Today I'm looking back at Captain Marvel #11 (1969) as I continue my perusal of the pre-Starlin Captain Marvel stories. This particular issue is something of a landmark: It is the beginning of the story which comics fandom of the 1960s despised more than any other. I know I complained a lot about the lousy story in issue #10... but now we're into the material which caused fandom to turn against Captain Marvel. To this day, this material is routinely denounced by any fan old enough to remember its original release.
The story is called "Rebirth!" and is again scripted by Arnold Drake, but Don Heck has been replaced by Dick Ayers (inks by Vince Colletta). Actually, I think Ayers did some uncredited work on the previous issue. However, we haven't seen the last of Mr. Heck just yet. The tale resumes with Mar-Vell standing in front of the firing squad who are about to carry out his execution, when suddenly a beam of energy strikes the four riflemen and disintegrates them. And the answer is... the Aakon! They're back, launching an attack on the Kree... no, wait a minute... Captain Marvel is convinced he's fighting the Aakon, but Dick Ayers has drawn the Organization. The people whom Mar-Vell wiped out last issue. These guys are clearly humans, not the yellow-skinned Aakon. Wow, we're only on page 2 and the story is already crumbling apart.
Fortunately, the disintigrated soldiers left their rifles behind, so Mar-Vell grabs a pair and lays down some dual-wield fire on the 'Aakon'. As Mar-Vell slaughters his enemies he engages in an internal monologue about the necessity of violence which is meant to mimic one of Stan Lee's Silver Surfer meditations. Aboard the Helion, Yon-Rogg realizes he'll have to engage the Aakon in battle even though it means saving Mar-Vell's life. The Helion drops about a dozen armed Kree soldiers on Earth but a wild shot hits Una. Who fired that shot? We'll never know. Mar-Vell naturally blames Yon-Rogg and, apparently reunited with his uni-beam between panels, he fires it (uh, calling it his u-beam for some reason) to destroy Yon-Rogg's sidearm (which Yon-Rogg wasn't even holding in the previous panel). "I blast your weapon with my U-beam so that--I may claim your life with my--bare hands! Your pain is my joy! Your dread, my delight! And your ruin shall be my release!" Since when does Mar-Vell talk like this? And shouldn't he save his aggression for the Aakon who have been trying to kill him?
At one point Yon-Rogg fires what seems to be a uni-beam on his own right wrist, but then Mar-Vell warns him not to "retrieve" his weapon. What, the weapon Mar-Vell destroyed earlier? All through their fight Mar-Vell engages on bombastic, overwritten speeches. Just then, Una moans in pain and Mar-Vell realizes she's still alive - he could try to save her. Abandoning his fight with Yon-Rogg, he grabs Una and flies away. Yon-Rogg orders his men to shoot Mar-Vell down (I guess the 'Aakon' were defeated off-panel?) and offers 10,000 "kredits" for the one who shoots him down. Kree money is called "kredits"? Man, why didn't that factoid catch on? Do the Kree "kremate" their pet "kreatures"?
There's nowhere on Earth where Mar-Vell could go, so he decides to leave the planet by rocket. Wait, what? What about Dr. Lawson's lab? Wouldn't that be a pretty good place to hide out and perhaps access some medical technology to save Una's life? Or maybe Quasimodo's underground city? Well, this is the plot... Mar-Vell steals a rocket which is about to be launched from the Cape. And it seems this unmanned rocket which was being sent to the moon has an internal life support system and medical equipment which he uses to stabilize Una. The script doesn't attempt to address any of this. General Bridges and Carol Danvers watch the rocket launch with Mar-Vell aboard and decide Captain Marvel is now a traitor! (I mean, not that Captain Marvel was a citizen of the USA or an agent of the Cape, but whatever)
Una dies aboard the rocket without regaining consciousness. Mar-Vell weeps for her. "You are gone, Una! But you will not lie in anonymity! I will carve for you a shrine such as no fallen love has ever known! Through all space and time--your beauty and honor will live on!" And so he places her on a slab atop an asteroid near Mars. Since Mar-Vell will one day be buried in Titan, it's interesting that both he and Una are laid to rest in the Solar System. Mar-Vell notes the "near-vacuum of space" will preserve her body (uh, not sure of the science on that) and muses on "The complete exquisite love that once was ours! Camelot alone could match its majesty--and nothing equal its permanence!" So, at some point Mar-Vell learned about Camelot.
Yon-Rogg pursues Mar-Vell aboard the Helion and catches the rocket with a magnetic ray. Dragging the rocket on a veritable leash "at five times the speed of light", Yon-Rogg spins the rocket around then hurls him through space, sending Mar-Vell into exile. The next thing you know, 63 days have passed aboard the rocket and has only enough to survive 90 days more (that unmanned rocket had quite the life support system!). Mar-Vell finds himself remembering his parents; for the first time ever, we get an idea of his pre-military life as he recalls his parents died in experiments "in surpassing the speed of light". But surely his father couldn't have invented faster-than-light travel for the Kree, considering Sentry#459 had been on Earth for hundreds of years.
In the void of space, Mar-Vell sees weird creatures appear before him; you'd think they're hallucinations, but no, they warn Mar-Vell "do not cross the Forbidden Belt!" Mar-Vell ignores them and, on his 112th day, passes through a giant cloud and discovers a planet hidden inside. As he begins descent, a beam of energy emerges from the surface and catches the rocket, drawing it gently to the surface. Exiting the rocket, Mar-Vell finds nothing but "vaporous loam". Starving, "half mad" and heartsick over Una's death, Mar-Vell collapses on the surface, expecting to die.
When Mar-Vell awakens, he's surrounded by beautiful women in robes who are bringing him drinks. Mar-Vell may have awakened at a frat party. One of the women asks Mar-Vell if he wonders why he's recovered so quickly from his collapse or at his good fortune in finding the planet. Mar-Vell is having none of that: "I put no special significance upon the accidents of life!" However, the woman retorts that "even great Kree science--is unable to fathom more than half the truth of our universe!" The women lead Mar-Vell to a pair of golden doors and tell him behind the doors "lies all wisdom--and all life" then they vanish.
The doors open and Mar-Vell finds himself before a golden tower; amazingly, the tower speaks to him, identifying itself as "Zo". Zo tells him he was brought to this planet "by infinite wisdom and planning!" Mar-Vell takes a few leaps ahead and assumes Zo is responsible for everything that happened to him, so wonders why Una and other had to die. "You can not expect to understand the ways of Zo--yet!" Zo answers. To this, Mar-Vell calls Zo "you who claim all knowledge--and control over every being and event" even though Zo has made so such claim as yet. Mar-Vell tells Zo he no longer has a purpose in the universe and so is of no use to Zo. However, Zo notes Mar-Vell has a great motivation left: revenge. Mar-Vell agrees that he'd serve Zo in exchange for the power to destroy Yon-Rogg. Even though Zo hasn't asked Mar-Vell to serve him yet. Gah. And considering Mar-Vell could have killed Yon-Rogg earlier I don't think he actually needs more power. Still, there is that wrist monitor on Mar-Vell's left wrist which has given Yon-Rogg control over him in the past, so Zo demonstrates his "omniscience" by granting Mar-Vell the power to destroy the monitor.
Mar-Vell believes "no living being has the power to smash Daxilium--the strongest alloy known to Kree science! And the wrist monitor is pure Daxilium!" But simply by willing it, Mar-Vell shatters the monitor. Zo also takes away his uni-beam, claiming he has "no furhter need of it". Sure enough, Mar-Vell tests himself and finds he now possesses great cosmic powers: he can teleport himself faster than light, has even greater superhuman strength and he can cast illusions. Zo tells Mar-Vell to use this power to destroy Yon-Rogg, but afterward he must serve Zo. Mar-Vell agrees to this bargain.
Thoughts: So, this is a lousy comic. From Dick Ayers drawing the wrong villains to the disjointed conversation between Mar-Vell & Zo, it's becoming clearer that the problems with this book were not due to Don Heck but, more than anyone else, are the fault of Arnold Drake. I can't tell if he was hacking these stories out or if he was simply sloppy, but this series is crumbling apart.
Here we have the death of Una; her fatal injury should be a dramatic moment, but the book fumbles in its depiction. Una wasn't the first Marvel love interest to be killed (that would be Lady Dorma in the pages of Sub-Mariner), but Una does bring to mind Gail Simone's "women in refrigerators" axiom. Una only ever existed as a supplement to Mar-Vell's character; now that Drake has no further need of her, she's dead.
I suppose the good part of this issue is that we're finally done with scenes of Yon-Rogg trying to cause Mar-Vell's death or bring him to Ronan on drummed-up charges. Yon-Rogg is now officially Mar-Vell's nemesis - but at the same time, Mar-Vell has just been given such an outrageous power boost that one imagines he could end the whole thing by page 2 of the next issue.
It's interesting that in his run on Captain Marvel, Jim Starlin would also grant Mar-Vell a cosmic patron, in his case through the character Eon. However, Eon's purposes weren't introduced as a fumbling mystery - Eon needed a champion to battle Thanos and chose Mar-Vell. Zo, on the other hand, is a talking tower whose motivations are an utter mystery.
What is this book about? What was this book ever about? Mar-Vell was supposed to be an alien invader posing as an Earthman. One would think he'd gain an affection for Earth which would cause him to disobey his superiors; perhaps when his true purpose on Earth is revealed he'd be hated both by humanity and the Kree. And yet, the series seemed to take these things for granted - there was never a moment where Mar-Vell bonded with humanity. His angst was a late development and mostly out-of-focus. Instead, the conflict between Mar-Vell's role as a hero and his mission for the Kree was depicted through Mar-Vell fighting super-villains and Yon-Rogg making lame attempts to kill him.
What about Carol Danvers? General Bridges? Or heck, Chester the cabbie and Jeremy the hotel clerk? Uh... it wasn't exactly a rich supporting cast, was it? And what about Mar-Vell's days of posing as Dr. Lawson? It was never done well, but are we finished with that? How is Mar-Vell becoming a servant of Zo an interesting new status quo for this series?
Next: What the heck is Captain Marvel's new status quo? Maybe we'll find out in Captain Marvel #12!
No comments:
Post a Comment