‘The Marvels’: Who Is Binary? Maria Rambeau’s Rumored Character Explained

Alternate versions of different Marvel characters exist in the large Marvel multiverse, and it goes without saying that every superhero has a counterpart in a different universe out there. This includes Captain Marvel herself, who has just had her latest adventure in ‘The Marvels,’ where Monica Rambeau ended up getting stranded in a different universe. In this universe, her mother was still alive and could be a Captain Marvel alternate version called Binary. So, who exactly is Binary?

Binary was Carol Danvers’ alter ego in the comics

While we all know that Carol Danvers is the current Captain Marvel, this wasn’t always the case. She started off as Ms. Marvel before she became the target of the Mutant named Rogue, who had become a terrorist. Rogue used her abilities to steal Carol’s powers and memories, causing Danvers’ life to spiral out of control due to the fact that she had lost her abilities.

In her now-depowered state, Carol went on a space adventure with the X-Men to attend the banquet of the ruler of the Shi’ar Empire, Lilandra. However, Deathbird arrived to mess things up as she used her alien parasite, the Brood, to capture Danvers and the rest of the X-Men so that they could be turned into new hosts.

While it may be true that Carol was in a depowered state at that time, the Brood noticed that there were anomalies in her genetic structure. Instead of using her as a host, the Brood decided to experiment on Carol’s body by forcing it to undergo evolution through different means so that they could awaken the latent potential in her body.

Despite the pain of the torturous experiments, Carol remained sane due to her mental toughness. Wolverine arrived to rescue her and the rest of the X-Men to escape the laboratory. But while eluding the Brood, Danvers ultimately manifested powerful cosmic abilities that allowed her to completely destroy her enemies. She now had the power of a star and even repaired the anti-matter drive of the ship they were in. 

Danvers felt as if she had become one with the very fabric of the universe due to her insane power levels, as she could now access infinite cosmic energies from a white hole. She renamed herself Binary and decided to reject the X-Men’s offer to join the group because she felt that she didn’t have to confine herself to Earth anymore.

Carol’s run as Binary lasted from 1982 to 1998 when she became Warbird. Eventually, in 2012, she finally became Captain Marvel. As such, her run as Binary was the longest in her history as a character. However, in recent years, she used her cosmic powers to form an alter ego that resembled the very same Binary appearance that she had years ago. But this alter ego, which was basically created from cosmic energy, only lasted a few issues before dying.

Maria could be Binary

During the events of ‘The Marvels,’ Dar-Benn used the power of the Quantum Bands but accidentally caused a jump point to turn into a dimensional hole that sucked everything into a different universe. Monica Rambeau knew that she was the only one who could close this gap, as she absorbed the powers of both Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel to become powerful enough to be able to repair this rift in the universe.

The problem was that she needed to be on the other side of the hole to close it. As she was closing it, Monica realized that there was no turning back because she couldn’t completely close the hole from her universe. As such, the only way for her to keep her universe safe was to stay in the other universe to close the dimensional gap. Monica sacrificed herself for her friends and the entire universe.

In the post-credit scene, Monica woke up in a different universe, only to realize that she was on a bed getting treatments. The first person she saw upon waking up was a younger version of her mother, Maria Rambeau, who was already dead in her original universe, which is Earth-616. However, Maria didn’t recognize Monica and was seemingly just as perplexed as all of the fans watching the movie. Beast came in to check up on the two and even said that Charles wanted updates, thus teasing the possibility that Monica found herself in a universe where the X-Men exist.

Of course, Maria’s youthful appearance and the fact that she seemingly had powers because she was in uniform suggests that she could be Captain Marvel in this universe. The speculation is that Monica found herself in Earth-838, one of the universes in which Doctor Strange found himself during the events of ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.’ But Maria Rambeau in that universe was seemingly dead already as the Scarlet Witch crushed her under a statue.

Still, fans do believe that this version of Maria could be Binary, who we know was one of the identities that Carol Danvers used in the comics. And there are a lot of reasons to suggest that this could be the case, as Beast was running tests on her.

As mentioned in Binary’s run in the comics, Carol was with the X-Men when her Binary powers manifested. Of course, her original powers were taken from her by Rogue. And this checks a lot of boxes.

It is possible that this Maria in the new universe also lost her powers when the Rogue of that universe took it or after Scarlet Witch depowered her (if this is indeed Earth-838). The fact that Monica found her together with Beast and likely even all of the other X-Men suggests that her powers as Binary have manifested and that Professor X and Beast are simply running tests on her.

Nothing was ever confirmed in the post-credit scene of ‘The Marvels.’ But this is simply a theory on our part, as there were already rumors suggesting the possibility of Binary appearing in the events of the movie.

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