Before WandaVision: How Monica Rambeau REALLY Got Her Captain Marvel Powers

Monica Rambeau is now a force in the MCU, but where did she get her powers and how did she become the Avenger known as Photon?

While WandaVision has brought Monica Rambeau to the MCU as an agent of S.W.O.R.D., her comic book history reveals that she’s a far more powerful character than she may initially seem on the show. Although she last appeared as a little girl in Captain Marvel, Monica is now a key asset to an important government agency, and she could get into Westview, the mysterious town where Scarlet Witch and Vision are cut off from reality when no one else could.

Although she hasn’t displayed any powers of her own yet, Monica’s ability to penetrate the town’s energy field could be as a result of her latent powers, if they’re fairly accurate to the comics.. Monica Rambeau made her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 by Roger Stern, John Romita Jr., John Romita Sr., Jim Novak & Stan Goldberg. In this issue, she gained her superpowers and quickly rose through the ranks to become a top Marvel hero and Avengers leader as the Captain Marvel of the 1980s.

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Monica was a lieutenant for the New Orleans Harbor Patrol and had been passed over for a promotion due to either her “unorthodox” methods or because she was a woman who rubbed her less enlightened peers the wrong way. However, everything changed when she met Professor Andre LeClare, a friend of her grandfather’s from the war. He asked her to help him investigate a man who had built a device more powerful than even the Atomic Bomb. However, everything went wrong, and she ended up exposed to extra-dimensional energy that gave her powers.

She helped LeClare escape, and he helped her master her powers. She can become what he called a “sentient packet of radion waves, light, even electricity.” He told her she could go through solid objects as x-rays and travel at the speed of light. She could also release small amounts of energy as blasts of pure force. He then made her the Captain Marvel costume using unstable molecules. When he told Monica that she could achieve things that “no man has ever dreamed of doing,” that was all it took to sell her on her new career as a superhero. However, she struggled to maintain control of her powers, and it took Spider-Man, the Thing and the Avengers to help her. After this, Captain Marvel became the newest member of the Avengers.

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When Genis-Vell, the son of the original Kree Captain Mar-Vell, showed up, Monica agreed to change her name to Photon out of respect to Genis-Vell’s father. That didn’t last as Genis-Vel decided he wanted to be Photon, and Monica changed her name again, this time to Pulsar. Finally, Monica found a name she stuck with when she started working with the Mighty Avengers and called herself Spectrum. Her entire idea here was an image change, as she took on a new costume and was “living light, living power.” As she said in her first appearance in the new book, she could be any form of energy she wanted, from x-rays and microwaves to gamma radiation.

Monica would become more powerful than she had ever been in the past. This came after Blue Marvel saved Spectrum’s life when she was infected with anti-photons. With her return to strength, she had greatly augmented powers. Monica ended up developing so many powers that she transcended humanity and was basically an immortal. In her biggest moment, Monica helped Vision save the world in Avengers: No Road Home by Al Ewing, Jim Zub, Mark Waid & Paco Medina in 2019. Through this historic feat, she burned out most of her powers and returned to her normal levels, where she remains today.

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About The Author Shawn S. Lealos (1090 Articles Published)

Shawn S. Lealos is a freelance writer who received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma with a minor in Film Studies. He has worked as a journalist for 25 years, starting in newspapers and magazines before moving to online media as the world changed. Shawn is a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists and a current voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has work published on websites like The Huffington Post, Time Warner Cable, Yahoo Movies, The Movie Network, Chud, Renegade Cinema, 411mania, and Monsters & Critics. Shawn is also a published author, with a non-fiction book about the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers and has begun work on a new fiction series as well. Visit Shawn Lealos’ website to learn more about his novel writing and follow him on Twitter @sslealos.

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