Why Captain Marvel's Powers Are More Terrifying Than You Think

Carol Danvers has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity over the last few years, and with good reason. She's an absolute powerhouse of a character, representing a step forward in an MCU where the most visible female Avengers were, until recently, Wanda "She's Weird" Maximoff and Scarlett Johansson in very tight pants.

Captain Marvel's powers run the gamut. You could spend your whole lunch break buzzing through her list of abilities, from the almost mundane super strength, durability, stamina, and reflexes, to her more remarkable powers like space flight, cosmic awareness, and photonic blasts. She's a hero so powerful that having her around sort of nerfs any villain that she might come up against — for receipts, see: the third act of Avengers: Endgame. What's more, she's a force for good, defending the innocent and protecting the galaxy from threats both foreign and domestic.

All of that being said, why did the Avengers once deem Danvers so frightening that they kicked her off the team? Well, it's kind of a funny story — the sort of thing that happens to everyone at some point. Heck, you'll probably relate to it yourself.

She got drunk and shot a dog.

The year was 1998, and Marvel Comics were in a weird way — at the halfway point between Spider-Man's Clone Saga and the resigned narrative shrug of The Ultimates universe. Carol Danvers — at this point going by the superhero code name Warbird after burning through her Ms. Marvel and Binary personas — was going through some stuff, boy howdy.

Partially de-powered and missing several memories, Danvers developed severe alcoholism in the '90s, which comes to a head during the Quicksilver storyline "Live Kree or Die." At this point, the addiction has progressed to the level where she struggles to use her abilities when the withdrawal symptoms kick in.

After Danvers is captured by malevolent Kree scientists, a squad of Avengers goes to rescue her. Her first move after being freed: drinking an unmarked jar of what she assumes is alcohol. Her second move: going on a full-blown, mumble-mouthed, drunken, superpowered attack spree. Over the course of her episode, she blows a hole in the roof of her captors' base, and shoots Lockjaw the Inhuman dog with her energy blasts. Her reaction, and this is a quote: "Look, I'm sorry your puppy was hurt, but I stopped the Kree! That should be all that matters! Don't lecture me!"

Danvers' addiction would be an ongoing plot point for years, and she would eventually redeem herself in the eyes of her teammates. There's even a pretty personal scene during the events of Civil War II where she and Iron Man bump into each other at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Still, it's a little anxiety-inducing to think that one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel universe once spiraled so hard that she didn't think it was a big deal when she accidentally went third-act-of-Old-Yeller on a beloved Inhuman.