Captain Marvel and Maria Rambeau

If you’re looking for a good example of women lifting up other women, look no further than the bond between Carol Danvers and her best friend Maria Rambeau. Unlike most superhero films that have paper-thin romantic subplots, Captain Marvel eschews a romance for a strong female friendship that’s sure to resonate with women everywhere.

In the movie, Maria — played by Lashana Lynch, who also plays Nomi in No Time to Die and an alternate version of Rambeau in Doctor Strange — helps Carol regain her memories. She’s one of the few people that Carol trusts with her secret, and their close relationship is a highlight of the film.

However, the friendship between Carol and Maria is only half of the story. The comics give us a lot more to explore with these two friends. In the past, they’ve both worked for the Air Force, but their heroism doesn’t stop there. They’ve been involved in different battles for their country, and they’re both founders of S.W.O.R.D. They’ve even had their differences, but that just makes them stronger together.

It’s no wonder that this female friendship was a priority for the writers behind the movie. After all, we’ve seen too many of these tropes in the MCU: The black best friend who has no purpose other than to serve white characters; the token negro who only exists to make other heroes more interesting. With the success of WandaVision, though, we hope that Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau has a bright future in the MCU. After all, she has a huge destiny ahead of her, and her mom Maria’s old call sign was “Photon.”