Why did they choose the title to be "Captain Marvel"?

Firstly Carol Danvers was a pilot. And Captain is a rank in the Army. I understand the title "Captain America" because Steve was in the Army and thus the title make sense. But for Carol, I didn't get the logic behind the "Captain" title. And also nobody in the movie called her by the name Marvel, although Nick Fury did talked about the pronunciation of "Mar-Vell" and "Marvel".

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    Might want to read this, and then decide if you want to delete the question: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Danvers – Johnny Bones Mar 11 '19 at 3:24
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    Also your implication that Captain is not an air-force rank is incorrect. Captain is the US air-force O-3 rank. federalpay.org/military/grades/o-3 – iandotkelly Mar 11 '19 at 3:56
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    @JohnnyBones if you think the answer is in the article you link - write an answer and quote the relevant bit. – HorusKol Mar 11 '19 at 3:59
  • If you look at the OF-2 column in this wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… you will see that Captain or equivalent like Capitan is actually more common than the UK style Flight Lieutenant in NATO. – iandotkelly Mar 11 '19 at 4:00
  • Captains exist in all five of the US Armed Forces. In the Army, Air Force and Marines it's towards the lower end of the officer ranks. In the Navy and Coast Guard it's just before the admiralty (akin to a Colonel in the other services). – T.J.L. Dec 9 '19 at 16:56

The movie's title comes from the character's (current) name, Captain Marvel. In the comics, Mar-Vell is the original Captain Marvel.

Moved by Mar-Vell’s actions, Carol took the Captain Marvel codename as a tribute and she adopted a brand-new costume as well.

Source: https://www.marvel.com/characters/captain-marvel-carol-danvers/in-comics


The US Air Force adopted the same ranks as the US Army when it became a separate service in 1947 (unlike some other air forces which adopted the British RAF ranks instead), so Captain would not be out of place there.

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    While correct, this only points out why Captain is not incorrect in terms of her military rank in her life before the accident. It's doesn't explain why she takes on the Marvel name. – iandotkelly Mar 11 '19 at 4:05

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