Carol Danvers is reunited with the Avengers: Marvel Fanfare Vol 1 #24– January, 1986
Marvel Fanfare Vol 1 #24: "Elegy"
Carol Danvers must decide who she is: Carol Danvers or Binary?
It is only the second half of the issue that has Carol Danvers and the Avengers in it, so I will focus on that. This part of the issue opens at the Avengers mansion. Nick Fury and Ben Grimm are there to visit. While they identify at the door, a mysterious figure watches from afar noting that security measures have been upgraded since they visited the last time. Another person is with the mystery figure. That person calls her Major and themselves a team supreme that can break in without a problem. The other person is Wolverine, but we don't see the person who is with him, other than the fact that it's a blond woman.
Fury and Grimm show up to a night of card games. It seems that Beast, Woman Man and district attorney Blake Tower will be playing with them, along with Jarvis I think.
Someone knocks at the door, surprising Jarvis as they aren't expecting anybody else. But it is Carol Danvers and Wolverine at the door.
Jarvis is very surprised to see Danvers. After the way she and the Avengers parted, he didn't ever expected to see her again. You know, because of the part that they were super happy that she was giving birth to her own rapist, and then they simply let him take her. That was pretty awful and when Danvers returned she was very angry at them. Now she has the memory, but not the feelings of resentment that she used to have. She tells Jarvis that time heals all wounds, but in her case, not really remembering them is the true answer. She also says she missed the game, which I highly doubt. Maybe she is looking for an emotional connection to Earth, especially since she brought in Wolverine. Her past friend and military partner.
Jarvis says that they are missing a player as a new female member of the Avengers is running late. It should have been her first game. Danvers enters the room as Carol Danvers and the Avengers think that Jarvis has let in a cute stranger. If they don't recognize Ms. Marvel, so how did Jarvis know? The Avengers are pretty shocked when she reveals her secret identity and that she, Carol Danvers, used to be Ms. Marvel.
She says that now since she is no longer an Avenger or Ms. Marvel there is no more reason to keep her identity a secret from friends whom she trusts. I would say, since she is no longer Carol Danvers there is no need for her to hide her identity. I can't believe she says she trusts the Avengers, but I guess she doesn't truly remember how unworthy they are of her trust.
Fury tells her that they missed her. And asks what took her so long to come back. Is he serious? She tells him that she has a lot of pain to get out of her system. But she never got it out, she just had it whipped out. Then Fury is distracted by the happy reunion with Wolverine who hasn't seen in many years.
After all of this happy reunion, the game starts and everything goes on smoothly. They all talk and banter. Still, we can see that Danvers' memory isn't working so great. She needs to ask Wolverine where she taught him how to play. And both of them win most of the games.
Suddenly, a bright light appears outside, Grimm wants the alarm to be raised immediately as this might be an attack. Something moves towards them at great speed. It is their late arrival, Monica Rambeau, the new Captain Marvel.
Danvers says she wouldn't mind an introduction and she is very surprised to hear that the newcomer is called Captain Marvel. She asks if Mar-Vell decided to retire or is this some side of his character. She doesn't know.
Grimm tells her that her reaction isn't funny. Everyone are upset. But, Danvers speaks about Mar-Vell in the present tense. So, Fury asks her if she doesn't know that Mar-Vell has died. Danvers is very upset to hear the news and it seems she is even more upset to know that he died of a natural cause, cancer. They all try to comfort the very upset Danvers, they explain that they did everything they could for Mar-Vell, but they couldn't save him. They thought that they have notified all of his friends. Clearly they were wrong.
When Captain Marvel tells Danvers that she knows how she feels, Danvers explodes. She goes Binary and flies out straight through the ceiling. They are all surprised as they thought that she has lost her powers when Rogue attacked her. Wolverine doesn't share how she got new powers, but he gives readers a recap of how the Brood experimented on her because of her human-Kree hybeed genes, until she became a living star, Binary.
While the Avengers are left behind, Binary flies to Mar-Vell's grave. His grave is in outer space. She finds it to be a "lonely, desolate place" similarly to Mar-Vell himself. She sounds bitter in her mind, thinking that all of Earth's heroes have honored him, all but her. She wonders if he remembered her, or cared. I can understand that. Their relationship did seem one sided to me when she was human. She is angry. Everyone did their best to save him and say goodbye, but she never got the chance.
She remembers their first encounter. She thinks that she knew him first, and probably the best, although I don't think that is true. She remembers how she wasn't respected at her job as security chief at Cape Canaveral as no one knew her history as a top field agent, and just saw her as a woman in a man's job. He saved her life. No one knew he was an alien, they just thought he was a human with powers. She fell in love with him. She got close to him and paid the price when Yon-Rogg kidnapping her, and Mar-Vell came to her rescue, even though she hated needing rescue. But that is how she got her Ms. Marvel powers. Her powers that will always have some of him inside of her. Perhaps that could have saved him, but now it is too late. This reminds us, that she was formed basically as the female version to Mar-Vell. Not a good reminder to comic readers who don't like such gender flips.
Interestingly she says that she needed him to tell her who she is, Carol Danvers or Bianry. As she flies away, the child of the stars she feels that he has told her.
She returns to Earth where Wolverine finds her. They have been friends for a long time, he knows where to look for her. She Wolverine that "the form of the woman I was, still exists, but the substance is gone." Her memories mean nothing. She should have known when Mar-Vell died, but the special link between them has disappeared. Because of Rogue. Who stole her powers, her identity and she feels like her soul as well. She now has her new powers, and her old memories, but she doesn’t know who she is. This really echoes Danvers in the Captain Marvel movie.
Because of the fact that her memories have no connection to feelings, she doesn't have any meaningful connections in her life anymore. That is very lonely. More importantly, this leads her to an identity crisis. She no longer knows who she is. Like Danvers in her movie only has flashes of her memory and she does not know who she is, this version of Carol Danvers has her memories and yet they are insignificant to her.
She remembers her friendship with Wolverine, that he saved her life. But all of that means nothing to her now, he doesn't mean anything to her anymore. That's why she wasn't angry at the Avengers and decided to go to their house, she doesn't feel angry or betrayed anymore. It all is meaningless. She doesn't even have love for her own parents. In a sense she died when Rogue took away her memories and powers. Even though she remembers her time with Mar-Vell, that too makes her feel nothing and it is just too much for her to handle. She has feelings now, but not towards anything old.
Danvers tells Wolverine that she wishes that Xavier didn't restore her memories. Now she has them and it means nothing. People expect things of her, but they and their expectations mean nothing. Rogue has the feelings. Danvers says that if Rogue will meet Danvers' parent she will probably love them. Her solution is to leave Earth. She will join Corsair and the Starjammers. Binary was born in deep space and she will find her home there. She is not sure about it, but she cannot stay where she is. Wolverine hugs her goodbye and tells her that he will miss her. She just flies away without any other word of goodbye. She won't miss him.
Like Mar-Vell, her memory of Wolverine is simply friendly, where once it was so much more. Now she can finally say goodbye to Carol Danvers and set Binary free.
It seems that Carol Danvers made her finale decision, to leave Earth behind her. Now that she has reunited with the Avengers without being angry at them, spent time with Wolverine and tried to grieve for Mar-Vell, she realizes that everything that made her Carol Danvers is gone. Rogue has stolen the essence of what made her Carol Danvers. So she decides to embrace Binary and leave Earth. There is nothing holding her to Earth now and as Binary was born in the stars, that is where she wants to return to.
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