Captain Marvel

[CTTT]

I initially wrote her off for some reason, can't remember why, maybe it was the way she was drawn around the time of Civil War II with that short haircut, but I watched a youtube video on her and wow, she really seems like a cool and interesting character. A couple of observations/questions I had:

1. Is she an alcoholic like Tony?

2. Call me shallow, but I liked that Black costume with the stash. She was hot.

3. The look that she has now with her long hair returned, is a good look.

4. For other CM fans, did the infamous Avengers 200 issue ruin the character for you?

5. Prior to CW II, was she really just floating around the MU with no real direction as a character for her story or was there some good stuff to mine with her Binary/Ms. Marvel years?

[Digifiend]

1. Yes, she is. That dates back to Busiek's late 90s Avengers run. Carol and Tony have both been to Alcoholics Anonymous.

5. The 2006 Ms. Marvel series and 2012 Captain Marvel series are both decent.

[catbellysqueezer]

Not trying to sound rude but two of your points are about her physical attractiveness, is that really important to the quality of a book?

I've never read a comic and thought "this would have been better if the character was hot"

[JudicatorPrime]

Not trying to sound rude but two of your points are about her physical attractiveness, is that really important to the quality of a book?

I've never read a comic and thought "this would have been better if the character was hot"

Wow, let's be nice and play fair. In a visual medium you can't expect people not to be drawn to characters because of their appearance. Forgive the pun. I mean it's not a coincidence that most comic book characters are presented in an as aesthetically appealing package as possible, especially the women. Hell, there have been scientific studies proving that even infants, who we'd like to think have not been biased by societal beauty standards at all, are nevertheless drawn to attractive people. Let's not beat up the OP about it.

Like yourself, I've never read a comic and thought, "This would have been better if the character was hot." But I have read stories where I thought my appreciation would have increased had the artist knew how to draw Carol Danvers like the attractive woman that she is. Case in point... I mean, seriously, wth??! I don't care what the caption says, that's not how any Carol that I've ever read looks.

[kilderkin]

I have always felt the yellow bolt design was much better, a very striking visual, I could easily see it adapted with just a full body colour of black (or blue)

The longer hair imo is a much better look especially since she flies as it allows for a greater range of visuals and dynamic movement to be implied

As for personality nowadays I find her very stoic and bland, especially since cw2, which was a horrible story for her

For all her in character faults her warbird period (terrible name) and the 'best hero you can be' run were infinitely more interesting for me

Now, I just skip her bits in a story, but she's not alone in that, I do the same with Spiderman too

[Digifiend]

Not trying to sound rude but two of your points are about her physical attractiveness, is that really important to the quality of a book?

I've never read a comic and thought "this would have been better if the character was hot"

Why do you think I ignored those points? I ignored point 4 because it's simply before my time, and 2 and 3 because yeah, it's not really relevant. I prefer the long hair, but how she looks won't effect whether I read her books.

[Seren]

Why does Carol's attractiveness have to be involved? It's almost never brought up if its a male superhero.

[CaptCleghorn]

Why does Carol's attractiveness have to be involved? It's almost never brought up if its a male superhero.

It isn't. But we don't get to decide what factors someone else should use to judge a comic book. I like Carol with short hair. I see her as being more concerned with function over look and short hair being easier to deal with. But those are my criteria.

As to looks, female characters get judged MUCH more than males. Probably due to the majority of readers being hetero males. I try to be fair and open-minded, but there are still female characters I find hot. Personally, comics are far too expensive to have character looks be criteria for buying for me anyway. I do have opinions on how characters should look. There are valid reasonings for a less glamorous look for characters like Jessica Jones, Doreen Green, and Peter Parker (Ditko vs Romita). Of course these are the exceptions to the usual arguments.

As to Avengers 200, it got a lot of flak for the story, as it should have. It didn't ruin the character for me, but I think it was a major bump in Carol's journey storywise. Certainly, she drifted around in identities and powers after that.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Why does Carol's attractiveness have to be involved? It's almost never brought up if its a male superhero.

Female characters have always been sexualized in comics. "Sex sells".

[ARkadelphia]

Why does Carol's attractiveness have to be involved? It's almost never brought up if its a male superhero.

Have you been down to the X-Men board?

[JudicatorPrime]

Why does Carol's attractiveness have to be involved? It's almost never brought up if its a male superhero.

Perhaps that's in part due to the fact that a vast majority of comic fans are heterosexual men. Not a great deal of time will be wasted on that demographic speaking on male superhero attractiveness quotient. But perhaps we do register that concern, albeit in another form? For example, I think Liefeld draws a crappy Captain America. By the same token, I'm also saying that his rendering of Steve is butt-ass-ugly by every definition of the term. Interpret that as me saying, "I would much prefer a more attractive Steve." You just have to read between the lines a bit.

[catbellysqueezer]

Why do you think I ignored those points? I ignored point 4 because it's simply before my time, and 2 and 3 because yeah, it's not really relevant. I prefer the long hair, but how she looks won't effect whether I read her books.

Sorry if it sounded like my post was directed at you, I meant that towards the original post.

I know you wouldn't judge a comic based on appearance from seeing some of your other posts before.

[CTTT]

Why do you think I ignored those points? I ignored point 4 because it's simply before my time, and 2 and 3 because yeah, it's not really relevant. I prefer the long hair, but how she looks won't effect whether I read her books.

. With point 4, you do know you can go back and read the issue, right? Just because it's before your time doesn't mean that you can't read it. It's available for public consumption.

[Venomous Mask]

Her black costume was awful and made her look like a joke character. Now I don't like how Carol has been shoveled down the throats of Marvel readers as 'Earth's mightiest hero' and been spammed out over the last couple of years, but the modern costume is a major improvement for her look.

[Wiccan]

I initially wrote her off for some reason, can't remember why, maybe it was the way she was drawn around the time of Civil War II with that short haircut, but I watched a youtube video on her and wow, she really seems like a cool and interesting character. A couple of observations/questions I had:

1. Is she an alcoholic like Tony?

2. Call me shallow, but I liked that Black costume with the stash. She was hot.

3. The look that she has now with her long hair returned, is a good look.

4. For other CM fans, did the infamous Avengers 200 issue ruin the character for you?

5. Prior to CW II, was she really just floating around the MU with no real direction as a character for her story or was there some good stuff to mine with her Binary/Ms. Marvel years?

1) Yeah, there are some nice interactions with Tony over that.

2) I like the black costume overall but I definetely think her current one is better...

3) I like how she's being drawn now, but I thought there were artists that had her lookin great with the short hair too. Like David Marquez(the one from CW II that you mentioned... Come on, that gorgeous Carol made you look away???), Kenneth Rocafort, Elizabeth Torque, etc.

4) I think most people here started reading comics/Carol long after that issue happened... And either way, while the story is horrible, the rest of the Avengers are the ones portrayed in a bad light, not Carol. And the Avengers Annual #10 addresses that in a pretty good way.

5) She was already Captain Marvel before CW II... The run by KSD, the first one with her as Captain Marvel, was pretty good. And ever since HOM, her direction was kind of... Trying to become a more high-profile hero in the Marvel Universe? And after KSD but before CW II, she had the whole Alpha Flight Space Station thing going on.