My Captain Mar-Vell, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Binary and Warbird CELEBRATION!

[Mike_Murdock]

So, as part of my readthrough of stories in preparation for the Captain Marvel movie, I've re-read the original Captain Marvel stories up through the Kree-Skrull War (I'm halfway through that now). Here are my thoughts:

1) The originally story had a lot of potential, but it was wildly inconsistent. Every issue, it felt like some new arbitrary thing would be invented by Yon-Rogg to inconvenience everyone else. They also kept going back to the same tropes over and over again (how many times did Captain Marvel battle a robot?).
2) I feel like my favorite character was Walter Lawson. And by that, I don't mean Captain Mar-Vell. His mysterious backstory was the thing that I found the most interesting.
3) I hinted at it, but Yon-Rogg's story was annoying and arbitrary. I thought it was useful at points, but it was far too repetitive. I wouldn't have minded a break from that story and then have him return.
4) I didn't really like the love triangle. To be honest, Mar-Vell and Carol's developing romance just made me feel sorry for Una, who got screwed over in all of this.
5) The Zo storyline wasn't good. The retcon was possibly worse? I'm curious when Ronan became a good and loyal Kree, though.
6) When I first read these stories, I hated the Rick Jones change. To me, it felt like Roy Thomas just wanted to write the character now known as SHAZAM and was contriving to make this Captain Marvel that Captain Marvel. When re-reading these stories, I change my mind. The reason is the same as with Walter Lawson. Rick Jones is just a far more fun, interesting, and likeable character.
7) Carol Danvers has even less agency than I remembered in her origin story. She wasn't even awake during the whole thing!

I don't know if this is the best place to talk about the Kree-Skrull War. I'm about halfway through and it's better than I remembered it. It takes a little while to get going, but I think it keeps a momentum that keeps the story interesting.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

TRAILER PARODY

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

At 0:47 the trailer portends the MCU Carol holding her own against the MCU Hulk..

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Captain Marvel #28 Sep 1973
"When Titans Collide!"
Rick Jones is at Avengers Mansion. His girlfriend Lou Ann lies comatose.
Her energy is slowly being drained by a small disc that cannot be removed without killing her.
Rick Jones summons Mar-Vell via his Nega-Bands to tell the Avengers about the menace and plans of the evil Titan Thanos.

While this discussion takes place, the Controller has slipped into the mansion.
He stealthily separates and defeats all of the Avenges in short order.
He then approaches Mar-Vell telling him that he has come to retrieve Lou Ann for his employer Thanos.

The story shifts to Louisiana where Thanos has discovered the hidden Cosmic Cube.
The entity Death is also present. However, Drax the Destroyer opposes him. The two duel.
Thanos places Drax through his "Time Mind Sync-Warp". Drax eventually frees himself, but the effort renders him unconscious.

Thanos takes his prize: The Cosmic Cube.

At Avengers Mansion, Captain Marvel is defeated by the Controller. The Controller has had his powers greatly enhanced by Thanos
and defeats Mar-Vell by pulling down a mountain of equipment down on the Captain. He takes Lou Ann.
Under the rubble, Captain Marvel has reverted back to Rick Jones. Rick is pinned but safe.
However, he does not understand where Mar-Vell has gone, as his Nega-Bands no longer work to summon his alter-ego.

The prologue shows Mar-Vell in space in the presence of the space entity Eon.

Eon states that in order for Captain Marvel to defeat Thanos, Mar-Vell, the soldier, must die!

Plot, pencils and script (chapter 2) by Jim Starlin, script (chapters 1 and 3) by Mike Friedrich, inks by Dan Green

[Centipede Damascus]

Sounds like KT's got a proper laundry list of villains to include in her Captain Marvel run.

https://1979semifinalist.tumblr.com/...aptain-marvels

I think Carol’s got a lot that I like and would like to be developed more. Some of my favs are: Doctor Minerva, Ronan, Grace Valentine, Toxie Doxie (June Covington), Mystique, Deathbird, M.O.D.O.K., The Brood, Puppet Master…

[KurtW95]

Disgusting development. As it looked like, Carol is now half Kree from her mother and they explain that her powers were always latent in a trashy attempt to minimize Mar-Vell. I hope this gets reversed at some point. It’s essentially rewriting who the character is. Like randomly revealing that Superman isn’t Kryptonian, but a human who got his powers after being experimented on by the government.

[Panic]

Disgusting development. As it looked like, Carol is now half Kree from her mother and they explain that her powers were always latent in a trashy attempt to minimize Mar-Vell. I hope this gets reversed at some point. It’s essentially rewriting who the character is. Like randomly revealing that Superman isn’t Kryptonian, but a human who got his powers after being experimented on by the government.

Yeah, that sucks. We all saw it coming, though. They're embarrassed that their go-to female-empowerment figure actually owes much of her identity to a man, but at the same time they want to fold in as much good stuff from Mar-Vell's mythology as they can. It does feel a bit like they're dancing on Mar-Vell's grave, but what can you do? At least with him being dead they're not dirtying him up like they're doing to Thor and Namor. So that's something.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Captain Marvel #58 Sep 1978
"A Destroyer Denied!"
Wandering through space, Drax the Destroyer discovers that his adversary Thanos has been turned to stone,

and goes berserk with rage, believing his sole reason for existence robbed by
the one man in the universe capable of defeating Thanos, the Kree warrior Mar-Vell.

Meanwhile, Mar-Vell has left the space observatory in Denver, even donning the clothes of an Earth man and hitchhiking into town,
to "discover Earth" and finally pursue his destiny as a solo entity, rather than being linked to Rick Jones.
However, that exploration is once again interrupted by a berserk Destroyer.

Unable to reason with him, Mar-Vell fights back as Denver pays the price for the battle.
The battle ends as ISAAC, Thanos' living computer, convinces both parties to travel to Titan to put an end to the Titan's legacy--

--unaware that they are walking into a trap.

Script by Doug Moench, pencils by Pat Broderick, inks by Bob McLeod.

[Triniking1234]

So does the issue explain why her mother never revealed her true identity to her when she got her powers?

[Mike_Murdock]

So does the issue explain why her mother never revealed her true identity to her when she got her powers?

Yes.

Anyway, I love the original Captain Marvel stories. I was talking about how I was recently re-reading them. But her origin is horribly problematic. I had my own ideas to tie her more actively to her origin and I think there's room to combine the two versions without losing either (although I think the retconned story's intent is the Psyche-Magnetron took no transformative role at all). But I'm not aware of any other superhero where the hero gains their powers while unconscious, a victim, and taking no heroic role at all.

[Panic]

But I'm not aware of any other superhero where the hero gains their powers while unconscious, a victim, and taking no heroic role at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She-Hulk

[Mike_Murdock]

Oh yeah, that's a good point. Honestly, the fact that they might be Marvel's two most historically prominent female superheroes is concerning. Jessica Drew also got her powers because a man did it to save her life based on his research, but she was at least a child. I haven't read She-Hulk's origin, was she also basically just a damsel in distress who needed to be saved or did she have any agency in the actions that led to her being injured and needing the blood transfusion?

[Panic]

Damsel, iirc. That's not really unusual, though - the Whizzer has a similar origin. Barry Allen is zapped by lightning, Richard Rider just gets hit by a beam or some such, and most heroes who get their powers through accident don't "earn" them - Peter Parker is a spider's victim, he's not doing anything heroic at all.

[Mike_Murdock]

It still feels qualitatively different when someone else is the hero of the story.

[KurtW95]

Anyway, I love the original Captain Marvel stories. I was talking about how I was recently re-reading them. But her origin is horribly problematic. I had my own ideas to tie her more actively to her origin and I think there's room to combine the two versions without losing either (although I think the retconned story's intent is the Psyche-Magnetron took no transformative role at all). But I'm not aware of any other superhero where the hero gains their powers while unconscious, a victim, and taking no heroic role at all.

I think it’s really grasping at straws to say it’s a horrible problem for a woman to have vulnerability. Every character is vulnerable at some point, but for some reason we’re supposed to act like it’s uniquely bad when it’s a woman. Then we get worse portrayals of female characters like today when writers desperately attempt to do the opposite of what could be perceived as a stereotype or have the character fail, resulting in smug and snide sociopaths that never struggle or realize they made a mistake.