How to create a love triangle: Captain Marvel #7 – November 1968
At the end of this issue there are two pages of published fan mail. A guy named Richard Howell wrote that: "at first I thought that there might be a possible romance between the Cap'n and Carol Danvers –… yet now I see that it's really impossible." Impossible? You know nothing Jon Snow! Up until this point Carol Danvers is a strong, independent woman, she has a man's job in a man's workplace, she is confident and it seems that no one takes her seriously. It also seems like she's alright with being single. Obviously, the next logical step for her character, that seems intent on bringing down Dr. Lawson, is to have a love triangle with him, or at least his alien alter-ego – Captain Marvel. One of the readers asked to give "Carol Danvers longer parts in the story," I don't think that this is what he had in mind.
This issue starts with Captain Marvel on trial again. He has been brought to Ronan the Accuser's spaceship and has been placed inside a truth chair. This time he's on trial because he defeated the Solam, a monster that the humans accidently created in the last issue. His orders were not to interfere, let alone use his Kree knowledge to defeat the creature. Both Ronan and Colonel Yon-Rogg investigate him. However, even the chair cannot reveal Mar-Vell's true intentions. Therefore, to prove his loyalty to the Kree, Ronan wants Mar-Vell to destroy an entire city on earth. It is an experiment to see if humans are immune to a lethal virus, a virus which the Kree are immune to. You know, just to show how all other Kree are evil, except Mar-Vell obviously.
We switch to Carol Danvers who wants the scorch marks that the Kree spaceship left to be analyzed. She wants to prove that they were created by aliens. Yon-Rogg sees this through his monitor and tries to kill her with an energy beam. A beam which Captain Marvel destroys before it hits Carol.
Now we move to the how to build a love triangle sequences.
When Captain Marvel destroys the deadly beam, it creates a smoke fog. When he comes out of it, he makes a joke about the situation. Carol tells him that she thought he was an alien for moment, which he is. He makes a deflecting joke by stating "still looking for little green men, eh?" He's not little, but he defiantly wears green. She's not amused and tells him that she's "on to something… and Dr. Lawson is at the bottom of it!". He asks her "why don't you call the federal authorities?" and she says she did, but all they managed to find was some some figure prints and a little data. Then she asks his for his help, she wants him to use his powers to help her take down his human identity. Now the only physical contact that they have is Mar-Vell helping Carol to get up after the explosion. That's more than enough for Yon-Rogg who call Medic Una and asks her to observe Mar-Vell's exchange with Carol.
Back to Carol and Captain Marvel, Carol gives Captain Marvel the card with all the information she has on Dr. Lawson, which Captain Marvel "accidently" loses. He in fact takes it for himself.
Captain Marvel says he will try to help Carol and she thanks him. She says that: "I don’t know why, but I feel an endless trust in you!" Captain Marvel thinks it's ironic given the fact that she doesn't trust Lawson at all. He's right in this case. It's hard to blame her for trusting a costumed man with a tendency for saving her life. We see that Carol places her hands on his chest in a seemingly affectionate manner.
The next phase in creating a love triangle is having someone state that a love triangle is being formed, that someone is Yon-Rogg.
Yon-Rogg tells medic Una that Mar-Vell seems close to and over enthusiastic about Carol Danvers. Una denies this, telling Yon-Rogg that Mar-Vell is simply doing his job. However, she has her back to him and the reader can see that she is crying. Una thinks she had seen Carol's attraction to Marvel, but "what of Marvel?" this attraction needs to be spelled out in case you missed it. She also says that her insecurity is a "woman's weakness", but she's an alien, not human, why should she have a woman's weakness if she belongs to a different species? What does a woman's weakness even mean? Insecurity? That's quite a generalization about all women, and all women in the universe.
Then we move to the villain of the week, Quasimodo – who is a living computer that is the "pied piper" of all other machines and inanimate objects (I don’t think guns are machines in the same sense that computers are). Captain Marvel confronts him in two locations: one is at the Cape, where Quasimodo feeds off the computers, and the other is an amusement park with robots (Westworld style) that look like humans. Captain Marvel defeats the Quasimodo and uses the robots to give an appearance that he have destroyed an entire human city with the help of the Kree virus.
The only reason that Yon-Rogg doesn't see through this obvious ploy (and the fact that again Mar-Vell has been saving humans instead of not interfering) is because Medic Una has sabotaged Yon-Rogg equipment.
To remind the readers that now we have a love triangle, the panel before the last one is Medic Una crying, again, wondering if Mar-Vell will die because he will fail in "his sacred duty," or if he succeeds she may "lose him to that other woman!" nothing says love triangle more than an "other woman". The last panel is that that of a tormented Mar-Vell, again.
That's how easily Carol Danvers changes from being mainly a security officer to being mainly the "other woman," a much more traditional position for women. All you need is one instant of physical contact and some nice words being said while the partner with low self-esteem is watching and you're done. To be continued in the next issue.