Ms. Marvel

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Background

Powers & Abilities

During the last four issues of her book (plus the material that would have gone into the unpublished #24-25), Ms. Marvel uses the “integrated” stats from the previous writeup.

It is likely that in these six issues she’s even stronger than before – STR 13 in DC Heroes TTRPG terms. It is difficult to tell since there isn’t much material, but I’d err toward 13.

There’s also a bit more emphasis on her espionage and military skills and contacts.

Team appearances

After that, she uses a different character sheet. This is because she now chiefly appears in a team book. It is common for power levels to be lower there than in solo books.

In particular :

But she retains her core assets –

Soundtrack

Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire OST is emblematic of early 1980s epic synth compositions.

And the movie was about overcoming prejudice through strength and resolve. So it nicely fits the profile.

History

As Carol was trying on her new costume, her photographer Frank Gianelli warned her that a Woman reporter was in trouble. Sharon Cole had been kidnapped in the San Andres mountains  .

Though the military stonewalled her, Carol found a local cop who was willing to help.

Together, they located the site of Cole’s disappearance.

This led to a clash with Warrior-Primes of The People, a hidden species of saurids. Though they tried to take her down to protect their secret, Ms. Marvel was too tough for them.

Eventually, reason prevailed. The People agreed to free all the humans they had captured, including Sharon Cole. And Carol agreed to keep their existence a secret.

Bits and bobs

On the other hand, Danvers and J.J. Jameson’s fights about the editorial line of Woman magazine kept worsening. Carol stuck to her guns, but the writing was on the wall.

During this general time frame, Ms. Marvel also worked with Jewel (Jessica Jones) on minor, unchronicled cases.

Ms. Marvel continued to help the Avengers. She participated in the following encounters :

When Doctor Strange and Clea were attacked by the Silver Dagger (Isaiah Curwen), both Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Ms. Marvel responded. They accompanied the good doctor to New Orleans, where he allied with voodoo queen Marie Laveau.

Though they couldn’t do much against mystically invulnerable enemies, they helped Strange and Laveau defeat the Dagger.

The hairdo is a pretty strong late 1970s/early 1980s marker.

Ch-ch-changes

Shortly after that, Jameson fired Danvers. The new format for Woman was a success, but they just couldn’t work together.

The editorial staff threw a surprise farewell party for Danvers. Tracy Burke reluctantly became the new editor.

Carol received job offers to be a press editor, on the strength of her work at Woman. But she now knew that such schedules got in the way of being Ms. Marvel. Returning to being a writer seemed more interesting in that respect.

Danvers also stopped dating psychiatrist Dr. Mike Barnett. She then headed toward a formal breakup.

In the meanwhile she briefly dated actor and musician Sam Adams, but that didn’t stick. Perhaps that was out of nostalgia about Boston ? That was a joke  .

Lastly, Henry Peter Gyrich imposed a reorganisation on the Avengers. Most of the then-current members were let go, Ms. Marvel among them.

In-between days

After an odd and inconclusive encounter with Deathbird, Ms. Marvel clashed with the Faceless One. She and Vance Astro narrowly defeated this evil alien.

They also managed to save Salia Petrie, Carol’s best friend back at NASA. Though Petrie was thought to have been killed in orbit, the Faceless One had actually turned her into his servant. But Astro broke this brainwashing, and Ms. Marvel helped Salia recover.

In 1979, Ms. Marvel was in Israel to track down a terrorist. There’s no further data, though it is possible that it was a S.H.I.E.L.D. job to test her abilities. The Black Widow (Natalia Romanova) was also sent in to monitor her.

During the op, a hidden room with Red Skull (Johann Shmidt) resources was accidentally discovered. Ms. Marvel and the Widow teamed up to stop a Sleeper robot.

Avengers assemble !

At this point, the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) took a leave of absence from the Avengers. She designated her friend Ms. Marvel as her replacement, and Carol officially joined the team.

Her colleagues were the Beast (Hank McCoy), the Wasp (Janet van Dyne), Iron Man (Tony Stark), and the Vision (“Victor Shade”).

Hawkeye (Clint Barton) also occupied an interim position until the Falcon (Sam Wilson) agreed to join.

After Iron Man unwittingly murdered the Carnellian ambassador, he was replaced by Captain America (Steve Rogers).

Carol Danvers didn’t have a job during that span. She also didn’t seem to get a stipend from the Maria Stark Foundation. Presumably, new procedures from Gyrich meant that she couldn’t get one without compromising her secret identity.

Avengers reassemble !

Encounters during this era included :

Jessica returns

The Avengers and the Defenders also had a big, harrowing but undocumented team up, with Thor pitching in.

As they finally got home, they were attacked by a mind-controlled Jewel, sent there by the Purple Man.

Jewel dove in and downed the Scarlet Witch. The exhausted heroes’ reaction was explosive, with Thor and the Vision mauling Jewel as she tried to flee. But Ms. Marvel rushed in. She grabbed Jewel to protect her, then flew her to a hospital.

Danvers likely saved Jones’ life that day.

Mystique

Meanwhile, Danvers planned with her literary agent, Nancy Jellicoe. Carol had spent enough time leading Woman that her rep as a writer had faded. If she was to work on a new book, it’d be from scratch and without an advance.

Nancy’s husband John — Carol’s accountant — encouraged her to find a book idea PDQ, since her savings were dwindling.

Ms. Marvel then stopped Sabretooth (Victor Creed), who had just escaped from a secure transport. She also prevented a subway train from crashing after this fight wrecked the rails.

Meanwhile, Mystique (Raven Darkhölme) was stepping up her plot against Ms. Marvel. Her attempts along with Ballard had failed, but she had other ways.

Mystique’s lover, Destiny (Irène Adler) had foreseen the death of their foster daughter Rogue (Anna-Marie NLN) at Ms. Marvel’s hands. Darkhölme was determined not to let that happen.

Hong Kong gardens

Thus, Mystique murdered Dr. Barnett to steal his Carol Danvers file. Determined to avenge her psychiatrist/ex, Carol tracked Mystique down.

This led to a clash with Hellfire Club inner circle members Tessa, Pierce and Leland.

From there Carol vamped a criminal weapons dealer, Peter Coelho, who was doing business with the Club. She thus kept Coelho under surveillance as he worked in Hong Kong.

Empty-handed

In HK, Mystique sent Avalanche (Δομήνικος Πετράκης) and Pyro (St. John Allerdyce) after Ms. Marvel. This didn’t work.

Coelho was then murdered by the Club’s Black King, Sebastian Shaw. Shaw and Tessa had discovered that he was double-crossing the Club by dealing with Mystique.

Coelho’s death left Carol without a lead. She therefore returned to New York City.

One of Marvel’s worst storylines

As the Avengers returned from a mission, Ms. Marvel blinked out of existence for a split-second. She had been kidnapped by Marcus son of Immortus, living in LimboA kind of dimension where time doesn’t pass..

Marcus was doomed to be erased from existence. Thus, he was working on a plan to be reborn with his full memories. This required a surrogate mother with superhuman durability and endurance. Ms. Marvel was one of the few viable choices.

During this split-second, Carol spent weeks in Limbo. She was kept mostly stupefied. Marcus attempted to woo her, using the talents of famous historical persons.

Pregnancy

When that didn’t work, he used mind control technology to rape her. This started a sort of accelerated pregnancy.

Marcus then edited out Carol’s memories of having been in Limbo. Soon after, he was erased from existence.

A few days later, a wozzy Carol discovered that she was three months pregnant. Jocasta stepped in as an Avenger while Ms. Marvel was hospitalised.

The delivery took place within days. The child grew into a young adult within a day.

Time incursions

The Avengers near the kid seemed oddly, subtly befuddled. Thus, they supplied him with parts to build a futuristic machine.

Marcus having been reborn on Earth was beginning to damage the timestream, and the machine was meant to stop this.

But he wasn’t quite fast enough. Massive incursions came from the past.

As the Avengers fought, Ms. Marvel was mentally compelled to stay near Marcus. When she began to resist the effect, Marcus knocked her out.

Espying this, Hawkeye shot Marcus, destroying his machine. Earth’s timestream thus continued to tear itself apart around Marcus.

Marcus, apparently a noble and self-sacrificing soul (erk), goaded the Avengers into killing him to stop the effect. But Ms. Marvel, not making much sense, protected him and decided to stick with him.

One of Marvel’s worst storylines closes

Knowing that she would come with him, Marcus agreed to have Thor open a warp to Limbo and leave. This stopped the timestream disruptions.

The Avengers decided that it was a swell idea to let Ms. Marvel leave for a toxic dimensionOther realms of existence that are not our universe. with her lover/son (erk) who just admitted that he raped her, brainwashed her, and hijacked her body (erk). They sure hoped that it was going to work out for the best and she’d be happy ever after !

(Oh yes, it had also been established that Carol would be erased from existence if she spent too long in Limbo. I say thee erk.)

San Francisco, open your golden gate

But Marcus had miscalculated. Back in Limbo he continued to age at an accelerated pace. He died of old age before he could fix this.

Studying the machines and presumably using her mastery of Kree science, Carol was able to return to Earth.

Furious and traumatised, she refused to have any contact with the Avengers. She secretly established herself in San Francisco, living alone.

She presumably got a minor job to pay her rent and food. Or perhaps she brought loot from Limbo with her.

Rogue

But Danvers’ return to the Earth dimension triggered a new vision for Destiny, about Rogue’s fate.

This time, young Rogue attempted to take the matter in her own hands. She replicated strength from an unknown party (Nekra ? Flying Tiger ? Tigra ?) and ambushed Danvers in her home. But even with these edges, Ms. Marvel was more than Rogue could handle.

The fight took them both to the Golden Gate Bridge  . Despite being overpowered, Rogue drained Ms. Marvel’s powers with a touch. But something went wrong, and she permanently drained Danvers’ memories, personality and powers.

In a panic, Rogue threw her unconscious victim off the bridge. Carol was narrowly saved by Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew).

Tabula rasa

Jessica took Carol to a hospital. A Spider-Woman SFPD ally, Lt. Sabrina Morrel, established that the patient was Major Carol Danvers.

However, Carol’s mind was blank, much like a newborn’s.

Spider-Woman called the X-Men, and the amnesiac patient was transferred to Professor Charles Xavier’s care.

Over weeks of telepathic surgery, Xavier restored Danvers’ mentality and personality. A good part of her memories was also returned, albeit as data without emotional significance.

Jessica Drew stuck by her side, and they became friends. Carol also developed tentative ties with several X-Men.

X-guest

When the Avengers came to visit, Carol verbally lashed out at them. She pointed out how they overlooked the gross abuse taking place right under their noses. The team left with their tails between their legs, and Carol remained a house guest at Xavier’s.

For several months she helped the X-Men as ground crew. Wolverine (James Howlett) confirmed that they had been friends, but the bulk of Carol’s memories from her CIA and Special Operations days were lost.

(There are instances — particularly Marvel Fanfare vol. 1 #24 — where Carol seems to remember her entire espionage career. But in other stories there’s a lot she cannot recollect.)

House of X

NASA scientist Peter Corbeau, an old ally of the X-Men, ran additional tests. These included intensive sparring with the Starjammers.

Thus, Dr. Corbeau and Dr. Moira McTaggert established that, while Carol had lost her super-powers, her physiology and genetics were peak human. The foundational alterations done by the Psyche-Magnitron were still there… and perhaps more.

Carol teamed up anew with Wolverine. They entered the Pentagon to delete official intelligence about the X-Men. The relationship with the US government had been going sour, and conflict was now expected.

Both Carol and Logan had legit rank and brass to penetrate the security. Carol even had credentials as an Air Force colonel, and of course the Medal of Honor helped.

(This is, chronologically, the first mention of Ms. Danvers being a Colonel. A caption states that she can assume a Colonel rank for mission-specific intelligence reasons, which is what she’s doing here. I don’t have any idea of how that works.)

The mission nearly went tits up as they ran into Rogue and Mystique. As Raven Darkhölme, Mystique worked at the Pentagon. But Wolverine, Storm (Ororo Munroe) and Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) took Rogue out, while Carol took down Mystique.

Danvers then injected the computer virus that would delete the data about the X-Men. She also spontaneously erased her files as Carol Danvers and as Ms. Marvel from government systems. She thought that it’d help with building herself a new life.

House of Neramani

The X-Men and Carol were then invited to a farewell party thrown by the Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi’ar. She had also been living at Xavier’s mansion, but was now returning to the Shi’ar galaxy.

However, her sister Deathbird attacked Lilandra’s space yacht as part of her coup. She captured the X-Men and Carol, and handed them over to her allies – the Brood of Clan-1982.

The Brood wanted to mine the X-Men’s mutant genome to improve their own species. But when it came to Danvers, they were perplexed. Her DNA was like nothing they had seen before. Thus, they came up with a special program of genetic experimentation.

As it turned out, this was a so-so idea.

Description

Carol’s new costume was co-designed with Janet van Dyne, and is made of unstable molecules.

Personality

Brash, two-fisted, opinionated, proud, aggressive, determined both to protect the innocent and to utter minor quips.

She’s also… not a fan of anything denying her agency based on her gender.

Ms. Marvel is also determined to have fun when she has some downtime. This is in part to recover from her years at the helm of Woman. Though she loved her work, it was stressful and came with a lot of crunch time stomping all over her me-time.

Thus, she acts friendly and social. Whereas at NASA she was isolated and had but one real buddy, during this era she easily makes friends.

Down but not out

After the Marcus omnishambles, Carol is furious. She wants to be left alone by the entire world as she recovers.

In a way, Rogue’s assault helps, blunting the traumatic edge of these memories.

Carol’s stay at the Xavier mansion seems to have been pleasant. One assumes that she continued to receive telepathic surgery, albeit with diminishing returns.

Eventually she felt ready to return to the field, but she was still pondering what to do with her life.

Quotes

“I die somewhat *harder* than most, patriarch.”

Absorbing Man: “Just go away ! Why should you care if I take over some piddly-squit banana republic, anyway ?”
Ms. Marvel: “That’s easy, bunky. Can you imagine what would happen to the price of bananas if you did ?”

“Nice bulletproof jacket you have here, Fury ! Your girlfriend knit it for you ?”

“Hala !”

DC Universe Adaptation

(This section proposes ways of using this character in DC Universe stories).

Superman could easily be subbed for Mar-vell.

And there are sufficient similarities between Danvers and some takes on Lois Lane to go for a “Lois is Ms. Marvel” take. Especially since “Lois becomes a superwoman” has been in the water since at least 1943.

Another approach outside the Superman mythos would be for Ms. Marvel to be an independent heroine and a friend of Vixen (Mari McCabe). She would thus involved in the JLA during Vixen’s tenure. She left when Vibe, Steel and the others died.

In this take, her powers came from a freak Dominator experiment. When exposed to the Gene Bomb, she evolved to her Binary state but lost her memories, and joined the Ravers.

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Source of Character: Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup completed on the 31^st of December, 2017.