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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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