1977 - Ms. Marvel #6

---

---

The world's newest super-heroine sensation!
All-out action and adventure!
Ms. Marvel.
...And Grotesk shall slay thee!
Has the Female Fury finally met her match?

Carol Danvers, a woman who had it made - until the day radiation from an exploding alien machine gave her the skills and powers of a Kree Warrior, plus an uncanny Seventh Sense - transforming a human woman into... a heroine!
Stan Lee presents: Ms. Marvel!
...And Grotesk shall slay thee!

Chris Claremont, Author.
Jim Mooney & Joe Sinnott, Artists.
J. Costanza, Letterer.
J. Cohen, Colorist.
A. Goodwin, Editor.

---

Cosmic Awareness.

J. Jonah Jameson, the Publisher of the Daily Bugle, just finished reading the newly-released first issue of Woman, and he is furious. He goes to the editorial offices of Woman in search of its Editor, Jameson's employee, Carol Danvers. He reminds her that he specifically asked for an exposé of Ms. Marvel, while she wrote an article praising her as the Super-Hero Sensation of the Seventies. Carol argues that Ms. Marvel has saved the city, but Jameson will not publish anything that makes super-heroes look good, so Carol should do as he says or leave. At that point, Carol shows him the circulation polls for the magazine, which show how many sales it is getting, placing it as the best-selling magazine in New York in ten years...

Photographer Frank Gianelli approaches Carol's office while the other employees unsuccessfully try to stop him, as he is not Jameson's favorite person since he hit him once. Carol is still arguing with Jameson, saying how she is not going to lie for him in her magazine, when she gets one of her blackouts. Lynn (Carol's secretary) and Frank Gianelli come in to help, while Jameson ignores his frustration at Carol's actions and Frank's presence, asks to be kept informed of Carol's status and offers to cover any medical expenses.

During her blackout, Carol gets a Seventh Sense premonition. She sees four firemen trapped in a fire, a large fist destroying the floor under the firemen, making them fall to the lower levels of the burning building, that same fist hitting Ms. Marvel, and an explosion that makes some steel towers fall on top of her.

Carol wakes up in pain and alarm, but she recovers quickly to bring order to the office. Gianelli introduces himself as the best freelance reporter and photographer, sent to her by Robbie Robertson. Carol notes his lack of modesty and sends him on an assignment to a refinery fire in New Jersey; he is to write a note about the Fire Department handling the case, as it employs some women fire-fighters, making it relevant to Woman Magazine. Carol asks Lynn to inform Dr. Michael Barnett that she is going to see him. She is thinking about the randomness of her Seventh Sense blackouts when she realizes that, instead of taking the elevator to the lobby, she went to the roof. She tries to stop her transformation into Ms. Marvel and fails, making Ms. Marvel confused at her unwillingness to transform, as they are meant to be the same person. As a Kree, Ms. Marvel will not be stopped, though. She flies away without noticing a hidden video camera that watches her as she flies above the city.

Ms. Marvel sees the massive fire in the refinery complexes of New Jersey. She recalls her premonition and knows that they foretold what looked like her own death, but she still heads that way as she may be the only hope for the people trapped inside the building. When she reports to the firemen's Chief he askes her to stay out of the way, because she can make things worse. He also asks a scientist called Dr. Ellis to move to a safe distance from the fire, for there is risk of the refinery's tanks exploding. The Doctor is interested in saving the Cavourite Crystal he has in his lab, which is the reason the Chief sent four of his firemen into the building, but there is not much more he can do. Ms. Marvel realizes they must be the four firemen from her premonition and enters the building in an attempt to save them before her visions come true, but she arrives just as the floor beneath them is destroyed and they fall down to the lab's sub-basement.

The trapped firemen meet Prince Gor-Tok of Sub-Terranea, also known as Grotesk. He tells them how he set the fires in order to steal the Cavourite Crystal, which he will use to destroy the Earth as revenge for the murder of his entire race by humans. Ms. Marvel hits Grotesk and gives the firemen an opportunity to escape while she stays and fights him. Grotesk does not think too much of her strength as she is a human, and a woman. Ms. Marvel knows she must rely on her skill, as Grotesk is stronger and more resistant than she is, and that she must hurry or she will be killed in the coming explosion.

Grotesk mocks Ms. Marvel's attacks, gloating about having battled the X-Men. The fire, smoke and falling wreckage make the fight more and more difficult for Ms. Marvel, but they do not bother Grotesk at all. One of Grotesk's punches damages the circuits on Ms. Marvel's costume that allow her to fly. Now that she has no way to escape, Grotesk is ready to finish her off. Ms. Marvel goes for a killing blow directly on Grotesk's ears, stunning him long enough to let her push her attack, finally knocking him out.

Her damaged costume no longer creates a breathable atmosphere for her, so she cannot stay there much longer. As she walks through the ruins of the sub-basement, she finds and recognizes the NASA security canister that holds the Cavourite Crystal. She remembers seeing the crystal when she was assigned to Dr. Peter Corbeau's project at Houston's Lunar Receiving Laboratory. He had explained to her that the crystal is an energy matrix. If enough power is poured into it in a controlled way, its ability to warp space could allow them to create a faster-than-light star drive, although there was too much risk of having the matrix destroy the world if something went wrong. This makes Ms. Marvel realize that the Skylab project her Astronaut friend Salia Petrie is assigned to must be to test the crystal in Earth's orbit instead.

Fully understanding what Grotesk's intentions are, she decides to take the crystal to safety away from him, but he recovers and attacks her before she can leave. Her Seventh Sense fails to warn her on time so Grotesk gains the advantage; grabbing her scarf, he spins her around and smashes her through a wall. Grotesk feels he has the right to get his revenge, and he acknowledges Ms. Marvel's defiance as his own when he helplessly saw his people die. After beating Ms. Marvel he gets the Cavourite Crystal and walks away. Ms. Marvel can barely move as she tries to go after him, but the final part of her premonition happens at that moment. The refinery's tanks explode and bring the building down on top of her.

The people outside can only watch as the refinery keeps burning. After a while, Frank Gianelli spots a figure coming out of the wreckage. He and the firemen wonder if it is Ms. Marvel or her attacker, and then Grotesk, the only one who came out of the fire, informs them of Ms. Marvel's demise and of his intentions of destroying the world.

---

The Good and The Bad (and The Weird).

	The Good.
	The action. This issue starts somewhat quietly, as quietly as an issue with Jameson yelling can start, but then it shows a big fight between Grotesk and Ms. Marvel that spans the second half of the book. Being an issue written by Mr. Claremont, there is some dialogue during the battle, but less than in other books, and never taking away from the action. Grotesk is physically stronger than Ms. Marvel, so we see her make use of her speed and brain to prevail. She does take some punches, too. I am amazed Mr. Claremont did not include the phrase about no quarter asked for, nor given.
	The storytelling. I love how old-school artists paid attention to details that helped tell the story just by looking at the images. Characters' expressions and body language say a lot in this issue. The use of backgrounds also helps by setting the story in identifiable locations. The panels clearly show the logical sequence of events, with no disruptive jumps from panel to panel.
	The art. Jim Mooney and Joe Sinnott strike again. There are so many characters in the first few pages alone, before the story even introduces the firemen, antagonist and scientist, and this art team manages to create characters who look different from each other, even in the background. The action and storytelling praise I gave before obviously applies here, too.
	The colors. I am not as happy with all the aspects of the coloring in this issue, but I really liked the coloring effects used during the fire and battle scenes. The lab sub-basement looked different than the other settings thanks to the color. Ms. Cohen is still very good at coloring metal, which can be seen in the steel towers at the end of the story. I did not like the colors she chose for the office walls, though, but that was not enough to get a bad mark. Although I will mention the coloring again later, when I speak about the clothing.
	Woman. The first issue has been published. Other books introduce concepts that they quickly abandon, but something that has been ever present in this book is the work Carol does to edit this magazine. It is meant to appeal to women (both Jameson and Carol shared that intent, even if their ideas on how to appeal to them is different), but I would totally love that first issue. It talks about Astronauts and it has a new super-hero in its cover, what's not to love?
	NASA. Carol may be an Editor now, but she worked in NASA security and she had access to confidential information. It is good to see that put to use in stories. And she knows Dr. Corbeau, friend of the Avengers and the X-Men.
	Daily Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson always brings interesting things to stories, especially when he argues with people who can argue back. And Carol argues back, as we saw since the first issue of her book. He has a defined idea of what he wants and will fight for it, but Carol presents him with a dilemma, as she does not give him what he wants in terms of the magazine's contents, but she gives him another thing he wants in terms of money and recognition. And whenever he takes care of his staff members I get the feeling that it is not only to avoid any problems or legal suits, but because part of him does not want to see any real harm fall on them if he can do something about it.
	The Daily Bugle/Woman Magazine office. I already mentioned Jameson, whom I love seeing in these stories. Now I have to add the whole atmosphere artist Jim Mooney created with his drawings. Those offices are full of life. Even if we do not know what happens in the lives of the staff members of Woman when they go home, we sure can see how they live when they are at work. Frank Gianelli is just joining the cast of this book and he already left an impression. And the behind-the-scenes use of Robbie Robertson helps build a sense of family between the Daily Bugle and Woman.
	Ms. Marvel's attitude. Grotesk, Prince Gor-Tok of Sub-Terranea, thinks he is better than women. At least when it comes to physical combat. It is not hard to see why, as he is better than a lot of people in combat, regardless of gender. It is good to see Ms. Marvel does not waste time whining about a villain's misogyny. In 2020, I think the expectation would be a story that wasted a lot of pages just to show how problematic Ms. Marvel would find Grotesk's behavior, instead of focusing on things like saving lives, recovering the Cavourite Crystal and avoiding death. This issue's Ms. Marvel does not fall into that trap. Grotesk, after all, really is stronger than her. She focuses on finding a solution and fights even when the odds grow more and more against her, and she manages to bring her enemy down. So she did beat Grotesk even though he is stronger, and that alone shows her attitude is focused on problem-solving, not problem-creating.
	The Bad.
	The location of the Cavourite Crystal. A refinery in New Jersey? Really? What was Dr. Ellis trying to do with the crystal there? Pour gasoline into it to create the star drive? I know this was done for convenience, but I think a Project PEGASUS-like research lab could have been written into the story instead of a refinery, and an equally formidable fire and explosion could have occurred there.
	The clothing design. It must be because of the decade when this issue was created, but I do not like the clothing the characters wear. Mr. Mooney does an excellent job with everything else, but he puts Janice Cohen in a very difficult position when she has to color the clothes he designs. And then her choice of clothing colors leaves a lot to be desired. I even wonder if New Jersey's firemen wore blue back then, as blue is not a color I would associate to fire-fighters' equipment.
	The Weird.
	Ms. Marvel's Seventh Sense. I know I just praised Ms. Marvel's Seventh Sense in my review of Ms. Marvel #5, and I still think it is a useful tool to avoid the excessive use of coincidence-serving-the-story. But there is a risk of having this power set a story structure that would quickly become predictable and boring, with a premonition flash as the start of the adventure in every issue. I think Mr. Claremont foresaw this and may be planning to get rid of it or modify it enough to eliminate this problem. Carol has noticed her power not warning her of danger since the previous issue, and it happened again in this one.
	Ms. Marvel's scarf. I love Ms. Marvel's scarf so I am happy it is not going anywhere, but it is still weird that Ms. Marvel, who has shown how smart she can be and how she uses her brain during fights, does not get rid of it when both the Doomsday Man and Grotesk have used it against her. I give my vote to the scarf staying, even if enemies grab it every now and then.

---

The Endgame.

I am usually a big fan of writers using characters from old stories, even if they are obscure. I think even those characters can be put to good use. One of the things I loved on Brian Reed's run of Ms. Marvel in the 2000s was his use of old characters from Carol's history.

But I am not very excited about the use of Grotesk...

It could be that I am not as nostalgic about the era of X-Men stories he comes from, but I think it is more about that weird yellow color of his skin. I did not mention this in the review as things I dislike in his design should not be blamed on this issue's team, but still I cannot help not liking him as much as I could, and I like characters like QUASIMODO, who has a design that many would call ugly.

I like how this issue sets things up for the following issues. We have Grotesk and the Cavourite Crystal, and we also get that video camera watching Ms. Marvel. And the Seventh Sense failing and the costume getting some damage. Now that Carol knows the origin and identity of Ms. Marvel and that the first issue of Woman has been published, events are set in motion to establish the stories to come. That is something I love from Chris Claremont's writing, with different plots happening at the same time, and then coming together in a larger story later on. I know he does not always finish some similar plots in his books, but I still enjoy the rewards we get when he does.

The final grade is:



9 Tracys, 2 Rogues and 2 Storytellers.

---

Next issue:
Nightmare
-- there are some fates worse than death!

---

1977 - Ms. Marvel #5

---

---

Ms. Marvel.
Day of the doom wagon!
Ms. Marvel has to stop it -- but the Vision is sworn to defend it -- at any cost!

Stan Lee presents: Ms. Marvel!
Bridge of no return.

Chris Claremont, Writer.
Jim Mooney & Joe Sinnott, Artists.
J. Costanza, Letterer.
Janice Cohen, Colorist.
Archie Goodwin, Editor.

---

Cosmic Awareness.

Carol Danvers is in a therapy session with her friend, Dr. Michael Barnett. On her way to work she had a black-out and her Seventh Sense power made her see herself as Ms. Marvel fighting the android Avenger, the Vision, on a bridge at Upstate New York's Stormwind Canyon. A big truck was speeding through the bridge, and she knew that twenty million people's lives were in danger.

When her Seventh Sense flash ended, she had gone directly to Michael's office to tell him about it. Both Carol and Michael know Carol is Ms. Marvel, and they are surprised the black-outs continue even after Carol learned this. As the headaches and black-outs are caused by Ms. Marvel's Seventh Sense, Michael suggests giving up the Ms. Marvel identity before Ms. Marvel takes over completely and stops being Carol Danvers, but Carol does not want to leave the life of super-heroine behind.

As she goes to work to a Long Island Stark International complex, she starts thinking about her own subconscious seeing Ms. Marvel as someone better than her, as she learned once she listened to Michael's record of her hypnosis session. She remembers her old career, and how things changed when Captain Marvel appeared. She goes on thinking about the Psyche-Magnitron explosion that should have killed her even while shielded by Captain Marvel, her new job at Jonah Jameson's Woman Magazine, her headaches, her new identity as the super-heroine Ms. Marvel and her powers, like her costume-assisted flight. After defeating the Scorpion and the Destructor, a battle with the Doomsday Man made her remember she was two people in the same body, Carol and Ms. Marvel.

Once she arrives at Stark International, she interviews Abe Klein, as Tony Stark had another appointment. Her skills as Editor of Woman are evident, but, in the middle of the interview, she is surprised to see the truck from her Seventh Sense flash departing the facilities with the Vision going along for the ride. She is not told what the truck is transporting, but she knows what she saw is going to happen soon. Once she is at home she thinks about this and Ms. Marvel appears even though Carol tries to resist the change. Ms. Marvel is still more accustomed to a Kree life than to life as a human, even though she is one; but she does not waste time thinking too much about this, as she has to stop the tragedy she saw in her mind.

Catching up to the truck, she sees no signs of danger in the area, so she deduces the danger comes from the truck itself. She tries to stop it, as she realizes that they will not simply listen to her warnings, as they may not know who she is. But the truck's driver has been ordered not to stop, and smashes the barricade she created with an uprooted tree. The Vision goes out to battle her. Even if her costume resembles Captain Marvel's, her actions mark her as an enemy. She continues the fight at the same time as she tries to inform the Vision about what she saw with her Seventh Sense, but she does not know any specific information that would help her case be more believable and focuses on trying to defeat the Vision.

Somewhere else, the Vision and Ms. Marvel's fight is observed by MODOK, leader of a faction of AIM, who is now interested in the heroine who has already interfered in AIM's plans a few times.

Ms. Marvel is unable to defeat or convince the Vision, and he uses his intangibility powers to shock her system, leaving her unconscious, but only for a short time. She flies ahead and sees the Stormwind Canyon Bridge. She now understands the danger she foresaw. The truck has dangerous cargo that could end a lot of lives if released closer to the city, so the only option is to stop the truck before it crosses the bridge, as the cargo would only do minimal damage if released in its current location.

Some time later, the Vision is flying ahead of the truck, as he expects more attacks. He is surprised to see Ms. Marvel already recovered and fruitlessly trying to convince him once more. Her attacks have little effect on him, so she resorts to using a trap she had set up under the bridge before the Vision arrived. Tricking the Vision into phasing through the bridge, she catches him in a hidden field generator that knocks him out, leaving her free to stop the truck. The driver uses the truck's defense systems, but Ms. Marvel manages to stop Tony Stark's unstoppable super-truck.

She soon discovers a bomb hidden on the truck's door, but throws it away right before it explodes. As she ponders the existance of an inside man at Stark's planting the bomb, the driver attacks her with a blaster gun and attempts to shoot the cargo cannister. Ms. Marvel was surprised because her Seventh Sense did not warn her of the danger. She tries to stop the driver, who does not seem to care about releasing the cannister's contents while he himself is so close to it. Ms. Marvel's punches are not stopping the driver, which makes her think her recent second exposure to the Psyche-Magnitron's radiation may have affected her powers. She manages to destroy the driver's blaster but is too far away to stop him from using energy beams shot from his eyes to destroy the cannister. Only a quickly-recovered Vision is able to stop the beams from reaching their target. A final punch from Ms. Marvel reveal the driver to be a robot, explaining his unexpected resistance to her punches.

The two heroes wonder who sent him on this mission to kill so many people, while MODOK keeps watching them and plans to enslave Ms. Marvel soon afterwards.

---

The Good and The Bad (and The Weird).

	The Good.
	The action. I would say that this one is even better than the previous issues. Both the Vision and Ms. Marvel get some really great action scenes. Their flying and fighting poses are very well done and flow from one to the next naturally.
	Woman. This book has not lost sight of Carol's work at the magazine, and I love that. The first issue of Woman is ready to be sent to the printer. And she is already getting more content for the next one.
	The art. Jim Mooney and Joe Sinnott do really nice art in this issue. There are different settings in this story, and they all look equally good: city, Doctor's office, woods, bridge. The people have recognizable faces and expressions. The poses for normal people and for the combatants are dynamic and strong.
	The Vision. Usually, new books have Spider-Man guest-star in the first issues to boost sales. Ms. Marvel had Peter Parker and some of his friends, but no Spider-Man. In this issue we have one of the mighty Avengers, which is less usual. And it is not just any Avenger, but one of the most powerful Avengers, the Vision. Besides being visually interesting with his long cape and the bright combination of colors of his costume, he also provides a big challenge for the book's heroine. Ms. Marvel would have a very hard time trying to match the Vision in a straightforward display of strength, so she has to use her intellect, strategic mind and even Kree technical knowledge to get him out of the fight for a short time. And let's not forget that this event helps the Avengers be more aware of her existence and her status as an ally.
	MODOK. It seems that I add AIM to the "good" list whenever they appear. MODOK is not the current leader of AIM, but he is still related to them. And it is still a good thing to have AIM/MODOK in this book. He is not directly involved in the action, but he observes how one of his plots is foiled by Ms. Marvel. And he promises to get more involved with her, which is good from a storytelling point of view.
	Stark International. The use of Tony Stark's company is a great way to show Carol Danvers in the bigger Marvel Universe. There is no need to actually show Tony Stark himself, just having his company appear in the story makes the connections happen.
	Ms. Marvel's Seventh Sense. Comic books stories often have to rely on hard-to-believe coincidences for the plot to advance or work. In this case, Carol happens to be at Stark International when a heavily fortified truck leaves with very dangerous cargo. But other books would have the action happen at exactly the moment the hero is present. With Ms. Marvel's Seventh Sense power, that can be easily avoided. As the story is presented, if she had no such power, she would have been at Stark's but she would not have noticed anything out of the ordinary. Some time later, millions of people would have died thanks to MODOK's plan. So her power not only helped save many lives, but also saved this story from relying on coincidence alone.
	The Bad.
	The colors. It is hard to believe this issue was colored by the same Janice Cohen who colored the previous one. The colors in Ms. Marvel #4 were perfect, and very impressive given the limited palette available to the colorist. But this issue's colors seems very rushed. There is hardly any shading at all; and, when it is used, it is not consistent: Ms. Marvel's hair will have some shading in some of the pages, but will be colored solid yellow in the rest. The art provided wonderful opportunities for Ms. Cohen to show her true skill but they were not used; blasts and energy fields have very bland colors. I hope that in future issues Janice Cohen's work goes back to the superb level she showed on #4.
	The Weird.
	Mike's suggestion. When it is clear that learning the truth about her double identity will not stop Carol's headaches, Mike is quick to suggest that she should give up her life as Ms. Marvel. He cares for Carol as a friend, boyfriend and Therapist, and he thinks there is a chance that Carol's personality will be lost if Ms. Marvel decides to be dominant the whole time, but this still comes as a very quick decision for something so big. More research should be made before asking her to do this, but he is very certain that this and nothing else is the solution to her problem. I am not conflicted by the way he started helping her with her headaches as he already was her boyfriend and the problem was not clearly related to Psychology at first. But this issue shows that he may not be able to separate his feelings from his duty.

---

The Endgame.

This is the first issue after the Kerwin Korman and amnesiac Ms. Marvel story concluded. The first four issues centered on Ms. Marvel's Kree origin and Korman's attempt to get more power by using Ms. Marvel, but now we are free to go wherever the writer may take us. I think it was a very good first post-origin issue.

A link to the Avengers is introduced by having the Vision in the story (and Tony Stark mentioned). Ms. Marvel fights against him and has trouble staying on top, as he is physically stronger and has more attack options than she does. But this only forces her to use her brain to incapacitate the hero. With all of this happening and even an instance of her Seventh Sense power, new readers could start reading here and catch on quickly.

A link to the earlier stories is the inclusion of a small branch of AIM. MODOK is no longer the leader of AIM, and he was not around in the first four issues, but now he makes his entrance and he will definitely become an important adversary for Carol in the future, with his interest in her starting in this story.

Another ongoing plot is Carol's partial rejection of Ms. Marvel's persona. She has not fully accepted her other self, and this seems to be causing her strong headaches. This will be looked into later.

This is a self-contained story with enough things happening to keep everyone interested. It shows Ms. Marvel's current status and also presents things that push her into the future. It is a well-constructed glimpse of things to come.

The final grade is:



7 Tracys, 1 Rogue and 1 Storyteller.

---

Next issue:
And Grotesk shall slay thee!

---