Space-Born Super Hero Part 4: Captain Marvel #1

As noted last time, the story which began in Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13 was meant to continue in issue #14, but instead Captain Marvel received his own series. This was quite a novelty for Marvel Comics in 1968 - '68 was the year in which the company expanded their line of titles. No longer restricted by DC Comics as their distributor, they could afford to publish as many titles as the marketplace could bear. Thus, the anthology books like Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales were broken up and their star players given their own titles. Of course, this also meant Marvel needed more writers as Stan Lee had less and less time for scripting. Although Marvel later tried the anthology format again with Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales, they didn't really work. Into this climate, we have Captain Marvel's first issue!

The declares he's "Marvel's Space-Born Super-Hero!" hence the title for this blog series. The story, "Out of the Holocaust--a Hero!" is again by Roy Thomas & Gene Colan (with inks by Vince Colletta) and resumes where Marvel Super-Heroes #13 left off: Captain Mar-Vell is in battle with Sentry#459. Although the Sentry recognizes Mar-Vell as a Kree officer (calling him "Man of the Kree", a phrase which will be repeated often) it ignores Mar-Vell's authority because he's telling it to stop its rampage. All Mar-Vell can do at first is leap for his life and try to keep the Sentry away from the Cape's nuclear arsenal. Mar-Vell tries using his uni-beam on the robot, but the Sentry can repair damage very quickly. Meanwhile, the base's soldiers overhear the Sentry calling him 'Mar-Vell' and take it to be 'Marvel', which is how our hero gets the moniker 'Captain Marvel'.

Meanwhile, in her quarters aboard Yon-Rogg's ship, Una crawls to a Mend-Mek, a repair robot. She asks the robot what it knows about Mar-Vell's fight; the robot can't answer because Yon-Rogg has blocked any such responses. Aren't you glad we checked in with Una? Meanwhile, back at Mar-Vell's hotel we finally learn the hotel clerk's name: it's Jeremy Logan and Mr. Logan has broken into Marv's room to exmaine the cylinder his equipment was kept in. Logan unwittingly sets off something inside the cylinder.

Back at the Cape, Carol Danvers stumbles out of the wreckage of the Sentry's attack; Mar-Vell defends her and she's impressed by his air of authority: "When he speaks, I almost believe--that we have a chance of survival!" Mar-Vell unleashes his uni-beam's most powerful attack, only to be mocked by the Sentry: "If I had an Earthling's sense of humor, pitiful one, I would be moved to laughter by your puny attempts! But, I am a mechanical being--and so can merely react--by annihilating you!" That Sentry, what a card.

Sentry#459 has cut off the rest of the base's soldiers by creating a barrier of sub-atomic particles. This results in a 2-page sequence of soldiers trying to blast their way through the barrier, with no effect. There's no good reason for this sequence to appear here, except that I think Colan was much more at ease drawing scenes of military men toiling with contemporary equipment than he was in colorful costumed characters firing energy blasts at robots. Finally, as Sentry#459 can simply repair any damage, Mar-Vell fires a narrow uni-beam blast at the robot's interior which fuses its circuits and causes the Sentry to implode; the robot is finally defeated.

Yon-Rogg is miffed to have failed yet again, so decides he'll go tell Mom-- er, that is, he'll call up the Imperial Minister and inform him Captain Mar-Vell just destroyed one of their Sentries. Although we see the Imperial Minister (still unnamed), he's with Ronan the Accuser and lets Ronan do the talking (this being Ronan's debut in the series). It should also be noted the minister is being coloured blue - which might just be a lighting thing at this stage, but as we'll eventually learn, there are two different skin colours for the Kree - the pinks we've seen up 'til now and blues like the minister (Ronan will also get retconned into being blue). Ronan puts Yon-Rogg in his place, revealing he's aware of everything, including how Yon-Rogg tried to use the Sentry for his own purposes. Ronan warns Yon-Rogg not to imperil their mission again; and this is our introduction then to the Imperial Minister/Ronan the Accuser subplot, which seems harmless now but will do its damndest to sink this series later on.

With Sentry#459 beaten, General Bridges is the first to formally dub Mar-Vell 'Captain Marvel', assuming him to be a super hero. Carol isn't quite so sure - she's aware Mar-vell saved her life, but has a few doubts about him. Good instincts, Carol! Mar-Vell himself is quite aware that while now he's being hailed as a hero, if the people at the Cape knew his purpose on Earth, he'd be their enemy.

Thoughts: We're finally getting this book on its feet; Mar-Vell's first battle is done and his supporting cast all introduced; the Jeremy Logan plot continues, Carol is now curious about Mar-Vell's identity and there some kind of conspiracy going on with Ronan the Accuser. There is also a hope that perhaps we'll go one issue without Yon-Rogg making a lame attempt on Mar-Vell's life. Heck, the series is full of possibilities! I choose to remain optimistic!

Next: Captain Marvel #2 and the introduction of one of the most famous rivalries in comics!