Marvel Mythos and Media #5 - Ms. Marvel, Part Two
Mythos:
New to Marvel Mythos and Media? Please check out my previous columns!
When I left you last, we were just beginning a three-part look into the history of Ms. Marvel. If you haven’t checked out her extremely confusing origin, please visit my previous column and attempt to get the basics.
I have no idea what turns her eyes white when she puts on that little domino mask, but it drives a grown man wild.
Okay, if you’ve read the first column on Ms. Marvel, you know that she was Marvel’s attempt at being “hip” to feminism. As previously detailed, the attempts were amateurish at best, even under the pen of talented comics scribe Chris Claremont. However, Claremont did make a major change to Ms. Marvel that was very beneficial to all six people buying the book on a monthly basis; he cleared up the story angle involving multiple personalities. Before we get to that point, let’s look at what took up Ms. Marvel’s time while she waited for that necessary reboot.
Desperate for villains, Claremont seemed to think that the dynamic of having a large Cro-Magnon man would set up a nice comparison. The liberated woman destroys the misogynistic man? Whether or not that’s the intended metaphor, it’s given to the reader through some very suspect dialogue between Ms. Marvel and this goon who goes by the name of Grotesk. In what’s become a comic book cliché, he’s from an underground civilization that hates humanity because we unknowingly destroyed them.
Every single villain needs to first mention that Ms. Marvel is a woman. What clued you in first? The breasts or the lack of a bulge through the spandex, you idiot?!
Never heard of Grotesk? There’s a reason for that. Depressingly, long and drawn out battles with this hairy chump consume several issues at the beginning of Claremont’s arc on the book. When he finally disappears, Ms. Marvel’s best feud comes as a result of a run-in with AIM, a terrorist organization that is based in the Marvel universe. Specifically, she clashes with a former commander of AIM named MODOK. His acronym stands for Mobile/Mental Operative Designed Only for Killing. If you’re unfamiliar, he’s a big head in a flying wheelchair that looks scarily like a fetus.
Feel bad for MODOK’s mom? Imagine pushing that head out during the birthing process!
Though he’d return to torment Ms. Marvel, you never get the sense that Ms. Marvel is in any real danger. After all, MODOK was never intended to be much of a physical threat. Instead, like many other Ms. Marvel villains, he relies on a beam that shoots out of his head. One wonders where this “head beam” technology is originating and what one could do to stop it.
Needing a change of scenery, Ms. Marvel finds her way back to Florida to watch an old friend go into space. Predictably, said friend is endangered. Having plumbed the angle of sexist villains who doubt they can fall to a “woman”, Ms. Marvel was given a villainess. Finally, somebody of her own gender to battle. Predictably, Marvel didn’t over-sexualize this villainess in any way, giving her plain looks and a normal physique. Yes, that’s sarcasm. Bring on the boobs, Marvel.
I don’t see any conflict between attempts to espouse the tenets of feminism AND having all females look like models with bulging cleavage. Do you?
This character, Hecate, played up to her moniker. Hecate is the name of a pre-Olympian Greek goddess who’s portrayed as good or evil depending on the hands crafting the story at the time. Eventually, it’s revealed that this Hecate isn’t evil-incarnate, even teaming up with Ms. Marvel to take down her ambitious cronies once they turn on her. Before that can happen, though, Hecate forces Ms. Marvel to confront the truth about her dual personalities.
Why does this cheesy moment seem so familiar?
“That’s not true! That’s impossible!”
Though the reveal is unforgivably melodramatic, it cleared up the annoying dual personality storylines and allowed for much greater freedom with the character. No longer bound, one would think that the storylines would improve greatly. While facets of character development regarding Carol Danvers improved, her supporting cast and rogues’ gallery continued to be less than stellar. Enter Steeplejack.
Not only does she get another reject-villain that even I had never heard of upon first read, she gets the lame successor of said reject.
Continuing to ram the feminist angle down our throats, this issue introduces us to Carol’s father, Joe Danvers. Hoisting stereotype upon stereotype, Joe is a construction worker. Joe also happens to be a raving misogynist who disapproves of his working daughter, wondering when she’s going to settle down and get married. Working for a crooked job site, it’s he who initially runs afoul of the new Steeplejack.
Ah, speakin’ in contractions and losin’ unnecessary consonants. That’s all us lower class chumps do, ya’ know?
Predictably, when a woman who can crush bricks is put up against a loser named Steeplejack, whose best gimmick is shooting a nail gun, this is going to be a one and done storyline. By the end, Steeplejack is gone and Dad Danvers is still a raving sexist, having not really learned his lesson. Perhaps the oddest part about this issue is a random appearance by Dracula, which would lead to nowhere in the coming issues. Was Dracula being considered for a run at Ms. Marvel? Who knows? He had a successful run battling the X-Men, and he would have at least been an upgrade over Steeplejack.
On a random aside, does anybody else think the Marvel version of Drac is an ode to Vincent Price? The resemblance is uncanny.
Oddly, this stumbling about after she’s found herself continues into the next few issues, another C-list villain appearance that would lead to nowhere. A water-based villain, Tiger Shark typically fought Namor, but he and Ms. Marvel tussle through an odd turn of events that leads to Ms. Marvel forcing to fight him in order to save Namor’s cousin, the poorly named Namorita. Never heard of her? Well, she’s dead, anyway, and you didn’t miss much when she was alive.
Hard to believe, but Ms. Marvel is nearly defeated by this doofus.
After defeating Tiger Shark, the series would hit a few high notes and a few more valleys of suck before its cancellation. Return next time for our last look at Ms. Marvel!
Media:
In Media, we’re going to be taking a look at the lineage of the late, great Captain Marvel. He’s the gentleman who is the founder of this feast so to speak, having a hand in creating a number of interesting situations in Marvel Comics and its media.
No wiseass cracks for this guy. Great character with a great look!
As mentioned in the first article on Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel was a Kree warrior who fought alongside Earth’s heroes from time to time, showing a great deal of moral fortitude. Powered through psionic abilities that were amplified through the bands he wore around his wrists, he was able to fly, generate energy, and was granted super-strength. Sadly, his tenure in the Marvel universe would come to an untimely end. On the bright side, his poignant death was captured in a very well known one-off written by Jim Starlin.
Very bleak cover, but it conveys the mood.
The interesting thing about his death was that he was laid low by something very pedestrian, at least in the superhero sense. Captain Marvel contracted incurable cancer. While the manner in which he contracted it is a bit fantastic, toxic gas from a villain battle, the death is handled professionally and in a surprisingly gentle fashion for a mainstream graphic novel. He passes quietly in bed, surrounded by friends. Indeed, his death is known as one of the most well-written and poignant in comics’ lore.
However, controversy would spring up when Captain Marvel recently reappeared during the Civil War storyline, during which Marvel’s superheroes fought amongst themselves. However, in the subsequent storyline, the Skrull Invasion, it was revealed that this Captain Marvel was a Skrull imposter. The awesome part of this is that the Skrull was imprinted so heavily with Captain Marvel’s pure, moral personality that he went rogue, fighting for Earth before perishing!
The inner conflict begins for the Skrull Mar-Vell.
However, the Kree race, their long-time enemies, just found out that the Skrull Empire got one more dig in, this time at their most famed hero. To say that the Kree are pissed and looking for revenge is a bit of an understatement. Where that will lead is anybody’s guess, but expect it to be bloody and to involve Captain Marvel’s son, the heir to the Kree superhero position AND an heir to the Skrull throne!
So with that, we arrive at another comic controversy, Captain Marvel’s son, the Hulkling of the Young Avengers. Why controversial? Firstly, he’s the son of Marvel and a Skrull princess. So, he has a claim to both races and abilities of both. He can shape-shift, but possesses the extreme strength of his father. He was pivotal during the Civil War storyline, helping the rebels under Captain America achieve a near-victory before Cap commanded a surrender.
Teddy, Marvel’s son, in civilian form.
Teddy is set to become a major shaker in the Marvel universe some day, but that might lead to major heat for Marvel Comics as a company. The reason for this is that Teddy is, as far as I know, the most mainstream gay character in comics. Marvel has been less than shy lately about acknowledging the sly hints of a relationship between him and fellow Avenger, Wiccan. They have even referred to each other as “boyfriends” in recent issues.
Teddy in fighting form with his boyfriend, Wiccan.
I like to think that I, like most comic fans, am accepting of any sort of lifestyle. If anything, I’d be excited because it represents a big step forward in mainstream comics and would open up some interesting storylines. However, I do worry about what will happen if Teddy is given a boost in importance along the lines of Ms. Marvel, which appears to be in the works. Will fundamentalists balk even though most comic readers are no longer underage? Only time will tell what the future will hold for the family line of Captain Marvel.
*All black and white images used are from Marvel Comics’ Essential Ms. Marvel.
Geek Force Utterz #050 - Fiftieth Episode!
Since launching Geek Force Five earlier this year, I’ve made a number of forays into the multimedia space. Most of them were video series that didn’t last long. It wasn’t until I stumbled across the awesomeness of Utterli (then called Utterz) that I found the right platform for me. I never had time to get in front of a video camera on a regular basis, but I did have time to pick up my phone and make a phone call once a day. That was easy. And so, here we are: episode number fifty. That’s what today’s call is all about. Well, that, plus me finally borking the primary user account on my iMac after nearly two years of trying (yay for the multi-user environment of Mac OS X and for user account levels that work).
Listen in via the embed above, or by visiting Utterli.com, then leave us a comment and join in the celebration of today’s milestone.
Geek Force Utterz #049 - Mac OS X User Accounts
Yesterday, I was overcome by my strange obsession with mucking with things that aren’t at all in need of mucking with. Here’s the thing: my wife and I share a user account on our iMac. This works out well, for the most part, because we share our iTunes library, our iPhoto library, and our calendars. But, no matter how well it’s going, I always come back to this idea that each of us having our own separate user account would work better. This is silly, on the one hand—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?—but, on the other hand, it’s almost as silly to ignore the desire for change. That’s what today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz is all about. Listen in via the embed above (or by visiting Utterli.com) and then leave your two cents on the subject down there in the comments. Do you share a computer with someone? How do you handle the user account issue? Let us know!
Geek Force Utterz #048 - Planning a Reading
I’m in the early stages of planning a fiction reading in New Hampshire at the end of December or the beginning of January. In today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz, I talk about how that’s going and solicit advice on how to really make it happen. You can listen in via the embed above or by visiting Utterli.com.
Geek Force Utterz #047 - Holiday Rant
This morning, I once again hit that cellphone dead space I mentioned the other day. My rant about the holidays, therefore, was cut short.
I promise to get on the ball and get back to recording my rants before I hit the dead space, but for now you’ll have to make do with another shortened episode. Listen in via the embed above or by visiting Utterli.com.
