Marvel Fanfare #24Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #24 Review/plot: The story continues the tradition established in Marvel Two-In-One #51 and seen again in Marvel Two-In-One #75 where a group of super-heroes plus some other VIPs including Nick Fury and District Attorney Blake Tower (both of whom were also in MTIO #51) are getting together at Avengers Mansion for a poker game. What makes tonight's game a noteworthy one is that Carol Danvers, not seen by the Avengers since she rebuked the Avengers after the Marcus Immortus incident, shows up. She arrives out of costume, therefore revealing her secret ID to those that didn't already know it, and she brings Wolverine with her. Fury recognizes Wolverine as "Logan"; the two know each other and it's said they last saw each other at Vladivostok, just before Fury got tapped to take over SHIELD (in The Scorpio Connection graphic novel it's said that Wolverine knows Fury from his days in Canadian intelligence, and i guess that was before Fury was in SHIELD). The poker games go without incident (unless you count Wolverine and Carol winning most of the hands), but it's interrupted when the new Captain Marvel arrives to join the game. After Carol makes some jokes about Mar-vell being "all-new, all-different", the others realize that she's not aware that Mar-vell is dead. When she finds out, she gets pretty upset, revealing her new Binary identity and powers. Fury asks Logan how she got the new powers, but he refuses to say. Carol bursts out of the mansion and into space. We next see her on Titan, having spoken to Mentor and learned where to find Mar-vell's grave. As she pays respects without crying, she recalls her experiences and feelings with her from her days as the Cape "A time later, back on Earth", Wolverine catches up with Carol. And the point is really driven home here, more than i've seen in her X-Men appearances, that she really has no association with her past memories. Xavier has restored them, but they feel like a stranger's to her. She says that learning about the death of Mar-Vell is the final straw for her, and she's decided to leave Earth and join the Starjammers. I don't know what this story was originally written for. Al Milgrom says that is "sat in inventory for a while" which is evident based on when it takes place. At 13 pages it seems too short to be for Marvel Two-In-One and too long to be intended as the Classic X-Men back-up. Of course it could just been plotted back then and given to David Ross to draw more recently, where it was condensed or expanded as needed. The reason i wonder is because it's pretty important character development for Carol Danvers and it seems odd to have let it languish, but i guess that's what happens when you aren't actually starring in a book at the moment. Quality Rating: B+ Chronological Placement Considerations: This leads to Binary joining the Starjammers, which has happened by Uncanny X-Men #174. I have it after Uncanny X-Men #173, when Wolverine becomes available again after his miniseries (Wolverine is in Japan in #173 and also #174, but there's no reason he couldn't have left and come back; the other X-Men have all left Japan by #174) This also has to occur after Captain Marvel has joined the Avengers in Avengers #227. For the other characters, this is context free and just needs to take place in breaks in their regular appearances (the Beast and Wonder Man, for example, can't be current Avengers at this time since Captain Marvel is here). References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? Y My Reprint: N/A
CommentsThe real problem with this story is this- if Logan was keeping Marvel's death a secret from Carol because of Carol's state of mind, then why did he take Carol with him to the Avengers without telling the Avengers not to mention Marvel? And if he wasn't intentionally keeping it a secret, then why didn't he just tell her. Posted by: Michael | January 30, 2014 9:25 PM Carol was a security guard on Cape Cod? Hmm...must have been some evil fisherman out there she was keeping track of. Posted by: Ataru320 | January 31, 2014 8:58 AM Michael, i was going to comment more on Mar-vell being a secret but i wasn't sure if the X-Men should really know that Danvers had a personal connection with Captain Marvel. Her early costume and powers (if they even knew that) were derived from his but they probably didn't know that Carol Danvers had feelings for CM. And i don't know if Xavier actually "saw" all of Carol's memories or just helped unlock them for her. So i wasn't sure if Logan was actively keeping a secret or just didn't realize she would be any more affected by the death of Captain Marvel than, say, Quasar. Regarding Fury, he just says that he never saw her "make an entrance" before, which seems to be a reaction to her blasting in through the window at night as a beam of light. Probably more spectacular than her daytime appearance in Avengers #231. Ataru, you don't get to just start as the Security Chief at a NASA base. You have have to work your way up. ;-) Posted by: fnord12 | January 31, 2014 10:49 AM Well I was thinking for a moment she would be on "Sub-Mariner duty" but he was slumming at a homeless shelter with a beard. But there is still Ka-zar's nutty pirate brother ;p Posted by: Ataru320 | January 31, 2014 11:01 AM I'm probably reading too much into this, but my impression with this story is that it is Claremont's response to Starlin leaving Carol out of Death of Captain Marvel—a truly ridiculous oversight, given their history, though not entirely shocking since the first thing he did when he took over the series was replace Carol with Rick Jones in the sidekick role and then never mention her. Claremont had demonstrated before that he couldn't let Carol be treated like that, and I suspect he wrote this to give her closure and to once again point out how insensitive everyone was for not telling her in the first place. But, for whatever reason, it ended up in inventory instead of being published quickly. Good question, though, about where this was originally intended to go. My guess is in an annual—either Uncanny X-Men or Marvel Two-In-One. It looks like the last Two-in-One Annual was 1982, so maybe this was written as a backup for the '83 annual before it got cancelled. Posted by: Darth Weevil | July 21, 2015 1:12 AM Blake Tower sure knows a lot of things about superheroes. I guess they really trust him. I'm a bit disappointed that Wolverine and Beast didn't even interact onscreen. Even just one panel could have been fun. Weirdworld is actually part of the Marvel continuity... but still another dimension or something like that. It showed up in Secret Wars 2015, and in the 2016 Squadron Supreme series and Black Knight limited series, but that's out of scope. Posted by: Nth Wolf | April 24, 2018 6:31 AM Comments are now closed. |
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