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Captain Marvel is a complicated superhero with a complicated backstory. Luckily there are a bunch of great comics to help you figure it out.

Captain Marvel is gearing up to be one of the biggest superhero movies of the year, sending the Marvel cinematic universe into the distant past (the '90s) to give us the story of Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel was first introduced to the world in 1967, created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, which means there's been a whole lot of Captain Marvel comic books over the years. Captain Marvel has gone through a handful of iterations over the decades, with multiple people carrying the Captain Marvel (the most recent being Danvers).

To give you a little background on the superhero and help understand the history of her, we compiled a list of essential Captain Marvel comics to read before or after you watch the movie.

Image: Dexter soy / marvel

Danvers only became Captain Marvel in 2012 after operating under the moniker Ms. Marvel for decades. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick had the honor of writing the new Captain Marvel's first story when she decides to take up the title and tries to find out how she fits in with the world while fighting against monsters and villains. It's a pretty grounded start for the superhero, focusing more on Danvers' internal struggles than large-scale battles over evil.

A couple of years into Danvers' tenure as Captain Marvel and amidst some of Marvel's most reboot-heavy years, DeConnick started in on a new story for Danvers in 2014, sending her into space. Captain Marvel goes on an emotional journey to bring a young alien girl back to her people, only to find that her planet is being resettled and her people on the verge of a fight. It's a big spacey adventure, the kind of stuff that Captain Marvel thrives in.

Image: frank cho / jason keith / marvel

For a look back at some of Danvers' time before becoming Captain Marvel, Marvel compiled a collection of comics focused on Ms. Marvel's time during the big Civil War crossover event in the mid-2000s. Carol Danvers - The Ms. Marvel Years shows Danvers during a huge moment in comics history in the midst of a giant intergalactic battle and an even bigger terrestrial battle that follows. For an even deeper dive, there's a larger collection of some older Ms. Marvel stories called Essential Ms. Marvel.

Two years after Captain Marvel was first introduced to the world, Carol Danvers became Ms. Marvel. This single comic from the late '60s contains the moment where Danvers becomes more than just a colleague of the original Captain Marvel, who is actually an alien of the Kree people. It will be another eight years before she gets her own book, but Captain Marvel #18 contains the explosion that gives her superhuman powers.

Image: Jim starlin / marvel

Spoiler! The original Captain Marvel, whose name is Mar-Vell, died in 1982. Digging more into Captain Marvel's past, The Death of Captain Marvel looks at a crucial moment in the superhero's history and a huge moment in comics history. In Marvel's first graphic novel, writer Jim Starlin pays tribute to Mar-Vell as his life fades from cancer. It's a devastating book and a key part of Captain Marvel's history.

After Carol Danvers took up the title of Captain Marvel, someone had to take up Ms. Marvel. The new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, is a young Pakistani American Muslim woman with shapeshifting abilities and the first leg of her story is incredible, earning a Hugo Award. While highlighting identity and representation, No Normal showcases a long-running theme of Captain Marvel comics — rising up to the occasion.