Following Captain Marvel's defeat of Thanos made possible by the destruction of the Cosmic Cube, the mad Titan eventually returned, though his failure led to him being abandoned by his "consort," the personification of Death. In an effort to regain her favor, Thanos then conceived a new scheme in the 1977 Avengers Annual #7, discovering the existence of the "soul gems" (which you and I and a heap of moviegoers now recognize as the Infinity Gems) and siphoned their elements to create a large synthetic gem which had a single, deadly purpose.
Fortunately, Mar-vell and Adam Warlock had combined forces with the Avengers to halt this "stellar genocide" that Thanos had set in motion--and just in time, since Thanos's next target was our own star. Warlock would lose his life in that battle--but Mar-vell's strike against the gem would leave it vulnerable to the attack of Thor and Iron Man in which it was finally destroyed.
A few months later, however, a follow-up story finds Mar-vell showing up on Earth, frantic to find his friend Rick Jones and subsequently being taken to the office of Dr. Donald Blake in a deranged state. How deranged, you may ask? It looks like Thor, the God of Thunder, is about to find that out for himself!
Things looks grim at Dr. Blake's office, with Mar-vell burning up with fever and not responding to medication while raving in fear about a starburst and Thanos. Finally, his state becomes completely unmanageable when his form begins glowing and he bolts upright only to abruptly break out of Blake's office in a panicked state. As for Blake, he re-enters this mystery as someone better suited to deal with Mar-vell in his current condition--though even Thor isn't expecting the demand that Mar-vell will make of him.
A direct hit by Thor's hammer doesn't fare much better, leaving Mar-vell stunned; but since Thor isn't inclined to grant Mar-vell's wish, the man of the Kree rises once more and continues to provoke him into slaying him. Finally, Thor makes another, more forceful attempt to gain the answers he seeks--and we learn of how Mar-vell's current condition relates to their recent battle with Thanos aboard his ark, and why he's now become a threat to the entire universe.
There are some gaps in writer Roger McKenzie's story, so we're left to assume that whatever effect that Thanos's gem had on our sun caused it to discharge "excess energy" which is now being uncontrollably absorbed by Mar-vell and building to a critical point--strong enough that the impending explosion will be progressively more powerful than a super-nova and causing a wave of destruction which will continue to spread and magnify throughout the entire universe. How one individual--particularly one who is at the end of the day a strong, trained fighter with photonic abilities and "cosmic awareness" (as opposed to cosmic energy)--can absorb even a relatively minuscule amount of energy from the sun and amplify it to such a degree as to not only destroy a planet but to begin a chain reaction that annihilates an entire star system, and, from there, thousands, millions of star systems... a galaxy... billions of galaxies... and finally the entire universe, is a question that McKenzie bypasses completely, leaving us with little more than spectacle that's only partially redeemed by requiring no less than a god to set things right.
Following Mar-vell's (you'll excuse the word) explanation, the situation seems hopeless--especially to Mar-vell, who essentially throws in the towel and begins to manifest signs of the disaster he's warned of while raging at Thor for standing idly and not heeding that warning. But this god will prove to be more aware of the circumstances and the danger here than apparently a man reputed to be cosmically aware--and the time arrives for Thor to finally act.
Gosh, Mar-vell--the Negative Zone. Your nega-bands. It's news to me that they could be used to create a portal to the Zone, but maybe it shouldn't be news to you, hmm? (To cut some slack to McKenzie, let's assume that Thor's hammer, no stranger to creating space/time portals, was meant to work in tandem with the nega-bands to pull this off.) At any rate, Mar-vell's crisis of doom for the entire universe has been averted, and his life saved in the process. But here's some helpful advice to send you on your way, Captain: Put Death out of your mind, fella, that's a breakup waiting to happen!
7 comments:
I liked this time period for Thanos. A major threat, a top-tier villain, but he still has to skulk on tiptoes to avoid the attention (power) of the Stranger. Every appearance since has continuously amped his power until he now beats up Galactus for his lunch money.
"If anything is possible, nothing is interesting." - H.G. Wells
I'm wondering if MacKenzie was giving Starlin a helping hand in cosmic danger. The chain reaction Mar-vell describes is as goofy as you say, BUT, that chain reaction concept gives Thanos' Giant Soul Gem scheme real teeth. As I read the initial story, Thanos intended to destroy each star in the universe one-by-one-by-one...talk about job security! A cascade effect would be a much grander gift to Death, and while Thanos is young enough to enjoy her affection.
Murray, I always enjoy your observations. Your point about Thanos (and certainly Death) benefiting from Mar-vell's condition after the fact is well taken, though Thanos being pretty much a stone gargoyle at the time of this story would have deprived him of any gratitude that Death might have directed his way (to say nothing of being incinerated fairly early in the process as Mar-vell began torching our star system, where Thanos's ark was adrift if memory serves). But a better "going away present" couldn't have been devised--to Death, Mar-vell would have practically been the gift that kept on giving.
I wondered that too. Blowing out every star in the universe "one-by-one" didn't make much sense to me either. They're always reforming out of nebulas, you know.
There were several holes in that story but I let 'em slide. The art was pure cosmic eerie. Gets me every time.
As for the Stranger, I'm not sure Thanos could've beat him back then. Why risk it?
Believe it or not, I just checked out this post while taking a break from watching Avengers:Endgame for the first time. No spoilers please!
Ah, it's not hard to figure out what's gonna happen. It's not a bad movie, I guess. It's amazing how many of Starlin's concepts show up (sort of).
I wonder if he ever got a check in the mail outta that? Probably not.
Damn shame.
M.P.
M.P., I have yet to see Endgame, myself! One of these days. :)
"It was a desperate gamble -- but it would seem I have saved lives without taking life..."
Who gambles when the whole universe is at stake? Not that I'm particularly in favour of taking a life, but c'mon - when over a billion galaxies are at risk, why would you take any chances?
Obviously I'm getting soft in my old age Comicsfan, as I agree with my ol' frenemy M.P. Cosmic threats generally don't make a whole lot of sense, but we accept that kind of thing anyway in, say, Starlin's 70s Thanos stuff because dodgy science and mcguffins like the cosmic cube aren't really the point of the story (and of course the art was pure cosmic eerie).
Theres not the case with Captain Marvel #57 though, and you're right to be dubious about the premise.
Should an (at best) average single issue even have a universe threatening event? That just diminishes their impact generally. Save the big, cosmic scale stuff for the occasional epic, Marvel.
-sean
*THATS not the case with Captain Marvel #57...
(Apologies for the poor edit above. Duh.)
-sean
sean, I believe Thor's meaning in regard to his "desperate gamble" was that it was desperate in the sense that it might not have worked as he had hoped (i.e., draining Mar-vell of the deadly energy buildup), rather than making a choice between that measure or taking Mar-vell's life. If he had seen that his actions using the Negative Zone had failed, Thor presumably still had the time and the regrettable option of killing Mar-vell. (You also have to wonder if killing Mar-vell would have stopped the deadly release of the energy already amassed within him--the act might even have triggered it.)
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