Ms. Marvel Epic Collection, Volume 1: This Woman, This Warrior by Chris Claremont, et al.

Dismal attempt at a feminist superheroine

The superheroine Ms. Marvel made her debut in 1977 in issue #1 of her self-titled magazine. Marvel Comics’ trade paperback Ms. Marvel Epic Collection, Volume 1 collects issues 1 to 14 of Ms. Marvel, as well as Marvel Team-Up issues 61 and 62, and a crossover issue of The Defenders (#57). I grew up reading Marvel Comics, and I think of the 1960s, ‘70s, and to a lesser extent the ‘80s, as the glory days of superhero comics. Sometimes, however, Marvel’s Epic Collections remind me that there were plenty of mediocre and worse comics published during that era. This is one of those volumes.

Marvel had a few female superheroes before Ms. Marvel’s 1977 debut, among them the Invisible Girl (1961), the Wasp (1963), Marvel Girl (1963), Scarlet Witch (1964), Black Widow (1964), and Storm (1975). Those characters are all interesting in their own way, but Ms. Marvel just feels like she was created to satisfy some estrogen quota. By this point, Marvel really seems to have run out of good ideas for superheroes. Carol Danvers was a supporting character in the old Captain Marvel comic starring the male Kree warrior named Mar-Vell. She gets exposed to some alien radiation and is transformed into a sort of Kree/human hybrid, complete with a split personality. This identity crisis becomes cumbersome and is soon dispensed with. Ms. Marvel is super strong (boring) and her suit allows her to fly (also boring). Who knows how strong she is, but she says she’s not bulletproof. As if she weren’t powerful enough, she also has a Kree “seventh sense” that is somewhat similar to Spider-Man’s spider-sense, except that Ms. Marvel can actually see the future. 

Despite a ridiculous costume that flaunts her naked belly and back for all to see, Ms. Marvel isn’t just a slice of cheesecake. In fact, the artists can be commended for actually drawing her like a modern athletic woman who looks like she could be on the Olympic volleyball team. By issue #10, the powers that be had already demurely covered her midriff windows. All of the villains in these Ms. Marvel comics address her as “Woman,” as in “Woman, I will destroy you!” What’s funnier is that even in her own interior monologues, Ms. Marvel refers to herself as “Woman,” as in “Woman, that was a close call!” It couldn’t be any more obvious that this dialogue was written by men.

Chris Claremont, who went on to become one of Marvel’s golden boys with the X-Men, writes almost all the issues in this volume, and he delivers some really atrocious stories here. Gerry Conway created the character, however, and Claremont was just stuck with her. On the bright side, the art here is pretty good. Jim Mooney does his best John Buscema imitation, and John himself and his brother Sal are on hand for a few issues. John Byrne draws the two issues of Marvel Team-Up. It’s apparent that Marvel wanted to get this title off to a good start by putting some of their best 1970s talent at the drawing board, but it doesn’t make up for the abysmal storytelling.

The Brie Larsen version of Captain Marvel that you see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is quite different from these comics but just as poorly thought-out. In the movies, she’s basically Marvel’s green lantern, and she’s as powerful as Superman. What makes Marvel’s heroes interesting is their weakenesses, the fact that they’re not perfect. The MCU’s Captain Marvel, however, isn’t allowed to have any weaknesses because then she wouldn’t be the epitome of female power. Heaven forbid an intentional feminist icon should have any flaws, so she ends up just being boring and ridiculous, much like Conway and Claremont’s version in these initial issues.