Carol Danvers is Coming to Help: Avengers #175 – September 1978
Avengers #175: "The End... and Beginning!"
Ms. Marvel comes to the Avengers, hoping to help them with their latest crisis.
Ms. Marvel was last seen in an Avengers issue, in Avengers Vol 1 #172. Now a few of the Avengers have appeared in her stories, but continuity doesn’t really work so we need to go back to the Avengers story, where a few of the Avengers have mysteriously disappeared. It turns out that the Collector kidnapped them. Yes, like the one from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Here he wants to collect the Avengers, all present and past Avengers. He wants to preserve them from a future catastrophe that he foresees. In the end Hawkeye defeats him and frees the Avengers. The Collector warns them about a threat who wants to role the entire universe and reshape it. The Collector sent his own daughter to spy on him, but she fell in love with him. Before the Collector tells the Avengers Michaels name, Michael kills him from a galaxy away.
This is exactly where this issue starts, with the Avengers standing around the ashes of the Collector. Iron Man tries to find hints to the identity of the mysterious enemy but finds only more ashes. While they are trying to find a way to teleport back to earth Iron Man finds a time machine. So, apparently Thor has been acting strange because the Collector has plucked him out of time, and erased his memory, because Thor was in a middle of a personal adventure, not with the Avengers when this all started. Also, Two-Gun, a hero from the past (1800s) asked to return to his time and so the Avengers agree and send him to his own time. Vision manages to use the time machine as a teleportation device and all of the Avengers are sent back to earth.
We learn more about Carina, the Collector’s daughter, and Michael. She’s just a terrible character. She was sent by her father to spy on Michael, fell in love with him, and she’s still in love with him after he killed her father. Michael, we learn was born under the name of Korvac, he came from the 31th century, where he was turned into a living computer, or a cyborg, as a punishment. This caused him to want more power. He is defeated by the Guardians of the Galaxy and escapes by traveling through time. This brings him to a giant space station, which belongs to none other than Galactus himself. He plugs himself into the ships computer and downloads all the information, a process that changes him into a god. Obviously, his first action was to change his body to a more human form. He decides that he will take control of the universe in order to heal it, or as we like to call it, destroy reality as we know it.
Then we switch to all of the Avengers at the Avengers mansion, thinking about what they should do and how to find out who this enemy is. Then at last Ms. Marvel flies in. wearing her old red suit, because of continuity problems that Marvel always has.
Ms. Marvel had a seventh-sense vision that told her to come and help the Avengers, they sure as hell need all the help they can get at this point. Hawkeye is not happy with her presence, but he is shut down pretty fast. Iron Man says that he, Ms. Marvel and Mar-Vell have the best chance of finding their enemy and dismisses everyone else for now. Then it turns out that Jocasta, Ultron’s bride, is still with the Avengers and she offers her help. This time Quicksilver disapproves. It’s an extension of the fact that he is not happy that his sister, the Scarlet Witch is married to Vision. Avengers bickering is the best, so entertaining. And unlike in the movies, Iron Man breaks up all arguments, before a fight erupts. Still, Iron Man feels that he has bitten more than he can chew, leading the Avengers, his company and trying to save humanity.
Then we switch a hilarious scene in which Wonder Man tries to impress Ms. Marvel after giving her a tour of the mansion.
Wonder Man tells her to try and lift Thor’s magnetic weights, which she can’t. Then he tries to impress her by lifting it himself. He almost succeeds, but after he lifts them, they nearly crush him. Good thing Iron Man shows up to turn off the magnets. So, yeah, Wonder Man almost dies trying to impress Ms. Marvel, which is so silly and funny.
Iron Man wants to use his computer, but apparently, someone, probably from the government, took some of the equipment from them. Iron Man is super angry. Jarvis, a human servant in the comics, complains about all the hard work with so many Avengers in one house and he is grateful that the Guardians of the Galaxy, choose to live somewhere else. So, Iron Man remembers that they exist and gives them a call for help. After some convincing from his friends, Starhawk agrees to help the Avengers without realizing that they are all talking about fighting the same enemy.
Michel is aware of this but is unconcerned. Starhawk can’t find him. And yet he is eager for an opportunity to destroy the Avengers. That is how the issue ends.
This issue is really interesting and funny, but not thanks to Ms. Marvel. Her involvement here is minimal. She is there to offer help but does not have any useful insights for now. She’s really here for the laughs as Wonder Man makes a fool of himself for her. I think it is pretty obvious that no matter how strong any character is, they will never be as strong as Thor. Still, it’s good to see her with the Avengers. Even though in Defenders #63, she already said that she is an Avenger and wore her new black suit. Well, Marvel continuity problems.
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