Ms. Marvel.
Day of the doom wagon!
Ms. Marvel has to stop it -- but the Vision is sworn to defend it -- at any cost!
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.
Bridge of no return.
Chris Claremont, Writer.
Jim Mooney & Joe Sinnott, Artists.
J. Costanza, Letterer.
Janice Cohen, Colorist.
Archie Goodwin, Editor.
Cosmic Awareness.
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.
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.
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!
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