
8. She is a dictator at heart
There is a perception that Captain Marvel hates authority. But given her military background, she is actually a person that has the utmost respect for it. But she is known to let power get to her head. In Marvel’s 2016 Civil War 2 comic book series, Carol polarizes the entire superhero population with her opinion of using the Inhuman Ulysses’s powers to predict the future with pinpoint accuracy to capture criminals before they commit crimes. Iron Man is completely against that approach. This leads to another superhero Civil War. In the end, an adamant Carol lets go of her stance but only after a lot of her allies were either hurt or killed.
7. She has severe alcoholism issues
It is not just Iron Man who loves to treat himself to a bottle of rum in the middle of the day. Captain Marvel is also another candidate to run for the No. 1 Alcoholic Superhero in the Marvel Comic Book Universe. Due to the stress of being such a well-known superhero who is so looked up to by the rest of the world, Carol has turned into an alcoholic. She regularly attends an Alcoholics Anonymous meetings along with Iron Man in 2016’s Invincible Iron Man series. She considers herself sober now but alcoholism is a fight that one has to fight till his or her last breath, superhero or not.
6. She is defence-less against psychic attacks
Marvel Comics has a lot of super-villains with extreme telepathic prowess. And they have used their powers to manipulate Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel several times. In one 1980’s issue, Captain Marvel is controlled via a psychic hold by a villain called Marcus, for a period of a whopping 9 months. The comic books subtly hint Carol was even raped by Marcus while she was under his mental spell. In the House of M storyline, Carol is shown the illusion that she is the most beloved non-mutant superhero of the world, which is far from being the actual truth. It is actually very easy to brainwash Danvers, which poses a real problem.
5. Extensive Memory Loss
Captain Marvel has had so many cases of losing her memory we wonder how she even manages to remember her own name!! Marcus and the brain lesion have already played mental merry go round with her memories. The mutant superhero Rogue once used her power draining abilities to not just absorb Captain Marvel’s powers but also a piece of her mind. In another completely separate but still relevant case, Carol once has no recollection of her past as Ms. Marvel, the 1970’s Superhero who was actually Carol Danvers in disguise. And the best part is, Carol was Ms. Marvel for at least five years! Who could forget that much of your own life!!!
4. Split Personality Disorder
By now, you would be sure that Captain Marvel’s head is a complete mess. Let us worsen it for you. Remember the Ms. Marvel persona we talked about in the previous entry? The Ms. Marvel persona was actually a unique persona of Carol Danvers that took over her psyche every time she fainted.
Ms. Marvel was more ferocious and was way more authoritative than Carol could ever be. It was only after Hecate, a super-villainess, came into the picture that Carol and Ms. Marvel (the two personas hated each other), set aside their differences and worked together to defeat her. We bet the Ms. Marvel persona is still a lingering fragment in Carol’s highly fractured psyche.
3. Her Need for Acknowledgment
In the House of M storyline, Captain Marvel was fooled into believing that the whole world loves her. It is then that the readers realize that it had been Carol’s greatest underlying desire all along – to be respected by everyone for what she is! Her desire for acknowledgment is actually a weakness that has been already exploited by villains to trap her. After the House of M reality was undone, Carol hired a publicist to help her garner the same level of public approval she had in that alternate timeline. Talk about attention seeking!!
2. She is NOT the strongest
Many think Captain Marvel is the strongest of all the Marvel Superheroes. That is not the truth. Captain Marvel is strong, no doubt. Her Kree enhancements make the upper limits of her true strength nearly limitless. But she has been outclassed before. In terms of raw, brute strength, one of the Hulks would be enough to make her bite the dust. Thor, in the comics, has become, on several occasions, ten times more powerful than Carol could ever be. Carol is powerful according to human standards. But in a universe where the superheroes literally lock heads with Celestial beings and Cosmic Gods, there is only so much she could do.
1. Power Drain – Her Biggest Enemy
Captain Marvel’s unique superpower skill set makes her an invaluable asset to the Avengers. She can fly at multiple times the speed of sound unaided in space. She can manipulate energy at levels thought to be unprecedented. Her power levels are virtually limitless since she can absorb energy and increase her strength drastically.
But no matter how powerful she becomes, Captain Marvel has one huge weakness – Power Draining abilities are her Kryptonite. In the 1990s, Carol ended up losing all her powers, had her genetic coding altered, and lost a huge chunk of her memory just after one touch from Rogue, the mutant superhero famous for her power-stealing abilities.
The ordeal left her powerless for years. It took an entire decade for Captain Marvel to come back to her original level of strength. Imagine if only a one second touch by Rogue could screw her up so much, what if Rogue decided to increase the duration of her power drain touch for say, a minute? Perhaps if she would have done that originally, then we would never have had a Captain Marvel to begin with!
