We see the Negative Zone from Rick's perspective for the first time; he's surrounded by a protective aura which defends from the weird environment, but otherwise he's simply floating in a void. When he remarks the Negative Zone "ain't about to replace Disneyland!" It prompts a reflection from Mar-Vell: "You have a sense of humor, lad... something I have yet to cultivate! Perhaps we may both benefit from the accident that has intertwined our two fates!" Indeed, one of the features which made Marvel Comics of the 1960s unique was the strong humour in every series which Stan Lee wrote - and up until the Thomas/Kane revamp, Captain Marvel had been bucking the trend. Mar-Vell flies to a nearby city then switches places with Rick again. Rick finds himself at a club where some extremely 1960s young people are hanging out, eating burgers and listening to bands. It's at this point that I suddenly remembered, oh yeah, Captain Marvel was created in the 1960s! Outside of Mar-Vell casting an illusion of protestors back in issue #12, the series up 'til now has avoided everything to do with the youth culture. Comics didn't have a particularly good track record when it came to depicting 1960s young people in comics, but heck, at least Captain Marvel's creators elected to reflect the world around them.
Rick doesn't think much of the band: "I hitched a diesel truck this morning that had more soul!" When challenged to see if he could do better, Rick offers to try; one of the musicians loans Rick a guitar and it turns out Rick has a natural talent as a performer. A waitress named Trina decides "He really does have soul!" but a club visitor named Blackie boos Rick. Rick decides to swap places with Captain Marvel to teach his critic a lesson, but Mar-Vell refuses to become involved in something so petty. Instead, Rick decks Blackie in the face! Rick decides he'd better leave, but a music promoter named Mordecai P. Boggs stops him declaring, "It's fate that has thrown us together, my boy!" Although Rick isn't interested in Boggs now, Boggs is the series' latest supporting cast member (and will occasionally follow Rick to other titles long after Captain Marvel). Boggs is meant to be a W. C. Fields-type character, to the point that Rick compares him to Fields. I guess Thomas didn't trust his audience to figure it out for themselves?
Captain Mar-Vell has given it some thought and has realized where Yon-Rogg must be: back at the Kree outpost where they last saw him. Wha--? Huh--? Whatever happened to the Helion, why wouldn't Yon-Rogg be there, surrounded by his crew? Well, Mar-Vell is right: Yon-Rogg really is back at the Kree outpost, where he's holding Carol Danvers hostage like a Republic serial villain. He has his hands on an outlawed Kree device called the Psyche-Magnitron; he bathes himself in rays of energy from the device, intending to become powerful enough to challenge the Supreme Intelligence. Yon-Rogg gains the ability to conjure up "anything ever devised by Kree science" using his mind and uses this to fashion the Mandroid (not to be confused with the SHIELD battle armour, which didn't exist at the time; we'll get there), a Kree robot used to hunt and execute traitors. So, some things never change... this series really likes pitting Captain Marvel against robots. Carol watches helplessly as Mar-Vell struggles against the Mandroid but finally flies at the Psyche-Magnitron; the Mandroid shoots an energy beam which hits the device; the Mandroid dissolves as the Psyche-Magnitron stops working.
Yon-Rogg draws a pistol to fight Mar-vell (not that his pistol did any good last issue), but as they struggle a wild shot hits Carol in the shoulder. Mar-Vell is enraged, even though Yon-Rogg protests, "I... I did not mean to hit her! My shot went astray! I was not responsible...!!" However, this only reminds Mar-Vell of how Una died because of a battle Yon-Rogg engaged. A real bloodlust enters into Mar-Vell now. "Can you give me... a girl's life, Yon-Rogg? Answer me... can you give life again to one you did slay??" But at the brink of killing Yon-Rogg, Mar-Vell pulls back; he realizes killing Yon-Rogg would be a hollow triumph.
Suddenly, the Psyche-Magnitron begins overloading due to the Mandroid's damage. Mar-Vell sees Carol is still alive and knows he only has enough time to save either her or Yon-Rogg. "Then... it must be the girl!!" The Psyche-Magnitron explodes as Mar-Vell flees the collapsing Kree outpost, leaving Yon-Rogg to his death. Feeling weak from his fight, Mar-Vell switches places with Rick Jones, but Rick inherits all of Mar-Vell's exhaustion and he collapses to the ground.
Thoughts: Yon-Rogg running back to the Kree outpost doesn't make sense and brings back bad memories of how this series used to spin its wheels, but this is, at last, the final appearance of Yon-Rogg. Yon-Rogg could have been an interesting villain as Mar-Vell's superior officer. Unfortunately, every writer - Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake - made his plots so transparent. There was never anything clever in Yon-Rogg's efforts to kill Mar-Vell. Although at this point in the series he could have been called Mar-Vell's nemesis, he wound up staying dead because better villains came along - in particular, a certain fella named Thanos.
Unfortunately, this is Captain Marvel's farewell to Carol Danvers too (aside from a few cameos). With Carol and Yon-Rogg gone, the series has definitely been completely reinvented. It's a pity Carol couldn't have a place under the new status quo, but she's a security officer with NASA and the series is now about a wandering space hero who trades places with a roving guitar player. Treating Rick like Mar-Vell's secret identity unfortunately means all of Mar-Vell's supporting cast have to be let go. Fare thee well, General Bridges, Jeremy Logan and Chester Fenton. You were a kind of lousy supporting cast, but at least it was something.
Although Carol Danvers is gone, it's in this issue that she's granted her own superhuman powers. It won't come up 'til Ms. Marvel #1 in 1977, but given how powerful the Psyche-Magnitron was, it was a pretty clever idea to use this incident as the means to give her super powers. She would have been a forgotten supporting character (like Bridges, Logan & Fenton) were it not for her eventual career as a super hero.
Now, however, we have Mordecai P. Boggs and Rick's new status as a travelling musician. It's not a bad fit for Rick and will pretty become the #2 most defining thing about him as a character (#1 is that he's a sidekick). For now, the songs Rick's singing don't make me cringe, so we'll consider it acceptable.
Next: How about a Holocaust story? No, seriously, that's what we're being served in Captain Marvel #19!
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