Carol Danvers Officially Joins the Avengers: Avengers Vol 1 #183 – May 1979
Avengers Vol 1 #183: "The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!"
Ms. Marvel becomes an official Avenger. Temporarily.
In this issue Carol Danvers officially becomes part of the Avengers. Marvel needs a character who bares the Marvel name, and since her standalone run was canceled, they decided to make her part of the Avengers. Instead of Scarlet Witch.
First, I’ll fill in the gap of Avengers Vol 1 #182. The kidnapper of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver was defeated by the Avengers. It turns out that he is a gypsy who believes that he is their father, who lost them under terrible circumstances of been hunted by the local community. It is deeply tragic and Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver don’t remember any of this, but they decide to travel with him to figure out whether it is the truth or not. Quicksilver was fired from the Avengers, but Scarlet Witch is taking a break and her position needs to be filled. So, it is Ms. Marvel who is called to fill in her place. Instead of the previous people who have already been part of the Avengers and were just fired.
The issue opens with Ms. Marvel being interrogated by government officials in order for her to get the security clearance needed to join the Avengers. This generally makes no sense, they don’t know who she really is, so how can they give her a security clearance? There is also a government official who is holding her wrist and she threatens to take off his hand if he doesn’t let her go. Moreover, on the same first page she is referred to as “incomparable,” but the writer, David Michelinie, who also states that it is a temporary position in the Avengers, as she is just agreed to temporarily fill in for Scarlet Witch. So she's not so "incomparable".
We find out that the government official is holding Ms. Marvel’s hand because he wants to take her finger prints. She thinks it will compromised her secret identity and she’s right. There is a record of her finger prints back at NASA. In the end Tony Stark offers a compromise. Retina prints. Mr. Gyrich agrees and adds a voice identification to the process.
Ms. Marvel, Welcome to the Avengers. She’s not even the only woman on the team, she has the WASP with her. WASP tells Ms. Marvel that she is glowing with pride. Yes, being an Avenger is a big deal, it’s joining the big league. Ms. Marvel needs it, especially since Carol Danvers has a lot of free time now that she doesn’t have a job.
Then we follow Tony Stark, who is actually not sure about Ms. Marvel. He hopes that Ms. Marvel will be a valuable asset to the team, meaning he doesn’t know. She wasn’t very useful in the past when she was with the Avengers and it’s not a good sign that the leader of the Avengers doesn’t trust his newest teammate.
Then the issue cuts to an amusing segment of Iron Men and Beast helping the trash men load the trash to their truck as their hydraulic lift can’t handle the load. The issue follows the garbage people to the trash yard where the Absorbing Man has reassembled himself from all his different pieces. It looks very Terminator 2 style, all the different pieces coming together to form one person.
Then the issue cuts to Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers talking in their civilian personas. Wilson tells Rogers that no one asked him if he wants to be an Avenger. He works best alone or with Rogers. He also doesn’t like the fact that he was chosen as tokenism. Rogers asks him to join anyway as a personal favor and Wilson agrees. It’s actually an interesting discussion about the difference between real representation and tokenism. One can also view this as a critic of affirmative action, which is a little odd.
In a different place the Absorbing Man, Carl Creel, breaks into a store and steals clothes and money, all while kidnapping the store’s employee. Apparently, his big plan is to travel to South America where there are no superheroes to stop him.
In the meantime, this issue is also a temporary goodbye to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Scarlet Witch calls to say goodbye to Vision, and Clint Barton shows up to say goodbye to her in person before the ship that she is on sails away. It seems like Barton has some feelings towards her, but respects the fact that she’s a married woman. That’s super decent of him. It’s also pretty painful to see how broke he is without his Avengers salary, he can’t even afford to buy a donuts and has to settle for a cap of coffee alone. Crystal (the inhuman princess) calls about Quicksilver, apparently, he will return to her soon. Other than that, Quicksilver is mostly ignored.
Then we see the Absorbing Man and his hostage enter a café shop to eat before their ship sails. Like all great coincidences in comic books, this happens to be the same place that Barton has chosen to have his coffee. The Absorbing Man spills Barton’s coffee and punches Barton when he protests. Barton punches him, but he turns into formica. The people in the coffee shop recognize the Absorbing Man as a villain and attack him. But, the Absorbing Man wins easily.
Barton calls the operator and tells her to notify the Avengers that the Absorbing Man has returned and that he is on pier 2. In the meantime, Barton changes into his Hawkeye costume and uses special arrows against the Absorbing Man, and the Absorbing Man turns into the materials around him to repel them.
It seems that Hawkeye can’t win, but than the Avengers show up. As not all of them can fly, Ms. Marvel simply carries Beast in the air with her. I have to admit that it’s impressive.
The Absorbing Man also thinks so and simply jumps off into the ship. But he didn’t jump there to escape. He hoped to absorb the energy of the ship’s turbines, so he’ll be more powered up to fight the Avengers. The issue ends with a fight about to start.
In this issue Ms. Marvel finally joins the Avengers after her own run got canceled. Well, she temporarily joins the Avengers as a replacement, which is slightly less impressive. She doesn’t get the same warm treatment that Scarlet Witch does. In fact, other than joining the Avengers she doesn’t get any lines in the issue. She’s just a character in the background. Just swinging in with Beast. But the WASP gets the same treatment, so I guess it’s not a big surprise. Still, in her first issue as part of the team I wanted something a bit more impressive than this.
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