Throughout the three stories of The Marvelous Durga and the Origins of Captain Marvel, Durga goes on a journey of rediscovery. She has lost her faith in her abilities to protect others, and because of that she was thrust into Carol Danvers' life. In the first story, A Heroic Awakening, we see Durga start to figure out where she is, while living through the comic book origins of Carol. As you read through the stories, click below to read notes specific to each story! Just note, there are spoilers in the notes so don't read until you have read the stories.
I have long been a huge fan of all things Carol Danvers, so I of course tried my best to work Carol into a story related to our class. When thinking of Carol, I thought she had many similarities to Durga, whom I am also very interested in. It was that connection that inspired me to relate the two, and I came up with the idea to have Durga live through various origin stories for Carol as she relearns what it is to be a hero. The story you read about in A Heroic Awakening is based off Carol's original comic story.
The first half of this story is based off of the events in Captain Marvel #18, published by Marvel Comics in 1968. I used a summary from the Marvel Database to write parts of the story as I do not own the comic, and you'll find links to both the comic and the summary below. In this story, the Kree villain Yon-Rogg kidnaps Carol to lure the Kree soldier Mar-Vell (also known as Captain Marvel) to him, as they are enemies. When Mar-Vell finds them, Yon-Rogg has assembled a Psyche-Magnitron, a Kree machine that can grant wishes. While Yon-Rogg and Mar-Vell fight, the Psyche-Magnitron is damaged, and lets out a surge of energy that hits Carol. As she was wishing at the time to have powers like Mar-Vell so she would never be powerless again, this machine gives her the powers she later uses as the hero Ms. Marvel (it is not until 2012 that Carol Danvers takes the name Captain Marvel in homage to her friend and mentor Mar-Vell).
For people who saw the 2019 movie Captain Marvel, you may have been a bit confused to read about Mar-Vell being a man. That's because the character was gender-bent for the movie. In the comics, Mar-Vell was very much a man, and he and Carol even had a bit of a romantic relationship at one point. The character Yon-Rogg also appears in the 2019 movie, where he is played by Jude Law. His character is a bit more like the comics, so there's not much explanation needed there.
The second half of this story is based off of Carol's first-ever solo comic, Ms. Marvel #1, published by Marvel Comics eight years later in 1977. The cover for this comic is the banner image up at the top of the page. I actually do own this comic (it's one of my most favorite possessions!), so the only link for this part is to the comic itself. Though, there were parts that I took from Carol's page in the Marvel Database, which I included a link to in the bibliography. In this comic, Carol has amnesiac episodes as her powers manifest her as Ms. Marvel, and she fights the Scorpion. She at this point does not know of her powers, or why she is blacking out, but the fight against Scorpion (who is actually usually a Spider-Man villain) is the first that others learn about Ms. Marvel.
In the end of this story, Durga is starting to gain back the hope she lost after decades of trying to turn the tide against evil and fight for the defenseless in the jungles of India. In the next story, we will see another origin story of Carol, as Durga continues her journey of self-healing as she lives through Carol's life.
I hope you enjoyed A Heroic Awakening! Thanks for reading.
New Visions is a continuation of the story started in A Heroic Awakening. In this second story, we see the story through Carol's point of view, as she lives through events that take place during the Life of Captain Marvel comic run that was written by Margaret Stohl in 2018 (and set in 2018 as well). When Carol goes home to visit after her brother has an accident, she finds out that her mother is actually a full-blooded Kree warrior. However, one difference is that in the comics her mother dies after they defeat the Kree assassin. I did not want to add in the complexity of Carol having to grieve her Ma, so I opted to leave that detail out.
This series was significant because it rewrote Carol's origin in that she now had Kree ancestry, rather than just getting her Kree powers from the Psyche-Magnitron. It was explained by the Kree device awakening the powers living in her DNA. However it kept the importance of the Psyche-Magnitron because without it she would have been a normal person. Thus, it seemed nice to parallel Carol's revelation with Durga's story, as neither of them were born without the capability to have great powers.
The "visions" Carol has throughout the story are the memories of Durga's fight with Mahishasura, her most famous battle. In Indian mythology, Durga was created by the devas to defeat Mahishasura, a buffalo demon who could not be defeated by any man. Durga has ten arms and carries many weapons, which is different than Carol, who has two hands and typically uses no weapons but herself.
In this story, it was revealed that both heroines can speak to each other through their minds, and no matter which heroine is "in charge" of the body, they can use the powers both heroines possess, a fact that will be expanded upon in the final story. Now that the two body-sharers have seen the origins of the other and have learned more about their situation, hopefully they will be able to use this new knowledge to untangle themselves, so that Carol can go back to being an Avenger and Durga can hopefully regain her fighting strength again! Check back next time, to see if Carol can inspire Durga to continue fighting in the last installment of The Marvelous Durga!
Welcome to the Author's Note for my final story, The Final Origin! I thought the name was fitting, as it was both the last story and the last origin Carol and Durga's journey took them to. When I first planned out this storybook I had planned for the third story to show a third version of Carol's origin, this time the 2019 movie version. However, as I was writing it, and based on feedback, I decided I wanted to make this final story center on Durga. Yes, it had been partially touched on in New Visions, but I felt that Durga's story deserved the justice of the characters living through it. And, I thought it would be a nice setting for Durga getting her powers and motivation back!
I decided to frame the issue the heroines were facing as that Durga had subverted Dharma's will when she wished for a different life back in the Introduction. This provides a solution -- Durga just needed to go back to her beginning and show she was able to fight for innocent people again. The setting for this fight I gave was the Trikuta Mountain, which in real life is near one of the biggest Durga temples in India, the Vaishno Devi. The trident Durga uses to finish off Mahishasura is one of the weapons she has historically been pictured as wielding. As said in the story, it was Shiva's trident, and is the one that she used to ultimately defeat Mahishasura in the original stories of their battle. Due to that, I thought it would be a nice touch to have the trident be Durga's first clue that she had succeeded.
In the end, it was Durga's willingness to sacrifice herself one last time to save the defenseless that triggered the return of her consciousness to her body. And it is what she told the young girl at the end that I hope my readers take away from this storybook: if you believe in yourself, anything is possible!
Thanks for reading!
Image Source: Image of Statue of Durga. No changes made. By: Ssgapu22 on 10-16-2018. Link: Wikimedia Commons