Sunday, April 7, 2019

Space-Born Super Hero Part 13: Captain Marvel #10

My dig into the background of Captain Marvel has brought me to issue #10 (1969) and the story "Die, Traitor!" by Arnold Drake and Don Heck (inks by Vince Colletta). We open with Captain Mar-Vell about to be executed by a Kree firing squad! (it's noteworthy that the Kree soldiers are garbed in orange & red versions of the battle-suit uniform - initially only Yon-Rogg and Mar-Vell wore these outfits, but since issue #8 they've become more common). Una looks upon the impending execution in alarm - and then the story jumps back to the conclusion of last isuse to explain how we arrived at this point.

Just after the defeat of Cyberex, Captain Marvel and Carol kiss, upsetting Una; Yon-Rogg keeps prodding her about this, intending to turn Mar-Vell's only shipside ally against him. And it's into this environment Mar-Vell enters the Helion to replace his battle-suit, which was torn up by Cyberex. What, you don't remember that? Well, it's true, Don Heck didn't draw the uniform as being damaged last issue, but it's damaged now, so... who are you gonna believe? You or your lying eyes?

Yon-Rogg invites Mar-Vell to a hyper-radio conference call with Ronan the Accuser (who is once again being depicted as a pink Kree). Ronan is very interested in the Organization (he's the only one). Mar-Vell had reported on them after his brief encounter in issue #8 and he believes "this group possesses power equal to a good-sized nation!" Would that be an Earth nation or a Kree nation? Anyway, Ronan thinks the Organization could be useful allies: "Such a group, acting to betray the major powers governing Earth, might prove a useful tool!" Well, this should be an interesting mission for Mar-Vell; he's impersonating Walter Lawson, who we've learned was an agent of the Organization. Can he keep up the pretense of being Lawson in order to infiltrate a criminal cartel? Will pretending to be a member of the Organization further tarnish Lawson's reputation with Carol? Am I imagining scenarios which Arnold Drake won't bother addressing?

Una is cooled towards Mar-Vell, chastening him by saying, "If it a wink and a smile that you seek, Captain--perhaps you would do better to find them in your Earth woman!" So, Una has basically two modes: weepy, anguished declarations of her undying love and her jilted, catty personality. I first knew of Una from Jim Starlin's stories, where she loomed as this figure from Mar-Vell's past, his great lost love... but revisiting these stories, Una was a very negligible character at best.

Anyway, we look in on the Organization's base for the first time, which is some kind of advanced technology-strewn nightmare as only Don Heck could envision it. The leader, Number One (ugh), complains about his agents who failed in battle against Captain Marvel. The penalty for failure is... death! Hey, wait a minute... both of the agents from issue #8 are already dead; they drove over a cliff. They're gonna kill 'em a second time? Number One tests out another of Dr. Lawson's inventions: the Eon Ray, which causes things to age rapidly. He turns the device on one of the men and ages him into a pile of dust within seconds. Number One now thinks Dr. Lawson is a traitor and demands his death (but, uh, seems to have forgotten about killing the other agent who failed him; oh, whatever).

Carol Danvers picks up 'Walter Lawson" in her car to take him out to dinner so they can "finally get acquainted". Er, I realize that Captain Marvel didn't tell Carol everything about Lawson's involvement with the Organization, but at this time shouldn't there be enough big questions circulating around Lawson that she'd demand his security clearance be revoked while a complete investigation is completed? But even though Carol was just recently kidnapped from Lawson's hotel room then brought to Lawson's secret robot-building lab, she acts as though she's just vaguely curious about Lawson's background. She does think to ask him who sent that giant robot which captured her, to which 'Lawson' tries to change the subject by pointing out a warbler perched in a nearby tree. Suddenly, a car carrying two members of the Organization pulls up and points the Eon Ray at them. 'Lawson' grabs Carol and jumps out of the car; the Eon Ray causes Carol's car to instantly fall apart with rust. At the same time, the ray strikes the warbler in the tree and turns it into a pterodactyl. WHAT?!?

So Carol then trips over... nothing. The ground is level yet somehow she leans back violently and hits her head against a tree. From the introduction of the pterodactyl, it seems like each panel is trying to one-up the previous for sheer inexplicable nonsense. This trend continues as 'Lawson' tears off his clothes to switch into his Captain Marvel battle-suit. In the first panel, he's in civvies as the pterodactyl swoops at him; in the following, he's fully garbed in the battle-suit and dodging the pterodactyl's attack. Wow, this is weak panel-to-panel continuity and the script does nothing to try and tidy it up. While Mar-Vell fights the pterodactyl, the Organization agents observe: "I don't get it! How could a ray that speeds up the aging process, produce that prehistoric throwback?" Great question! But neither the scripter nor the artist seem to have any clue. Apparently the Organization were stupid enough to miss seeing 'Lawson' change into Captain Marvel, but not so feeble-minded that they aren't right at hand to kidnap the unconscious Carol to use as bait for Lawson.

Mar-Vell kills the pterodactyl by snapping its neck, but commends the creature for fighting "gallantly". I have no idea how a prehistoric creature could be considered "gallant". Mar-Vell finds a note the Organization agents left behind telling him to come to their base at Consolidated Instruments, Inc.; if Lawson isn't there in 12 hours, Carol will be killed. In the very next panel, Captain Marvel is being led, blindfolded, to meet Number One in his headquarters. Captain Marvel proceeds to follow his instructions from Ronan and suggests an alliance between himself and the Organization. Carol is shocked at this betrayal ("You are now an honorary member of the Judas Iscariot Marching Society!" is a very weak attempt by Drake to write like Stan Lee), but Mar-Vell slips a knockout gas bomb into her hand so she can escape (I guess Mar-Vell carries knockout bombs now?). Number One tells Mar-Vell he sent one of his men to kill Walter Lawson (what? the robot and another agent?) and his first assignment for Mar-Vell is to kill Lawson. Mar-Vell agrees, but when Carol breaks out of her cell, Mar-Vell admits he aided her. Number One quickly speeds away on a rising platform, boasting that it is made of "a metal alloy developed to overcome missile reentry heat!" I have no idea why that detail should be important when you'd think Mar-Vell's jet-belt would permit him to catch Number One within seconds.

Anyway, the Organization men surround Mar-Vell and fight him ineffectually until Number One returns brandishing the Eon-Ray. He fires the beam at Mar-Vell, slowly aging him to about 90 years old, but the decripit Mar-Vell still manages to grab the Eon-Ray, shamble away and figure out how to reverse the ray, returning to his normal age. Mar-Vell turns the Eon-Ray upon the Organization, causing Number One and all his flunkies to age rapidly; the ray also causes the building to age until the whole place collapses; Captain Marvel grabs Carol and flies away safely. Also, Carol now knows the Organization was behind Cyberex; I guess she learned that off-panel?

Of course, Yon-Rogg has been monitoring all of this and, once again, runs off to tell on Mar-Vell. When Ronan hears Mar-Vell destroyed the Organization, instead of pinning a medal on him he tells Yon-Rogg to have Mar-Vell executed. Ronan's judgement seems suspect to me; killing off the Organization was the most commendable act Mar-Vell has performed thus far. Many of Yon-Rogg's subordinates are uneasy about executing Mar-Vell and none more so than Una; Una gets off the ship... uh... somehow? She's not wearing a helmet, yet seems okay in outer space. In fact, she gets all the way from the Helion in orbit to the Earth below before Yon-Rogg's subordinates catch up and stun her with an energy blast. When Una wakes up, she finds Mar-Vell's execution is being held about 10 feet away from where she was sleeping. And so we end the issue where we began: with Mar-Vell facing the firing squad.

Thoughts: Wow. I found this to be the worst issue of Captain Marvel so far, yet I'm still not at the stories which fandom called the worst.

What is wrong with the series at this point? Repeatedly I have a feeling that the creative team was not gelling - that Don Heck either didn't understand what Arnold Drake wanted depicted in the stories, or either one or both of them didn't care.

I don't feel comfortable blaming Drake or Heck - so I'll blame both. Heck seems to have been cutting a lot of corners to get the issues done. He was often very sketchy about defining backgrounds in his stories, and it's especially bad here - there's seldom a sense of setting in his Captain Marvel, just a jumble of empty voids with occasional machines or trees creeping around the edges. For his part, Arnold Drake wasn't trying to make the storytelling clearer; he too seems to have been rushing through the stories, just scripting the easiest path to the end of each page.

Well, that's unlucky part #13 done! How much worse can it get?

Next: Mar-Vell is on trial! Una is jealous! Yon-Rogg is scheming! Carol Danvers is curious and ineffectual! I'm just assuming...

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