BIOGRAPHY - Page 13
Reality was restored (more or less) and Carol returned to her Earth. The memories of many people were hazy over the details of the Incursion period, and the great Avengers Machine was dismantled, leaving behind a few splinter teams instead of a main roster. Seeking purpose in the absence of the Avengers and her space missions, Captain Marvel accepted a position as commander of the Alpha Flight Space Station. A joint venture of many nations including the United States, Canada and Wakanda, the new Alpha Flight replaced S.W.O.R.D. as the interplanetary diplomacy, alert and defense agency of Earth. As head of Alpha Flight, Carol Danvers was now Earth's Ambassador Extraordinary to the cosmos. [Captain Marvel (9th series) #1]
Alpha Flight wasn't enough to satisfy Carol's sense of security, though. She had a strong feeling that something was wrong with the universe on a fundamental level, and felt the need to be more proactive in response. Captain Marvel approached Black Panther and together they organized the Ultimates program with Monica Rambeau, Blue Marvel and Ms. America Chavez, troubleshooting cosmic level threats before they reached or threatened the Earth. Although similar in conception to the infamous Illuminati, Carol's team counteracted the comparison with a doctrine of total transparency, working under government supervision and posting updates on their missions to the public. A base of operations was established in New York with the Triskelion serving as the Wakandan embassy, Alpha Flight ground support operations and the Ultimates program in each tier of the building. The Ultimates thought big for their first major mission... solve Galactus.
Using neutronium, a matter/anti-matter element newly stabilized in the Eighth incarnation of the multiverse as "Isometry-8," they completed Galactus' intended transformation from Galan of the Sixth Infinity, to the Devourer of Worlds, to a Lifebringer, restoring the planets he once consumed. [Ultimates (2nd series) #1-2, Avengers #0]
Carol remained connected with her friends as best she could due to her regular deployment to Earth's orbit. She and Jim Rhodes continued seeing each other in a long distance relationship between his missions as War Machine and her duties. She also stayed close with Jessica Drew, who had remained retired from the Avengers and started her own private detective agency again. Jess had decided to become a single mom through fertilization and Carol supported her friend's decision, providing her with access to Alpha Flight's medical facilities. [Spider-Woman (6th series) #1-5]
Captain Marvel also found herself putting in time with yet another team, much to her surprise. An entity called Singularity survived Doom's Battleworld and made her way into the reincarnated multiverse. On Battleworld, she had been friends with the female heroes from Arcadia called A-Force, of whom a version of Carol was a member. When Alpha Flight Space Station and Singularity were threatened by her opposite number, Antimatter, Singularity began gathering this universe's incarnations of the A-Force members she was familiar with. Carol was joined by She-Hulk, Medusa, Dazzler and Nico Minoru in defending Earth and Singularity from Antimatter. They succeeded, but the destruction of Antimatter opened rifts in multiversal space that deposited other potential threats on the planet below. Captain Marvel and A-Force remained together in order to confront these threats as they emerged. [A-Force (2nd series) #1-7]
Meanwhile, the Ultimates' actions with Galactus got the universe's attention. The Shi'ar and other cosmic powers were aghast at the audacity shown by Earth in unilaterally "addressing" the Devourer like this, straining Carol's role as Ambassador Extraordinary. Unfortunately, Adam and T'Challa were interested in pushing forward with an even more significant concern... fixing time itself. Multiple abuses of the timestream had occurred in recent months, and so the Ultimates prepared to journey beyond the universe, beyond the Superflow and the Neutral Zone, to the Exoverse, allowing them to observe the omniverse from the outside and assess the damage. They underestimated the sheer nothingness of what existed beyond all things, however, and would have died in their excursion if not for the intervention of Galactus Lifebringer. Still, while their small human minds could not fully appreciate what they saw, in some small part of their subconscious they retained knowledge of the truth... Eternity -- the omniversal being representing all that is -- was in chains, prisoner of some unknown and even greater force. [Ultimates (2nd series) #3-6]
The lingering recollection of what she experienced in Exospace continued to haunt Carol Danvers. As proactive as the Ultimates were, she still felt they could do more to predict threats before they happened and get ahead of the curve protecting the Earth. Her stress levels were hardly diminished when an obnoxious Shi'ar ambassador called Alpha Flight to report unauthorized Cosmic Cube experiments detected occurring on Earth right under her nose. A short-fused Carol read the riot act to Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. for performing Cube experiments so soon after S.H.I.E.L.D. had a similar debacle. [Civil War II #0, Ultimates (2nd series) #7]
Captain Marvel experienced a big break in her worries after the Inhumans helped the heroes of Manhattan defeat a Celestial Destructor. The early warning the Inhumans provided allowed everyone to coordinate in advance, and the warning came from a newly-activated NuHuman named Ulysses Cain. His precognitive future sight allowed them to anticipate threats before they happened. Carol jumped immediately at the chance to recruit Ulysses 
into the Ultimates program for his foresight, but Iron Man had serious reservations. Ulysses had seen the Destructor destroy New York. However, because the heroes were able to defeat the Destructor, Ulysses wasn't seeing THE inalterable future, only a possible future. A strongly probable future, yes, but what probability? How reliable was he? The heroes disbanded for the evening without a consensus on how to proceed. [Civil War II #1]
Carol returned to Alpha Flight Station and wound up celebrating her six-month anniversary as Ambassador Extraordinary. Alpha Flight's party for her came complete with a visit from War Machine, who had succeeded in making their long-distance relationship work, despite the hurtles. It wasn't an entirely easy night, however -- Alpha Flight's Board of Governors pressed Carol over a Satori invasion that nearly destroyed the station and reached Earth recently. When they compared the surprise invasion to the Celestial Destructor incident, they unknowingly pressed Carol into using Ulysses more often. She got even more of a push after their Kree ambassador warned her the renegade scientist Doctor Minerva was on Earth. Captain Marvel arrived in California on the tip too late to stop Minerva from killing an entire town with her experiments. The perceived failure made Carol even more convinced using Ulysses was necessary to save lives. [Captain Marvel (9th series) #6]
The Ultimates were already working with the Inhumans towards more regular use of Ulysses when he experienced a vision of Thanos attacking Earth. Based on the details, Captain Marvel was able to deduce Thanos was coming for Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. and their Cosmic Cube research. With only a few hours to spare, Carol assembled War Machine and the available A-Force, Ultimates and Inhuman heroes on site to form a defense. Instead, the mission was a disaster. Too many teams not used to each other's moves led to tragedy as 
War Machine's firepower was redirected towards She-Hulk. Rhodey lost focus out of fear for his comrade's life, and was brutally murdered as Thanos punched through his chest. Carol rallied the remaining heroes to defeat and capture Thanos, but in the end her boyfriend was dead and one of her closest friends was on life support with a very poor prognosis. Iron Man was beside himself over the death of his best friend, and Ulysses' involvement only served to focus his anger. [Ultimates (2nd series) #8, Civil War II #1]
Although the fight with Thanos was a tragedy, Carol didn't see it as a slight on Ulysses’ abilities. Working with Medusa and the Inhumans, Captain Marvel began expanding Ulysses’ involvement with enforcement matters through S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Ultimates. He provided her with the intelligence needed to hunt down Doctor Minerva, this time capturing her without another innocent life lost. This victory led the Board of Governors to readily agree to sign off on incorporating Ulysses’ visions into Alpha Flight's mandate to protect the Earth. "Predictive justice" based on the Ulysses Initiative was now officially sanctioned by America and its partners. 
[Captain Marvel (9th series) #7] Ulysses began having visions more and more often as time passed, and Captain Marvel coordinated various vetting systems through which to implement responses to the information. Carol tapped Ms. Marvel to liaison with a team of "Carol Cadet" volunteers in Jersey City to respond locally to Ulysses’ visions. [Ms. Marvel (4th series) #8] And to address Iron Man's concerns about Ulysses’ accuracy, Carol went to Jessica Drew and her detective agency. She hired Jess to follow up on all of Ulysses’ miscellaneous visions, those that weren't deemed dangerous enough to require action, but still needed verification to confirm Ulysses’ accuracy rating remained at 100%. [Spider-Woman (6th series) #9]
Tony Stark would not let his concerns about Ulysses go, though, and he kidnapped the NuHuman from New Attilan, prompting a manhunt and pushing the Inhumans to the brink of war. Captain Marvel managed to talk Medusa down from more serious action, and Iron Man was located taking scans of Ulysses’ brain. During this confrontation, Ulysses’ ability evolved and his next vision was seen and experienced by everyone present: Bruce Banner would become the Hulk again and his rampage would lead to the death of most of Earth's heroes. [Civil War II #2]
Captain Marvel and Iron Man agreed to put their argument on hold in order to deal with Bruce's situation. Banner had lost his Hulk powers nearly a year prior, but Carol still insisted on a major gathering of heroes to confront him at his secret laboratory. When they arrived in force, Bruce was bewildered by the attention and didn't understand what was happening. Tony stood by him while Carol explained Ulysses’ gift and insisted Bruce turn himself over to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. As Bruce became agitated, Hawkeye took unilateral action and fired an arrow from a concealed location, killing him. Clint revealed Bruce had come to him earlier with a specially-engineered arrow and made Hawkeye promise to put him down if it ever seemed he would Hulk out again. The rift between Tony and Carol grew even wider, for he now saw Carol as responsible for the death of two of his closest friends. [Civil War II #3]
The situation with Hawkeye and the Hulk only reinforced Carol's desire to make predictive justice work right. She had come to see the Ulysses Initiative as Rhodey's legacy and felt that, if predictive justice failed, then War Machine's death had been for nothing. As Ulysses’ visions continued expanding, an entire support staff from Alpha Flight ran a rapid response room to coordinate acting on the vision as quickly as possible. Additionally, foreign governments began to express interest in Ulysses through the Board of Directors. Dissention began to show in the ranks among Carol's allies, though. T'Challa continued to ask the hard questions to keep Carol honest and alert in how much she relied on Ulysses’ word. The Blue 
Marvel directly questioned her on the ramifications of using Ulysses’ abilities as aggressively as she had in the wake of the Hulk's death. [Ultimates (2nd series) #9, Captain Marvel (9th series) #8] Jessica was furious with Carol over Banner's death. She effectively ended their friendship on the spot out of disgust for Carol's involvement in the matter. [Spider-Woman (6th series) #10-11] Ms. Marvel also lost faith in Carol when the Carol Cadets began using the predictive justice program to lock people up in extra-legal detention, outside of police jurisdiction. She sided with Iron Man in order to push Captain Marvel and the Ulysses Initiative out of Jersey City. [Ms. Marvel (4th series) #9-11] A-Force did not survive a vision from Ulysses that Nico Minoru would murder a girl named Alice. Carol and Medusa, trying to force Nico into custody permanently, broke the trust between the team members, and the all-female response squad disbanded. [A-Force (2nd series) #8-10]