"Captain Marvel" Movie Series: Captain Marvel Binary Form exclusive review

One thing that kept resurfacing in the (male) criticism of Captain Marvel was the idea that Carol had no story arc, that she was super powerful at the beginning and super powerful at the end. That misses the point.

Captain Marvel channels her powers of cosmic energy manipulation to access an elevated binary form that lets her blast down any galactic threats.

Now to be fair, superhero movies have absolutely set up the expectation that in order to grow as a person, you need to start from nothing and become powerful - they usually have the power growth and the character growth parallel each other, so audiences have come to think of them as being the same thing. Carol's arc is about realizing her society is preventing her from growing, that the things she's been told are there to help her are really holding her back. She doesn't "cheat" in her final fight with Yon-Rogg, she clearly demonstrates that she's outgrown her need to acquiesce to his demands of her, that she knows she doesn't need to limit herself to make others happy. You know what we call that? A story arc.

When people began talking about Walmart having a Captain Marvel "Binary" exclusive, I thought that meant the cosmic-powered comic character who hung out with the X-Men; instead, this is the same mold as the normal Carol, just molded with some translucent plastic to make her look energized. That's not a slight against her, by any means: it really does make the toy look the way she does when she's fully powered up in the movie, and is pretty cool on the toy. The central body is solid, but the arms fade from red to yellow as you move down from the shoulders. The hair on both the masked and unmasked heads is translucent as well, and her eyes have been painted a light orange. Plus, the mohawk head is a new mold: no smirk.

While this figure doesn't have the flat "flying" hands the plain release did, she does get something even better: energy effects! Little swirly yellow ones we've seen before, and then orange ball ones that don't look familiar. Impressively, both kinds will fit on the figure at once, so you can choose how over-charged you want her to be.

Iron Man and Dr. Strange had to learn to be heroes once they had powers; that arc can't apply here, because Carol was already a hero before she got powers. Black Panther started out fully powered and ended at the same level, but no one complains that he doesn't have a story arc. There's more than one story for superheroes to tell, and as the genre matures, that means you might have to consider other people's experiences to understand them.

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15 Responses to "Captain Marvel" Movie Series: Captain Marvel Binary Form exclusive review

  1. Ai Muhao says:

    I've been pretty upfront over my hatred of the MCU Carol Danvers and Captain Marvel film, but there's no denying this is a really good exclusive.

    I saw this in the flesh and genuinely regretted not having the cash in hand to buy it when I saw it, because the translucent parts really were quite well-done. The arms in particular were really cool.

    Usually when you have effect parts one of the problems is that you don't get that lighting effect you should when, say, someone has energy swirling around their hands. Unfortunate, but there's not much you can do about it (unless you want to spring for effect parts with LEDs built in or something). With Carol's arms, with the effect parts attached it really sells the idea that they're glowing.

    On another note, I'm kind of surprised yo go re wasn't aware that Carol's powered up form is called her Binary Form.

    • yo go re says:

      Well I am now, obvs! 😀 It's not like they called her that in the movie or anything...

      • The cosmic-powered comic character who hung out with the X-Men was Carol Danvers.

        • Ai Muhao says:

          Yeah, that's the reason I was surprised yo go re wasn't aware the powered up mode was Binary Form. I thought it was a nice call-back to when she was actually called Binary as part of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. I think her powers as Binary are much closer to her current powerset compared to what her powers were back when she was Ms Marvel.

          But now that I think about it, I can't actually remember when I learned it's called Binary Form. I could swear I just picked it up via osmosis, because like yo go re says it was never mentioned in the film. Heck, as far as I remember she was never even called "Captain Marvel" in either her own film or in Endgame.

          • yo go re says:

            You're right, she wasn't. This name must have come out in an interview after the fact. Probably talking about the VFX or something...

        • yo go re says:

          Right, that's why I thought it would be in this line.

          Them: "Hasbro is doing a Binary Carol figure as a Walmart exclusive!"

          Me: "Oh, it must be comic style..."

          • Ai Muhao says:

            Ah! When you put it that way I get why you were surprised. If Hasbro can put Grey Gargoyle in the Captain Marvel wave, who's to say they couldn't put in "Carol as Binary" from the comics, especially as an exclusive?

            Come to think of it, you could probably do a whole wave made up of nothing but Carol's various identities over the years. Carol as base security commander (using parts from Peggy Carter?), Carol as pilot, Carol as Ms Marvel, as Binary, as Warbird, as Captain Marvel...

  2. Black Arbor says:

    I just don't get why everyone stood there with their thumbs up their asses while Carol started to bust out and go full Binary, I would've hauled ass as fast as I could away from her!

  3. Jamie Horne says:

    I get it you hate the movie but do us all a favor and stop bullying those who actually enjoy the movie. Look Dad movies I don't like but I don't do everything in my power to destroy that movie because that's not fair for others who actually do enjoy the movie you're selfish inconsiderate people and you know what trolls release represent it means bully you don't care if you hurt those who enjoy the movie as long as they follow your point of view it's good enough for you so stop acting like a selfish insecure people. Also it doesn't give you the right to bully the actress the director or anybody who made the film he don't like it don't go see the sequel. But don't get up there and complain that it's a stupid movie and you shouldn't go see it cuz that's not fair in your taking the rest of those who want to go see the film.

    • Ai Muhao says:

      What the heck are you talking about?

      • Green Guy says:

        Apparently, Jamie got his head stucked up his own ass. He only saw the word "hatred" on your post, then he got riled up and went full-retard.

        • Snemei says:

          A bit harsh may be. Ai Muhao has been fairly vocal in his dislike of the film in quite a few other posts as well although this may have been a bit much and after he softened toward the film as well

          • Ai Muhao says:

            Oh, please don't misunderstand, my hatred for the film and the character hasn't diminished in the least. I can easily get worked up about it, and I still generally feel the same way I did in the posts you mention. I just didn't think it'd be constructive to bring all that up here.

            Basically the only reason I even mentioned my hatred is because, like I said, I do think the Captain Marvel Binary Form action figure is really good as an exclusive and in execution; enough that I briefly forgot my hate.

  4. Green Guy says:

    AM's post had nothing to do with bullying. Jamie Horne went full metal retard. All Expression without comprehension. He's a, pardon my french, "Le Dumbass".....

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