Issue(s): Marvel Spotlight #4
Cover Date: Jan 80
Title: "Shadow doom!"
Credits:
Archie Goodwin - Script
Marv Wolfman - Plot
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Steve Ditko - Inker
Jim Salicrup - Assistant Editor
Roger Stern - Editor

Review/plot:
The first three issues of Marvel Spotlight concluded a plot that started in Captain Marvel's canceled series, and it's understandable (and welcome!) that they'd want to conclude an unfinished story. But this issue continues to feature Captain Marvel, and i think that's a little weird. Not that i have any problem with Captain Marvel. But you figure that Marvel canceled his book for a reason, and they also created a book called Marvel Spotlight to, i don't know, spotlight different characters. But not only are the first four issues spotlighting Captain Marvel, he'll be back again for issue #8 (and this series is canceled after issue #11).

Anyway, whatever the reason, i'm glad this issue got published. Because it's got some of the craziest Steve Ditko art that i've seen outside of his Dr. Strange run. The problem with Ditko is that he's really great at crazy fantasy and not so much at regular people and realistic stuff. So a lot of his work, especially when he returns to Marvel in the 80s, is pretty disappointing. But not this story. Pure Ditko madness!

Captain Marvel is captured by a shadow-thing...

...that takes him to the Ditko-verse.

The people there need help against their shadow overlords.

So Captain Marvel trains them to fight.

I honestly don't know or care much exactly what's going on here. I just know it's awesome.

I do notice a real emphasis on Captain Marvel's energy blasts being related to his ability to absorb solar energy. As Luis reminds me in the comments, this is related to a change that happened in Captain Marvel #57.

An odd thing in this story is that Captain Marvel loses his soul on the way into the shadow dimension.

And he never gets his soul back; instead he gets the soul of the person that brought him here for help.

In fact, it only "seemed that" he ran out of solar energy because he was missing his soul.

In the end, the soul is "reborn" as Captain Marvel's.

Depending on your and/or the Marvel definition of a soul, that might be a big deal, but i guess there's no point in worrying about it. The important thing here is to enjoy the most psychedelic Steve Ditko art of the 1980s.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: I've placed this at publication date, creating a large gap between last issue and this one, since the previous story continued directly from Captain Marvel #62. This is mostly a completely independent story, so it really shouldn't matter. Captain Marvel does wonder if the shadow threat is what Eon warned him about last issue, but that doesn't mean Eon had to have warned him recently (and i don't think Eon's warning is ever followed up on).

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

IIRC, Captain Marvel #57 established that Mar-Vell drains energy from the Sun (involuntarily even) and #59 reinforced that.

This talk about losing a soul to the monstruous masters sounds vaguely like an Objectivist rant from Ditko.

Thanks for the reminder on where Captain Marvel's solar dependency comes from. I've put in a link to #57.