For the first time, I read Avengers #200 and it was worse than I possibly imagined (even after hearing others who read it who told me it was worse than I would have imagined). I know I'm not saying anything new, but it was so yucky I kind of just want to rant about the story itself. That being said, since I had read the fifty or so issues prior, there was some context for the story that I think is worth addressing more broadly. I think the big thing is I'm trying to figure out what they were going for in that story. My brain is trying to wrap my head around two viable theories:

The first: All the Avengers are being brainwashed, which is why they're acting so bizzare about the mystery baby. In this version, the Avengers are supposed to be seen as behaving abnormally. There's such strong sentiments that it's a supernatural rape baby the story doesn't shy away from. Then, when Carol sees Marcus, it's magically and instantaneously washed away as well. Even when the story went out of its way to contrast Immortus's brainwashing with Marcus's romantic efforts, it still concedes there was a subtle boost from his mind control machines.

Second: The goal of the writing is to be a commentary on Feminism, which is exemplified by Ms. Marvel and, specifically, by her desire to not have a baby. Throughout the several issues before (I think it starts in 197), Carol has a strong anti-baby stance that is slowly worn down by seeing the baby she birthed. When she says "I've been denying my feelings for quite awhile," it makes me think the story is trying to say "she didn't really believe all that feminism nonsense." It feels like an appalling theory, but it at least explains everyone else's behavior.

What complicates this is the very rapey attitude the book had under both Jim Shooter and David Michelinie (I used to think it was just Shooter and could safely blame even this issue on him). There was definitely this idea that, when someone gets ultimate power, they immediately want to use it to have sex with less than willing women. This starts with Graviton who, with his ultimate power, wanted the unwilling woman (as opposed to the other woman who wanted to have sex with him, who is portrayed as an evil bitch). Five issues later, we have Nefaria Supreme where Count Nefaria does the same thing. Finally, we have the Korvac Saga. The difference with the Korvac Saga is the first two villains were literally grabbing women who explicitly did not want him in a very traditional view of forcible rape. With Michael Korvac, there's a completely unnatural transformation of someone from wanting to kill Korvac to instantly falling in love with him that seems to be mind control, but the story never explicitly says it. In the end, the story does, however, say that Korvac was not a villain and was really trying to do good.

Like I said, I used to think this ended with Shooter. However, when Michelinie took over, he wrote a story where the Absorbing Man came back to life. He takes a woman "in case he gets bored" during his escape. It's slightly different because, in the end, although he wanted to rape her, he didn't want to hurt her and the story ends with him pushing her to safety and fleeing and "dying." There's a slightly romantic attitude towards Creel, but he's still clearly the villain. Finally, we get to Avengers #200 where mind control is, again, explicitly used - once it's used significantly, the other, it's used "subtly" during an attempt to woo Carol. However, at no point is Marcus the villain in the story. At most, he's misunderstood. The tragic action is Hawkeye destroyed his machine, thus forcing him to return to Limbo and it's somewhat redeemed by Carol deciding to go with him.

So I thought I'd start a thread to see if anyone wants to discuss Avengers #200 or the broader issues of power and mind control in these comics. Or, if they want, if there are other eras or time periods where similar things occurred.