Captain Marvel arrives in cinemas later this week on a wave of positive reviews, impressive pre-sales and promising opening weekend projections, but as you’ve likely noticed, the film has also seen its share of online backlash, including multiple videos from former DC Comics artist Ethan Van Sciver decrying the project as a “disgrace.”
In the latest effort from the Green Lantern and Flash: Rebirth illustrator, Van Sciver echoes many of the talking points that have been making the rounds among Captain Marvel’s most passionate detractors, arguing that bringing Carol Danvers into the MCU is an ill-advised attempt at creating the franchise’s own Wonder Woman:
“It isn’t possible to make an excellent Captain Marvel movie, one that can actually fulfill the hopes and dreams of women everywhere. Why? Because Captain Marvel isn’t just that good of a character. Captain Marvel is a character built on convenience, built on the desire of Marvel Comics to virtue signal that they, too, have their own Wonder Woman. Their own standalone powerful female character that is not connected to any teams like the Fantastic Four, X-Men or Avengers, or anything like that — somebody who has been beloved for decades and decades. They don’t have anything like that.”
The artist goes on to brand Captain Marvel as a “Mary Sue” and a vehicle for feminist values:
“Because this character is shouldering the weight of social obligation, she is, Marvel needs her to represent how powerful and wonderful women are, she’s an avatar for feminism, she can’t really possibly have any flaws. That’s what a Mary Sue is. You don’t want to take a character like this and imply that she has difficulty, flaws, that she could get easily beaten up, that this can happen and that can happen. There is no story arc for Captain Marvel because that would imply that women have problems.”
Van Sciver isn’t quite the only famous figure to accuse Marvel of channeling an “agenda” in their latest release, with actor James Woods also taking to Twitter earlier this week to declare that the studio hates its male audience. Nonetheless, the response from those who’ve seen Captain Marvel has been largely positive so far, with the film currently holding an impressive 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 167 reviews.
Meanwhile, Captain Marvel’s advance ticket sales bode well for the film’s first weekend. More than two weeks in advance of the movie’s release, for instance, Fandango reported that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s new feature had already outsold Aquaman and Wonder Woman in pre-sales, and in the days since, the film has reportedly surpassed Thor: Ragnarok in IMAX pre-sales.
As for box office projections, Variety reported just yesterday that Captain Marvel is on course to gross upwards of $125 million domestically on its opening weekend. In short, it sounds like the movie’s backlash isn’t nearly as prevalent as its most vocal detractors would have you believe, but the real test comes when the film hits theaters on March 8th.
