After spending the last handful of Marvel Cinematic Universe films in the relative present of the 2010s, the comic book movie behemoth has decided to take a trip back in to the 90s for Captain Marvel.
Not only does this makes Carol Danvers’ origin story just the second Marvel film to be a period piece (the first being Captain America: The First Avenger), it is set at a very curious spot in the MCU timeline in which the Avengers are about two decades from forming.
Having just rewatched the first Captain Marvel trailer again, a very important question came up: What were each of the Avengers doing in the 90s while Captain Marvel was busy cannonballing through Blockbusters and punching old ladies in the face?
Since this is an all important question, we’ve decided to do a deep dive into it.
To narrow down just when the movie is set, we went all Sherlock on hints gleaned from the trailers and movie. Firstly, Carol is wearing a Nine Inch Nails shirt, which puts the time period between 1989 to the mid-90s. Secondly, she fell through a Blockbuster Video store, which were rebranded as “Blockbuster” in 1996.
Lastly, we see Carol at the 7th Street/Metro Center LA subway station before seeing her punching the old lady on a train with a Green Line map, which opened in 1995. So based on all that, we can definitively say that Captain Marvel is set somewhere between late 1995 to early 1996.
And with the time period established, time to look into what each of the Avengers were doing during 1995-1996. To keep things simple, we’ll limit the number of Marvel heroes to just those who appeared in Infinity War. Oh, and Ant-Man and Hawkeye because we can’t forget them and they’re popular enough to warrant a mention.
Tony Stark
25-year-old genius, billionaire, playboy, and CEO of Stark Industries. Not a philanthropist yet.
Thor
Hard to pinpoint since he’s over 1,500 years old, but most likely flying around Asgard with his hammer and being a cocky warrior.
Bruce Banner
An undergrad at Harvard with Betty Ross. On his way to the first of his seven PhDs.
Steve Rogers
Still taking a nap in the Arctic ice.
Natasha Romanoff
Just joined Russia’s covert espionage facility and kicks everyone’s butt, soon earning her “Black Widow” moniker.
Peter Parker
Since his DOB is around 2001, Peter is in the same state as he was at the end of Infinity War: non-existent.
James Rhodes
Joined the United States Air Force and becomes liasion between them and Stark Industries.
Doctor Strange
Somewhere between getting his M.D. and his PhD (at the same time), and doing his residency at a hospital. Still a jerk.
T’Challa
In his teens (ish) and training in Wakanda to become the next Black Panther.
Vision
Nowhere near existing yet. The closest thing would be Edwin Jarvis, Tony Stark’s childhood butler who took care of him until his death. Tony later named his AI system J.A.R.V.I.S in honour of Edwin, which would later be fused with a powerful android body and the Mind Stone to form Vision.
Wanda Maximoff
Implied to be anywhere between 15 to 18 in Captain America: Civil War, so that puts her around -1 to -5 during Captain Marvel. In short, she doesn’t exist yet.
Sam Wilson
Since he fought in Afghanistan with his Falcon EXO-suit, which presumably didn’t exist until the 2010s, Sam must’ve been in high school or college during Captain Marvel.
Bucky
Doing his Winter Soldier thing.
Loki
Hanging around with Thor, presumably resenting all the attention his (step) brother got.
Peter Quill
A teen of about 15-16, he would’ve most likely been getting up to shenanigans with Yondu and the rest of the Ravagers.
Gamora
Doing Thanos’ bidding and establishing herself as a ruthless killer.
Rocket Raccoon
Since Rocket is actually the product of alien scientific experimentation, we have no idea how old he is so he would’ve either been non-existent or in a test-tube.
Groot
No idea how old Groot is or how many times he’s regrown himself so we’re going with “being a peaceful tree somewhere”.
Wong
Likely in Kathmandu studying with the Ancient One. Presumably also training to be a librarian during this time as well.
Thanos
Hard to deduce how old the purple giant is so our best guess is establishing himself as the Mad Titan and formulating his plan to acquire all the Infinity Stones.
Clint Barton
Given how Natasha Romanoff is still training to be a Russian operative, our best guess for this period was getting hand-picked by Nick Fury to be a SHIELD agent.
Scott Lang
Most likely studying for his master’s degree in electrical engineering and doing honourable things before descending into a life of breaking into places and stealing stuff.