Carol Danvers a Worthy Woman: Ms. Marvel #8 – August 1977
Ms. Marvel #8: "The Last Sunset...?"
Carol Danvers and Ms. Marvel are now more connected than ever. Is Ms. Marvel gaining control, or are they turning into one person?
This issue starts a little after the previous one. We see that Carol Danvers is in control and Ms. Marvel is the observer. Carol is at Alden’s which is being scanned by S.H.I.E.L.D. Quick reminder: Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers discovered that this department store is a cover up for A.I.M.'s the headquarter.
Larry, a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, finds nothing on his portable scanner and decides to call off the search. Danvers tries to convince him to continue because he owns her, but he is angry and says they are even now. Obviously the A.I.M. base is still there and now Danvers is in danger.
Frank Gianelli shows up and volunteers to take Carol back to the office.
Danvers is not happy with Gianelli’s behavior. He wants to be a protector, he tells her that it’s a bad neighborhood (with a fancy store in it?), and that it’s safer for her to join him. That’s not a very dignified way to treat your boss, who is an ex-military personal, even if you don’t know that she’s a superheroine. Danvers gets angry, tells him that she will see him back at the office, and that she can take care of herself. She also tells him to leave before she will loss her tempter, which makes her sounds more like J. Jonah Jameson sort of boss. It’s funny that as she walks away she thinks that: “I’ve got enough to worry about without having to cope with a self-appointed nurse-maid.” Because he can’t help her, but he can discover who she is. Also, look at her appearance. She looks tough, no more skirts and professional shirts, she is wearing jeans and her jacket has a hoodie which she is wearing because it’s raining.
We see that Danvers finds an address that she has been searching for, and she’s surprised to find that it’s a bar. She made an appointment to meet there with Tracy Burke, once the world’s top photo journalist, but also a recovering alcoholic. Danvers wants Burke to be her associate editor and Burke assures her that she on the wagon. Danvers hires her. Unfortunately, she also gets a seventh-sense vision at the bar. In her vision, she sees a radar station exploding, and then someone forcibly snaps her out of her vision.
She is being snapped out of her vision by a man hitting her. A man, out of two, who followed her after she left Gianelli behind. The first man gets a few punches in because she’s in shock from her vision. But Danvers gets into action, and takes him out.
Then the second man pulls out a gun. Again, she doesn’t freeze, she jumps for cover behind the bar.
However, even though she is not in costume, we see that it is Ms. Marvel who is doing the fighting. She takes the man with the gun out while saying: “speed and control, warrior -- one move flowing into the next – just as you were taught at the imperial academy on Kree-Lar.” Maybe it was because they interfered a seventh sense vision, it appears that even though she didn’t transform, this is Ms. Marvel, remembering memories that are not her own, but Captain Marvel’s.
The man begs her to stop hitting him, but she doesn’t. Burke yells at her, telling her to stop and “do you want to kill him?!” Ms. Marvel doesn’t know what else to do with an enemy, but these words bring Danvers back to the surface. She apologies to Burke, telling her that she got carried away, and tells her to call the police.
Then the comic picks up the Saturday afterwards with Carol Danvers and Michael Barnett walking on the beach together. And they are talking about Ms. Marvel and the incident at the bar. Dr. Barnett confirms my theory that the breaking of the seventh sense vision must have caused “elements of Ms. Marvel’s Kree personality surging into your own.” Then Danvers apologizes that their date has turned into a therapy session. I guess it was still legal to date your therapist in the 70s. I am not so sure.
Apparently, they are planning on going back to his beach house where Danvers is going to cook them some nice steaks. Then she sees it. The radar station from her seventh sense vision, just standing there on top of the mountain. The moment Barnett turns around to look at the driftwood, Danvers is gone.
We know now that it is possible that every time that Carol Danvers is in impressive hero mode, it could be in fact Ms. Marvel. Danvers climbs the cliff side and crawls under an electric fence. She must find out the truth. But she also knows that it could be Ms. Marvel who is motivating her into action. But she also understands that it doesn’t matter, Danvers and Ms. Marvel may be the only ones that may help. She, Danvers, never could resist helping people. She’s a hero deep inside herself.
Danvers thinks that it is strange that a civilian radar station would need an electric fence at all. She walks in and finds that all the heavily armed security guards are out cold.
For the first time, we see Carol Danvers making the choice to switch to Ms. Marvel. She accepts that there is something there that she cannot handle and lets Ms. Marvel take the lead. It is almost a collaborative effort between the two women. But then Ms. Marvel notes that they can’t live like this forever, soon something will have to change.
But, in the meantime, Ms. Marvel finds Grotesk (last seen in Ms. Marvel #6). Grotesk is surprised to see her as he thoughts that she died during their last encounter. They start fighting. She realizes that this radar station is a research lab in disguise. Grotesk intends to fire their military laser cannon at the cavourite crystal, which will cause the explosion from her vision, an explosion that will destroy earth.
During their fight Grotesk manages to grab Ms. Marvel by the scarf. Again, what a useless part of a superheroine outfit it is, she should have gotten rid of it a long time ago. But she still manages to maneuver a good blow that sets herself free and stagger him.
Grotesk causes an explosion and both he and Ms. Marvel land in the water. He recovers first and tries to drown her while Barnett watches helplessly. Now he is the helpless bystander, not Danvers as she was during the Captain Marvel comics. She pretends to have died and Grotesk leaves hurrying back to the radar station. She manages to save the day by throwing Grotesk into the laser cannon. The explosion from her vision does occur, but the earth is safe.
Barnett finds Danvers on the beach. Even though the sand is steel hard, Danvers made tracks in it. Does this mean that it is the first sign of the merging of Danvers and Ms. Marvel? Or is it simply Ms. Marvel saving Danvers? Danvers is a bit sad, because in his way, Grotesk simply wanted to avenge his people who were accidentally killed by nuclear testing. She has compassion for her enemy unlike Ms. Marvel.
In the readers section, one of the readers complained about Ms. Marvel’s outfit. Long sleeves, scarf and boots which are winter wear, but underwear and an exposed tummy which makes no sense. I’m bring this here because a small change will occur in Ms, Marvel #9.
This is a great issue. The Carol Danvers and Ms. Marvel conflict is so great here. Ms. Marvel’s personality is trickling into Danvers’ occasionally in disturbing ways. However, we also get to see that Danvers is a strong woman who knows how to handle herself, but isn’t afraid of asking for help when she needs it. She has a lot to do at work so she hires Tracy Burke as a co-editor, she knows she can’t handle whoever took out the armed guard so she calls on Ms. Marvel. But she isn’t afraid of walking home by herself so he scolds Frank Gianelli. She even tries to take on A.I.M. by herself through her connections at S.H.I.E.L.D. Even though Ms. Marvel is a hero with a worthy enemy in this issue, in her personal life Carol Danvers is a woman worthy of her readers in this issue . Except for the Barnett part which I think is terrible for ethical reasons, so I am going to ignore it.
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 or on Twitter. Also, please help the blog grow by liking it and sharing my posts. Have a great day.