Captain Marvel (1960s-70s)

[MacNimon]

From Wiki:

Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell)

(Marvel Comics) first Captain Marvel was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (Dec. 1967). This character is an alien military officer, Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree Imperial Militia, who is sent to observe the planet Earth as it is developing technology to travel into space. Mar-Vell eventually wearies of his superiors' malign intent and allies himself with Earth as the Kree Empire brands him a traitor. From then on, Mar-Vell fights to protect Earth from all threats.

He would later be revamped by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Having been exiled to the Negative Zone by the Supreme Intelligence, the only way Mar-Vell can temporarily escape is to exchange atoms with Rick Jones by means of special wristbands called Nega-Bands. He is also given superpowers and his Kree military uniform is replaced with a form fitting costume.

With the title's sales still flagging, Marvel allowed Jim Starlin to conceptually revamp the character, although his appearance was little changed. Mar-Vell is freed from the Negative Zone and becomes a cosmic champion, the "Protector of the Universe" appointed by the cosmic entity Eon. Together, Mar-Vell and Rick continue to battle against evil, most notably battling the Death-worshipping Thanos. Mar-Vell became a close ally of the Titans, and one of their number, Elysius, became his lover.

However, his career was cut short when he developed inoperable cancer, the result of an earlier exposure to toxic nerve gas during a battle with Nitro. He died from this cancer on Titan in the presence of the Marvel Universe's superhero community, as chronicled in Marvel's first large-format graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel.

Below are the covers to his first appearances in MSH, followed by his own title, and his final appearances in Marvel Spotlight Vol 2, then Marvel Graphic Novel #1.

[llllllll]

Some great covers there, never read anything Captain Marvel comics, but they look good. From a purely visual perspective I prefer the early version, almost a 50s sci fi costume.

[MacNimon]

Jul 16, 2012 10:20:39 GMT llllllll said:

Some great covers there, never read anything Captain Marvel comics, but they look good. From a purely visual perspective I prefer the early version, almost a 50s sci fi costume.

You're closer than you may think regarding that costume. The original green and white version you refer to was actually the character's uniform in the Kree military (holding the rank of Captain, probably - it's been such a long time that I can't remember the fine details). In the early issues you see many of his race in similar, but different, uniforms depending on their rank. Captain Mar-Vell was an agent of the warmongering Kree race who was sent to Earth to spy on us, to discover any weaknesses in our defenses etc to give the Kree as big an advantage as possible once they embarked upon their planned invasion of Earth. But he soon became too fond of the planet and it's inhabitants and turned traitor by defending Earth from the invaders rather than helping them. Sounds rather like cliched 50s sci-fi dramas rather than superhero adventure, doesn't it? As I said, it's been a long time since I read these - probably 25 years or more - so my memory is hazy when it comes to details. However, I'm pretty sure that there wasn't a great deal of superhero-type shenanigans in those early issues, those came later on when they started to change the character in an obvious ploy to boost sales.

And once they started changing the character, that in itself caused problems for future writers...it seemed that often they didn't know whether they were writing for a superhero title, or a sci-fi one. So much of the time it was rather messily stuck in the middle. There were a couple of real highlights worth checking out though, writer/artist Jim Starlin's run in the series from around #25-35 (approx) and the final run of issues by writer Doug Moench and artist Pat Broderick. The title was sadly cancelled midway through this storyline, with the final few installments appearing in Marvel Spotlight, but even though sales didn't reflect the huge improvement in quality it ensured the series went out on a high. Mar-Vell made one final appearance in the Marvel Graphic Novel, The Death Of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin, in which he died of cancer. He is one of the few comic characters who has managed to stay dead to this day, an unusual feat in this age of miraculous resurrections.

[MacNimon]

One final cover which I didn't know even existed until this morning, this Marvel Spotlight issue must have been the final appearance of the character in a regular comic.

[Silver Age Fan]

I prefer the later costume.

My only experiences of the character were his appearances in, what was it, Mighty World of Marvel? Somehow, having his adventures reprinted in black-and-white made the sci-fi tales all the more epic and darker. When I saw them in colour years later, well they kind of lost something.

It's a topic I plan to do one day, but I think there are characters better suited to b/w. The likes of Superman, Spider-Man and Wonder Woman are colourful characters who I think work better in colour, but the likes of The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, The Punisher and Mar-Vell worked better in b/w, in my opinion. Some Batman tales do, too.