“Do you guys just put the word ‘quantum’ in front of everything?” – Scott Lang

The Quantum Realm went from intriguing idea to looking like the future of the MCU in Ant-Man and the Wasp. It’s easy to see why, since the mysterious subatomic world not only opens up new and exciting possibilities for the franchise, but is a place where time vortexes exist. It could be the Avengers’ best bet to undo the Snapture. That’s what sent us on our own deep, deep dive to understand everything we need to know about that complex dimension before Earth’s mightiest heroes return in Endgame.

However, there’s another Marvel movie coming out first, one teased in the final moment of Infinity War. And after learning so much about the Quantum Realm, we have to ask: did Nick Fury call Captain Marvel using a Quantum Pager? The question might not be “where” is she, but rather “when?”

Carol Danvers, a superhero with the ability to fly through space, will make her first big screen appearance in a prequel set in the ’90s. On the surface, the pieces of this cosmic puzzle seem to point to her being somewhere far away in the universe during the events of Infinity War, and Nick Fury used a (possibly alien-powered) technologically advanced pager to send an intergalactic S.O.S. With the “fate of the universe at stake” though, why wouldn’t have he have called her in the first place? Why fight the most important war in history without your greatest weapon? (Before you argue he didn’t know how dangerous Thanos was, Nick Fury always knows everything. Bruce Banner told everyone Thanos was an existential threat and it led the Avengers to gather in Wakanda. Fury 100% knew what they were doing and why.)

Fury only called Captain Marvel when they lost. She wasn’t his emergency superhero, she was his disaster superhero, who he turned to when the fight had already been decided. He must have had a reason for waiting that long, the ultimate backup plan in case they lost. But if people were turning to dust, how could he know she’d be able to answer at all? What guarantee did he have she survived? In fact, if she’s off far away in space how would he ever know if she was alive and able to come to the rescue in a moment’s notice?

What if it’s because every day he wakes up knowing she’s safe because she lives in the past?

Thanos’ Snap didn’t apply retroactively. It didn’t wipe out half of all of former and future life, just those alive in the moment. If Captain Marvel is alive in the past she’d be totally safe from the Great Dusting, and Fury would know his page would be answered. Of course, knowing she’s protected in a previous spot on the timeline isn’t much use in the future unless you can send a message back to call her forward.

In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Janet van Dyne was able to speak through Scott Lang via an opening in a Quantum Tunnel, which is a man-made portal to the Quantum Realm. It’s important to remember that the Quantum Realm isn’t just a tiny world in our own universe, it’s a parallel dimension separate from our own. However, a piece of technology built by Hank Pym made it possible to not only travel between those dimensions, it made it possible to speak between them. Think how good quantum communication from an advanced alien civilization like the Kree must have already looked like in the ’90s.

What if Captain Marvel was living in the Quantum Realm during Infinity War, fighting important battles for a world we’ll be visiting much more in the MCU? Or what if she uses the Quantum Realm’s time vortexes to go back to an earlier point in our own dimension’s timelines to undo other terrible disasters we never even knew about thanks to her. (Think of time vortexes as a series of doors in another dimension we can pass through to travel to different points in Earth’s timeline.) Either way, it seems possible a message, especially an emergency message, could be sent to her through the Quantum Realm. It would be a beacon that travels through both space and time. That would explain why Nick Fury would wait to call her after all hope was seemingly gone. She was always his eternal hope, the hero he could depend on even after defeat.

Scott Lang was right;l they do just put the word “quantum” before everything, but a Quantum Pager could save the day before it was ever lost.

Images: Marvel