‘The Marvels’: Why Did Captain Marvel Marry Prince Yan? Explained

Park Seo-Joon is one of the most unique additions to the storyline of ‘The Marvels’ as he plays the role of Prince Yan, the leader of the planet called Aladna. Of course, while Yan’s role in the storyline wasn’t too important, the most interesting part about his character was the fact that he was married to Captain Marvel. Carol Danvers even felt awkward about going to Aladna because of her marriage to the prince. So, why did Captain Marvel marry Prince Yan?

Aladna had a unique custom in the comics

One of the things that has always been clear in the world of Marvel Comics is that different planets have different customs because the people of these planets have cultures that aren’t exactly similar to human culture on Earth. As such, there are a lot of different planets that have customs that may be weird to humans but are perfectly normal to the people of those planets. Aladna, which is a minor planet in the comics, is one of the worlds with a custom that most people would find odd.

In the comics, Aladna was ruled by a king but had a weird custom that required women to be the ones to choose their mates. Men, on the other hand, were not allowed to be the ones to choose who they wanted to marry. As such, men were completely powerless in relation to who they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with.

Lila Cheney, a Mutant, visited Aladna when she was younger. Because women were allowed to choose their mates, Lila chose Prince Yan of Aladna as his betrothed. As such, they were engaged despite the fact that Lila wasn’t really serious about her decision to marry Yan.

Years later, Lila returned to Aladna and was shocked to learn that the Aladnean Royal family was serious about her engagement with Yan. But neither Lila nor Yan wanted to marry one another, and that was when Yan asked Carol Danvers to help her object to the wedding when she visited the planet.

During the wedding celebration, Marlo appears to try to defeat Lila in combat so that she can take her place as Yan’s wife. Carol fought and defeated Marlo in place of Lila. As such, she won the right to marry Prince Yan. But instead of following customs, Carol told Yan to choose his mate. The problem, however, was that Aladnean customs didn’t allow men to choose their wives, and Yan was at risk of losing his role as the future leader of Aladna if he didn’t get married.

Tic, one of the friends of Carol, decided to volunteer to become Yan’s wife so that he wouldn’t lose his right to rule Aladna. Yan eventually became the new King of Aladna and abolished the custom of allowing only women to choose their mates.

Carol and Yan married for political reasons

So, as you can see in the comics, Carol and Yan were well-acquainted with one another as Captain Marvel was supposed to be the prince’s wife before she decided that she didn’t want to marry him. However, the thing in the MCU is that Carol actually became Prince Yan’s wife as she felt awkward about the idea of returning to Aladna when she figured out that Dar-Benn was after that planet’s vast water resources.

Upon arriving on Aladna, Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan found out that Carol was actually the planet’s princess as she was married to Prince Yan. However, she told both Monica and Kamala that she married Yan for political reasons and that their marriage was only a technicality. Essentially, she was saying that there was nothing romantic about their marriage.

Yan, upon seeing Carol once more, was happy enough to see his princess but didn’t show romantic affection toward her. The two danced in front of the Aladnean aristocrats as they seemingly were in agreement that they had to put on a show to please the people of Aladna. And it is possible that Captain Marvel’s marriage with Prince Yan draws inspiration from the events that happened on Aladna in the comics.

Since Carol called Aladna home at one point in her life, it is likely that she was placed in a position to marry Prince Yan due to an Aladnean tradition that she may not have been aware of. It is likely that Carol helped the Aladnean people in relation to their freedom from the Kree Empire, as Aladna was once a Kree colony before the planet was able to rule itself independently. This could explain why Aladna has a prince instead of a king, as the Kree Empire may have forbidden the planet to have a king in the past.

So, going back to Carol’s marriage to Yan, it is likely that she helped the Aladnean people win their freedom from the Kree Empire and that the people of the planet told her that she could marry the prince as her reward. Of course, Captain Marvel could always reject the offer, but Aladnean tradition would likely have also taken away Yan’s right to rule if he didn’t marry, as that was what the comics say about Aladna’s practices.

Carol may have decided to marry Prince Yan in a political marriage to allow him to rule Aladna after the planet won its freedom from the Kree Empire. That is probably the reason why both Carol and Yan didn’t exactly show anything romantic toward each other, as they understood that this was a marriage of convenience that benefitted both parties.

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