I'll try to keep this opening segment short, because I DID have a pre-planned topic in store for today, and I want to maintain that plan. But there's a few quick knowledge drops I want to get out of my system. Cue the bullet points!
- One MAJOR omission I neglected to mention in the "Super Powers" trilogy is another figure you could've purchased with a mail-order offer. Who was this exclusive figure? A rare DC hero that didn't get immediate inclusion? A threat so malicious, they couldn't be put on the shelves? Er... Actually try on for size a Clark Kent mail order figure. Because Superman also needed his alter ego to be part of the figure line? (But to be fair, they'd do just the same thing in current years, only it would probably be a Bruce Wayne figure offer.)
- A certain shock to my reading system, this morning, was how legitimately excellent DC's "Captain Atom #1" from the mid-80's was. SERIOUSLY! The story, from Gerry Conway, is almost an odd blending of "X-Files" and "The Matrix", and one element from Nathaniel Adam's life could be taken as... ahem... "inspiration" for Todd McFarlane's "Spawn". And that Pat Broderick artwork... Seriously, just give this issue a try, people! I am curious where the rest of the series goes!
- Am I the only one that finds it funny that my total blog views, as of this writing, was 911? I'm VERY happy it's nearing 1,000 views, and I thank everyone that has been reading to date. But such a number for today? Crazy!
- Finally, I cannot state enough how much comics have come to mean to my current life. I've been through some rather drastic emotional highs and lows these past few weeks. As some may know, my life isn't exactly the easiest of lives in regular time. But I can say that for the love of friends, family, and a lady amazing enough to keep me around for close to 3 years... and the excitement that comics reading grants me... it keeps me from ending up in a mental morass that I doubt I could pull myself out of. I still have my low days, my pessimistic days, but even on those days, comics give me an escape for chunks of time, and help me think that in SOME ways, the good guy can win the day.
Alright, enough of that sappy crap! Time to get back to the program! Today's entry was influenced by my starting a trade paperback I picked up from the library. It had been a while since I've read this character's solo adventures, but my fondness for her over the years had abated very little. In fact, this current run Marvel gave her, under the engaging writing pen of Kelly Sue DeConnick sparked an urge in me to give her the proper time in the spotlight she deserves. (And it was also no mean feat that she managed to place a somewhat significant role in "Captain America: Winter Soldier" in the theaters!) I bring you Carol Danvers... AKA Ms. Marvel, AKA Binary, AKA Warbird, AKA now the inheritor to the title Captain Marvel!
The history of the Kree champion of Earth is a bit complicated, but I'll try and squeeze it into a nutshell. Captain Marvel started off as Kree warrior, Mar-Vell, who was exiled to Earth, and broke from his imperious ways to become a champion of our people. (But on the minus side, he got saddled with being stuck in the Negative Zone, and being part of a body-share scheme by the person NO ONE loves in the Marvel Universe, Rick Jones.) Captain Marvel died, and rather notably not in battle, but from something as somewhat mundane as cancer. After Carol's time came and went, the title was then passed on to New Orleans police officer Monica Rambeau. I could've also taken the time to also write up Monica, because I feel the character never fully was paid her due. After that, my history on the Captain Marvel title becomes fuzzy, because the namesake feels like for a while it's passed around like a game of "Monkey in the Middle" between various characters. But even after such naming issues, Carol Danvers has been solid as a rock in the Marvel Universe, even when she WASN'T part and parcel of the "Marvel" name!
Her heroic life began when Carol was still with the Air Force, caught in the middle of a conflict involving the original Mar-Vell Captain. Caught in an explosion of cosmic energies, Mar-Vell shielded Carol with his own body. But... because science works this way in the Marvel universe... his Kree energies were passed into Carol's body. It wasn't until the 70's that Carol became more than a background character, and emerged with her own book! But while life was looking pretty sweet for Carol, getting an editor's job for a female-centric magazine to be published by J. Jonah Jameson, she suffered from blackouts whenever her "Seventh Sense"... AKA Maybe a concept slightly lifted from Peter Parker's Spider-Sense... kicked in to danger, and Ms. Marvel was the dominant persona. Thankfully this was NOT to be the constant gimmick in Carol's life, and she ended up reconciling her two identities. This was not her sole reconciliation. This picture really doesn't illustrate the initial ridiculousness of her first costume. Basically if it weren't for shorts, Ms. Marvel would be baring her "family jewels" with bare belly and thighs. So, before her title was cancelled, Carol began the transition to Warbird.
I say "transition", because she held on to that Ms. Marvel title to the bitter end. It was through Ms. Marvel that we met the black sheep of the Shi'ar Empire, Deathbird. She was also made a member of the Avengers. She... um... essentially was "seduced" by a machination by Immortus, giving birth to a rogue time element known as Marcus. Alas, as if that weren't enough to potentially crush Carol, along came various elements of the team that would be known as the second iteration of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. It was through her book that Mystique was introduced to the world. But it took an unpublished story... that is, until the 90's... and a mention in "Avengers Annual #10" to introduce Mystique's adopted daughter, Rogue. Y'see, Rogue has the ability to absorb other people's powers by touch. And if she absorbs from one person for too long, it drains them of their life essence. So, cue one drained, and comatose, Carol Danvers, from that confrontation!
Her next phase, aside from being in a coma, was a rather... confusing one... for me. I never really DID catch on to how Carol Danvers became part of the Shi'ar Empire, assisting the Imperial Guard as an energy being known as "Binary". It happened, though, and it left me rather confused upon picking up whatever random issues of "Uncanny X-Men" I could lay my hands upon. But just because I know jack and diddly about this phase of Carol's life, that doesn't mean it didn't merit mention.
But like all things gone weird/wrong/fatal in comics, give it enough time, and the original status quo will be reinstated. And after the events of "Heroes Reborn/Return"... which I will talk about somewhat in a future entry... Carol was back and bad full-time in the Avengers as her Warbird persona. ... Until she was fired. WHA?!? Yes, you thought Tony Stark held the monopoly on super-heroic alcoholism, but Carol took that to the next level, and that led to her firing from the Avengers. But in due time, she did recover, and was granted her very own book again! Of course, events threatened her title, because as a result of "Dark Reign", the villainous Moonstone was "gifted" the original Ms. Marvel title and costume as part of his Dark Avengers team. And you just KNEW this was gonna lead to a catfight! But be it her Warbird costume, or the scarf-sporting Ms. Marvel costume, you just can't keep Carol down. And in her latest solo book run, after suggestion from Captain America, and her own soul-searching quest, she fully adopted the Captain Marvel mantle!
So, at the end of the day, what endears me most to the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel?
- She's been a far more involved presence in my reading encounters with the Marvel Universe over the years.
- Restating a point from earlier, Monica Rambeau never got a chance to fully shine on her own, which is a real shame.
- Mar-Vell... while I admire the concept, he was rather bland when not being handled by Jim Starlin.
- The other title holders I've just never read. At all. The closest I could come to that would be the inheritor to the Nega-Bands, Quasar, and the teenage semi-terrorist Marvel Boy.
Couple those facts, with just my interest in her power set, and her character arc, and I can dare say having Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel in the Marvel Universe is a grand asset, indeed!
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