The Rape of Ms. Marvel – The End is here: Avengers Vol 1 #200– October 1980
Avengers Vol 1 #200: "The Child is Father To...?"
The end of a horrid plot line comes to an end. However, we need to survive the horror first.
The issue opens with a very creepy, in my opinion, statement about what phrases Americans are willing to fight for, and that motherhood means a great deal to them. So, why are the Avengers' happiness is tainted with a shadow or even fear? I don't know, maybe because Carol Danvers got pregnant with no father and her entire pregnancy lasted for about three days.
Captain America wishes out loud that there was something that he could do to help. In return Hawkeye teases him that this makes him sound like the child's father. A very insensitive statement considering that there is no father. Captain America is worried as he never thought a child will be born at the Avengers mansion. Iron Man wisely states that they are not sure that it will be born, or that it is in fact a child. At last, someone with common sense.
Scarlet Witch returns, worried about Ms. Marvel. She asks Captain America if there is any news about the strange pregnancy and the cause of it, this gives the issue an opportunity to refresh the memories of the readers about what happened.
We get a small glimpse of the operating room which proves that the writer has no idea how giving birth actually works. Or it's natural or it's a surgery, but here it seems like a strange combination of both. Dr. Blake and Jocasta are the ones who are with her. It seems that the baby is coming out on its own, without so much as a small push from Danvers. A supernatural creepy pregnancy. Great.
Also, why are all of the Avengers watching from the window at the door? what about some privacy? Also, it looks a bit creepy. But, they are all happy and excited from some reason when Danvers gives birth to a baby boy.
Dr. Blake is the only one who is concerned that there is something unusual about the baby. Seriously, not even Iron Man is worried?
All of the Avengers are standing and cooing around the baby. It is the WASP who wonders where the mother is. Dr. Blake explains that he had Wonder Man take her to rest and that he wants everyone except Iron Man and Yellowjacket who need to help him to leave. The WASP agrees, but she wants to check on Danvers first.
She does more than check on Danver, she congratulates Danvers. That makes Danvers angry, and rightfully so. She feels that she was used, she doesn't know who the father is and as far as she's concerned that is not her baby. All of this joy around her is just inappropriate. The only thing that makes sense in this scene is that Wonder Man is with her. It seems he always had a thing for her.
While the rest of the Avengers are sorting out their personal lives, Danvers' child continues to grow at an immense rate. It seems that he grows at the rate of two years per hour.
Wonder Man comes to speak to Danvers and sees her wearing her Ms. Marvel uniform. He is worried about her, but she tells him that Dr. Blake says that she is perfectly healthy. Which makes no sense as it usually takes about six weeks to recover from giving birth. I'll forgive it because she is a superheroine. On top of that, Wonder Man, like WASP, doesn't respect Danvers' feelings and thinks that she should accept her new status as a mother and the baby, despite the mystery and horror surrounding it.
Then we switch to Marcus and the Avengers. Marcus is the baby. Marcus is five and super intelligent. Captain America asks him how he came into the world and who is his father. Marcus says that he was conceived the usual way, and that he is his own father. That can only make sense in a comic book. Hawkeye suggests that they put the kid in a cage. Now I like him a little more.
In the meantime we get to see glimpse of ordinary people who for no apparent reason start experience time problems, as the past gets into the present.
Then, despite the horror of what she's been through, despite the fact that she never wanted a child, or did anything to conceive a child, within a few hour Ms. Marvel changes her mind, apologizes to the WASP, and they both go together to visit the boy. Through the WASP says that in Ms. Marvel's place she would have lost her mind, her behavior was very unsupportive and just basically awful as she tried to convince Ms. Marvel to embrace her motherhood, and try to convince her that it is wonderful, when it is clearly not.
The awful reunion is more sickening than I thought.
Apparently, Ms. Marvel was braced for the return of her negative feelings, those of loathing and humiliation. Totally understandable. Instead, now that she meets her son, her adult son, she feels totally calm, and she's attracted to him. Her son. She is attracted to her son. This is creepier than anything I could have imagined. He knows that her name is Carol and she explains that she doesn't understand how she feels about him. This is obnoxious to a new level, it's obnoxious that she has feelings towards her rapist and it's obnoxious that she has feelings toward her son.
All of this is happening while Marcus is building some machine. Than Iron Man looks out the window and sees a pre-historical meets current times in a battlefield. Wonder Man and Yellowjacket are ordered to stay inside, while the rest of the Avengers go out to battle this madness that the author think is awesome. Hawkeye blames Marcus and his machine for all the time trouble and battles.
In the meantime, while the rest of the Avengers think that they should get out, Marcus insists that he must finish his machine. Almost everyone leaves to fight, and Ms. Marvel stays with Marcus. She locks Dr. Blake inside a storm room and he uses the opportunity to turn into Thor. Thor deals with the threats outside, while the rest of the Avengers deal with, well I have to admit, amusing problems inside.
Back in creepy land, Ms. Marvel begs Marcus not to leave her, which he must in order to activate the machine. She has no idea why she is so attracted to him, and neither does the reader. He uses some magic to knock her out. He ask for her forgiveness in the creepiest manner possible: "Forgive me, mother. Forgive me… my love." This is just creepy, weird and incestuous.
Unfortunately for Marcus, Hawkeye arrives just in time to see him taking out Ms. Marvel. Hawkeye swears vengeance against Marcus and his machine, which he believes is causing all the mess. Hawkeye destroys the machine, which causes Marcus to cry from some reason. Hawkeye was partly right. The fact that Marcus wanted to take Ms. Marvel to safety means nothing. What about the rest of the Earth?
Hawkeye and Marcus swear that a match to the death will start, but it's a comic book so Thor shows up to stop them both. Thor has a vague memory of Marcus and asks him where did he come from and why, but Marcus refuses to answer. Marcus wants to kill everyone, but Ms. Marvel wakes up and tells him that he will kill no one. And like a little child, he tells his mother to stay out of it. She tells him, that he will have to kill her first. Then he starts whining and tells her that he wants to die, anything rather than go back to his previous existence.
Now it's back story time. Marcus' father is the ruler of Limbo where time doesn't exists and he was the master of time itself. His father was lonely, so he returned to the Earth which he came from. He found some helpless women and manipulated her into falling in love with him, or more correctly, to sleep with him. Basically, he raped the woman, and put her in a special bubble in limbo so she can carry his child. Lovely. Like father, like son. With time both his parents disappeared, but Marcus was part of Limbo. He is such a part of it, that he destroys reality when he is in it. Which explains all the strange stuff that has been happening. He decided that the best course of action was to be born again on Earth, that perhaps that could fix the time distortions his presence caused. He choose Ms. Marvel to carry him because of her strength as both human and Kree. He choose her. Literally. So creepy. While she was flying to visit Wanda, he took her out of the air-craft and into Limbo. He decided not to rape her, but to win her over. For his aid he brought Shakespeare, Beethoven and Marie Antoinette, who from some reason can make clothe.
All of this was not enough. "With a subtle boost from Immortus' machine - - you became mine." So basically, despite his courtship, he raped her. He manipulated her mind into loving him that equals rape in everyone's mind as she had no free will in that position. He did what his father did. She didn't get pregnant, he put his essence inside of her in a condition that resembled pregnancy. With the slight difference that she became pregnant with the father himself and basically gave birth to him, the man who raped her. There are no words for this horror. He then erased her memories and put her back on her ship where barley a few seconds have passed. Because why would she need to remember what have happened? She might remember being raped.
Marcus says that his options now are either to return and be forever alone, or to die.
Ms. Marvel for no reasonable reason decides to leave with Marcus. I read the words and don't believe them. Some of the feelings she had for him have lingered, probably because they are mechanically manipulated. Why would she want to be in a romantic relationship with someone who is partly her son and totally her rapist is beyond me. But Ms. Marvel wants to give this relationship a chance and so she leaves. She tells Iron Man that she is not totally sure, but sure enough to give it a chance. She's sure enough that Thor gives her and Marcus a lift to their destination.
That is the inglorious end of Ms. Marvel as part of the Avengers and as part of Marvel comics for a while. I understand that the writer wanted her out of the Avengers, but there were a million different other not creepy, incestuous and rape culture ways to do it. She went away with her part son and total rapist. That is an undignified end. She didn't even bother to say goodbye to most of the team. This is horrid and a horrid plot line now came to an end. The glorification of motherhood in this issue is insane. She should be happy to be a mother no matter what, even if she didn't want to have a child, and even if the child is clearly not human. Everyone are super happy and Ms. Marvel should be as well. Eventually she even gives up to the pressure and accepts her motherhood. It's just awful. Not once was abortion considered, and it should have been. But, for Wanda motherhood is not that important, so I just don't get it. But, we know that it will be. Comic books and children have a strange history. But, the "you're having a baby you should be happy no matter what" is an awful attitude. We will barely see Carol Danvers in any comic book for the next year. Her trademark name was not worth the trouble in the end I guess.
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