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1976-11-01 00:08:10
Previous:
Iron Man #92
Up:
Main

1976 / Box 11 / EiC Upheaval

Next:
Power Man #37-40

Captain Marvel #47

Issue(s): Captain Marvel #47
Cover Date: Nov 76
Title: "Crisis!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Bill Mantlo - Co-Scripter
Al Milgrom - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker

Review/plot:
This is the start of a new direction for Captain Marvel. Mar-vell and Rick are brought back to Earth and restored to the "take turns in the Negative Zone" status quo.

The first half of this issue has Captain Marvel tearing through the Baxter Building trying to free Rick...

...but he isn't able to (and he's forgotten that he can click the bands to trade places with Rick. The Human Torch has to remind him.).

After the swap, Rick has some nice downtime with the Human Torch, and then goes and finds Boggs to re-establish his music career.

Meanwhile some Kree doctors (Tara and Mac-Ronn) are picking up the Kree Sentry...

....and noting that whenever Kree come to Earth they get all crazy and emotional (which doesn't quite square with reality; Marv's boss Yon-Rogg was a nut before he ever touched down on Earth) but it's a nice attempt at showing a difference between Kree and humans in the sense that Kree aren't supposed to be emotional, and it helps make Ronan the Accuser something of a more ambiguous character rather than a straight-up villain. The doctors suspect that it is due to a virus. SHIELD detects the Kree ship and an agent Codgins launches a missile at it, destroying the Kree ship and causing the Sentry to go on a rampage. He lands on a strange scene that seems to be a parody of Pancho Villa.

When Rick hears about the disturbance in Mexico he switches places with Captain Marvel and Marv shows up to fight the Sentry.

He defeats the robot but is left with a sense of dread that this is just the start of something bigger, possibly a reference to the Earth virus the Kree doctors were talking about.

The Negative Zone is alternately referred to as "sub-space", which we haven't seen since its earliest appearances in Fantastic Four.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Human Torch says that the FF "just had a little adventure with Galactus that's left us all a little wasted". This is in reference to Rick saying that he's been doing a lot of space travel, so when Johnny says "just" it doesn't have to mean it was their most recent adventure - especially since the Impossible Man/Frightful Four story (#176-177) continued directly from their return from the Galactus story (#171-175).

References:

  • Captain Marvel previously rescued Rick from the Negative Zone using the Fantastic Four's portal in Avengers #89.
  • The Rick Jones retrospective:
    • Rick has been on the super hero scene since Hulk #1
    • Rick formed the Teen Brigade in Hulk #6.
    • He became Cap's partner twice. The first time was in Avengers #4 and the second time was in Captain America #110.
    • He and Cap "broke up" in Captain America #115.
    • Rick met Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel #18.
  • Ronan the Accuser went nutty in his first appearance on Earth in Fantastic Four #65.
  • The Kree doctors say that the way the Kree Sentry behaved in Avengers #91 wasn't according to its programming, indicating that it was affected by the Earth-virus as well.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Inbound References (1): show

  • Ms. Marvel #19

Characters Appearing: Captain Mar-vell, Cheetah, Human Torch, Kree Sentry 459, Mac-Ronn, Mordecai P. Boggs, Rick Jones, Ronan the Accuser, Tara (Kree)

Previous:
Iron Man #92
Up:
Main

1976 / Box 11 / EiC Upheaval

Next:
Power Man #37-40

Comments

That appears to be Ronan in the glass case next to the Sentry.

FOOM#15 announced a forthcoming villain called the Jaguar, but since Scott Edelman took over the writing almost immediately I don't know if that happened.

Posted by: Mark Drummond | March 31, 2013 5:52 PM

I think the Jaguar villain became the Cheetah, who appeared in issues 48-49 and then became a Scourge victim.

Posted by: Michael | March 31, 2013 5:57 PM

Confirming Michael's comment. There's an apology in issue #48's lettercol for soliciting him as the Cheetah; they realized they already had a Daredevil villain called El Jaguar so they renamed him.

Posted by: fnord12 | June 1, 2013 10:10 PM

I think this is (one of) the (many) reason(s) why Captain Marvel never really took off. Every other story is either directed towards undoing the Captain Marvel/Rick Jones situation or immediately restoring it.

Posted by: AF | May 2, 2016 6:36 AM

"Mac-Ronn"? As in "Macaroni"? Cute. :)

Posted by: Luis Dantas | June 29, 2016 6:23 PM




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