"And a Child Shall Lead You!" by returning writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane (inks by Dan Adkins). While Captain Marvel remains trapped in the Negative Zone, he turns his eyes to Earth and Rick Jones, who at the time had recently assumed the identity of Bucky, serving very briefly as Captain America's sidekick. Unfortunately for Rick, this is during a plot in which the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to swap bodies with Captain America. When Rick goes up to the Skull-in-Cap, the Red Skull fumes "Captain America needs no one!" and strikes him. Dejected, Rick journeys to Avengers Mansion and packs up his belongings, informing the Avengers' butler Jarvis to tell the Avengers he said goodbye.
Rick thinks back on his earlier adventures, first helping the Hulk, then leading the Teen Brigade, on to aiding the Avengers and finally becoming Captain America's sidekick. Rick throws away his Avengers ID card and hitchhikes a ride with a truck, unaware that Mar-Vell is subtly exerting mental pressure on his decisions. Departing the truck in the middle of nowhere, a glowing image of Captain America guides Rick into a cave. The cave is full of weird machines and monstrous statues, prompting Rick to yelp, "Fan-tastic!" which will become Rick's catchphrase throughout Captain Marvel. The image of Captain America vanishes and his place appear two golden wristbands which are identical to those which Mar-Vell now wears. Rick can't resist trying them on; they shrink to fit snugly around his wrists.
In case the subtle allusions to the origin of Fawcett's Golden Age Captain Marvel have gone over your head (the statues in the cave are obviously in homage to the statues of the Seven Deadly Sins), the story gets a bit more obvious. An image of Captain Mar-Vell appears before Rick and tells him to slam the wristbands together; Rick does so and in a bolt of lightning he vanishes - the teenager replaced by the costumed hero Captain Marvel. And heck, why not? At this point, fandom hated Marvel's Captain Marvel for using the Fawcett character's name, they might as well lean directly into it. Anyway, now Rick is in the Negative Zone and this establishes the status quo going forward: at any given time, either Rick or Mar-Vell must be in the Negative Zone. However, they have a psychic link and so can talk to each other between dimensions.
Just as Mar-Vell begins to explain the wristbands are "millennia-old" Nega-Bands and that their power has nullified the radiation which blasted him into the Negative Zone. Just then, Yon-Rogg bursts in, determined to have the Nega-Bands' power for himself. Mar-Vell's reflexes have been slowed by his time in the Negative Zone and he takes a blast to the chest from Yon-Rogg photonic pistol, but suffers no injury. Terrified, Yon-Rogg exits the cave, running for a ship (it appears to be too small to be the Helion). It seems this cave was a secret Kree base and Yon-Rogg had been following Rick because his instruments identified him as being under Mar-Vell's control. Carol Danvers is aboard Yon-Rogg's ship, his unconscious prisoner. Mar-Vell pursues Yon-Rogg but states he no longer has any super powers (like the teleportation, super strength and illusions which 'Zo' gave him), just whatever the Nega-Bands provide; fortunately, that includes the power of flight.
Yon-Rogg hurls a bomb in the shape of Carol Danvers out of his ship, but Mar-Vell is apparently also superhumanly tough, as he's surprised when the explosion doesn't kill him. Yon-Rogg gets away as Mar-Vell muses about his powers, then switches places with Rick Jones. Rick senses he and Mar-Vell's merging has imprinted some of Mar-Vell's psyche on him. "He's part of me now--like I am of him! I even share Mar-Vell's desire... for revenge! And somehow, I know I'm gonna find Yon-Rogg for him... if it takes the rest of my life...!" And the story ends here.
Thoughts: I'm now at the halfway point of these posts and we're now at the third attempt to create a status quo for Captain Marvel - but this is the one that stuck. When people think back on Mar-Vell, it's usually the era where he was body swapping with Rick Jones that they recall. Although Starlin later modifies the red & blue costume a little, the costume and Nega-Bands are also what people best remember. It's not a complete reboot, as the presence of Yon-Rogg demonstrates (though Thomas intends to rectify that one quickly), but this is one heck of a Hail Mary - there are very few comic book characters whose entire publishing history had been so dull yet were given a revamp which actually worked.
Major kudos to Gil Kane, whose artwork is seriously unchained at this point. Previously the series' action scenes had been rather stiff, but Kane excels at energetic action scenes.
Although Rick Jones was brought into this comic primarily so that Roy Thomas could nudge and wink about the Fawcett Captain Marvel, he does finally give Mar-Vell a compelling supporting cast member and ties the character more firmly into the rest of the Marvel Comics titles; the simple fact that Rick had ties to the Hulk, Avengers and Captain America would thereafter provide the ready means for Mar-Vell to earn guest appearances in other titles (and vice-versa).
Although Roy Thomas had written the early issues of this series, you'd hardly guess it; this issue suggests the writer wanted to take advantage of the hero's near blank slate in order to retool the series; but Thomas simply seems to have little affection for the first run of stories he penned for this title and has no problem pushing the character into a completely different setup; the 'Walter Lawson' stuff is a justly-ignored footnote now.
Next: Let's finally put an end to this Yon-Rogg stuff with Captain Marvel #18!
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