The Marvels ending is something that most of us were not expecting. Monica Rambeau was thrown into an alternate universe where she meets her mother in X-Men Headquarters. Now, this is surely confusing, but then, to top it off, we get to see Beast from the X-Men universe as well.
Then there was this another post-credits scene where Kamala is trying to recruit Hallie Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop into some kind of a team. Kamala also talking about Ant-Man’s daughter. So what does this all mean, and what kind of team is she forming? Let’s try to understand both of these in The Marvels Post Credit Scene and see what could happen in the future of the MCU.
The Marvels Mid Credit Scene Explained
First, let’s understand the amazing The Marvels Mid-Credits scene, in which Monica Rambeau wakes up in the med bay of the X-Men’s headquarters. This area is quite similar to how it was in the early 2000s X-Men movie. When Monica wakes up, she sees a lady she believes to be her mother—but who is actually Binary, a Maria Rambeau variation. Fans of Captain Marvel comics should recognize the term Binary right away.
In the comics, Binary was originally one of the names Carol Danvers gave herself after she gained the cosmic powers of a white hole in X-Men 164 following genetic experimentation by the alien race called The Brood. This triggered Carol’s latent mutant potential, giving her the ability to generate radiation and heat as hot as the brightest star and to produce light on any wave of the electromagnetic spectrum.
When this happened to Carol in the comics, she was pretty much offered a spot on the X-Men immediately, but she refused to join the team due to not wanting to be tied down on Earth.
Since Binary was introduced as a genetic mutation in the comics, it seems that Maria Rambeau’s Binary took the X-Men up on their offer in her universe and has now become the newest mutant on the MCU scene, just like Kamala was revealed to be a mutant in the season finale of Ms. Marvel.
So, there is definitely something about the human body coming into contact with cosmic radiation that triggers mutation, much like Professor Xavier says in the pages of X-Men #12 and like Patrick Stewart’s Xavier tells the X-Men in the first X-Men movie in regards to Magneto’s machine.
Anyways, Maria’s costume has the two stars on the chest region to represent a binary star system. This is basically what happens when a star orbits around or close to another star in space. However, though Maria Rambeau is Binary in this universe, apparently, there was also a 50% chance that Binary could have been another variant of Carol Danvers.
As we learn in the Marvels, Maria, and Carol had a race to the plane that would inevitably crash and give the winner of that race the cosmic powers of Captain Marvel. So, in every universe where Maria Rambeau has superpowers, it’s implied that Maria was the one who beat Carol in a foot race to Mar-Vell’s plane.
X-Men In The MCU
Kelsey Grammer, of course, reprises his role as the mutant Beast after playing the iconic character in both X-Men: The Last Stand as well as X-Men Days of Future Past.
However, this version of Beast is a lot different in presentation than the one we’ve seen from the FOX movies, as Marvel Studios has chosen to go with a slightly different, full CG model of Beast in this universe. This is making me feel like this universe is a completely new universe that is meant to be a variant of Earth 838 from Multiverse of Madness.
Since Maria Rambeau Captain Marvel had a close relationship with Professor Xavier in 838 as a member of the Illuminati, it seems that this new Maria Rambeau Binary variant is a member of Xavier’s X-Men outright in this universe due to her mutation.
However, there is a chance that this universe could be the same one that Logan wakes up in at the end of Days of Future Past. Music from the Days of Future Past score plays during the mid-credits scene.
We do know that Professor Xavier is alive and well in this universe thanks to Beast mentioning that he was requesting Binary’s presence. So there’s a big chance that Monica Rambeau’s arrival and the threat of incursions could be part of Professor Xavier’s information download that he promised to give Wolverine at the end of his time-traveling adventure in Days Of Future Past.
Deadpool 3, for SURE, seems like the MCU project that we’ll likely see Monica continue her X-Men adventures in next, as that movie is rumored to be extremely multiverse-centric with a bunch of returning FOX X-Men stars. However, there is also a chance that the next Season of What If or the new X-Men 97 series could also continue Monica and Maria’s mutant narrative as well.
Part of me really hopes that Marvel is secretly planning an Avengers vs X-Men scenario on the road to Secret Wars because, with the multiversal incursions on the horizon, it’s quite possible that these two teams will have to fight for their respective realities to survive. Much like Sinister Strange had to do with his nightmare reality using The Darkhold.
The Marvels Post Credit Scene Explained: Young Avengers
But finally, before we wrap up this video, we have a talk about the other post-credits scene that features the return of the greatest Marvel actress of all time, Hailee Steinfeld, in all of her beautiful faced glory! It was literally the highlight of the movie for me, to the point where the whole X-Men thing was just a lucky bonus.
Anyways, as you can probably guess, Kamala recreating Marvel’s first post-credits scene of Nick Fury’s iconic meeting with Tony Stark at the end of Iron Man 1 was for sure a tease for Kamala founding a new type of Avengers team for young people that will almost certainly be The Young Avengers.
This would be a first for Kamala, as Ms Marvel has historically not been on the Young Avengers team in the comics. In fact, comic book Kate Bishop was actually one of the original members of the group alongside Elija Bradley’s Patriot, Billy Maximoff’s Wiccan, Teddy Altman’s Hulkling, Cassie Lang’s Stature, and an Iron Lad that was secretly a young Kang variant that wanted to defy his fate as a bad guy.
It was Iron Lad himself who first founded the Young Avengers in the comics, so whether or not Iron Lad will factor into the MCU Young Avengers during this Kang-centric multiverse narrative has yet to be seen.
The Quantum Bangles Explained
All Dar-Benn needed was her fancy new bangle, the missing Bangle that everybody was looking for in the Ms. Marvel series that we finally learn to be the MCU’s adaptation of the Quantum Bands.
This, in the Marvel Comics, has been historically the weapon crafted for the Protector of the Universe by the cosmic deity Eon. Eon is a character that was officially made into MCU canon through one of the statues inside of the Gates of Eternity from Thor: Love and Thunder.
The most popular of these chosen protectors throughout history is known as the Marvel hero Quasar. Quasar is a title that has historically belonged to multiple Marvel comic characters, including Wendell Vaughan, Phylla Vell, and Avril Kincaid.
But in the MCU, they’ve been given to Kamala Khan first in order for her to produce hard light constructs into any shape that she wants. Something that the Quantum Bands has also been able to do for Quasar in the comics time and time again.
But while Quasar sourced his energy from a cosmic source called the Quantum Zone, MCU Ms. Marvel seemingly gets her powers by using the latent cosmic energy inside of her. Cosmic energy also appears to be the root of her mysterious mutant heritage.
The Quantum Bands are not to be confused with the famous Nega Bands that empowered the original Captain Marvel from the comics and caused him to become entangled with his human friend Rick Jones. Forcing them to trade places periodically, much like we see the Marvels do in the movie.
However, in their case, while either Captain Marvel or Rick was occupying space in the normal universe, the other one of them was forced to be trapped in the Negative Zone until the other one tapped them back into reality, a less-than-ideal situation indeed.
But anyway, while the Nega Bands and the Quantum Bands may seem like the same thing, the Nega Bands were actually created by the Kree a long time ago based on the Quantum Bands.
