The Last Issue of the First Run: Ms. Marvel #23 – April 1979
Ms. Marvel #23: "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"
Yes, it’s time to say goodbye to this excellent first run of Ms. Marvel.
The issue opens with Carol Danvers coming back from a perfect date. After all, superheroines need a personal life as well, especially if they don’t have a permanent job. While she’s about to go rest after an entire night out, someone rings her doorbell. She thinks it’s her date who came back to have breakfast together, but it is nothing so pleasant. Her friend, Salia Petrie is at the door. Yeah, the same one who died in Ms. Marvel #12. Danvers carries her to sleep in her bed, noticing that oddly enough, even though Salia is in shock and suffers from fatigue, she is fine when she should be dead.
The issue shows us Salia’s death again. Ms. Marvel had to choose between saving the earth from the Elementals and saving her friend. She chooses earth. A decision that Danvers still feels awful about. Danvers tries to think about how it is possible that Salia survived. She decides to call the director of flight operation to make sure that Salia did or did not die on that day.
When Danvers gets off the phone she sees that Salia is up. Salia attacks her with beams coming out of her eyes. She says that she didn’t die but went to hell and now she has come to take Danvers with her. Her attack knocks Danvers out.
Danvers wakes up on a space ship, held as a prisoner by someone called the Faceless One. He informs Danvers that only he controls the teleportation chamber that can teleport anyone back to earth and that he also controls Salia, which explains why she attacked her friend. Also, he tells her that he will control her as well. I don’t think so.
Also, apparently controlling Salia includes having her wear a ridicules useless outfit and the drawing work itself makes her look even more ridicules.
He doesn’t know about her superpowers, but he has some tricks up his sleeve. When she tries to attack him, he traps her in a force field. Then he unleashes the forces of nature on her inside an environmental test chamber. Wind, rain, lightning, all attacking her until she crumbles. But obviously, she’s faking her reaction. When the Faceless One thinks that her will is broken, he deactivates the chamber to find that Danvers is gone. She broke a piece of the wall and escaped. She reaches a hallway and changes into Ms. Marvel without knowing that someone is watching her. That person attacks her with a psycho-kinetic energy lash, taking her by surprise. He is also taken by surprise by how fast she recovers from the attack.
What is more surprising is the identity of her attacker, Vance Astro, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. She apparently knows him and tells him to back down as she’s part of the Avengers. Which she isn’t as of Avengers Vol 1 #181. He doesn’t believe her, because she changed her costume since the last time he saw her file. So, obviously he attacks her, and she attacks back. She wins, and when she doesn’t kill him, he believes that she is one of the good guys.
Astro tells her that he notices that some drydock systems are acting up and the ship seems to be the source of the disturbance. Salia shows up and attack Astro with missiles coming out of her special armor suit and then she attacks him with a sword. But, then Ms. Marvel attacks Salia, even though she’s her former best friend, and a they fight. Salia shows no mercy, memory or flinching at attacking Ms. Marvel. Then for some mysterious reason Salia runs away.
Ms. Marvel and Astro follow Salia to a room where the Faceless One awaits. She keeps calling him bubble head which is funny. He captures both Ms. Marvel and Astro, and Astro notices that this is the main computer room. If Faceless One will get control of it, he will control the entire ship. The Faceless One attack them, and takes them by surprise. Well, more like ties them up than attack them.
Ms. Marvel sets herself and Astro free. Astro goes after Salia, but his attack is too strong. Ms. Marvel is upset but goes after the Faceless One. Ms. Marvel attacks the Faceless One and his head, which is a metallic bubble, comes off, grows legs and runs away. It is actually kind of creepy in an awesome way. As Ms. Marvel searches for the walking head, it attacks her from behind, telling her the oh so famous line: “resistance is futile.” He intends to implant a psychic control module at the base of her neck which will make him control her and make her spend the rest of her life in agony because of his rushed work. Lovely.
However, Astro saves Ms. Marvel at the last second. A second later Ms. Marvel saves Astro, as the Faceless One’s body tries to kill Astro, while Astro is trying to kill the walking head.
Faceless One admits his temporary defeat and wants to return to his own space to plan his next attempt of taking over. He also wants to take Salia with him. Bad move. Ms. Marvel tackles her and tries to physically force her to stay. In the meantime, Astro blasts the teleportation process? It’s not exactly a chamber, but rather a hello around the Faceless One and the faceless one disappears. While Salia starts screaming. Ms. Marvel asks Atro to use his psycho-kinetic beam to destroy the control unit inside of Salia. That makes the now freed Salia very hysterical and afraid.
Ms. Marvel decides that the best way to sooth Salia is to reveal her true identity. That she is Carol Danvers, her friend. I guess she doesn’t mind that Astro will know who she really is. Salia starts crying and Danvers is happy that she got her friend back.
The issue ends with a happy ending and a promise of an interesting next issue with Sabre-Tooth! Not that it is going to happen as this is Ms. Marvel’s last issue before being surprisingly canceled. It is such a shame. It really is a good issue. Ms. Marvel is both smart, strong, human and friendly here. We could have seen her life with a friend who knows her true identity, we could have seen her life with someone knowing her true identity (other than the creepy psychiatrist). Unfortunately, her run was cut too short. Despite some flaws, it was a really good run and I enjoyed reading it. I also enjoyed Ms. Marvel on her solo adventures and her not being in the sideline. Now for a really long time we will see the amazing Carol Danvers only in other’s adventures, and hardly on her own ones. But I will follow them all.
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