Skip to main content

Can Captain Marvel break the fourth wall?


In Captain Marvel it would appear as if Carol can break the fourth wall. First, we have the "knowing smile" she gives after Stan Lee's cameo in the film which directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck acknowledge as her breaking the fourth wall without stating in those terms.



At one point, her eyes fall upon an elderly man conspicuously reading a _Mallrats _script. It's Stan Lee, practicing his lines for his cameo in that other movie. "Trust me, true believer," he mutters to himself. You can watch that entire Mallrats scene below:



The Captain Marvel scene was originally written by directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck as just another fun, funny appearance by the comics legend. But after his passing in November, the filmmakers felt compelled to update the sequence to acknowledge the "gravitas" of the moment.


"Instead of just the pure laugh we had, we had a little bit of a smile from Captain Marvel in response to it, and she kind of breaks character for a moment," Boden told me during an interview in Los Angeles last month. "I think it reflects a little bit of what the audience is feeling, and we allowed that to happen."


In the finished cut of Captain Marvel, Vers' gaze lingers on him for a few moments and she smiles to herself, before moving on with the rest of her quest. At the screening I attended, the audience definitely appreciated the homage – there were sighs, moans, and even a smattering of applause.


Mashable, How Stan Lee's 'Captain Marvel' cameo changed after his death



Later in the film we then have a scene where Carol is trying out new suit designs where each design is probably a reference to a previous comic version of the character. The last one she stops on is the white and green suit of Mar-Vell and Carol appears to give a "knowing look" before moving on to pick the final design.


In both cases she doesn't have to have broken the fourth wall in universe for the scenes to still make sense. The first "break" could be read as Vers breaking her "angry Vers must catch evil Skrull" character and smiling at "an old man" practising lines on a train rather than her actually breaking the fourth wall. And the second could simply be her "liking the design" rather than acknowledging the reference.


Regarding both of these it would appear that she might be able to break the fourth wall. However, I would like to know if there is any official statement on this in that if the character actually can or if it was more "just a bit of fun". If she can break the fourth wall has this ever been shown in the comics?


Can Captain Marvel break the fourth wall?





I am mainly looking for answers related to the MCU but answers sourced from the comics are perfectly acceptable too.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...