The Mighty Avengers #19

When the Marvel Comics version of Captain Marvel first appeared in December 1967, I thought he was an interesting character. (And I loved the Gene Colan artwork.)

I'm not old enough to have bought the original (Fawcett Comics) Captain Marvel, and the character wasn't being published at the time, so it never occurred to me that Marvel was staking out its claim to the name.

Mar-vell (that's his real name, which earthlings "misheard") was a Captain with the warlike Kree (an alien race that had been introduced in the Fantastic Four's comic). He was sent to Earth to spy for the Kree, but soon found his allegiance shifting to our team, and he eventually rebelled against his superiors.

But the good Captain struggled to find an identity. He soon traded in his original green-and-white spacesuit for the cooler red-and-blue tights. He was trapped in the Negative Zone, and could only escape when Rick Jones found the Nega-Bands and struck them together, so the two could switch places temporarily.

Under Jim Starlin's skillful storytelling, he fought against Thanos, gained cosmic awareness, almost died, was saved, had more cosmic adventures, worked with the Avengers, found true love on Titan, and in a terrific graphic novel by Starlin, he faced death again - and lost.

And if Marvel had left it there, it would have been fine. The Captain Marvel title was passed on to other characters, but it never lasted. The "real" Cap made a few appearances (usually involving time travel or some kind of mystic hoo-hah), but it wasn't until the Civil War that Marvel Comics really messed with Mar-vell.

In a one-shot issue tied to that event, Mar-vell appears out of nowhere, having apparently been pulled from the past at some point before he died. Longtime fans everywhere let out a groan. The storyline seemed to have been plucked out of mid-air, and never really amounted to anything. They kept Cap off to the side before finally publishing a mini-series that revealed that Mar-vell wasn't who he seemed to be.

Which finally brings us to this issue of Mighty Avengers. (Whew!) The entire issue almost feels like an apology, as the ersatz Mar-vell spends the issue beating the whey out of super-powered Skrulls, and performing some stunts that would have been beyond the ability of the original Mar-vell (at least I don't think he could punch his way through spaceships like Superman - maybe I'm wrong here).

The story also brings in Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy (who's also a Kree), as fate brings the two Marvels together.

This isn't a bad issue, but it's not one of writer Brian Bendis' best efforts. It's just one long drawn-out fight sequence that doesn't really tell us much about the Skulls and their invasion plans - but it does seem to be setting up the next step for Marvel Boy.

The art by Khoi Pham is good for the most part - he handles the expressions of the characters and their physicality very well - but sometimes it's difficult to tell just what's going in from panel to panel. For example, on page 12 Cap is flying in an odd pose - it looks like he's twisting his body so his legs won't stick out of the frame. And there's not much flow to the fight sequences - we just see bodies being thrown around willy-nilly.

As to the story, I think the point was to show that even a fake Captain Marvel is a great hero, and in that way they honor the legacy of the original.

But to the editors at Marvel, let me just say: the best way to honor the original is to quit dragging his corpse out of the grave! Let him and his heroic legacy rest in peace.

Grade: C+