Issue(s): Ms. Marvel #9, Ms. Marvel #10
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 77
Title: "Call me Death-Bird!" / "Cry murder -- cry MODOK!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Keith Pollard / Sal Buscema - Penciler
Sam Grainger & Joe Sinnott / Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
Starting with issue #9, Ms. Marvel's costume no longer has the ridiculous exposed mid-riff with bikini bottoms.

She's still wearing short-shorts, but otherwise has a less blatantly "sexy" costume. She's still wearing the scarf, though, which continues to get her in trouble. Not sure if behind the scenes Claremont was having fights with John Romita or what. No mention of the costume change is made this issue, but an editors note on the letters page a few issues later says the reason was for production reasons only, i.e., it was hard to draw & color, and not due to concerns that it was too exploitative. On the other hand, every letters page had at least one letter complaining about the costume, so i'm sure that was a factor even if they didn't want to admit it.

Ms. Marvel gets into a fight with a super strong and ferocious bird-woman named Deathbird.

She is working for MODOK but implies that her true loyalties are elsewhere. It will later be revealed that she is a Shi'ar, the sister of Lilandra, but it's easy to excuse someone not making that connection. Pollard's Deathbird is literally half-bird, half-woman, whereas Lilandra and the Shi'ar have avian features in the same way humans have simian features. This will be explained by saying Deathbird is a genetic throwback, i guess the equivalent of a half-man, half-Australopithecus being born today.

In any event, Ms. Marvel and Deathbird have an encounter that ends inconclusively. During the fight, an explosion sets Carol Danver's apartment on fire. A mysterious man calls his boss to say that while the fire and break-in went off as planned, he wasn't able to retrieve the documents. Carol gives the documents to Jean DeWolff.

It may be my ADD, but i don't know what documents they're talking about.

Despite Deathbird's attack and the mysterious fire, Carol Danvers has to go back to her day job. Based only on what we see on panel, it is amazing that Carol is able to perform or keep her job as she is constantly either absent or getting horrible headaches. One must assume that there is a lot more mundane activity going on off-panel that just isn't worth displaying in a comic.

After overseeing a meeting at her job where everyone's yelling at each other, she heads back to Alden's Department Store to try and figure out why SHIELD couldn't find any evidence of AIM being there last issue.

She is detected and attacked by AIM, but MODOK and Deathbird show up with a squad of rival AIM goons.

Carol is still in her civilian identity, but she realizes that MODOK has already seen her in issue #7 without her mask, so she considers transforming into Ms. Marvel, but then bizarrely decides against it. It seems Carol and Marvel are still separate personalities.

MODOK's squad has the upper hand, and he acquires information about AIM's secret ICBM base in the south Bronx.

Once again, Ms. Marvel's scarf is shown to be a detriment in a fight.

While Ms. Marvel and Deathbird square off, MODOK attempts to take off in the rocket, despite the fact that the explosion would kill both Marvel and Deathbird. After surviving the explosion (unlike, seemingly, Deathbird), Ms. Marvel casually hits a big Abort button on the wall of the rocket launch area, destroying MODOK's rocket. However, MODOK somehow manages to get away.

Despite the lack of explanation for MODOK's ability to survive, at least admitting that he survived is a lot more credible than his recent appearance in Iron Man annual #4, where he seemingly died only for him to reappear here with no explanation.

Again, could be ADD, but it's not clear to me why MODOK wanted to ride on the rocket so badly.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 5 - first Deathbird

Chronological Placement Considerations: Moved back a month to account for her appearance in Defenders #57.

References:

• When Carol returns to her damaged apartment and surveys the rubble, she finds that her mementos of a romance with a Colonel Michael Rossi have been destroyed. No footnote, and not really an explicit reference, but we (seemingly) saw Rossi get killed in Uncanny X-Men #96.
  
• MODOK saw Ms. Marvel without her mask (or anything else) in Ms. Marvel #7.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It isn't ADD. An unusually large number of plot points and threads went unresolved when this book got cancelled, which you can see if you read them all at once in Essential Ms. Marvel.

It's mind-boggling that Marvel actually deemed any of these Ms. Marvel stories essential.

Every MODOK appearance is essential.

FOOM#17 stated that Arkon was the villain of #10. I'm guessing his story was later cannibalized for X-Men Annual #3.

Is it worth noting the brief flashback appearance in #9 of Michael Rossi, supposedly killed in X-MEN #96?

Thanks Matthew. Added a note in the References.

The apparently dying Agent Elliot explains that A.I.M. planned to steal the Cavourite crystal NASA was testing in Skylab (since it apparently did not disappear after warping Grotesk away at the end of #8), hoping to control the world with the "secret of interstellar flight," but MODOK beat them to it, hence the rocket-ride. Ms. Marvel's concurrent appearance in MARVEL TEAM-UP #62 establishes that this is not the same Cavourite crystal with which she similarly warps away the Super-Skrull there.

@Matthew: So there are two Cavourite crystals? What's the deal here?

The Cavourite Crystal here was shown to have a "warp matrix", able to tear holes in reality and hurl things into warp space when you poured energy into it. Then Viper employs the Silver Samurai in New Mutants #5 to coerce Team America into stealing the crystal from A.I.M. who must have managed to get hold of it from Skylab after MODOKs failed attempt – and began studying it as part of "Project Matrix" at their Black Mesa facility. The following issue Team America successfully retrieves the crystal from A.I.M.'s facility, which appears to inadvertently free the Shadow King; yet when they hand it directly to Charles Xavier it likewise re-established his psionic link with the New Mutants. With the Shadow King connection, it is interesting that upon retrieving the Cavourite Crystal from the Super-Skrull in Marvel Team-Up #62, Ms. Marvel begins to feel "hungry" as a result of holding it in her hand. Given it later frees the Shadow King's essence in New Mutants #6, was it this earlier causing Carol's described "hunger"? The facets of the crystal further reveal to Carol a different aspect of her personality, kind of like what the Siege Perilous did for Dazzler in Uncanny X-Men #246. So was Claremont intending to alternatively suggest that after the death of his host body, Amahl Farouk, in Uncanny X-Men #117, the Shadow King's essence was projected into a host in an alternate dimension (ala the Crusader X tale in Excalibur)? With the reveals here and in the Marvel Team-Up and issues describing the crystal's ability to be able to open up warp-space doorways, where too did Claremont intend it to have transported Grotesk and the Super Skrull to?

Anyone else think Deathbird's real name, Cal'syee, sounds a lot like Khaleesi, from Game of Thrones?

More Cavourite Crystals showed up again in MS. MARVEL II#1-3. Turns out they are normally used to power Skrull ships.

More Cavourite Crystals showed up again in MS. MARVEL II#1-3. Turns out they are normally used to power Skrull ships.

Which is rather funny, since the original, H.G. Wells cavorite is a metal that *blocks* gravity rather than generating energy, let alone space warps.