Ms. Marvel

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Context

This “Year One”Shorthand for stories chronicling the beginnings of a super-hero. Usually not a literal year. profile starts with Ms. Marvel vol. 1 #1 (cover date January, 1977) and ends when she switches to the black costume with a yellow lightning bolt (in #20 – October, 1978).

During this era, Ms. Marvel undergoes constant changes in powers and characterisation. This article therefore works to explain away all discrepancies. So that everything seen in the comic books can be true, everywhere, all at once.

Background

Walking wounded

Carol Danvers stories in their *in-universe* chronological order are all over the place. Her characterisation darts around like a roller-blading skunk on meth, her skills appear and disappear, etc..

It seems difficult to reconcile the pilot and super-spy, the out-of-her-depth supporting cast blonde, and the women’s lib  super-heroine.

Howbeit, it is possible to spin it into a coherent narrative.

This narrative was likely not intended by the authors. The material is too scattered. But it does makes sense, in hindsight, to explain Danvers’ abilities and characterisation.

Though it flows naturally from the stories, this rationalisation is *not* canon. Rather, it’s an additional layer to make the conflicting canon make sense.

Wait, wait, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this !

This No-Prize HypothesisA made-up explanation to plug a plot hole. goes :

So far, so good ?

There are *hints* about this in the material, but no clear statement.

In our framework, this pop-psych explanation is almost right. She just had the sequence backward. Her mind was split because it couldn’t handle the transformation yet.

Further notes about this “trellis” framework

The hypothesis above addresses retconsMaking changes to a character or story after the fact. in Ms. Marvel #1-20.

Early on, it seemed that writer Gerry Conway  thought of the process that empowered Carol as exposing a positive photographic film. The Psyche-Magnitron emitted a beam that passed through Mar-Vell and struck Carol.

Writer Chris Claremont  showed this in flashbacks when he took over the series. Yet, he must not have been happy with it. Among other issues, it did not explain the costume.

He eventually settled on the genetic reconstruction explanation in Ms. Marvel #19. But that meant having phased out the dual persona subplot and the powered costume.

Last few notes

During this era Carol Danvers pines to be better, stronger, a warrior, and a winner.

At this point her past as a pilot and military intelligence operative has not yet been retconned in. So this cup of ambition  comes across as an allegory for women’s liberation and empowerment.

However, the story works even better with the retconned-in military career. Danvers’s reactions and thought bubbles in the period material actually make *more* sense as those of a damaged and traumatised person who is being slowly, painfully put back together by a mysterious force without realising it.

That this psychic and physical surgery was done by aliens, and thus ham-fisted and inaccurate in parts, can also help explain many of her later psychological difficulties and alcoholism.

Soundtrack

Let’s have something thematically appropriate, and emblematic of 1977 in the US… Yes, the Steve Miller Band nicely fits that bill.

I reckon that it classifies as Classic Rock or Dad Rock. Though by the late 2020s I guess it will more accurately be Granddad Rock.

Powers & Abilities

Ms. Marvel is a powerful fighter with :

Ms. Marvel is superhumanly durable. She can largely ignore conventional weaponry, and withstands superhuman blows without serious wounds. Being unexpectedly hit across the face by a falling I-beam only dazed her for a short while.

But this isn’t entirely consistent, though her durability seems to increase over time.

Higher faster further more

Her agility, reflexes and speed are likely superhuman. She uses a spectacular acrobatic fighting style.

On the other hand, she never displays a number of military skills one would expect from an elite cadet of the Kree Lar academy. In DC Heroes TTRPG terms she might very well have Martial Artist, Military Science, Vehicles, and Weaponry. But she doesn’t use any of those during this era.

On the gripping handAncient nerd joke, equivalent to “on the third hand”., after she integrates herself, she routinely uses Carol’s judo techniques as Ms. Marvel.

Other assets and limitations

Ms. Marvel is a tenacious fighter and hates being knocked out. In DC Heroes terms she tends to keep her Hero PointsDC Heroes RPG concept expressing narrative importance/immunity. to soak damage.

If she becomes angry or needs to save lives, she’ll use her Hero Points more offensively.

During this era, Ms. Marvel consistently underestimates her own power. There’s a series of occasions where she realises that she’s stronger and more durable than she thought.

For instance she assumed that she wasn’t bulletproof. Despite regularly withstanding attacks more powerful than any bullet.

She also thought that people known for their superhuman strength (such as Tiger Shark) were radically stronger than her. As it turned out, he wasn’t *that* brawnier.

Big science, yodellayheehoo

At this stage, Ms. Marvel uses Kree science as one of her core skills. She builds advanced gadgets such as :

She also improvises a powerful EMPAn electro-magnetic pulse/explosion that disables electronics. generator from a Con Ed power plant.

Ronan the Accuser stated that Danvers had all the knowledge of a Fleet Captain. Meaning that she knew how to build any Kree weapon – up to and including the Universal Weapon.

She’s not a full-on gadgets-based hero. She prefers to use her advanced scientific skills after a forceful approach has clearly failed. Still, Ms. Marvel can and does come up with useful, super-advanced tech.

Her scientific and engineering work is done in a light trance. She also once worked at a clearly superhuman speed.

This technological aspect of the character would later fade out.

Seventh sense (part 1)

Ms. Marvel’s “seventh sense” is a danger sense. For instance, it warns her when somebody is about to shoot her in the back.

It also incorporates extra-sensory perception. For instance, she can sense that people she knows are under threat.

This can be broad, such as sensing a danger to New York City. Perhaps somebody she knew was in the crowd being threatened ?

Ms. Marvel will therefore know when an adventure is about to begin, where it is and what is going on. This threatens to put old men hiring adventurers in taverns  out of work.

Somehow, she never senses the dangers that occur in other Marvel comic books set in New York City. Except of course when she appears in a team-up event.

Her danger sense also inexplicably fails when that’s convenient for the plot. ESP powers often do that in comics.

Seventh sense (part 2)

Ms. Marvel’s seventh sense can locate the source of a danger. She get visions about the person or phenomenon, which is reminiscent of the cosmic awareness of Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell).

This often fast-forwards the story to the action parts.

The clarity of seventh sense perceptions varies. Manifestations have included :

Empowered

Taking a tally, Ms. Marvel is empowered by :

History (part 1)

Carol Danvers revitalised Woman magazine.

Her principal helper was associate editor Tracy Burke. Other staff she regularly worked with included :

Meanwhile, the mysterious Ms. Marvel (no relation) started manifesting during Carol’s blackouts.

At this point, Danvers and Ms. Marvel did not know about each other. Both were perplexed by their blackouts.

Ms. Marvel assumed that she was some sort of amnesiac heroine. But it was distressingly unclear to her whether she was a space alien, or an Earth woman.

Flying into action

Ms. Marvel was first seen responding to a robbery in New York City.

Mere hours later, the brazen blonde battler rescued the ungrateful J. Jonah Jameson, who had been kidnapped by the Scorpion (MacDonald Gargan).

Meanwhile Danvers continued to consult with Dr. Barnett, a psychiatrist known for his mastery of regression hypnosis. This attempt to learn about her blackouts was a success. Under hypnosis, she could describe her metamorphoses.

At first, Barnett thought these were delusions. But after Danvers fainted during a regression, she became Ms. Marvel right in front of him. The heroine flew off to confront the Scorpion and the Destructor in a street battle.

This woman, this warrior

Carol then returned to Cape Canaveral. She was to write an exclusive about astronaut Salia Petrie, a friend of hers.

However, she sensed the arrival of an ICBMIntercontinental ballistic missile. A sort of rocket, usually used to deliver a nuclear warhead. aimed at the Cape. Turning into Ms. Marvel, she flew beyond the atmosphere to intercept it.

The payload was the Doomsday Man robot. But Ms. Marvel destroyed the missile, forcing the indestructible robot to crash near the Cape.

As the Doomsday Man climbed out of the crater, Ms. Marvel was irresistibly attracted toward the cave where the Psyche-Magnitron had once exploded. There, she intuited that she was Carol Danvers as well as Ms. Marvel.

She was also exposed to further Psyche-Magnitron energy. But it would be months before she realised that it had strengthened her.

Ms. Marvel then destroyed the Doomsday Man robot.

Robots and synthesoids

Days later, Carol fainted right on the street. A premonition of grave danger involving a strange truck had knocked her out.

Her psychiatrist told her that she was the host for a super-heroine. And that this vision was one of Ms. Marvel’s precognitive flashes.

Investigating, Danvers found the truck – and Ms. Marvel took over. The heroine soon discovered that the Vision (“Victor Shade”) was riding shotgun to protect the shipment.

After a scuffle, Ms. Marvel’s precognitive flash was proved correct. The driver was a robot in disguise, tasked with detonating the shipment to kill millions. The two heroes stopped it.

Gortokians and Skrulls

This was followed by an encounter with Grotesk.

Both combatants were interrupted when MODOK tried to kidnap Ms. Marvel. He sought to copy and mass-produce the Ms. Marvel costume. But the fight with Grotesk destroyed the in-costume circuitry MODOK was after.

In New York City, Carol stumbled upon a fight between the Super-Skrull (Kl’rt) and the Torch (Johnny Storm) and Spider-Man (Peter Parker).

Ms. Marvel flew in to help after the Torch had been knocked out. She eventually deduced that the Super-Skrull wanted to use a cavourite crystal to return to his galaxy, and trapped him into warp-space.

The warrior and the witch-queen

Danvers then had another premonition. Her friend Salia Petrie would soon die in a space shuttle explosion, caused by another cavourite crystal.

However, Carol also sensed impending danger in nearby Saracen Cay. Ms. Marvel forced the change to fly off to the Cay and meet this greater menace – leaving Petrie to her fate.

Ms. Marvel intervened in a fight between the Elementals and Hecate.

During the entire fight, the Carol consciousness fought against the Ms. Marvel one. One wanted to rescue Salia, but the other knew that stopping the Elementals was far more important.

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