WandaVision causes Monica Rambeau’s superpowered origin from comics

Marvel’s WandaVision is hiding a superhero in plain sight, and there are a lot of comic book fans just waiting for her to come into the light.

Monica Rambeau is ripe for her superhero origin story, and the Disney Plus series may just have started showing us how. Here is the story of the comics that WandaVision is using to get Monica ready for the wider Marvel cinematic universe.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for WandaVision through episode 6.]

Image: Marvel Studios

WandaVision it’s not the first time we’ve seen Monica Rambeau – her younger version debuted in Captain Marvel. Played by sisters Akira and Azari Akbar, Monica was the daughter of Maria Rambeau, fighter pilot and * ahem * Carol Danvers’ personal friend.

From WandaVision, we know a little more about what happened to the Rambeaus after the end of the film, when Carol Danvers left Earth on a 23-year mission to find a new home for Skrull refugees and fight evil across the galaxy. Maria went on to found the Sentient World Observation and Response Department, or SWORD, and Monica followed in her footsteps as a SWORD agent.

Monica’s career was interrupted, however, when she was among the 50% of the population in the universe that Thanos killed at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. In the five years prior to Monica’s resurrection, her mother died, a great idiot took over her position and is now doing her best to thwart Monica’s empathic attempts to reach Wanda Maximoff.

And this week WandaVision gave a clear clue about Monica’s future. She is the only person – so far – who has entered and exited Wanda’s hexagonal Westview. Darcy tells her: “The internal energy has rewritten your cells on a molecular level twice. This is changing you. “

This is a departure from a superhero origin story, if we have ever heard one.

What is the origin story of Monica Rambeau’s superhero in the comics?

One of the most important things to know about Captain Marvel is that for about 40 years, Marvel Comics had to continue publishing a Captain Marvel book or it would lose the trademark for the name “Captain Marvel”. It’s a long story.

And then there have been many different people to use the name Captain Marvel in Marvel Comics – about half a dozen characters entered the scene before Carol Danvers made the title synonymous with herself. But the very first Captain Marvel’s successor was Monica Rambeau.

Image: Sal Buscema / Marvel Comics

Created by Roger Stern and John Romita Jr., Monica became the second Captain Marvel in 1982. In 1983, she joined the Avengers, becoming the first black woman to join the team. But in 1996 she named Captain Marvel’s son (more or less), and took the name Photon instead – which, in the movies, was her mother’s fighter pilot’s call. For several reasons that are trivial to explain, it is also called Pulsar and Spectrum.

Its origin story is monotonous as superheroes: it has been hit by strange energy and has had powers ever since. But again, this seems to be exactly what is happening in WandaVision. From that strange energy, Monica gained the ability to transform into various forms of light and energy, which comes with a number of benefits. Superhuman speed (traveling like microwave transmissions), invisibility, the ability to fly and pass objects, and the ability to absorb energy and redirect it in bursts from your hands.

She also had a really cool white outfit.

Whatever it is WandaVision ends up doing with Monica, it won’t be the last time we’ll see her. Monica actor Teyonah Parris joined the cast of Captain Marvel 2. We can expect to see her reunite with her childhood hero in late 2022.