Fabulous first issue!
Ms. Marvel.
At last! A bold new super-heroine in the senses-stunning tradition of Spider-Man!
All-out action -- featuring the most mysterious woman warrior since Madame Medusa! And, if you think our leading lady is something, wait'll you see her star-studded supporting cast!
Ms. Marvel.
At last! A bold new super-heroine in the senses-stunning tradition of Spider-Man!
All-out action -- featuring the most mysterious woman warrior since Madame Medusa! And, if you think our leading lady is something, wait'll you see her star-studded supporting cast!
Stan Lee presents: Ms. Marvel!
Her name is her own, but for want of something better, we may call her -- Marvel: Ms. Marvel!
This woman, this warrior!
And because of her -- the world may never be the same!
Her name is her own, but for want of something better, we may call her -- Marvel: Ms. Marvel!
This woman, this warrior!
And because of her -- the world may never be the same!
Conceived, written & edited by: Gerry Conway, with more than a little aid and abetment from Carla Conway.
Art and storytelling by: John Buscema.
Care and embellishment by: Joe Sinnott.
John Costanza, letters.
Marie Severin, colors.
Cosmic Awareness.
Later that day, Carol Danvers is hired by Jonah Jameson as the Editor of the new Woman Magazine. Jameson and Carol have very different ideas of what the magazine should focus on, but it seems Carol, as the Editor, will not be overruled. She does accept Jameson's suggestion to have an article about the new heroine in the first issue of Woman, though.
Carol meets Mary Jane Watson, who is at the building with Freelance Daily Bugle Photographer Peter Parker, and immediately comes to like her. Mary Jane recognized Carol from an article she had written for Rolling Stone. They go to Carol's place and talk about her old career as a Security Consultant at Cape Kennedy, where she met and failed to capture Captain Marvel, which led to her changing that career path to writing. While they talk, Carol gets a migraine and asks Mary Jane to leave just before she passes out.
Meanwhile, the Scorpion makes his move and kidnaps Jameson, who is the target of his master plan. The mysterious heroine arrives at the Daily Bugle office after her Seventh Sense power showed her Jameson's kidnapping. Strangely, she feels as if she had been there before, but realizes that is not possible. When Daily Bugle's City Editor Joe Robertson asks her her name, she is upset when she realizes she does not know it. She does not let that stop her and she concentrates on her Seventh Sense in an attempt to find where Jameson was taken to.
In the Scorpion's new secret lair, Jameson is hanging above a vat filled with acid. He listens to the Scorpion as he tells him why he wants him dead: The fact Jameson had Private Investigator Mac Gargan turned into the Scorpion, who sees himself as a freak.
She finds a name for herself. She tells Jameson her costume is a link to Captain Marvel, so "Ms. Marvel" will be as good a name as any.
The following day, a very angry Jameson demands Carol to write an exposé of Ms. Marvel. Now Carol finds herself with two mysteries to solve: The nature of her own headaches and black-out spells, and the enigma of Ms. Marvel.
The Good and The Bad (and The Weird).
The Good. | |
|---|---|
 | The art. I have always loved the classic style (which was mostly seen before the very late 80s, when the new style took over). One can hardly go wrong with John Buscema. He is good with action scenes, creating great panels of Ms. Marvel whomping the Scorpion seen from a lot of different angles. He is also great with characters' expressions, drawing a very comical but still serious Jameson getting angry, surprised and scared, or a happy, interested and concerned Mary Jane. |
| The storytelling. Still talking about John Buscema's art here... He perfectly illustrates the action from panel to panel. He does not leave anything out, so we get to see the settings of each scene (with very detailed furniture, buildings and vehicles). His scenes are full of life, as New York City's inhabitants can be found all over his panels, reacting to either the main action or to their own concerns in the more down-to-Earth moments. He keeps changing the point of view, which makes the visuals very dynamic and never boring. |
| The colors. I like the way solid colors looked on comics before the digital color separation techniques were used. Marie Severin chooses vibrant colors, and she creates nice contrasts with the heroine's and villain's costumes. She does not take shortcuts and uses different colors on the elements of the background, and she makes them all fit well in the overall picture. |
| The Daily Bugle/Woman Magazine office. I like the way they made Carol move from Florida to New York. It adds another layer into her character, as we see she is not only talented in more militaristic and scientific fields, but also in the use of written words. And she seems as driven in her writing career as she was as the Head of Security at a NASA site; just as she could hold her own against the mysterious Dr. Walter Lawson, she can hold her own against feared Publisher Jonah Jameson. |
| Daily Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson. He is simply great! He is the only thing preventing Carol's new job from being perfect. And that is perfect. Carol does not seem to shy away from the challenge that is Jameson, so it is nice to see her thrive despite his pestering, which adds some fun interactions between the two. |
| The costume. Some people argue that super heroines should not use sexy costumes, but, man, this is a very cool, very classic, very sexy costume! So, the red scarf is not practical at all, but who cares? It looks as cool here as it does on many Japanese Anime heroes. The costume shows Ms. Marvel's fit physique, which is something to be proud of, as her body looks strong and ready to do battle. I even like the tummy window in her costume; it may not have any practical reason to be there, but it adds a welcome color variation to what would otherwise be a "too much red" area (Mar-Vell does not have this problem as his blue-colored chest and shoulders area is bigger, so the blue to red ratio in his costume is more even). |
| The Scorpion. I could say this was a weak villain selection for Ms. Marvel, as he will not be on her main rogues gallery at all, and this is more of a set up for Professor Kerwin Korman. But I just love how the Scorpion and Ms. Marvel look together on panel. She stands straight and lean, while he is in a more crouching position, and is way bulkier than her. He ends up not being a threat at all for Ms. Marvel despite his agility and his strength, but that is fine, as the issue can then focus more on presenting us the new heroine and Carol's new status, while providing some fun action scenes with the Scorpion being thrown around by the still nameless Ms. Marvel. |
The Bad. | |
 | The Scorpion. Alright, I will count the villain as a weak point, too. Even if I think he was fine. And that is because we could definitely have gotten a bigger threat, even if it had to be used more prominently in the following issue. Having a newly introduced foe that could be used as a regular enemy for Carol would have been good (not counting Korman as he had no interaction with Ms. Marvel at all). Scorpion may be stronger than Spider-Man, but he had such a bad performance against her that he cannot be taken seriously as a recurring villain for her. |
| The potential lack of focus. This issue mainly is centered around Carol and Ms. Marvel, with the Scorpion's plan just being there to provide some welcome action to the plot. All in all, it was a decent story and there is not much to really indicate the writer may not have a set direction for her, but there are little signs that may be early warnings, like the heavy reliance on Spider-Man's support cast instead of Ms. Marvel's own. As long as this is not a permanent situation, things can be fine, though. |
The Weird. | |
 | The language barrier. This is not really a problem of the comic, just something personal I want to share. Since I had not even been born in the 70s and my main language is not English, the importance of the "Ms." versus "Miss" difference is something I needed to be explained to me. |
The Endgame.
At this point, we are presented with Ms. Marvel and Carol Danvers as two separate and different women. The mentions of Captain Marvel and the Kree are something that interest me quite a bit (although I understand not all people appreciate the Kree's majesty).
This was a fun and entertaining issue. Carol is interesting even on her civilian identity (yes, even though they do not say it, it is clear that Carol is Ms. Marvel; sorry for the spoiler). Her interactions with Jameson are awesome, and it is cute to see her become friends with a younger Mary Jane (and it is nice to see two panels of a clearly young and playful Peter Parker).
Ms. Marvel gets some very good action scenes. She was not in danger at any moment in this issue, but there is time for that later. Right here, we see her kick ass. And John Buscema sure makes those scenes look amazing.
There is a lot of plot here, especially if we compare it to some comics written after the year 2000, where the shortest story is stretched to fill six months of issues.
The final grade is:
7 Tracys, 2 Rogues and 1 Storyteller.
Next issue:
The secret origin of Ms. Marvel.
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