Hello and welcome to another week of fun in Ye Olde School Café! This week, we’ll be closing out our look at Essential Captain Marvel volume one. Last week, we saw the first part of his inaugural adventure. Now, we’ll see the ending to that story and hit on a couple of other big stories in this massive book (24 issues)!
We left off last week with Mar-Vell about to confront Sentry 459 right outside the NASA base where Carol Danvers is stationed. In the back drop, we also have a few of Mar-Vell’s fellow soldiers, and their leader, Yon Rogg, has ill feelings towards Mar-Vell and wants him dead. He wants the woman who’s been promised to Mar-Vell. Now, as all this is swirling around, the Captain must face the Sentry 459!
The giant robot swiftly attacks Mar-Vell, but he’s too fast for him and easily dodges his attacks. At first, Mar-Vell blasts him multiple times, but then the Sentry quickly grabs him right out of the air. The entire time the military is blasting away with bazookas and all sorts of armaments. Most of this isn’t more than a bother to the giant, so he simply brushes it off as such. The two titans go back and forth, with neither giving an inch. Suddenly, Mar-Vell hears a noise behind him, and discovers that Carol has become trapped by some debris from the fight. He leaps into action to save her, and as he does, the Sentry moves in for the kill. Mar-Vell then uses his wrist blaster to magnetize the giant robot’s circuits, ending the brawl. Meanwhile, Yon Rogg is watching aboard the spacecraft and is insane with anger. He then calms down and realizes that he can use this to his advantage by radioing back to the Kree home-world, and it will portray Mar-Vell as a traitor. Mar-Vell then is congratulated by the military and Carol, but then tells them that he must leave.
The next issue shows us that the age old enemy of the Kree, the Skrulls, are also watching the transmission sent from Earth. They think that the Kree have discovered something on Earth that can be of use, so they send out a message to the Super-Skrull to investigate. He makes his way towards Earth, and as he does he remembers why he’s in outer space, and banished. He recounts his days fighting the Fantastic Four, but then he’s interrupted and told about Captain Mar-Vell. He’s told to find out why the Kree are so interested in this “backwater world.” The Super-Skrull makes his way to Earth and in no time flat he finds Mar-Vell, and the two get right to it. Initially it seems as if they are equally matched, but the awesome powers of the Super-Skrull eventually give him the advantage. It also helps him that Mar-Vell is almost out of breath due to the fact that he needs to take a capsule every few hours. The Super-Skrull then takes Mar-Vell to his ship to use some sort of mind probe on him to learn what he knows.
Just as the Super-Skrull is learning what has transpired with Mar-Vell in the last twenty-four hours, Mar-Vell breaks free from his bonds and starts the melee all over again. Mar-Vell makes his way to the Kree ship, and Yon Rogg is forced to let him in or look like a traitor himself. He tells Rogg that they must stop a nuclear explosion from destroying Earth. The Super-Skrull then disguises himself as Dr. Lawson (Mar-Vell’s alter-ego on Earth) to gain admittance to the NASA base. After doing so, he wastes no time in trying to reactivate the Sentry, but Mar-Vell figures this out, and swoops in to grab him. The two warriors clash again, but this time Mar-Vell uses his head. When the Super-Skrull tries to hypnotize him, he shields his eyes with a mirror, and the Skrull hypnotizes himself.
The following issues show a brawl with Namor, a fight with Quasimodo, one with Iron Man, and so on. Most of the stories are only one or two issues arcs, but they definitely give you enough action to satisfy your hunger. This title was brought to us by a who’s who of superstars from yester-year, and I for one love it when you get to see such talent in one book! Come back next week for another great Bronze/Silver Age gem!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
