Thursday, March 27, 2014

Ms. Marvel - Marvel Comics

Marvel character Carol Danvers has been through a lot. She was created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan and first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 in 1968. At that time she was a supporting character in the Captain Marvel (later Mar-Vell) saga. Carol was injured when a Kree device blew up and was in a coma. And since this is comic books, explosion + alien radiation + coma = (you guessed it) superpowers!

Yes Carol emerged from that coma like a butterfly from a cocoon. The explosion had her into a human-Kree hybrid, with that hybrid being Mar-Vell. So this was a seriously butt-kicking butterfly. She called herself Ms. Marvel (it was the 70s) and she did some serious superheroing.

Ms. Marvel - Marvel Comics

But like most superheroines, the writers just seemed to like to mess with her. I really think a LOT of them are grown men with the mental capacity of adolescents. Or worse.... In Avengers #200, Ms. Marvel was kidnapped, brainwashed and raped. Yep. What did the Avengers do? Not a damn thing. The story line got so much attention that comic book critics all over went after the writing staff for it. Of course they kinda shrugged, wondering what all the fuss was about. It took over a year and comic book writer Chris Claremont to fix it. He retconned the whole incident in Avengers Annual #10 in 1981.

Chris also gave us the story where Rogue permanently absorbed all of Carol's abilities and memories. This is what originally powered Rogue in the comics. Flying, smashing Rogue is brought to you courtesy of Ms. Marvel.

As female characters are run through the wringer, Carol was Binary and then Warbird before finally winding back up with her powers and the name "Ms. Marvel".

Now the Ms. Marvel name is gone and she has a new costume, haircut and name....Captain Marvel.

As far as powers go...Carol is a pretty tough lady. She has superhuman strength (she can lift 70 tons), enhanced durability, she can fly at around 400 mph and she has a "Seventh Sense" kinda like Spider-Man's "Spidey Sense". She can also fire power blasts out of her hands. Her ability to absorb energy allows her to boost all all of these powers...with possibly no upper limit... Oh yeah and due to her military and SHIELD training and hanging out with the Avengers, X-men etc, Carol is a pilot, marksman and very good hand to hand fighter.

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