Issue(s): Captain Marvel #48, Captain Marvel #49
Cover Date: Jan-Mar 77
Title: "Crucible!" / "Asylum Earth!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway / Gerry Conway & Scott Edelman - Writer
Al Milgrom - Penciler
Terry Austin / Terry Austin & the West Coast Wombats - Inker

Review/plot:
The Mexican authorities attempt to take care of the Kree Sentry that Captain Marvel defeated last issue, but it's not going well.

    

I think we're all a little embarrassed by that sequence.

The Sentry itself has had its memory banks wiped, so now, kind of like the Asgardian Destroyer, it gets possessed by the essence of nearby people, which is why it went on a rampage after landing next to the Pancho Villa character last issue. This time it absorbs the essence of a radical young man who refuses to work for tourists. He also somehow manages to convert his equally political friend into a super-villain called the Cheetah, who really needs to be introduced to the Man-Wolf so they can go out on the town together.

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel transforms back into Rick. It's kind of funny because Mar-vell's mind is on the Sentry; he wants to know why it returned. But Rick is oblivious to all of that and the two of them can't even communicate with each other any more while one of them is in the Negative Zone, so he hooks up with an old friend named Trina and she takes him to a party.

And holy hell, that is some kinda party!

Forget the guys in the front. That bald heavyset guy behind them is an escaped convict or mental patient, right?

Rick and Trina actually ditch the party and go spend some quiet time together, and the next morning (Rick and Marv trade places every 10 hours under the current status quo), Rick meets Trina's roomate Sharlene, who i'm fairly certain was at the party, hasn't changed yet, and is happy to hear that Rick is single.

Unfortunately for Rick, it's time to swap places with Mar-vell, and a good thing, too, because the Kree Sentry is attacking US Govt Research Plant #47.

Captain Marvel shows up but the Cheetah and the Sentry defeat him pretty easily...

...and he wakes up in a jail cell. The 10 hours are nearly up, so he smashes his way out of the cell and then heads out into the desert where he transforms back into Rick. Rick has been freaking out lately while he's in the Negative Zone, so he passes out as soon as they transform, and Rick is found by the Kree scientists that revived the Sentry (who are being driven away from their wrecked spaceship by an older Southern couple).

And that marks the end of Gerry Conway's brief tenure on the book. Actually, it's said in the lettercol to issue #50 that the first 5 pages of issue #49, which depict a dream sequence while Rick is feverish in bed...

...are written by Conway and inked by the "West Coast Wombats". But then Scott Edelman takes over. Complaints about all the credit changes are responded to in a few issues by saying that Edelman is going to stay on the book until his death or the book's, but even though the book isn't actually that far off from cancellation, Edelman will be gone sooner than that.

Anyway, Rick wakes up to find the female Kree scientist, Tara, getting a little close. Rick is certainly scoring with the ladies in this arc.

The Kree scientists tell Mar-vell about the virus that causes the Kree to go crazy while they are on Earth, and also that they've got Ronan the Accuser on a timer back at their spaceship and he's about to go off. He tries to get there on time but he's delayed by he return of the Sentry and Cheetah, so Ronan (rather goofily) returns...

...and soon Captain Marvel is fighting all three of them.

During the fight, Ronan kills Tara, and this causes Mar-vell to go a little wild, and he soon defeats all three of his enemies.

It's said at the end of this issue that Mar-vell is the only Kree not affected by the virus, but when a later letter writer asks if Marv's anger here shows that he really is affected, the response is that it's true.

Odd to bring Captain Marvel back to Earth only to have him interact with a whole bunch of Kree people, and there's a lot of goofy stuff going on, story and artwise.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Cheetah (who is only Scourge-bait after this)

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place soon after the end of #47, so i've pushed this back a bit in publication time.

References:

• Captain Marvel identifies the Kree Sentry as the one "who had joined with Ronan the Accuser in attacking the Earth, months ago" in Avengers #91.
  
• Rick's friend Trina was previously seen in Captain Marvel #18.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Cheetah is just as bad a name choice as the Jaguar. DC had a longtime Wonder Woman villain called the Cheetah, and Gerry Conway should have known that--he wrote WW for a while during the 1970s.

That Plant billboard is just plain silly. The government actually numbers them?

Not only do the Kree go crazy on earth, but apparently it makes female Kree gropey.

Wow. I had assumed that the Rick/Tara scan wasn't what it looked like, and the artist hadn't really been paying close enough attention to where he placed Tara's hand. But now that I have read the issue for myself and seen the rest of the scene--nope! They definitely had Tara seducing Rick within 60 seconds of meeting him!

I know characters in later books have joked about Rick having sexual superpowers--but that has got to be a record even for him!

that looks like the greatest party in history