THE ORIGINAL MS. MARVEL: HER 1970s STORIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the earliest adventures of the original Ms. Marvel – Carol Danvers.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #1 (January 1977)

Title: This Woman, This Warrior

Villain: The Scorpion

NOTE: Ms. Marvel’s secret identity was Carol Danvers, a character that Marvel first introduced in the supporting cast of their original male Captain Marvel series in 1967. Carol was introduced as the head of security at Cape Canaveral, so even before becoming a superheroine she had a very solid role.

Carol made regular appearances alongside Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell) through the cancellation of his first solo series in August 1970. She made a few guest appearances in the pages of The Avengers during the original Kree-Skrull War (1970-1971) and was even impersonated by the Super-Skrull.

Synopsis: Readers are caught up with Carol Danvers’ life via flashbacks. During one of Captain Marvel’s battles with Yon-Rogg she was exposed to Kree technology which accidentally endowed her with super-strength plus the power of flight and a large degree of invulnerability.

Due to the many alien attacks at Cape Canaveral she was fired but got revenge of a sort by writing a tell-all book about the government’s unethical activities during her time as an intelligence agent and then as Cape Canaveral’s head of security.

NOTE: That was a nice storytelling angle that reflected real world incidents from the 1970s in which former CIA and NSA agents exposed many covered-up U.S. intelligence agency scandals and debacles of the past. (Think of Agee, Marchetti, Snepp and the Congressional testimony of William Colby.) 

Back in Marvel’s fictional world, Carol’s exposure of intelligence agency scandals drew her into reporting and she eventually was hired by J. Jonah Jameson as the editor in chief of the Daily Bugle’s new sister publication Woman Magazine.

With Jameson, Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and others guest-starring in her solo series debut, Carol became Ms. Marvel to save J. Jonah from the latest murder attempt by Spider-Man’s villain the Scorpion.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #2 (February 1977)

Title: Enigma of Fear

Villains: The Destructor and Scorpion

Synopsis: The Scorpion escapes custody and runs amok in New York City. Carol again becomes Ms. Marvel and defeats him. This attracts the attention of A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), a long-running Marvel Comics organization of high-tech villains.

Our heroine is then ambushed by an A.I.M. agent, a new supervillain called the Destructor. That super-powered agent uses alien technology that A.I.M. recovered from Captain Marvel’s long ago battle with the alien race from Aakon.

With Captain Marvel at that time adventuring far away from Earth, A.I.M. decides that the new superheroine Ms. Marvel, given her costume and name, must have Kree connections and might lead them to even more alien tech.

Ms. Marvel and the Destructor clash, and their fight ends with them knocking each other out in a cliffhanger conclusion.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #3 (March 1977)

Title: The Lady’s Not For Killing

Villains: Destructor and the Doomsday Man

Synopsis: A.I.M. attacks the recovering Ms. Marvel and escapes with the unconscious Destructor and subject him to punishment for his failure.

Next, Ms. Marvel finds herself saving NASA’s latest space mission from the Doomsday Man, a former android foe of the Silver Surfer from years earlier.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #4 (April 1977)

Title: Death is the Doomsday Man

Villains: Doomsday Man and Destructor

Synopsis: Ms. Marvel’s continuing war with Doomsday Man and Destructor comes to a head in a cavern laboratory that was once the headquarters of a villainous group called the Organization, former foes of Captain Marvel.   

In the inevitable explosion, the two villains appear to be destroyed but our heroine gets out alive. Needless to say the bad guys weren’t really dead and turned up in the future.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #5 (May 1977)

Title: Bridge of No Return (No matter what the cover says.)

Villains: A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics)

Synopsis: While involved with ongoing Woman Magazine business (as she is every issue), Carol Danvers is on hand when A.I.M.’s high-tech organization tries to steal a truck carrying nuclear materials.

Becoming Ms. Marvel, she attacks them, but the Avenger known as the Vision mistakenly thinks she is trying to hijack the shipment herself. The two heroes fight briefly, then resolve their misunderstanding and prevent the theft of the fissionable material.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #6 (June 1977)

Title: And Grotesk Shall Slay Thee

Villain: Grotesk

Synopsis: After the cranky J. Jonah Jameson begrudgingly congratulates Carol Danvers about what a success she has made of Woman Magazine, she becomes Ms. Marvel and clashes with an old Marvel supervillain called Grotesk.

NOTE: During the 1960s, Grotesk killed the Changeling, a member of the X-Men. Grotesk was a surviving member of a mostly extinct subterranean race. 

The destructive battle between Ms. Marvel and Grotesk wipes out the factory where the villain was trying to steal crystals of a high-tech nature. Grotesk emerges from the wreckage claiming he killed Ms. Marvel. 

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #7 (July 1977)

Title: Nightmare!

Villains: MODOK (Modified Organism Designed Only for Killing) and A.I.M.

Synopsis: Grotesk escapes, but it turns out that Ms. Marvel is not dead after all. The battle caused her to fall down several sub-levels of the factory.

A.I.M. agents, searching the scene of her fight with Grotesk, recover her unconscious body.

After an attempt to transfer her Kree-born powers to an A.I.M. agent fails, Ms. Marvel fights back and defeats A.I.M. soldiers, then faces the mutated supervillain MODOK, a Marvel villain since the 1960s.

MODOK was created by A.I.M. out of a human guinea pig back when they were foes of Captain America (not Captain Marvel this time) but MODOK took over the organization. Ms. Marvel fights her way free of the villain and bursts out of A.I.M.’s underground secret headquarters beneath a department store.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #8 (August 1977)

Title: The Last Sunset

Villain: Grotesk

Synopsis: Carol Danvers alerts Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. about the location of A.I.M.’s HQ but by the time S.H.I.E.L.D. invades the place, the villains and their leader are long gone.

A few days later, Ms. Marvel again clashes with Grotesk, who has emerged from hiding with the crystal he stole and tries to build a warp device at a high-tech industrial complex. Their destructive fight eventually causes them to fall into the Atlantic Ocean, where our heroine seemingly kills Grotesk.

NOTE: If you guessed that he wasn’t really dead, you’re right.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #9 (September 1977)

Title: Call Me Death-Bird

Villains: Death-Bird, MODOK and A.I.M.

Synopsis: Long after the previous story, Ms. Marvel is attacked in the sky over Manhattan by the new supervillainess called Death-Bird, who has been hired by MODOK to kill her. 

NOTE: This is the very first appearance of Death-Bird, a powerful member of the alien Shi’Ar race from the pages of the X-Men. She and her people are mortal enemies of Empress Lilandra, ruler of the Shi’Ar Empire and love interest of Professor X.

Ms. Marvel gains the upper hand, so Death-Bird escapes. After some work at Woman Magazine, Carol becomes Ms. Marvel again and attacks the nearest A.I.M. installation. For a cliffhanger ending, MODOK, Death-Bird and their own detachment of A.I.M. soldiers burst in.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #10 (October 1977)

Title: Murder, Menace & MODOK

Villains: Death-Bird, MODOK and A.I.M.

Synopsis: Ms. Marvel learns the reason for so much recent activity by A.I.M. There is a Civil War going on in the organization, with one faction faithful to MODOK and the other led by agents and technicians who want to break free of MODOK’s leadership.

Back to the story, our heroine gets caught in the middle of a few battles between the two warring A.I.M. factions and the supervillains. MODOK ultimately escapes, and Death-Bird seemingly perishes.

NOTE: She wasn’t really dead and returned in the future as a major villainess in the pages of the X-Men. 

MARVEL TEAM-UP Vol 1 #62 (October 1977)

Title: Showdown with the Super-Skrull

Villain: Super-Skrull

Synopsis: Carol Danvers has been one of the VIP passengers on the ship the Queen Mary 2 during its latest voyage from England to the U.S. As the vessel approaches New York City, it is attacked by the Super-Skrull, an old Marvel foe who possesses the powers of all the members of the Fantastic Four.

The alien villain steals a crystal of the kind stolen by Grotesk a few issues back. (No, these are not Infinity Stones.) Super-Skrull plans to use the crystal to power a spaceship to take him from Earth back to the Skrull homeworld where he can again try to overthrow Emperor Dorrek.

Carol becomes Ms. Marvel and fights it out with the Skrullian villain. Their clash leads them to the Statue of Liberty, where Spider-Man passes by and helps our heroine against Super-Skrull, who escapes.

Ms. Marvel joins forces with Spider-Man, secretly savoring the idea of personal revenge against Super-Skrull for impersonating her during the Kree-Skrull War years earlier (at right). She and Spidey catch up with the villain and defeat him.

*** Ms. Marvel’s series continued for a time but was canceled as of issue #23 in April of 1979. She joined the Avengers, then years later had her solo series revived several times until she eventually became the new Captain Marvel after the death of the original.

FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL ISSUES OF MS. MARVEL CLICK HERE.

IF YOU LIKED THIS, I PREVIOUSLY EXAMINED OTHER MARVEL COMICS SUPERHEROINES LIKE SHE-HULK, SPIDER-WOMAN, SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL, THUNDRA, GAMORA, MANTIS, AND BLACK WIDOW.