Is Carol Danvers Getting Her Powers or Leaving the Comic? Captain Marvel #18 – November 1969
This is Carol Danvers' last appearance in the Captain Marvel comic.
The last time we saw Carol Danvers she was kidnapped by Colonel Yon-Rogg.
This comic has a new write again, Roy Thomas. I won't go into his personal career at Marvel, but as you will notice he takes the character of Carol Danvers in a new direction. And that direction is out!
The issue opens with a fast recap of the events of the previous issue, which I did not review as it didn't include Carol at all. Now Mar-Vell is stuck in the negative zone, but he is linked to Rick Jones (a previous Hulk and Captain America sidekick). Whenever Rick slams his nega bands together he and Captain Marvel change atoms, meaning they switch places (yes it sounds really similar to another famous DC character).
While Rick Jones is busy being a normal teenage boy, Mar-Vell - still stuck in the negative zone - figures out where Yon-Rogg is hiding from him. He is in the long-lost Kree outpost, where they met last time. Meaning Yon-Rogg never went anywhere, just stayed in the same place. He also guesses that Yon-Rogg kidnapped Carol Danvers. Probably because this happened so many times before (the comic also mention Medic Una, so we won't forget that she was Mar-Vell's true love).
Yon-Rogg is prepared for Mar-Vell and has the Psyche-Magnitron (which is also deemed illegal by Kree, but he doesn't care). The Psyche-Magnitron "power allows its master to conjure up anything ever devised by Kree science." Carol is just in the background telling Yon-Rogg that this machine does nothing but glow. But she's wrong; it creates a robot called The Mandroid.
Mar-Vell arrives and Mandroid attacks and overwhelms him.
While this is happening Carol Danvers is just lying on the floor, apparently standing up is too hard. Again she's the helpless woman who just worries about Captain Marvel. Also this is not what she was wearing last time we saw her, but that's just nitpicking.
Mar-Vell is losing the battle, but as always he comes up with a smart solution in order to win. He takes the Psyche-Magnitron and throws it at the Mandroid who shoots it. This causes the Psyche-Magnitron to become unstable.
Yon-Rogg is angry that his plan is ruined. He pulls out a hand-laser intending to kill Mar-Vell, Mar-Vell attacks him and somehow Carol ends up getting shoot. Let's not even start with why she didn't get out of the way, it's clear that the writer wants her out of his comic.
As Mar-Vell gets angry, Yon-Rogg says: "I did not mean to hit her… my shot went astray… I was not responsible…" I don't know why he even cares or bothers. Then Mar-Vell reminds him that he also didn't mean to kill Una, but that HE IS responsible for the deaths of both women. As Mar-Vell gets even angrier Yon-Rogg starts begging for his life. Mar-Vell suddenly hesitates to kill Yon-Rogg because he doesn't want to be a murderer. Then he realizes that the Psyche-Magnitron is about to explode and that Carol is just unconscious and not dead.
Captain Marvel can only save one person so it's obviously going to be Carol. In the end he didn't need to murder Yon-Rogg, he's dead anyway. But both Mar-Vell and Carol are affected by the blast from the Psyche-Magnitron exploding.
The issue ends with Mar-Vell leaving Carol Danvers (alone in the middle of nowhere, but whose nitpicking?) and switches back to Rick Jones, because he is exhausted. Rick has the same fatigue and just falls asleep on the ground not too far away. In the next issue when he wakes up there is no Carol around and she's not mentioned again.
Basically Carol Danvers is left alone stranded in a desert and completely forgotten. Like most readers, Mar-Vell probably forgot about her pretty fast as she was just the girl that needs to be saved. Her promising start as a career woman who is smart, confident and has an unusually masculine profession (for that time) disappeared too fast. Unfortunately, what we were left with was just another damsel in distress, who is now being left behind to be forgotten.
Mar-Vell himself didn't do so well on his own though. His comic was cancelled after issue #21 which came out in August 1970, and came back two years later for issue #22 in September 1972. Only to be killed off in Marvel's first graphic novel.
Do you agree with me? Have anything to say about this or any other related issue? Let's discuss in the comments below or on my Facebook page.