Reprints Ms. Marvel (1977) # 1-14
Written by Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, Jim Shooter, Carla Conway and Archie Goodwin.
Penciled by John Buscema, Jim Mooney, Sal Buscema, Keith Pollard and Carmine Infantino.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, Sam Grainger, Tom Palmer, Frank Giacoia and Steve Leialoha.
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| Variant cover. |
A new superheroine has arrived in New York. She possesses super-strength, the power of flight, a psychic seventh sense and the heart of a warrior. This new crime fighter announces her presence by foiling a bank robbery.
Carol's boss and publisher of Woman is none other than J. Jonah Jameson, who famously detests superheroes. Jameson tells Carol he wants her to write an expose of Ms. Marvel. He believes she's a menace like Spider-Man. Carol disagrees and she battles Jameson over the direction of Woman.
The criminal known as the Scorpion has just returned to New York. He was created in an experiment funded by Jameson and it cost him his humanity, he's stuck in his costume. Scorpion blames JJJ for his plight, so he kidnaps Jameson and intends to kill him.
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| Carol Danvers converses with Mary Jane, while Scorpion captures Jameson. |
It's up to Ms. Marvel to save Jameson. She makes quick work of the Scorpion and thus scores a victory in her first encounter with a supervillain. But Ms. Marvel has no time to celebrate. As soon as the Scorpion is defeated, she's attacked by Scorpions ally, the Destructor. He wears a helmet that shoots tachyon blasts.
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| Destructor blasts Ms. Marvel. |
Later, Carol visits Florida's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral to cover a space launch for Woman. Her old friend, astronaut Salia Petrie is part of a crew that is rocketing to Skylab. The terrorist organization known as Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) sends a missile to the NASA base intending to destroy it. Ms. Marvel intervenes and is surprised to learn the missile contains a passenger. It's Doomsday Man, a giant robot who is nearly impervious to Ms. Marvel's attacks. They fight in space and land on Earth near a cave.
Ms. Marvel is able to deactivate the robot, but she's suddenly attacked by Destructor! They fight in the cave until it collapses around them. Ms. Marvel tries to save the villain, but he perishes in the cave-in.
Sometime after that, Carol visits Stark International for an article about women who work in the company. She learns that a new Super Truck will be carrying deadly chemicals to Upstate New York. The Avenger known as the Vision will be accompanying the truck for security purposes. Carol's seventh sense detects something terrible will happen to the truck and tails it as Ms. Marvel. She downs a tree in an attempt to roadblock the Super Truck. This leads to a battle between Ms. Marvel and the Vision. She learns that a bomb has been attached to the truck. It's the work of the evil genius MODOK, who remains in hiding, observing the heroes from behind the scenes.
Subsequently, Carol's seventh sense predicts a fire will occur at a refinery in New Jersey. When she investigates as Ms. Marvel, she discovers it's the work of Grotesk, a subterranean barbarian who once battled the X-Men. Ms. Marvel falls in battle against Grotesk and is captured by MODOK's minions from AIM. MODOK tries to brainwash Ms. Marvel. She resists, fights back against MODOK and escapes.
But Grotesk is still on the loose. He wants to destroy the Earth to punish humans. Nuclear testing destroyed his subterranean kingdom, leaving him the lone survivor. Grotesk seeks revenge and it's up to Ms. Marvel to bring him to justice.
Following that adventure, Ms. Marvel is flying through New York when she's attacked by a woman with wings. She says her name is Deathbird and announces, "In MODOK's name, tonight Ms. Marvel dies!"
Ms. Marvel goes on to battle Deathbird and MODOK, with rival factions of AIM battling each other on the sidelines.
Next, Carol goes back to Kennedy Space Center to cover a space shuttle launch. But her seventh sense draws her to a nearby island.
When she arrives, she's attacked by Hecate, a witch goddess. Hecate is accompanied by her three men who call themselves the Elementals. Ms. Marvel is outnumbered, but battles bravely, ultimately gaining the respect of Hecate. When the Elementals turn on Hecate, she teams with Ms. Marvel to defeat them.
After that, Carol heads to her hometown, Boston, MA. She attends a party held on the famous naval ship U.S.S. Constitution with her friend Mike Barnett. They're attacked by two aliens, but Carol turns into Ms. Marvel, defends the ship and sends the aliens fleeing back to their home planet.
Carol sticks around Boston for a while. Her father Joe Danvers is working on a skyscraper construction site. But Joe has some misgivings about the safety of the construction site. When Joe investigates the site, he's attacked by a villain named Steeplejack. Thankfully, Ms. Marvel is shadowing her father and saves him from the villain.
Review:
Marvel MasterworksMs. Marvel Vol. 1 is an entertaining book. If nothing else, it's an eye-opening snapshot of the industry reaction to feminism and the women's liberation movement.
Story:
Gerry Conway wrote the first 35 pages (2 issues worth) of the stories, with Chris Claremont writing the rest.
When these stories were first published, Marvel didn't really have many women in their monthly comics who could slug it out and beat up bad guys. Conway deserves credit for creating a heroine who can do just that, and Claremont also writes her as a physical force to be reckoned with. In the scanned pages below, a little girl says she wants to be like Ms. Marvel when she grows up.
That's something little girls didn't get to say very often in Marvel stories until Ms. Marvel came along.
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| Ms. Marvel slugs it out with Doomsday Man. |
Ms. Marvel is able to deactivate the robot, but she's suddenly attacked by Destructor! They fight in the cave until it collapses around them. Ms. Marvel tries to save the villain, but he perishes in the cave-in.
Sometime after that, Carol visits Stark International for an article about women who work in the company. She learns that a new Super Truck will be carrying deadly chemicals to Upstate New York. The Avenger known as the Vision will be accompanying the truck for security purposes. Carol's seventh sense detects something terrible will happen to the truck and tails it as Ms. Marvel. She downs a tree in an attempt to roadblock the Super Truck. This leads to a battle between Ms. Marvel and the Vision. She learns that a bomb has been attached to the truck. It's the work of the evil genius MODOK, who remains in hiding, observing the heroes from behind the scenes.
Subsequently, Carol's seventh sense predicts a fire will occur at a refinery in New Jersey. When she investigates as Ms. Marvel, she discovers it's the work of Grotesk, a subterranean barbarian who once battled the X-Men. Ms. Marvel falls in battle against Grotesk and is captured by MODOK's minions from AIM. MODOK tries to brainwash Ms. Marvel. She resists, fights back against MODOK and escapes.
But Grotesk is still on the loose. He wants to destroy the Earth to punish humans. Nuclear testing destroyed his subterranean kingdom, leaving him the lone survivor. Grotesk seeks revenge and it's up to Ms. Marvel to bring him to justice.
Following that adventure, Ms. Marvel is flying through New York when she's attacked by a woman with wings. She says her name is Deathbird and announces, "In MODOK's name, tonight Ms. Marvel dies!"
Ms. Marvel goes on to battle Deathbird and MODOK, with rival factions of AIM battling each other on the sidelines.
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| MODOK learns the hard way that Ms. Marvel's costume is NOT the source of her powers. |
Next, Carol goes back to Kennedy Space Center to cover a space shuttle launch. But her seventh sense draws her to a nearby island.
When she arrives, she's attacked by Hecate, a witch goddess. Hecate is accompanied by her three men who call themselves the Elementals. Ms. Marvel is outnumbered, but battles bravely, ultimately gaining the respect of Hecate. When the Elementals turn on Hecate, she teams with Ms. Marvel to defeat them.
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| Hecate & the Elementals attack Ms. Marvel. |
After that, Carol heads to her hometown, Boston, MA. She attends a party held on the famous naval ship U.S.S. Constitution with her friend Mike Barnett. They're attacked by two aliens, but Carol turns into Ms. Marvel, defends the ship and sends the aliens fleeing back to their home planet.
Carol sticks around Boston for a while. Her father Joe Danvers is working on a skyscraper construction site. But Joe has some misgivings about the safety of the construction site. When Joe investigates the site, he's attacked by a villain named Steeplejack. Thankfully, Ms. Marvel is shadowing her father and saves him from the villain.
Review:
Marvel MasterworksMs. Marvel Vol. 1 is an entertaining book. If nothing else, it's an eye-opening snapshot of the industry reaction to feminism and the women's liberation movement.
Story:
Gerry Conway wrote the first 35 pages (2 issues worth) of the stories, with Chris Claremont writing the rest.
When these stories were first published, Marvel didn't really have many women in their monthly comics who could slug it out and beat up bad guys. Conway deserves credit for creating a heroine who can do just that, and Claremont also writes her as a physical force to be reckoned with. In the scanned pages below, a little girl says she wants to be like Ms. Marvel when she grows up.
That's something little girls didn't get to say very often in Marvel stories until Ms. Marvel came along.
A superhero/superheroine is only as good as their villains. The bad guys here are a mixed bag. MODOK is the only A-list foe. MODOK proves to be a good opponent for Ms. Marvel. He's accompanied by Deathbird when he comes back for round 2. Deathbird's never been my favorite villain, but she was a recurring foe of the X-Men in the early 80s, which ads some importance to the character.
Grotesk is a minor villain by any metric, but he provided Ms. Marvel with a good sparring partner. Some of the other villains, like Doomsday Man and Steeplejack are forgettable. The Scorpion is beaten pretty easily by Ms. Marvel in the first story, which is a nice way of demonstrating that she's a heavy hitter.
I enjoyed the scenes that feature Carol interacting with Mary Jane Watson. Conway was familiar with Mary Jane, having written her in Amazing Spider-Man, but we never got to see many scenes of her in which she wasn't talking to Peter Parker. It would have been nice to see more of MJ in these stories, maybe Conway (or Claremont) could have added more depth to the character.
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| JJJ doesn't care for Carol's coverage of Ms. Marvel. |
Speaking of characters with ties to Spider-Man, Carol's interactions with J. Jonah Jameson were also enjoyable. It was nice to see someone stand up to JJJ, after years of Peter Parker's somewhat sheepish behavior. I also liked the scenes where we got to see Carol managing her staff at Woman magazine
not the sort of thing we saw in comics very often.
I found the "Ms. Marvel and Carol don't know about each other" was the weakest part of this book. I wish Conway and Claremont had gotten rid of it earlier or not written it into the story in the first place. Other than that, and villains that aren't always very interesting, this book contains some nice, solid Bronze Age tales.
Art:
This Masterworks book features art from Bronze Age stalwarts John and Sal Buscema, Jim Mooney, Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott and Tom Palmer. Their art is generally excellent and we get some great looking fight scenes from these artists.
Here's some great from the book penciled by Sal Buscema and inked by Sinnott:
If you're a fan of those artists, you're likely to enjoy Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel Vol.1.
How does it look?:
Here's a scan of the splash page for Ms. Marvel #1, borrowed from the great Sidekickcast:
Looks like a pretty good facsimile to me.
Extras:
When Ms. Marvel #1 was first published, Conway wrote an essay that appeared in the letters column. That's included in this book. It contained some unflattering comments (though I take him at his word that he meant no ill will) about women comic book writers. To his credit, Conway wrote a new essay, published in the beginning of this book where he apologizes and acknowledges he was wrong.
The book also features a 1977 house ad for Ms. Marvel and 5 pages of original art.
The stories reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel Vol.1 aren't exactly classics. But it contains some enjoyable tales and the book also features art from some of the finest Bronze Age pencilers and inkers. As Conway says in his introduction, these tales served as a nice way of hanging a "Girls Allowed" sign on the comic book world.
J.A. Morris' rating:
3 Sals.
I found the "Ms. Marvel and Carol don't know about each other" was the weakest part of this book. I wish Conway and Claremont had gotten rid of it earlier or not written it into the story in the first place. Other than that, and villains that aren't always very interesting, this book contains some nice, solid Bronze Age tales.
Art:
This Masterworks book features art from Bronze Age stalwarts John and Sal Buscema, Jim Mooney, Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott and Tom Palmer. Their art is generally excellent and we get some great looking fight scenes from these artists.
Here's some great from the book penciled by Sal Buscema and inked by Sinnott:
If you're a fan of those artists, you're likely to enjoy Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel Vol.1.
How does it look?:
Here's a scan of the splash page for Ms. Marvel #1, borrowed from the great Sidekickcast:
And here's how it looks, as reproduced for this book:
Extras:
When Ms. Marvel #1 was first published, Conway wrote an essay that appeared in the letters column. That's included in this book. It contained some unflattering comments (though I take him at his word that he meant no ill will) about women comic book writers. To his credit, Conway wrote a new essay, published in the beginning of this book where he apologizes and acknowledges he was wrong.
The book also features a 1977 house ad for Ms. Marvel and 5 pages of original art.
The stories reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel Vol.1 aren't exactly classics. But it contains some enjoyable tales and the book also features art from some of the finest Bronze Age pencilers and inkers. As Conway says in his introduction, these tales served as a nice way of hanging a "Girls Allowed" sign on the comic book world.
J.A. Morris' rating:
3 Sals.
