BIOGRAPHY - Page 1
Carol Danvers grew up in the suburbs of Boston. The only daughter in a large family, she spent her formative years competing with her two brothers. From an early age, Carol had a fiercely independent nature and aspirations for her future. As such, Carol's relationship with her chauvinistic father was filled with strife and conflict. His belief that Carol should find a husband to care for her ran opposite to Carol’s desire to educate herself and see the world. She worked two jobs in high school to get enough money to go to college, but it wasn't enough and she was forced to ask her father to make up the difference. He refused to help pay for Carol, preferring to save the money for his oldest son Steven’s education.
Circumstances hardly improved when Steven Danvers joined the military and was killed in action overseas. In defiance of her father, Carol entered the Air Force on her 18th birthday after 
graduating at the top of her high school class. Initially just a way to pay for college, Carol quickly developed a love of the military in its own right. The Air Force gave Carol the opportunity to pursue her love of aircrafts and her dreams of flying, as well as making her own way in the world. During training, Carol was introduced to Helen Cobb, a legendary female pilot who held fifteen records for her skills, and more trophies than she could count. Carol both idolized and was envious of Helen, hearing stories about how Helen and her girls tested better than the men for the Mercury program, only for politics to keep them out of the stars anyway. [Ms. Marvel (1st series) #19, Ms. Marvel (2nd series) #31, Captain Marvel (7th series) #1]
[Note: Carol was reportedly introduced to Helen by her brother Stevie, but he would already have been dead by the time she entered basic training.]
Carol was a top student at the Air Force Academy and enjoyed a rapid career advancement. During flight training, she couldn't hold onto her lunch during the first ride on the simulator. The clearly recognizable contents of her stomach earned her the call sign "Cheeseburger" Danvers. [Ms. Marvel (2nd series) #11] By the time she achieved the rank of Major, Carol was qualified as a test pilot. She was chosen to fly an experimental stealth prototype with holographic camera designed by Tony Stark on a mission in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the stealth tech failed and Danvers was targeted by missile lock. She ejected but her equipment failed on the way down and Carol's leg was broken in the crash.
Major Danvers was found by Ghazi Rashid, leader of a radical Taliban splinter cell in the area. At first, he believed Carol was connected to some project called Ascension, and tortured her for information. Even after he realized she had no information, Ghazi continued torturing Carol because he liked it. Danvers suffered through shock treatment, deliberate aggravation of her broken leg and the removal of the fingernails on her hand, but she remained defiant after three days and never broke. An infuriated Ghazi smashed her arm with a sledgehammer, but this only freed Carol's hand from the restraints long enough for her to slash Ghazi across the throat, leaving him for dead.
Despite her broken arm and leg, Major Danvers used the sledgehammer to kill the other men in the terrorist cell. She discovered Ghazi was communicating with the CIA through a computer array to Langley about "Ascension," working with a CIA contact named Vitamin. She stole the hard drive and hobbled her way to the Air Force safe house in Mazar-e Sharif. There she was collected by Michael Rossi of Air Force Special Operations. Carol decided to trust Rossi about Ghazi's CIA connection, and they kept that information secret as she returned stateside. Carol was grounded from flying due to her injuries and questioned about her survival. However, Rossi arranged for her transfer to AFSO as his new partner. On her first mission, Danvers and Rossi tracked Vitamin to a hotel in Germany, hoping to learn more about Ascension. During their surveillance, however, Vitamin was killed by a bomb set by Rick Mason, a freelance mercenary. They pursued Mason, but he eluded the intelligence agents and the Ascension investigation reached a dead end. [Ms. Marvel (2nd series) #32-34]
[Note: Carol referenced Iron Man when meeting Tony Stark, but this seems to be erroneous. It's unlikely her entire career in the intelligence field would fit into the period between Iron Man's debut and when she first met Captain Mar-Vell as NASA security after leaving intelligence.]
Because of her stellar performance, superb combat skills and natural intellect, Carol remained in the intelligence field despite the failure of the Ascension investigation. Michael Rossi continued working with Carol as her mentor, partner and eventually her first lover. She was assigned to work with various other notable agents during her career as a spy. One of her most frequent partners was the Canadian agent, Logan aka Wolverine. [Ms. Marvel (1st series) #9, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #182, Ms. Marvel (2nd series) #36]
Carol’s Air Force training made her the perfect agent to lead a mission into Soviet territory, alongside Logan and an American test pilot named Ben Grimm. Their mission was a simple one: infiltrate Russian airspace in a top secret, experimental stealth fighter and learn why the Soviets were aiming low-frequency radio waves at the United States. However, this was simply a front for 
a much more dangerous and imperative mission to retrieve a cache of mysterious metal the Soviets were using to develop experimental weapons. Naturally, their mission did not go as smoothly as anticipated. The trio of special agents was intercepted by Russian forces (led by the mysterious Black Widow) and forced to the ground. Combining their skills and ingenuity with a healthy dose of luck, Danvers, Logan and Grimm managed to outsmart the Soviets, retrieve the mystery metal and make a clean escape. In the process, the three military agents forged a unique bond that would outlast their individual military careers. [Before the Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm and Logan #1-3]
Carol and Logan crossed paths again when Carol was assigned to take down a major arms dealer passing weapons across the Canadian border. When Carol’s cover was blown, Logan was called in at the last minute to replace her Canadian backup. After pulling Carol’s proverbial fat out of the fire, Logan and Carol learned that her original Canadian contact, Neil Langram, had been brutally murdered. Langram had been Logan’s partner and a friend of Carol’s. When the two tried to investigate his murder, they became targets themselves. Working together, Carol and Logan infiltrated a top secret branch of the Canadian Ministry of Defense called Department H to retrieve files relating to a secret mutant agenda that Langram was investigating.
The files led them to an American author, Dr. Perry Edwards, whose new book was about to unveil the existence of mutants to the world. Carol and Logan managed to save Dr. Edwards before he could be the next target silenced. Among the secrets that Edwards had learned was the presence of powerful mutants in the upper ranks of the Hellfire Club. Determined to stop them, Logan infiltrated the Club, while Carol spirited Edwards to a safe house. Logan ran afoul of the Hellfire Club’s guards but received some welcome backup from Carol, who had returned to help. Unwilling to be exposed at this juncture, Sebastian Shaw sent the assassin called Sabretooth to kill Danvers and Logan and salvage what was left of their operation. Having killed everyone who knew about Edwards‘ book, including Edwards himself and several government officials, 
Sabretooth tried to kill the last two people who knew the truth about mutantkind: Carol and Logan. Fortunately, they proved themselves to be more than a match for Victor Creed and escaped with the knowledge that various forces were gathering mutants as resources and forming elite teams for an impending superhuman conflict. Carol and Logan parted ways once more. Following this adventure, Carol shared the intel regarding mutantkind with an upstanding young senator named Robert Kelly. [Logan: Shadow Society]
While working with Colonel Nicholas Fury, Carol was assigned to help protect Logan, who had joined Department H after escaping from the Weapon X program. Logan had come to the United States to meet with the inventor of adamantium, Dr. Myron MacLain, in hopes of learning more about his past. Several agencies tried to claim Wolverine for themselves, including Hydra and a secret branch of the US government who sent Sabretooth to retrieve him. Other groups, such as the KGB who sent in the Black Widow, preferred that Logan remain a free agent and unaffiliated with any government or agency. However, it was Nick Fury and Special Agent Carol Danvers who rescued Logan and helped him remain free to pursue his quest for his true past. [Wolverine #minus 1]
[Note: This encounter was odd in that both Wolverine and Carol acted as if they had no previous knowledge of working together, whereas in other stories their professional partnership and close friendship clearly pre-dates Logan’s time with the Weapon X program and his adamantium claws. As Carol suggests in the story, however, extreme deniability is a hallmark of the intelligence field.]
Danvers spent ten years working as an intelligence agent. During this time, she and Logan continued to work together, sometimes as partners and other times as part of a team of agents. They completed missions around the world and their friendship continued to develop. Carol taught Logan to play poker, they saved each other’s lives countless times and, eventually, they became more than just friends. On what would be her final mission for U.S. intelligence, Carol was captured by the KGB and imprisoned at Lubyanka prison. There, Carol endured imprisonment and torture. Defying orders to the contrary, Michael Rossi and Logan broke into Lubyanka to liberate Carol. The full details of this incident have yet to be fully revealed but, shortly afterwards, Carol resigned from active duty and sought employment outside the intelligence field. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #182]
Having recovered from her ordeal in Lubyanka, Carol landed a position as the head of security at NASA’s Cape Canaveral. Once more, Carol found herself blazing a trail as a high-ranking woman in a male-dominated field and having to prove her worth at every turn. Shortly after assuming this new role, Cape Canaveral became home to a Kree Sentry unit that had been inadvertently awakened by a research team and was subsequently incapacitated by the Fantastic Four. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #64] After its defeat, the Sentry unit was taken to Cape Canaveral for study by the US Army.
Unbeknownst to Carol, a spy from the alien Kree had recently infiltrated the Cape in order to assess the threat posed by the people of Earth. Captain Mar-Vell was assigned this mission by his 
commanding officer, Colonel Yon-Rogg, and began working at Cape Canaveral after assuming the identity of Dr. Walter Lawson, an expert in missile guidance systems and robotics. Carol was suspicious of Lawson from the beginning and it was against her advice that the base commander, General Bridges, brought Lawson in on the Sentry research project. When Yon-Rogg learned of the Sentry’s presence at the Cape, he ordered it to attack, in the hope that Mar-Vell might be killed in the ensuing battle. The two Kree warriors had a long-standing hatred for each other and Yon-Rogg wanted Mar-Vell out of the way so he could pursue Mar-Vell’s paramour, Una. When the Sentry attacked Cape Canaveral, Mar-Vell donned his Kree-issued uniform and managed to subdue the rampaging Sentry. In the course of the battle, Carol was caught in the crossfire but was saved by Mar-Vell. Believing Mar-Vell to be one of the many superhuman champions emerging at the time, the press misheard his alien name and began calling him Captain Marvel. [Marvel Super Heroes (1st series) #13, Captain Marvel (1st series) #1]
In the months following Mar-Vell’s arrival at the Cape, Carol continued to investigate Walter Lawson, while at the same time developing a deeper trust in the mysterious and heroic Captain Marvel. With Mar-Vell’s constant presence, the Cape became the focal point of numerous bizarre happenings. Not only was he attacked by alien rivals but also by Yon-Rogg, who was determined to be rid of him. On each of these occasions, Carol found herself in the thick of things. Despite 
her years of experience, the level of danger these alien threats posed often left her in grave peril and being rescued by the courageous Captain Marvel. Carol was drawn to Mar-Vell and made no secret of her growing attraction to the dashing hero. During this time, Carol had no idea of Captain Marvel’s extra-terrestrial origins. Despite his dedication to Medic Una, Mar-Vell had a difficult time denying his growing feelings for Carol Danvers. Even when it appeared that Captain Marvel was a traitor, Carol refused to fully believe that he was capable of such deviousness and sought to exonerate him. Yon-Rogg used the developing relationship between Carol and Mar-Vell as a means of driving a wedge between Mar-Vell and Medic Una. [Captain Marvel (1st series) #8]
Following the death of Una, due to foul play on Yon-Rogg’s part, the feud between Mar-Vell and his former commanding officer escalated. When Mar-Vell revealed Yon-Rogg’s treachery, the Kree Supreme Intelligence ordered Yon-Rogg’s exile. Desperate for revenge against Mar-Vell, Yon-Rogg kidnapped Carol Danvers as bait to lure Mar-Vell into a trap. During her imprisonment, Carol finally learned the truth of Captain Marvel’s alien origins. Yon-Rogg used a forbidden Kree weapon called the Psyche-Magnitron to conjure a powerful robotic weapon to defeat Captain Marvel. Unwilling to face defeat by his mortal enemy, Captain Marvel defeated the automaton and managed to save Carol from Yon-Rogg, though she was gravely wounded during the battle.
As they fled Yon-Rogg’s lair, the Psyche-Magnitron exploded bathing Carol and Captain Marvel in radiant energies. [Captain Marvel (1st series) #16, 18]