The Marvels: Carol Danvers' Relationship With Valkyrie, Explained
Contains spoilers for "The Marvels"
You can't have a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie without a couple of cameos, and one of the most interesting in "The Marvels" belongs to Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). First introduced back in "Thor: Ragnarok," Valkyrie has become a steady supporting player in the MCU and a fan favorite. She's also one of the franchise's few canonical queer characters.
That last detail is important to remember for Valkyrie's cameo in "The Marvels." She pops up in the film's second act for just a short moment, called in by Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) for a quick favor. Because Carol, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) fail to stop Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) from destroying the Skrull colony on Tarnax, a group of refugees is forced to flee aboard Captain Marvel's spaceship. Carol then contacts Valkyrie, who uses the Bifrost to transport the Skrulls away to a safe location.
The more interesting part of Valkyrie's cameo, though, is her interaction with Captain Marvel. It's about as overt of a gay moment as the MCU is allowed to have, complete with a cute pet nickname ("Marv"), tender hand-holding, and a sweet kiss on the cheek. It's still basically a crumb for queer MCU fans, vague enough to keep bigots in their seats and short enough to be cut if needed in markets that ban LGBTQ+ material. It's far from the representation that fans have been asking of Disney for years, but it does appear to be a nod to an infatuation between Carol and Valkyrie.
When did Captain Marvel and Valkyrie become so close?
While Carol's conversation with Valkyrie in "The Marvels" is a sweet and tender moment, it also comes completely out of left field (at least, for most viewers — more on that later). Dig through their respective MCU appearances, and you'll find just one scene where the two characters share the screen. That moment itself is absurdly brief and takes place in the middle of a battle — specifically, the climactic fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin) at the end of "Avengers: Endgame."
When all of the female superheroes unite for their cool attack run, you can briefly see Valkyrie and Captain Marvel standing in the same shot. But that's the only interaction (if you can even call it that) that they've ever shared onscreen before. So then, how did these two get so close? That's up for speculation. Maybe they met even before the events of "Endgame" at some intergalactic "Women in Superhero Work" conference. Maybe Carol helped settle the Asgardians on Earth after "Infinity War." Or maybe Valkyrie just saw Captain Marvel blast through the Sanctuary II and thought, "Dang, I gotta get her number."
Whatever the impetus, it's obvious that the two have become quite close. Carol makes it clear in "The Marvels" that she has very few friends and rarely sticks around in one place for too long. And yet, she instantly thinks of Valkyrie after rescuing the Skrulls. Heck, she practically falls into her arms when Valkyrie pops in on the Bifrost. In a universe full of people Carol has distanced herself from, there's at least one person she decided to trust.
Fans have been shipping Captain Marvel and Valkyrie for years
The canon setup for a relationship between Captain Marvel and Valkyrie is basically nonexistent. However, if you've been following certain corners of the fandom over the last several years, you'll know that it's anything but a blindside.
The Captain Marvel and Valkyrie ship, or Valcarol, as it's often called, has been popular online for years. Fanfiction shipping the two characters together can be found going back all the way to the spring of 2018, a full year before "Captain Marvel" was even released in theaters. In 2019, the actors behind the two popular characters only added fuel to the fire by sharing fan art of Carol and Valkyrie together. "We cute," Brie Larson wrote on X, then Twitter, in March 2019, posting a picture of Captain Marvel tenderly holding Valkyrie and tagging Tessa Thompson. "WHAT. we so cute," Thompson tweeted in response. Thus began a bit of a back-and-forth between the two where they shared more fan art of the ship, driving the entire queer MCU fandom wild in the process.
Given that real-world history, it's fun to see a canon nod to Carol and Valkyrie's relationship in "The Marvels." Is it a crumb? Yes. Do we need much, much more? Of them specifically? Absolutely. But hey, it's something, right?