Carol Danvers and Problems in the Workplace: Captain Marvel #5 – September 1968
The issue opens with Captain Marvel standing trial before Ronan the Accuser, after being accused by Colonel Yon-Rogg for betrayal and for being Un-Kree. We find out that the Sub-Mariner is still alive and the bacteria are destroyed. Medic Una is very emotional and plays straight into Colonel Yon-Rogg hands. This actually shines a positive light on Carol Danves. Unlike Una, Carol is not so emotional that she seems illogical or inappropriate to situation around her. Even Mar-Vell himself loses his temper during his trial which is not clever. The result of the trial is no result, Mar-Vell is been given another chance to prove his loyalty to the Kree.
We also learn that Russians created a creature called the Metazoid and command him to bring them Dr. Walter Lawson. In exchange they will make him human again.
Then we switch to Dr. Lawson being investigated by Carol Danvers. The panel starts with Carol telling him: "It's a very simple question, Mr. Lawson! Why does it take you so long to answer it?" Mar-Vell is on trial for the second time on the same day. There is almost a parallel between Carol and Yon-Rogg, especially since Mar-Vell is guilty in both cases. She wants to know why there aren't any pictures of him in his documents. Obviously Mar-Vell destroyed all the pictures. Again, Carol is absolutely right.
He very disrespectfully answers that he is a scientist not a model, and she is not amused. In order to try and shack her off he goes into goes full offensive, and insults her as a woman.
She accuses him and his fellow scientists for treating security officers like villains or fools. Then she adds that because she is a female security officer they jibe her even more. She is not happy. And what does Dr. Lawson do? He tells her that she's a lonely woman in a man's job. In fact it's natural for beautiful women to experience psychological hardships in men's roles. He makes it sound like the problem is the job itself and not the way men around her treat her. To end on an even more insulting note, he just gets up and leaves. Despite the fact that he just insulted her, she seems to be uninfluenced. In fact she's more suspicious than ever, thinking that he's "too tricky to be real".
All works of art including comics are written, inevitably, inside a cultural context. And one of the cultural processes that American society was going through at the time was the second wave of feminism. We see its influence in this issue as Carol Danvers, a woman in a job usually filled by men, has to deal with prejudice against her judgment. Dealing with women in masculine professions is very progressive.
Now back to the issue itself, it's unclear to me how can Dr. Lawson even enter the base if the head of security doesn't approve of him?
Dr. Lawson leaves and goes to wipe the memory of the night clerk who knows that he is an alien. The Metazoid follows him and tries to capture him, but Lawson changes into his Captain Marvel gear and fights him. Mar-Vell manages to kill the Metazoid using x-rays. Immediately he goes back to the hospital and manages to erase the clerk's mind before he wakes up and before the memory erasing device is discovered.
This issue manages to represent some contemporary issues of women in the workplace with Carol Danvers.