Carol Danvers Wants to Be Her Own Hero: Ms. Marvel #9 – September 1977
Ms. Marvel #9: "Call Me Death-Bird!"
In this action-packed issue Ms. Marvel fights against her first female villain: Death-Bird.
But first let’s start with the cover. Noticed anything different about the small image of Ms. Marvel which always appears on the left upper corner? Suddenly her tummy is not exposed. Probably due to audiences’ complaints. Still, it’s the first official change that her outfit has gone through.
This issue starts with action as Ms. Marvel is fighting against Death-Bird. This is Death-Bird’s first appearance in Marvel comics. As you might have noticed from her, well, birdlike appearance, she belongs to the Shi'ar. Even though she has a very interesting history, we won’t learn about it in this issue. From the first panel, we see that she was sent by MODOK to kill Ms. Marvel.
While they are fighting, Death-Bird calls Ms. Marvel “sister,” because even across galaxies all women are one big sisterhood? I must admit, I am not a fan.
When Ms. Marvel is down she remembers her life as Carol Danvers in the last few hours. Carol Danvers was on a date (while wearing a terrible pink dress) with a guy named Paul, when she had a seventh-sense vision of some breaking into her apartment. Which is strange, because most of her visions are not about her personal life as Carol Danvers.
Danvers wants to call the police, but as the problem is seventh-sense related, Ms. Marvel takes over. Danvers’ date will never get so much as an apology from Ms. Marvel, she doesn’t care about social adequacy.
While Ms. Marvel is flying to Danvers’ apartment, Death-Bird brings her down. But she also lets Ms. Marvel recover to make this fight one that is worth the victory. Death-Bird attacks her with talons, a spear, super-agility, her wings, and energy javelins.
Death-Bird has the upper hand, but Ms. Marvel manages to stagger her. As Death-Bird falls off the roof, Ms. Marvel sees that the nearest building is on fire. She also gets a seventh-sense vision of two children trapped inside the fire. Ms. Marvel flies off to save the children, Death-Bird, who doesn’t understand this madness, attacks her with her energy javelins.
Ms. Marvel is struck down by a beam coming out of the energy javelins. Death-Bird rejoice as her victory, which is part of her debt to MODOK, is repaid, and yet “part of [her] wishes [she’d]… failed.” Well she got her wish come true, because she did fail. But she doesn’t know that. Death-Bird flies away to give MODOK the happy news and Ms. Marvel recovers from her fall to save the children from the fire.
She saved a boy and a girl from the fire, but it’s the boy she is hold. She is telling him that it is ok to cry, that it will make him feel better. It’s a great moment as we hardly see her interact with the people that she saves. But then again, it’s hard to just leave a scared child. Even if it's a boy and not the girl. Then we hear her say that in order to comfort him, she had to channel Danvers’ skills, and it felt good. It’s the first time that we see her using human skills and not just memories. But the fire is not out so it’s back to work for our heroine, as she throws a water tower on the fire.
Ms. Marvel quickly realizes that unfortunately, Danvers' that apartment is in that building. As Ms. Marvel is done saving, she switches back to Danvers, who can handle such things better. Danvers walks around her burned apartment in utter shock, sad at all of the lost memories (though she focuses on one in particular, that of a man named Colonel Michael Rossi USAF).
But remember her vision during her date? Someone was breaking into her apartment. In her moment of grief and anger she hits the wall (do people really do that in real life? Well, they do in movies so I’ll cut the issue some slack). While trying to pull herself together she finds an incendiary bomb. Then, the police captain (who is also a woman, how nice) shows up, apparently to take important documents into police protection. Even though Carol Danvers’ personal life was burned, these documents were not.
We also see that someone has been following Danvers and knows that the documents survived and that the police has them. He is willing to have them back even over Danvers’ dead body. A new villain before the problem of MODOK is even solved. Life is sure getting interesting for Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel.
Danvers lost everything in the fire. So, she goes to work with a workplace T-shirt, her hair looks unwashed, and apparently, she’s been wearing contact lenses all this time, because she has glasses on now. Her day at work is also going terrible as everyone is doing their worst. Danvers goes back to her office and collapses on her chair, when J. Jonah Jameson walks in with a big smile, so we know it will be bad.
He brought in a daughter of his friend, Tabitha Townshend, as a personal editorial assistant, because she wants to be a famous reporter and skip the hard work. That is a realistic depiction of someone who has a father with important connections, some people chooses to skip the hard work part. Townshend said that she has read Danvers’ book about space industry and that it was “a drag.” You don’t need to worry about your boss liking you, or getting fired, when the big manager is your dad’s friend. Even though Tracy Burke, the associate editor, drags Townshend out of the office; it is Danvers who says she has given her an assignment and that she thinks that it will work out. That seems like a logical misstep to me, I mean it possible I guess, but not logical.
I don’t know what was the point in introducing Townshend. There are easier ways to bring up the fact that Danvers is investigating Alden’s, which also A.I.M.’s New-York headquarter. Danvers is caught up in this, but she wants to be caught up. She takes the rest of the day off and goes to Alden’s. `
Carol Danvers feels very Clark Kent here, but it’s not just Ms. Marvel she’s hiding, it’s also Carol Danvers. A.I.M.’s knows that Danvers is on to them, and Danvers knows that, but still she goes to investigate. More for the superhero side of her, as she’s never done investigative journalism before.
Then she realizes she is there because Ms. Marvel wants her to be there. Though Danvers thought that things are better, they are worse as Ms. Marvel unconsciously navigated her, even the glasses could have been Ms. Marvel’s idea. While she is realizing this, A.I.M. people realize who she is, and attempts to apprehend her.
Impressively, she fights off all three men. That military training really paid off here. She knows she must escape as Carol Danvers and that fits her perfectly, she’s “tired of playing second fiddle – to [her] Kree Alter-Ego.” Unfortunately, just as she finishes thinking these words she is apprehended by A.I.M.
An evil boss orders to have her investigated and then killed. That is her cue to turn into Ms. Marvel, when suddenly there is an explosion. MODOK has come to take over. The issue ends with a cliffhanger, as Carol Danvers is stuck in the middle of this power struggle.
Readers’ letters are interesting in this issue. Letter one is from a woman who says she never noticed how much she wanted to read about a woman superhero until Ms. Marvel (a fan who is loyal to Marvel apparently) and then explains how issue #2 is actually chauvinistic on close inspection with similar points to those that I brought up. But we will forgive it, because it was before Chris Claremont started writing the comics. The second reader’s letter says he enjoys the comic even though he is a chauvinist. Whoever answered (it could be Goodwin, though I doubt it) explains to him that women are just humans like men are. The fact that someone needs to write it down it just sad. Both these letters just highlight the historical importance of Ms. Marvel.
This is a great issue on all fronts. Both Ms. Marvel and Carol Danvers manage to get themselves into trouble with A.I.M., Death-Bird is a very worthy adversary and an interesting one for Ms. Marvel. Carol Danvers feels that Ms. Marvel is controlling her unconsciously, even though she wants to take down A.I.M herself, she didn’t know she didn’t want to go to Alden’s until she was already there. It seems that Ms. Marvel is getting the upper hand in their struggle. Danvers really wanted to be her own person and hero, but in this issue, she failed to do so. However, as the reader letters point out, this comic is still historically an important one.
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