Issue(s): Captain Marvel #40
Cover Date: Sep 75
Title: "Rocky Mountain 'bye!"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Script
Steve Englehart & Al Milgrom - Plot
Al Milgrom - Penciler
Al McWilliams - Inker

Review/plot:
Once again, Una gets a character entry for the appearance of her lifeless animated corpse. As Rick Jones and Captain Marvel come home from the Trial of the Watcher plot, Una's corpse is possessed by some kind of space parasite.

Mar-vell and Jones can now separate themselves from the nega-band bracelets that kept them sharing the same space, so they split company.

Rick returns to his gig with Dandy, but it turns out that his musical style is hopelessly out of date. Jones is still wearing the spacesuit he wore during the Trial of the Watcher plot, and he is received as a novelty joke act - "The 50's haircut -- the 60's ballads - the 70s spacesuit!".

Mar-vell returns to the missile base he used to hang out at to say goodbye to the people he used to hang out with (mainly Carol) but instead finds himself fighting the possessed Una.

He eventually defeats it by appealing to what's left of Una's consciousness, and then a disillusioned Rick Jones re-joins him.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Captain Marvel and Rick are first seen getting teleported back to the moon with the Watcher, so i'm allowing for some space between this arc and last. But this is only supposed to take place a week after issue #34, so i've pushed this back in publication time quite a bit.

References:

• Mordecai got Rick Jones his gig "a week ago", which was Captain Marvel #34 (and it was published a year ago).
  
• Una's corpse was left on an asteroid after Eon resurrected it in Captain Marvel #29.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The title refers to the John Denver song "Rocky Mountain High".

The Rick Jones concert may be a reference to Rick Nelson's comeback concert at Madison Square Garden, where he was relentlessly booed by the audience for refusing to play any of his 1950s hits.

Ralph Macchio has a letter here.

This issue still resonates for me, 40 years later. The tragedy of Una's fate makes the gallant captain weep, again. And he didn't successfully appeal to her consciousness to win; he murdered her (again, you could say), only then glimpsing the last spark of her humanity as life faded from her body. Gut wrenching stuff. Great writing that was head and shoulders above many of the monthly titles out back then.