Introducing Carol Danver’ Father: Ms. Marvel #14 – February 1978
- Nov 11, 2017
- 4 min read
Ms. Marvel #14: "Fear Stalks Floor 40"
In this issue Carol Danvers is still visiting her parents and we get to meet her father for the first time.
The issue opens with Ms. Marvel standing on a building that is still in construction during a stormy night. She’s there because she is looking out for her dad who is also there, a few floors below her. It’s a good thing that she is there, because she saves her dad, although she gets hit with debris from the building.
Ms. Marvel switches back to Carol Danvers to talk to her dad. When she walks in to his office he calls her “kitten.” He couldn’t view her in a more childish and cute way, 180 degrees from what she really is. Danvers hears her father arguing with the owner of the building who threatens her father, her father is infuriated and threatens to expose that the building is not built according to the codes.
Danvers offers her dad her professional help as an investigator. Like a typical chauvinist he dismisses her and tells her “leave a man t’ do a man’s work in peace.” Because a woman couldn’t possibly help him, even though one just saved him. He just tells her to go home to her mother.
Once she leaves, Danvers lets her anger flare. She’s angry that her father calls her kitten and refuses to see her as a grown up. However, they are more similar than they think, as she inherited his flaring temper.
Also, Danvers already asked Tracy Burke and Frank Gianelli to investigate Maxwell Plumm, her father’s boss. The investigation could be more than they thought, as we see someone stalking outside the New York office. While Burke and Gianelli investigate Maxwell someone with a gun attacks Gianelli. Gianelli recognizes the criminal, but that doesn’t help. If you remember, someone burned Danvers’ penthouse in issue #9 and now someone thoroughly searched her office. I guess that they don’t know that in the same issue Danvers handed documents to the police.
Someone from the office calls Danvers and informs her about what happened. She is worried, but at least she knows the truth about the company her father works in. While she’s walking a bat is following her. What? Apparently, Dracula has been following her, but she only senses him and flies off as Ms. Marvel as she thinks it’s nothing.
As she flies off she has a vision of her father being killed by a superpowered criminal called Steeplejack, who is hired by Plumm. A great opportunity for Ms. Marvel to save her old man.
While Ms. Marvel tries to carry her father to safety, he keeps yelling at her to put him down. He tells her he can fight his own battles, even though we clearly saw he was about to die before Ms. Marvel showed up.
Joe Danvers just refuses to admit that he needs the help, saying that Steeplejack was bluffing. He says he doesn’t need “no bunny in a bathin’ suit telling [him] how to live [his] life!” that’s a strange interpretation of someone saving your life. Also, “bunny in a bathin’ suit,” really? Bunny I guess because Playboy was at the highest of popularity back then and what a better to humiliate a woman than by calling her a bunny. And bathing suits don’t have sleeves or scarfs. He is being a stubborn idiot at the expense of his life. Ms. Marvel decides that the best course of action is to knock him out, for his safety and a little for revenge.
While Joe Danvers is out, she hides his body and goes after Steeplejack. It’s funny that she tells him that Danvers senior has his very own “guardian super-heroine watching out for him.” No one can harm someone with a superheroine body guard.
Steeplejack is a more difficult enemy then she anticipated, probably because it’s not Steeplejack at all. Steeplejack is in fact Maxwell Plumm who stole Steeplejack equipment after Steeplejack’s death. And instead of selling or duplicating the high-valued gear he decided that a cheap building will solve his financial problems? Comic book logic I guess. Even though it’s funny that he says that he could have made a fortune like that “but [he] never found the time.” I am not sure why the issue emphasizes that it has a plot hole.
Even though Ms. Marvel is in a tough place, fate intervenes and the explosives at the bottom of the building detonate. Steeplejack losses his balance and Ms. Marvel manages to save both him and her father while the building collapses around them.
Ms. Marvel barely gets a thank you from her father and she’s angry. She did save his life twice in one night. Her mother comes to her with comforting words and recognizes her instantly. Now that at least makes sense, it’s her daughter, she should be able to recognize her no matter what she is wearing. Ms. Marvel realizes that her father will never accept her the way that she is, and now she makes her peace with that.
This issue was a great one. It is great to meet Carol Danvers’ family and realize that they are not even close to perfect. Her mother is a stay at home mother and he father is a tough chauvinist who thinks women should all be like his wife. And their daughter is a great superheroine. It was great to see that her mother recognizes her. It was even greater to see that Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers accepts herself and realize that her father will never change or accept her as she is. She has made her peace with her new superheroine status and now she has made her peace with her family.
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