Essential Moon Knight volume 3

Essential Moon Knight volume 3 contains issues #31 to #38 of his original series, all six issues of the brief series Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu plus material from Marvel Fanfare #30, #38 & #39, Solo Avengers #3 and Marvel Super-Heroes #1. Most of these series are self-explanatory but Solo Avengers (later retitled Avengers Spotlight) was an anthology highlighting individual team members past and present with Hawkeye holding a regular slot in most issues. The writing on the original series is by Doug Moench, Tony Isabella and Alan Zelenetz with one back-up by Steve Ringgenberg. The art is a mixture of Kevin Nowlan, Bo Hampton, Mike Hernandez, Marc Silvestri, Richard Howell, Bob McLeod and Bill Sienkiewicz. The Fist of Khonshu series is written by Alan Zelenetz, Mary Jo Duffy and Jim Owsley and mainly drawn by Chris Warner with the final issue by Mark Beachum. The Marvel Fanfare stories are written by Ann Nocenti, Mary Jo Duffy and Mike Carlin and drawn by Brent Anderson, Judith Hunt and Bill Reinhold. The Solo Avengers tale is written by Roger Stern and drawn by Bob Hall. The Marvel Super-Heroes tale is written by Robert M. Ingersoll and drawn by Mike Gustovich. The separate labels post is here.

This volume covers seven years of the character's solo stories from the last days of his original series until just before the launch of his third series. Complicating things further it's not clear if the stories from Marvel Fanfare and Marvel Super-Heroes were one-off pieces commissioned for those books or else material prepared earlier and rescued from the inventory pile with perhaps some additional work to complete them. The Solo Avengers story appears to have been an original commission as much of that series was but the Marvel Super-Heroes story may have also been commissioned for Solo Avengers and not used for whatever reason. The Marvel Fanfare issues are the most confusing because they appear to be set during the original series's run, whether as a consequence of being inventory material or a deliberate decision to tell a story set retroactively, but are here placed after the second series and so add to the confusion about the status quo.

Part of the mess seems to stem from publishing decisions rather than creative ones. Unusually the original series including single page editorials by Denny O'Neil (apart from issue #35 where it's by Linda Grant as part of Assistant Editors' Month) and equally unusually these have been included in this volume. Consequently the modern reader is informed that the series was normally only available in the direct market comics shops and that from issue #32 onwards the series and indeed all direct market only books would now be published bimonthly as a result of a decision from somewhere higher up in Marvel (O'Neil humorously identifies the decision maker sending down this decree as "The-Computer-Which-Dares-Not-Speak-Its-Name", and makes clear that he doesn't like this new rule). Issue #35 is double-sized and was made available on the newsstands, presumably as a test to see if there was still an audience on the newsstands that hadn't been able to migrate to comic shops though I don't know if Marvel's other direct market only titles also undertook such experiments. Finally with issue #38 the book was cancelled to be replaced by a new series that would be available both on the newsstands and also in the direct market, with O'Neil promising it would appear "within a couple of months". Around the same time Micronauts, another bimonthly direct market only book was similarly cancelled and replaced with the monthly, available everywhere Micronauts: The New Voyages after just a couple of months, though Ka-Zar the Savage was cancelled outright, as though Marvel was now backtracking on the direct market only option (at least for the time being) and indeed O'Neil's comments in the editorial in issue #37 admit to second thoughts on the matter. But for whatever reason it took rather longer for the new Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu series to appear, eventually showing up eleven months after the old one ended. And then it ended after just six months.

One result of this is a high turnover of creative staff. The only thing approaching an extended run is Alan Zelenetz writing the last three issues of the original series and then the first four of the Fist of Khonshu but the eleven month gap makes it hard to consider the two as a single seven issue run. Chris Warner draws the first five issues of Fist of Khonshu but otherwise no artist draws more than three issues consecutively. So even before the volume reaches the wilderness years at the end the whole thing is exceptionally bitty, with successive creators all pulling in their own different directions and some very different takes on the character being offered.

The end of the original series largely focuses upon the urban crime fighter aspect of the character with a succession of tales that primarily focus upon the characters subject to the environment. There's a tale of a rundown street where a pawnbroker tries to stand up to the gangs demanding protection money and reaches out to one young recruit, only for tragedy to erupt. There's an encounter with insane environmentalists who want to use a new gas to wipe out the human race and allow the planet to begin anew. There's a tale of a man dying of cancer with an uncaring doctor more interested in his coffee and the man's brother resorts to bringing a gun into the hospital. A reporter seeking to explode urban myths shows up a man as just a local thug and he responds by trying to explode the myth in a different way. A gang hangs out at a warehouse storing a nasty chemical substance that unleashes primal violence, causing Moon Knight to flashback to a previous encounter with the substance and Gena of the diner to become a fearful recluse in her own business.

There's a brief backup story in issue #34 narrated by Moon Knight's confidante Crawley that speedily reintroduces all the supporting cast, presumably an attempt by incoming regular writer Tony Isabella to show his grasp of the series but as he only does one more issue this leaves "The Vault of Knight" as a mere curiosity. It might have better to run it in the following issue as this was an attempt to build a wider audience on the newsstands and an introduction/reminder piece would have been a good way to help build readership. The tale is a mini-epic as Moon Knight gets crippled with a fight with the Fly, normally one of the lamer recurring Spider-Man villains, and he has to recover his movement in time to stop Bora, a frustrated over-tall would-be ballet dancer who now uses her mutant psionic powers for revenge. The story includes guest appearances by both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four but they mainly perform crowd control in a showdown at a ballet performance.

Alan Zelenetz's arrival sees a shift in the series's focus away from the urban crime fighter and more into magical territory. His first issue sees a team-up with Doctor Strange when Marlene is possessed by the spirit of Amutef, an Ancient Egyptian sorcerer, with a sceptical Moon Knight slowly coming to accept the forces around him. The final two issues of the original series tell of the death of Moon Knight's estranged Rabbi father amidst a wave of anti-Semitic violence and the body is stolen by the magician Zohar who is seeking to obtain occult powers. It's one of the only stories to really use Moon Knight's history to develop the character rather than just to provide a source of previous encounters.

And then comes the big interruption and the gutting of the character's world.

When the character returns in Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, massive changes have been made. The character has ditched the Steven Grant and Jake Lockley identities and is now living openly as Marc Spector albeit in the mansion and lifestyle associated with Grant. Supporting characters like Gena and Crawley have vanished, with Frenchie reduced to a cameo. Marc is trying to ditch the Moon Knight identity as well and auctions off the statue of Khonshu. However agents of Khonshu's rival Anubis obtain the statue and so the spirits of priests of Khonshu force Marc to retrieve it. In the process he defeats Anubis and returns to the Moon Knight identity in a modified costume, although as most of the changes involve colour the main change seen here is the replacement of the moon's crescent with an ankh. Marlene is angry with Marc's return to the role and walks out on him. Marc continues in the role and finds his strength is now enhanced at night but now the priests regularly invading his thoughts and forcing him to carry out tasks in spite of his own concerns as he is ever more the "Fist of Khonshu".

The first issue may introduce the character for a new and returning audience but otherwise it's a disastrous opening that ditches much of the best parts of the set-up in favour of Egyptian mysticism and pulp adventure. Subsequent issues slowly try to return to the more successful arrangements but it's too little and too late. In the meantime the more fantastical adventures include a visit to Mexico where a mad scientist is recreating Nazi experiments in a base inside a pyramid, the return of the sleepless man Morpheus, and two brothers who kill children to prolong their lives but now face a trio of Indian assassins. On a smaller scale is the man who has taken on the identity of Bluebeard and kidnapped multiple women using neuron rays to make them obey him, and drug pushing cannibal cult on an island in the south Caribbean. It is little surprise this series bombed so quickly. Moon Knight works best as an urban gritty crime fighter and not as a globe trotting adventurer. The absence of most of his supporting cast with no real replacements also hinders the series and attempts to develop a subplot of Marlene returning to her ex-husband, who is now in a wheelchair, just don't go anywhere.

Nestling at the end of the volume are five further stories from various anthologies but it's unclear just when most of them were originally written or are meant to be set, though Moon Knight is sporting a crescent in all of them. The first is a full length tale as Steven and Marlene (together without comment) visit a small town where nearby a film is being shot and killing deer in the process. This brings forth a vengeful spirit of nature. Next up is a tale that sees Frenchie fully back but the priests still pestering Marc as he investigates the connection between a talentless boy band and the sudden appearance of old people claiming they have suddenly aged. Following that we get a tale of Jake picking up a man disguised in an Arab keffiyeh in his cab who goes on to terrorise the United Nations. At the story's end Jake succumbs to casual racism and refuses to pick up another Arab in a keffiyeh. Each of these stories feels like they were written for one of the ongoing series but never got used, and it might have been better to have placed them here in the originally intended locations.

The Solo Avengers story is clearly original and brings Moon Knight into conflict with the Shroud, Master of Darkness. Both characters have strong elements of Batman about them and it's surprising that it took so long to bring the two together, even if it is for only half an issue. The final story, from Marvel Super-Heroes #1, feels like it was also prepared for Solo Avengers but not used in favour of a new Moon Knight series. It sees Moon Knight battle the Raptor, a forgettable one-off villain like so many in Solo Avengers, and also visit Gena, now managing a restaurant in Houston. It does its best in the pages available to provide a coda to the original supporting cast as well as establishing that Marc and Marlene are back together, thus undoing as much of the Fist of Khonshu damage as possible in the limited space available.

All in all this volume shows a once great character and series crashing into the mess of rapidly changing creative teams and a badly fumbled relaunch that steers in completely the wrong direction. There a few especially memorable stories with the villains mainly one-offs and much of the good and unique elements are needlessly jettisoned. This volume also suffers from presenting the inventory stories when they were published when it might have been better to follow the lead of other volumes and insert them into the original run at approximately the point they would have originally been used. In total this volume is best forgotten.

Essential Ghost Rider volume 3

Essential Ghost Rider volume 3 contains issues #51 to #65 of the series plus what appears to have been an unused fill-in issue that eventually saw print in Marvel Super-Heroes #11, and guest appearances in Marvel Two-in-One #80 and Avengers #214. Bonus material includes the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry for Arabian Knight. The main series is all written by Michael Fleisher, with the Marvel Super-Heroes fill-in by Tina Chrioproces, the Marvel Two-in-One appearance by Tom DeFalco and the Avengers issue by Jim Shooter. The art is more varied with a run by Don Perlin giving way to contributions by Carmine Infantino, Jim Shooter, Jack Sparling, Herb Trimpe, Alan Kupperberg and Luke McDonnell. The Marvel Super-Heroes piece is drawn by Greg LaRocque, the Marvel Two-in-One by Ron Wilson and the Avengers by Bob Hall. That's a lot of creators so there's a separate labels post.

The four Essential Ghost Rider volumes demonstrate a remarkable lack of forward planing considering the first only came out in late 2005 by which time Marvel had made a long term commitment to the reprint series. Of the eighty-eight core issues (including the initial bannered run in Marvel Spotlight), no less than fifty-seven, plus two crossover issues, were reprinted across the first two Essentials, whilst also leaving out some pretty major appearances in Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One that would have impacts on the regular series and would be often referenced here. This left just thirty-one core issues to complete the series - too many for a single volume even before considering a few other key issues that also merit inclusion, but really not enough for two separate volumes. Hence the resort to guest appearances that are frankly not needed here (especially when compared to the earlier omissions), and even then this volume looks and feels rather thin for one published on the slightly thicker paper the latter-day Essentials use. It's a good idea in principle to include standby material that was prepared for a series but not actually used for one reason or another without affecting continuity, but scraping around guest appearances can produce the most needless of filler material.

That said, Ghost Rider's appearance in Marvel Two-in-One does actually tie in well with the ongoing themes, even though it's a bit of a surprise to find Johnny in New York, performing major stunts before huge crowds at big stadiums when at this stage in his regular series he's still wandering the roads in the west or mid-west, surviving from job to job and suffering from a post-title reputation as yesterday's man. But both the regular series and guest appearance share the focus on how Johnny is increasingly losing control of his Ghost Rider self, who is lashing out at criminals for even minor offences. Here it falls to the Thing, who is also finding his monstrous form isn't always easy to control with bad results for those around him, leading to a fight between the two. (This is one of a number of Marvel Two-in-One issues that forgoes the original team-up concept and here actually bills the two characters as "versus".)

Also tying in with the series's themes but getting the status quo wrong in the opposite direction is Avengers #214. Placed during the period when Johnny is now working for a carnival, it instead shows him as a loner on the road who succumbs to taking up a low paying job at a petrol station. The Ghost Rider continues to be out of control, attacking his old ally the Angel which brings the Avengers (via a call searching for the now departed Beast) out to the west to hunt him down. Once again Johnny's situation is compared with a regular character, in this case Yellowjacket who has been suffering a breakdown, been expelled from the Avengers for his dangerous actions and is now being divorced by the Wasp after an act of domestic violence. Though Yellowjacket and Ghost Rider don't meet themselves, the comparison is all too clear between the two sinking in unhappiness and despair, leading them to act with ruthlessness and savagery. The resulting battle is unusual in that it's not a clear victory for the heroes in the book's title. Instead the Angel staggers from his hospital bed to confront the Ghost Rider about what he's become, causing the latter to calm down and revert to Johnny. It's an okay issue but not really essential. It would also have benefited from being placed before issue #63 instead of after it.

As for the "lost" issue, this also displays a problem of placement. The story in Marvel Super-Heroes #11 carries the caption "This story takes place prior to events in Ghost Rider, vol 1, #80" (yes "vol 1" - somebody had forgotten about the series starring the western Ghost Rider, but then Marvel Super-Heroes was published at a time when Johnny Blaze was usually billed as "the Original Ghost Rider") but otherwise gives no formal clue as to when precisely it's set. Here it's placed after issue #63 and before Avengers #214. But informally there's a lot in this story that suggests it would be much better placed later on in the run, at least after issue #65 but better would probably be somewhere in volume 4. Other than Johnny the only regular character to appear is Red Fowler, who is introduced in issue #63 but his relationship with Johnny shown here is much friendlier which would place it after events in issue #65. But what really makes the issue stand out as an anachronism are the uses of the names "Zarathos" and "Mephisto". Neither name has appeared yet in the regular series where the Ghost Rider is not given a name and the source of the power is still described in both dialogue and the intro box as "Satan" (though the actual origin hasn't been touched upon for a while) and their use here is frankly confusing. I wonder if this issue was commissioned around the mid #60s as a standby to go to print if the regular creative team missed their deadlines, and it was subject to minor rewrites over the next few years in order to keep the names up to date. That might perhaps explain why it's been placed at what is now clearly too early a point in the run. The story itself is rather functional as Johnny and Red arrive in a small town where they get caught up in a struggle between a cult leader planning to destroy a nearby nuclear power plant and his daughter who has rejected the cult's ways. But for the presence of Red in a sidekick role, it's a fairly typical example of the one-off adventures that take up most of this volume. It also appears to be the only credit ever for Tina Chrioproces. I wonder what became of her or if she was just a pseudonym for a more familiar creator.

Over in the regular series we're almost at the end of Michael Fleisher's run and it's starting to show. There are only really three significant developments throughout this volume. By far the biggest at first seems to be a one-off story but it soon proves to have had far deeper significance. Issue #53 introduces Azmodeus, another demon who becomes a recurring foe within these pages, who wants the Ghost Rider as his agent of chaos but needs to dispose of Johnny first. He sends his agent Tabicantra to do this and she uses her power to weaken Johnny's control each time he becomes Ghost Rider and the link ultimately destroyed so long as he changes enough times before an hour glass runs out. However she meets Johnny and has a change of heart before the final transformation, sacrificing her life as her magic prevents his transformation whilst she sees off a monster. In its own right this is a strong story but over subsequent issues it becomes clear that the Ghost Rider is becoming ever more out of control, getting ever more vicious whilst Johnny struggles to change back.

Otherwise the series continues the theme of Johnny Blaze wandering the roads, occasionally entering races and undertaking stunt jobs as part of long term practice for an eventual challenge to regain his title. Issue #58 sees the long anticipated rematch with Flagg Fargo as Johnny challenges him to regain his title and would have achieved it but the tournament is cut short when the Ghost Rider's old foe the Enforcer hospitalises Fargo as a match fixing scam. Johnny saves Fargo from death and the two earn a degree of respect such that later on Johnny feels able to ask Fargo for a loan to visit Saudi Arabia to take on a sheikh with ambitions to take over all the oil states in the Middle East utilising the Water Wizard's powers which can also work on oil. Fargo provides the money albeit with an impossibly short repayment period but thanks to the Arabian Knight and his flying carpet Johnny is able to make it back just in time. The final development comes at the end of the volume as Johnny seemingly settles down for the time being. Although he's previously stayed around in first Las Vegas and then Chicago for more than a single issue, he now joins a carnival, acquiring a supporting cast in the process. Owner Ralph Quentin is primarily a background figure at this stage but of greater significance are the existing stunt bike performer Red Fowler and accompanying journalist Cynthia Randolph. Red is initially displeased at being displaced to become Johnny's assistant but changes his view when Johnny risks his life to save Red from loan sharks. Meanwhile Cynthia is travelling with the carnival to research a feature for her magazine and resists Johnny's advances but soon realises there is more to him and determines to find out his secret.

In the meantime Johnny starts off the volume as the wandering hero helping those in need whom he comes across and facing down a succession of local bullies, crimelords and more exotic foes. There are some return appearances by the likes of the Orb, the Weather Wizard and Moondark, with the latter two teaming up for revenge, though their egos undermine them. Meanwhile the Orb makes multiple appearances, even turning to Machine Man's foe Madame Menace for new weapons. One adventure sees the awakening of the Sirens from Greek mythology who have been long trapped in sarcophaguses hidden in a cave in the American wilderness. They promptly seek vengeance on the world and capture a nuclear missile then launch it at a city. Later in Chicago the Ghost Rider's attempts to prevent a bombing are hindered by the Destroyer of Demons, a reverend with a hereditary power to tackle demons.

Ghost Rider occasionally acquires allies in these adventures but the most surprising is a modern day incarnation of the Night Rider (who once again appears with no explicit reference to having originally been named "Ghost Rider"; I wonder if contemporary readers were told this in the letterspages). Issue #51 contains a back-up story with a further adventure of Carter Slade and then in the present day issue #56 sees Hamilton Slade, a descendant of Carter's brother and successor Lincoln, discover a burial jar in a desert burial ground which transforms him into a modern day Night Rider, albeit without Hamilton being aware of his alternate form. Once more the Night Rider comes to the aide of the man with his original name. Another brief ally is "Clem", an old-fashioned lorry driver who helps Johnny against a biker gang - and is revealed to be the ghost of a victim of an earlier gang.

The pattern of women being drawn to Johnny but repelled by the Ghost Rider continues with the return of Gina, the woman he met when amnesiac in the previous volume. She is horrified at his treatment of the Orb and further by the handling of Tatterdemalion in a team-up with the Werewolf by Night, and so leaves him. One of the few women who does not flee in panic is Nora, one of the team of an auto circus that Johnny briefly joins as part of the training for his rematch. However the circus is attacked by the Apparition, the ghost of one of the circus's former stunt drivers turned criminal and executed. Johnny thinks he's tricked the Apparition into believing all his targets are dead, but miscounted and although the ghost is vanquished, the issue ends with Johnny cradling Nora's body.

At 416 pages this is the shortest Essential volume of all, though not by much. Blame for this state of affairs lies firmly with volume 2, released to tie in with the first movie and being a little overlong in order to include the team-up between Johnny and Carter Slade. This left the awkward state of affairs that results in the rest of the run being stretched over two volumes and padded out with two inessential guest appearances plus a fill-in later rescued from inventory. The Marvel Super-Heroes issue really belongs in volume 4 and that would also have allowed this volume to complete the Fleisher run. The core issues are slight but do manage to advance Johnny's saga forward, finding a good new angle on the character amidst a run of relatively typical adventures. There's no sense of building towards anything but equally there are no real stinkers in this volume. It's a solid but not too spectacular collection that keeps the character afloat for now.

Essential Captain Marvel volume 1

Essential Captain Marvel volume 1 contains the Captain Marvel strips from Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13 then Captain Marvel #1-21 and a bonus story from the comedy series Not Brand Echh #9. Marvel Super-Heroes was an anthology series, previously entitled Fantasy Masterpieces, which variously combined try-out new material with reprints from the Golden Age; later it would carry reprints of more recent material including a long run reprinting the Incredible Hulk. Stan Lee writes the first Marvel Super-Heroes and is then followed by Roy Thomas who writes up until issue #4 of the titled series and again from #17 and also the Not Brand Echh story. Arnold Drake and Gary Friedrich write most of the intervening issues, with one other by Archie Goodwin. Gene Colan draws as far as issue #4 and also the Not Brand Echh story, then the others are drawn by Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Frank Springer, Tom Sutton, Gil Kane and John Buscema.

Captain Marvel was not only one of the last Marvel Silver Age superhero features to get an Essential volume, but was also the last one to be created in that era. After the initial burst of creativity that produced everyone from the Fantastic Four to Daredevil, there was then a period in which the emphasis was on consolidation rather than expansion, giving pre-existing characters their own strips, and the debuts seemed to be done with. Then in 1967 came this new feature. Was he the product of a late surge of creativity that led to Stan Lee and his artists to come up with just one more character? Or did he serve some ulterior purpose?

Even without consulting wider comic histories it seems clear it was the ulterior purpose and it shows. Captain Marvel appears to be the first in a long line of Marvel characters created for the purpose of securing intellectual property rights. Often such characters get rushed into print before the idea has been thoroughly thought through, resulting in some rather confusing early years as the premise, powers and/or backstory get revised in order to work better, and eventually the character is given up with the codename transferred to a new hero, often one with no connection at all to the original. Unfortunately this pattern is all too clear with Captain Marvel. Over the course of this single volume we get a series that starts off as a tale of an alien military spy yet by the end he's become a cosmic powered hero fused with a human being. The series got its first cancellation during the course of this volume yet it was revived barely six months later as a bimonthly. The last regular issue in the volume ends with a note explaining this has been a try-out and "Now, his fate is in your hands -- you, the reader! We'll be waiting for your verdict!" But these two issues were just a try-out and the series did not continue for another two years. It's hard to disguise that the series had not been terribly successful and yet Marvel kept on trying to keep the name "Captain Marvel" on the newsstands.

The real purpose was clearly down to the "use it or lose it" requirements of trademark law that mean a company can't simply hold onto a name to prevent competitors from using it; they must regularly actively exploit the trademark. Exactly how frequently can vary, as can the precise means by which the mark is used, but one consequence is a particular code name can appear on the shelves repeatedly and for multiple characters simply because of the risk of otherwise losing it. This is why names like "Spider-Woman" have been used so many times and also why some of the various "Captain Marvel"s have no connection to each other whatsoever. The name "Captain Marvel" had been used before; first for a highly successful character published by Fawcett Comics in the 1940s & 1950s until DC brought a copyright suit, and then the name had been briefly used by M. F. Enterprises for a short-lived hero. Clearly the risk of rivals being able to publish comics with "Marvel" in the title was too great and so Marvel were clearly moving to tie up the trademark before yet another company printed a comic called "Captain Marvel". Indeed when the Marvel series was revived again in 1972 from issue #22, it came just a few months before DC revived the Fawcett Captain Marvel (since DC could hardly breach its own copyright). Had Marvel foreseen its rival's move and rushed to reinforce its mark? It just served to reinforce the pattern as a whole succession of Captain Marvels would be wheeled out over the years. (DC revived the Fawcett character but because Marvel had already got to the trademark, DC have been unable to sell their version under the logo of "Captain Marvel" - although this doesn't affect what the character is called inside the strip - leading to the use of alternatives such as "Shazam".) But in the process Marvel forget to create a particular exciting scenario and series, and eventually had to change just about everything other than the lead character's name.

The series starts by tapping into the contemporary fads of spies and space science fiction. We see Mar-Vell, a captain in the Kree armed forces, sent on a mission to Earth, though the precise details of his mission vary between revenge for earlier defeats and spying upon the world to determine the threat level. The original given mission is ridiculous for one man, even one as skilled as Mar-Vell, so it's no surprise that it gets changed early on under a different writer. However the new mission becomes equally silly because a Kree scout ship is hiding in orbit and observing Mar-Vell all the time - so why not just cut out the middle man and do the spying from orbit without the risk of arousing suspicions on Earth? A lot of the problem is that the real reason for sending Mar-Vell onto the planet is the jealousy of his superior, Colonel Yon-Rogg, for Mar-Vell's relationship with medic Una. Yon-Rogg belongs to a line of suitors who believe that simply disposing of a rival without even concealing their involvement or hatred will result in a woman falling into their arms. I don't have the real life statistics to hand to check just how many men have succeeded with this method of courting, but I suspect it's very few if that.

There's an attempt to make this a science-fiction romantic story with the regular complications of Yon-Rogg trying to get Mar-Vell either killed on his mission or executed as a traitor, but it rapidly becomes tiresome, even when an additional angle is added to the triangle in the form of human Carol Danvers (later Ms. Marvel then Binary then Warbird then Ms. Marvel again then yet another Captain Marvel - have I missed any out?). It's trying to give a sense of purpose and tragedy to the story but we don't see a great deal of Una and what we do see just doesn't make her a compelling character but instead a weeping wet blanket. It's hard to grasp just what Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg see in her to the point that the Colonel is prepared to destroy one of his best officers in pursuit of her. The result is that the core motivation for the hatred between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg just doesn't convince and so we're left with an endless succession of adventures as Mar-Vell settles on Earth, assuming the guise of the dead Dr Walter Lawson, and finds himself torn between his orders and his realisation of the value of the planet. As a result he comes to the protection of humans multiple times, under the "Americanized" form of his name, Captain Marvel, and equally regularly has to justify his conduct as Yon-Rogg tries to get him prosecuted.

The idea of the noble enemy who comes to a society with orders to destroy it yet rebels when they discovers what the inhabitants are like had been done before with the Silver Surfer and no doubt with many earlier ones, but often it isn't too obvious just what they see in the society or how it is they always seem to meet the best examples. Here Mar-Vell spends most of his time around a missile base in Florida or at a nearby motel with a suspicious night clerk, interacting with a limited number of base personnel and townsfolk, and getting caught up in protecting humans from various alien incursions. At the base the main characters are the base commander General Bridges and the security chief Carol Danvers. Carol is presented as a clear potential romantic interest from the outset and we soon get the all too familiar scenario whereby she falls for the hero but is hostile to his secret identity. Eventually she and Mar-Vell share a kiss, to the delight of the watching Yon-Rogg and the horror of Una, but nothing really comes of it and Carol disappears when the series overhauls itself.

Mar-Vell battles a number of menaces ranging from a Kree sentry to the Super Skrull. The latter is, I think, the first time a Kree and a Skrull had faced off in a Marvel comic though we learn they've been enemies for centuries. Other existing Marvel foes include Quasimodo the living computer. There are new threats such as the Metazoid, a mutated being created by the Communists, or Solam, a solar energy creature drawn to Earth by accident, the Aakons, another alien race, the Organization, a criminal outfit, the Cybrex, a robot built by the real Walter Lawson, the Man-Slayer, a robot created by Communists and the Puppet Master (in a crossover with the Avengers and th Sub-Mariner, however only the Captain Marvel issue is included here). There are also the inevitable clashes with other heroes such as Namor the Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and, later on, the Hulk, though the Captain America depicted on the volume's cover (reused from issue #17) is in fact an illusion generated by Mar-Vell to draw Rick Jones in.

From issue #11 onwards the series starts to transform itself into something different and steadily ditches a lot of the baggage. Una is casually killed off by a stray shot in battle with the Aakons, and Mar-Vell boards a rocket which gets thrown into deep space where he meets an all-powerful being who gives him enhanced powers, including flight, casting illusions and teleportation. Subsequently we learn that Mar-Vell has long been manipulate by the Kree ministers Ronan the Accuser and Zarek as part of a planned coup against the Supreme Intelligence. Zarek is motivated by concerns about the Kree racial stock but fortunately for a black and white reprint this is about the only moment that touches upon the racial tensions within the Kree Empire whereby blue-skinned Kree have come to see themselves as the original pure stock and are hostile towards pink-skinned Kree such as Mar-Vell, seeing them as the result of mixing with lesser races. As a reward the Supreme Intelligence gives Mar-Vell yet further powers and a new costume, his most familiar one, but the hero is now cut off from the Kree. He is soon trapped in the Negative Zone and the only escape, however temporary, is through bonding with another being and regularly trading places with them. And so Rick Jones is lured into a cave in the desert.

When introduced in issue #17, Rick Jones seems several years younger than he's normally portrayed, looking almost like a child. Was this just an error by Gil Kane or was it a deliberate homage to Billy Batson, the original Fawcett Captain Marvel? There are other elements to his introduction that feel like a retread of how Billy was introduced to Shazam, and indeed in the pre-Crisis Fawcett & DC stories Captain Marvel and Billy were treated as separate personalities. But whatever the motivation, the result is that Captain Marvel now shares his existence with a mortal. After a final tidy-up with a showdown in which Yon-Rogg is killed and Carol saved, the series now embarks fully in its new direction.

However the last few issues are just strange. In one Rick finds himself caught up in a strange sociological experiment run by a scientist who uses a luxury block of flats as a giant laboratory. Then in the revived try-out Mar-Vell clashes with both the Hulk and the Rat Pack, a bunch of hi-tech looters. By the end of the series everything has changed beyond recognition and it's no longer clear at all just what it's all about.

Captain Marvel is a series that's quite well drawn and the individual issues flow quickly without any obvious stinkers. But the overall direction of the series is a total mess and the result is a rather meandering flow. The Not Brand Echh story included here plays on the fact that "Captain Marvin" can't remember what his mission is. Whether by accident or design it winds up parodying the series in more ways than one as it really doesn't know what its purpose is for. This was one of the earliest series whose sole reason for existing was legal rather than creative and its artificialness is all too easy to see.

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up volume 1

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up volume 1 contains the Dr. Doom stories from Astonishing Tales #1-8, followed by Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1-2, Super-Villain Team-Up #1-14 & #16-17 (#15 reprinted Astonishing Tales #4-5), plus crossover storylines in Avengers #154-156 and Champions #16. Astonishing Tales was yet another anthology, this one from the early 1970s and its initial issues featured Dr. Doom and Ka-Zar. The Champions was a brief lived superhero team of the mid 1970s that teamed up the likes of the Angel, Ice-Man, the Black Widow, Hercules, Ghost Rider and Darkstar. Bonus material includes the cover of Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (an anthology series which combined try-out new material with reprints from the Golden Age) and a two-page spread omitted from that issue's story when it was reused in Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1.

The Astonishing Tales stories are written by Roy Thomas, Larry Lieber and Gerry Conway, and drawn by Wally Wood, George Tuska and Gene Colan. Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up is written by Roy Thomas and Larry Lieber, and drawn by John Buscema, Larry Lieber, Frank Giacoia and Mike Sekowsky. The regular size Super-Villain Team-Up is written by Tony Isabella, Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Steve Englehart and Peter Gillis, and drawn by George Tuska, Bill Everett, George Evans, Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Keith Giffen, Jim Shooter, Bob Hall, Carmine Infantino, and Arvell Jones. The Avengers issues are written by Conway and Shooter, and drawn by George Pérez and Sal Buscema. The Champions issue is written by Mantlo and drawn by Hall. That's an awful lot of creators, not helped by the first issue of the regular size series having three pencillers on a single issue. The first issue of the Giant-Size is also complicated by incorporating amended reprints of Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #20 and Marvel Super-Heroes #20 into the actual narrative. Because of this long list some of the labels have been placed in a separate post.

The Astonishing Tales stories come from an attempted revival of the double feature book in the early 1970s, but I don't know if there were any other series of the type at the time. Within these eight issues we get a number of stories with the oddity of the lead character being a villain, yet we don't get many defeats. Instead we see Doom first face off an attempted overthrowal by the pretender to the throne of Latveria with the aid of an alien, whilst also facing an experiment going wrong and releasing an android with his own mind patterns on the country. Subsequent issues see Doom facing off an invasion of Latveria by the Red Skull and his allies the Exiles, a group of ex-soldiers from all the Axis powers seeking to establish the Fourth Reich, or trying to raid vibranium from Wakanda only to be seen off by the Black Panther. But even this latter story leaves open the question of which ruler has won - Doom who escapes unharmed or T'Challa whose kingdom is devastated by an earthquake caused by Doom's mining. The final issue sees Doom attempt to rescue his mother's soul from the clutches of the Devil but fails to defeat her captor's champion. (At this stage Marvel tended to portray various demons, most obviously Mephisto, as being the actual Devil/Satan without always depicting him consistently across series. In later years they'd back away from this idea but at the cost of sowing chaos across some characters' continuity - Ghost Rider can be particularly tricky.)

The series is brief but manages to fill out most of the details about Doom such as why he wears the mask, his past relationship with Valeria, his seizure of the throne of Latveria and the fate of his mother. We don't get an actual flashback to the infamous accident that scarred his face or a reminder of his quest for power but this is probably to the advantage as the details we are given come woven into ongoing stories, rather than taking up the first issue with loads of details a good chunk of the readership would already know. With only eight issues and each instalment just ten pages long there isn't much time to explore things in too much dept, but Doom emerges with his dignity and power intact. That said it's hard to deny that this strip's appearance here is largely filler material to make up the page count as Doom doesn't actually team up with any other super-villains in these stories. Issues #4-5 may have been reprinted in Super-Villain Team-Up #15 but the issues show a confrontation not an alliance between Doom and the Red Skull. Still without their appearance here we probably wouldn't have got to see these stories at all.

Onto Super-Villain Team-Up itself. As ever with a team-up title here's a list of the banner stars in each issue, though formally naming them on the cover doesn't start until issue #3 and the earlier issues have the stars at the top of the intro pages.

Giant-Size 1. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
Giant-Size 2. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
1. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
2. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
3. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
4. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
5. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
6. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
7. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
8. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
9. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
10. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
11. Doctor Doom and the Red Skull
12. Doctor Doom and the Red Skull
13. Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner
14. Doctor Doom and Magneto
(15. Doctor Doom and the Red Skull - reprinting Astonishing Tales #4-5)
16. The Red Skull and the Hate-Monger
17. The Red Skull and the Hate-Monger

As can be seen from this list the overall approach to the series was rather different from the format of Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One where the guest stars rotated virtually every issue. Instead the first half or so of the run is about the only time in the Bronze Age that I'm aware of when Marvel successfully launched a "buddy book" title of two pre-existing characters. (Marvel Team-Up was initially going to be a regular Spider-Man and the Human Torch series but rapidly switched to the rotating format, which was then adopted from the outset for Marvel Two-in-One. The Champions was originally going to be a duo of the Angel and Ice-Man, but during conception it morphed into a more general team title, albeit one that selected characters to fill various boxes.)

However it's quickly clear that this series wasn't exactly a conventional teaming. Neither the Red Skull nor Magneto actually team-up with Doom in the issues in question but instead battle with him, and much of the rest of the first sixteen issues (including the Giant-Size) are devoted to the strained relations between Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner as the former tries to recruit the latter to his scheme to conquer the world, rather than actually showing the two engaged in this plan. Part of the problem, as Doom eventually realises, is that the Sub-Mariner is primarily an anti-hero seeking the advancement of his undersea kingdom and only attacks the surface world in anger for perceived actions against Atlantis. Back in the early issues of Fantastic Four the Sub-Mariner was a wandering loner whose kingdom had disappeared and he did take on a more villainous role, even teaming up with Doctor Doom to take on the Fantastic Four. But the character had come a long way since then and a series that tries to recapture the spirit of Fantastic Four #6 just isn't going to work without major alterations to at least one of the characters. That's probably why new directions are announced for both issues #4 & #10, and then issue #14 brings another, though the end of the issue announces it's the end of the series. I'll come back to that claim in a bit. In the meantime the main bond forced between Doom and the Sub-Mariner are the-then recent alterations to the latter's body chemistry making it impossible for him to last out of water, especially when the life support suit he's wearing in the early issues begins to fail. Doom's supply of a cure results in Namor being honourbound but it's an uneasy process.

In the course of the alliance Doom and Namor face a number of both heroes and other villains, most of whom have previously clashed with at least one of them before. Early on they clash with Andro, the android from Astonishing Tales, and later on the Latverian legitimist pretender and the Red Skull. Namor's past conflicts soon bring Attuma, Tiger Shark and Dr. Dorcas, then later Krang. We also get a brief visit to Latveria by the Circus of Crime. The Fantastic Four also come into conflict with Doom over attempts to save the Sub-Mariner from being honourbound into the alliance. The Avengers crossover involves further conflict with Attuma but also brings a couple of encounters for what I think are the first time in the modern era - Namor and the Whizzer, and a fight between Doom and Iron Man. Finally in the original run we get a clash with both Magneto and the Champions. This brief team has often been mocked in hindsight for its unlikely combination and being located in Los Angeles - a famous line by the Angel in later years was "Do you know how hard it is to find supervillains in Los Angeles?" - but here they come across as reasonably competent, if beset by personality disputes. The more surprising portrayal is Magneto who initially seeks an alliance with Doom, proclaiming them to both be "homo superior". It's a reminder that Magneto hasn't always been the militant mutant superiority fighter he's best known as, and for many years was a more generic would-be world conqueror.

We get a few new creations such as the Symbionic Man, but the most significant is the Shroud. A mysterious figure in a dark costume with an origin that combines elements of Batman's (young boy sees his parents shot by a street criminal, vows vengeance on all crime and trains himself accordingly) and Doom's (makes his way to a Himalayan cult where he learns more but has his face burned in the process). It seems Steve Englehart wanted to write Batman but at this point he was at the wrong company, though all that would change the following year. Apparently he was actually drawing on the Shadow rather than Doom, but then again rather a lot of fictional characters have acquired special skills and magic from near mythical places in the Himalayas.

Issue #3 has a particularly dramatic moment when Betty Dean, Namor's original romantic interest, sacrifices herself to save Namor from being shot by Dr. Dorcas. Given the character's long term significance, she's dispatched rather suddenly even if she had only made a dozen or so new appearances since the 1960s revival of the Sub-Mariner. There are some other odd moments relating to women. We're occasionally reminded of Doom's loss of Valeria, but a really odd moment comes in issue #7 when he goes to a peasant's house and asserts droit de seigneur ("right of the lord") - which isn't fully spelt out here (Doom merely states he has "absolute right to the company of any woman in the land") but it was the purported feudal right of lords to bed virgins on the estate. There's no historical evidence that such a custom existed in medieval Europe but that wouldn't necessarily stop Doom. However it seems completely out of character for him to be pursuing such lust with any random woman and feels like a clumsy attempt to reinforce the character's wickedness. But Doom doesn't need to be shown asserting such rights to achieve that.

More curious is a moment in issue #6 where it's revealed that Doom has conducted a peace treaty with the United States that gives him greater protection from US based heroes who are now at risk of causing international incidents. The treaty is personally concluded with none other than Henry Kissinger. I presume that in the mid 1970s there weren't Republican watch groups who would pounce on portrayals in media and publicly attack companies for "misrepresenting" their side. But the whole incident feels a little clumsy again as it leads to rants by the Fantastic Four about appeasement and Kissinger's realpolitik. It's hard to escape the conclusion that these issues (#6-7), published in early 1976, was being used by Englehart for naked political soapboxing. It's also amazing that he could get away with it, but 1976 was the Year of The Three Editor-in-Chiefs at Marvel and amidst such turbulance oversight standards were presumably not the best.

Overall the initial run of the title takes a rather bizarre concept and does its best to try and make it work. Some of the issues have ambiguous endings and Doom sometimes triumphs over other foes. But in general it's very hard to base a series around villains and even harder to do so when one of them doesn't easily slot into the role the title implies. The series came out in a period when the length of regular sized Marvel comics shrank from nineteen to eighteen and then seventeen pages per issue so the stories fly pretty fast. But it's hard to escape the idea this series never really had a clear idea of what it was for or where it was going, hence the two new directions and the eventual shift away from the Doom/Sub-Mariner relationship to a more general Doom and a rotating guest star title. However it was too little too late and it's easy to see why issue #14 ends with "This is the last issue of Super-Villain Team-Up".

Yet somehow despite the series announcing its ending in 1977, three more issues came out, one per each of the following years. I'm not sure why this was but as issue #15 is a reprint, it's probable it was a rush job. Maybe it was a fill-in to take the place of a delayed title at the printers at a time when publishers were fined if the presses went empty. Alternatively the issue was on sale in August 1978 which seems to be the exact month the effect of the "DC Implosion" hit the newsstands with a dramatic cutback of the number of DC titles - was Marvel rushing some extra books into print to capitalise on the released marketshare? Presumably the issue sold well enough for someone to give the title another chance, but this time going for a more general team-up of villains. So six months later issue #16 appeared in early 1979... and then nothing for over a year before the story was concluded with the publication of issue #17. Was this a monumental production delay, was the revived series never properly scheduled or was it just being printed as and when gaps in printing were looming?

The final two issues tell a brief story that seems to be motivated more by tying up an obscure part of Marvel continuity than with actually doing anything major with the Red Skull. We get the tale of how the Skull and the Hate Monger are running a Nazi island in the Caribbean - it makes a difference from the Latin American jungle I guess - where they're using technology to create a new Cosmic Cube whilst fending off the interference by agents of Mossad and SHIELD. However there's a twist as the Hate Monger is none other than Adolf Hitler.

Part of the story's purpose is to tidy up Marvel continuity with the revelation that Hitler is occupying a clone of his original body with his mind having been projected out when he was "killed" in the Berlin bunker at the end of the Second World War by the original Human Torch. In the 1950s Marvel had created this alternate take on Hitler's death and it may have seemed a great idea at the time but it now seems rather crass. They then made an alternative version of this crassness in 1963 when a Fantastic Four issue ended with the revelation the defeated and dead Hate Monger had been... Adolf Hitler. At the time the idea of Hitler having survived the war was a fairly popular idea in fiction (and Marvel was ignoring its 1950s stories altogether) but again it can seem to trivialise one of the most evil men real history has thrown up. It would probably have best to have just dismissed the original Hate Monger as one of Hitler's doubles. But instead we now get a tale teaming up Marvel's most prominent Nazi with the real world's greatest Nazi. The story itself is tame, show how the Skull fends off the attack but also out double-crosses the Hate Monger, trapping the latter inside the new Cosmic Cube which is in fact merely a prison.

The story allows the Red Skull to put Hitler the man behind him whilst still pursuing Hitler's goals and philosophy. But the Skull didn't need such a moment - Hitler could have been left dead and the Hate Monger dismissed as an old double of Hitler. If a confrontation and continuity tidy was needed, this would have allowed the Skull to establish himself as the supreme heir to Nazidom without the crass treatment of the founder. Overall this story is rather dissatisfying and a pretty low ending for the series. It had never really found a direction and by this point it was just Super-Villain Team-Up in name only.

Omitted material: Marvel Masterworks

As well as the Essentials, Marvel has two other major ongoing series of collected editions plus many standalone volumes. The oldest series are the Masterworks which have run on and off since 1987. These collect about ten issues on glossy paper in hardback and often have new masters created from the original comics (which has in turn allowed later collections access to high quality material that wouldn't otherwise be within the budget reach). So far there have been fifteen volumes of Amazing Spider-Man, taking the series up to issue #155, and two volumes of Marvel Team-Up, reaching issue #22. So far the Masterworks have taken a different approach to Giant-Size Spider-Man from the Essentials and would appear to be collecting it with Marvel Team-Up instead of Amazing Spider-Man, though this won't be fully confirmed until the release of a third Marvel Team-Up Masterworks.

However there is the odd other issue that the Masterworks include but the Essentials do not:

Marvel Super-Heroes #14 written by Stan Lee and drawn by Ross Andru, reprinted in Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man volume 8

Marvel Super-Heroes began life as Fantasy Masterpieces, a reprint title, but it for a brief period it evolved to add originated try-out features before reverting to all reprints. During this try-out period its best known launch was the original Marvel Captain Marvel. It also carried the odd piece from inventory...

A caption at the start informs us that this story was written and drawn as an emergency fill-in when it seemed that John Romita would be unable to meet a deadline due to a sprained wrist, however he managed to after all. Rather than just give the plot to another artist, an original story was devised, a reminder that the artists invariably contributed much more than just putting the actual pencil to paper. This story is something of an oddity, having been drawn relatively early in the Romita years to the point that some of the characters are a little off - Gwen Stacey's hair looks like it did in the #40s of Amazing rather than her more familiar straighter version and there's a touch of a Ditko homage in the look of Spider-Man. Ross Andru would later draw the character for a large chunk of the 1970s, and is in my opinion one of the most overlooked of Spider-Man artists, but here on the first attempt he had not quite captured the feel of the character. Perhaps that's why Spider-Man spends nearly all the story weakened by mental attacks and unable to move and fight in his usual manner.

The story itself would scream fill-in even without the caption at the start or the location of its publication. We get a battle against a rather forgettable villain with much of the setting away from the series's norm and with everything wrapped up by the final page. The tale sees a new villain called the Sorcerer deciding to test his power by destroying Spider-Man - "the most dangerous man of all". Using his honed mental powers and supporting electronic equipment he first weakens Spider-Man by imposing the thought of a mental illness on him, and then lures him to New Orleans for a battle with the Synthetic Man, a non-sentient creation controlled by him. However the Sorcerer was over clever and mailed a doll of Spider-Man to the post office in order to show who destroyed him, and it gets returned. The post man rings the doorbell during the fight and the noise alters the pitch, causing mental feedback which incapacitates the Sorcerer. The Synthetic Man abandons the fight and wanders into the sea, leaving Spider-Man wondering who was behind it all.

It's often all too easy to pounce on a fill-in issue and tear it to shreds when by definition it has to tread water and avoid making a lasting impact on the series. But this is a story rather detached from the Spider-Man norm in this era and it's something of a let-down that he never actually meets his foe. It may find a way to cover for a new artist's lack of familiarity with Spider-Man's movement and gestures but otherwise it's just the first in a long line of such stories that could so easily be ignored. This may be why it's been omitted from the Essentials (even though, as we've seen, later editions covering this era have added material overlooked the first time around) and given the higher price on the Masterworks this is not an issue to search high and low for.

Also in this volume are Amazing Spider-Man #68-77, which are in Essential Spider-Man volume 3 and volume 4.

Daredevil #103 written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Don Heck, reprinted in Marvel Masterworks Marvel Team-Up volume 2

This is to keep this listing complete as I've previously covered Daredevil #103 in both More non-essential Spider-Man Essentials and Essential Daredevil volume 5. It ties in with Marvel Team-Up #12 with both issues seeing Peter on assignment in San Francisco.

Also in this volume are Marvel Team-Up #12-22, which are in Essential Marvel Team-Up volume 1.

And that's all so far. At some point in the future I'll have a brief look at the Marvel Omnibuses.

Essential Ms. Marvel volume 1

Marvel seems to have spent quite a bit of time searching for "the next Spider-Man" in the 1970s. They probably didn't spot Wolverine for a while. One such series launched at the start of 1977 with the cover proclaiming "A bold new super-heroine in the senses-stunning tradition of Spider-Man!" The character's debut was heavily entrenched in Spidey's world, working for J. Jonah Jameson, and the debut cover was replete with characters from the Spider-Man comics. But over time Ms. Marvel would go her own way, moving out of what was not yet called "the Spider-Man family" of titles.

Essential Ms. Marvel volume 1 contains Ms. Marvel #1-23, stories from Marvel Super-Heroes #10-11 and Avengers Annual #10. Marvel Super-Heroes was an early 1990s quarterly title that generally ran left-over stories from inventory, and here carried material that would have appeared in issues #24 & #25 of Ms. Marvel, albeit with some changes and updates to reflect subsequent events. Issue #24 was largely complete when the plug was pulled; however I'm uncertain as to how much of what is printed here would have actually gone out as issue #25 back in 1979. Following the cancellation of her own series, Ms. Marvel went on to become a member of the Avengers but was written out in a rather controversial way. Annual #10 was an attempt to undo the damage. In addition there are Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Deathbird, Captain Marvel, the Kree and Rogue.

The first couple of issues are written by Gerry Conway, who also plotted the third which was scripted by Chris Claremont who writes all the remaining issues in the volume, though Marvel Super-Heroes #11 has a co-credit for latter day additions by Simon Furman. The art is by variously John Buscema, Jim Mooney, Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Dave Cockrum and Mike Vosburg, with Mike Gustovich working on the additions in Marvel Super-Heroes #11 and Michael Golden handling the Avengers annual. The writing credits are generally encouraging, though most of the giants of comics have had their off days and the original writer leaving after just a couple of issues can be a sign of early turbulence. However, the art credits are more unstable. With a lot of creators, a separate post has been created to carry the labels for them.

I have to admit that growing up in the 1980s, the whole "Ms" thing passed me by until rather later. None of my female teachers, of whom there were many, used it (at least at school). It wasn't taught to me at the same time I was learning about other honorifics. Nor did I ever encounter it in relation to the mothers of any of my contemporaries, or by any woman I can recall in the media (but then some of the more strident "Ms"es may not had made an impact, plus a growing informality was bypassing the title debate altogether). And that's even before we get to the backlash against radical feminism that means there are women who really dislike "Ms" and take offence to being called it. The only female I can recall from that era for whom it was used in my hearing was "Ms. Lion", the dog in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, but I, like many others, heard the name as "Miss Lion" and never realised it was anything else. So by the time I did learn about "Ms" I was sufficiently set in my ways that it felt unusual, made more so by hardly ever actually hearing it in practice since then (although again usage of "Mrs" and "Miss" has noticeably declined and this issue is not exactly a standard point of conversation) and then there's the whole issue of how to pronounce it (a few characters have their rendition written as "Miz" – is this meant to indicate a non-standard pronunciation or conversely an attempt to help readers learn how to pronounce it?). So does that mean the name "Ms. Marvel" instinctively puts me off her? I can't say for sure as by the time I first encountered her she was now "Binary" and my first regular reading of her was as "Warbird". So the "Ms. Marvel" name has dated for me, even if she has since used it again.

The first issue is a curious mixture of introductions and mysteries. We are introduced to both Carol Danvers, the newly hired editor of "Woman" magazine (based, not entirely coincidentally, on the real world magazine "Ms." though without the more strident political side), and the mysterious hero who is soon dubbed "Ms. Marvel" but she herself suffers from amnesia and has no clear knowledge about who she is or how she acquired her powers. Carol suffers from periodic migraines and disappears at times when she passes out, making the connection all too clear, but neither ego is aware of the other. It could be a sign of a bold step to allow the reader to discover things such as the origin at the same time as the character, or equally it could be a sign of a character rushed onto the stands before she was fully thought through, due to a need to protect the company's intellectual property. Spider-Woman debuted the following month with much the same problem, but had the different solution of rushing out a rather poorly thought through origin and then once her own series was launched the origin was routinely revised and built on, to the point where it became almost impossible to follow. It's questionable as to which approach is better in such a messy situation. However, the practical result is that issue #1 finishes without giving the reader a decent understanding of the character of Ms. Marvel and why she does what she does, nor for that matter what the full extent of her powers is. This is not an encouraging sign. And the derivative nature of the character is all too clear. A blonde female with the surname "Danvers" who is a spin-off of a powerful alien hero, and both of them have enhanced strength, invulnerability and can fly? Now where have we heard that one before? Oh hello Supergirl. But from what I've seen of Supergirl's adventures from the time, Ms. Marvel's are cut from a very different cloth. Comparisons with the "Marvel Family" of Fawcett/DC are pretty much non-existent bar an in-joke when the Beast asks if Ms. Marvel is Captain Marvel's sister. (That's the wrong Captain Marvel, Hank!)

Gerry Conway is credited on the first issue as not just the writer/editor (a joint post common at Marvel at the time but later phased out) but also as having conceived the series, with help from his then wife Carla. I wonder if this help had much influence on the series but as Gerry Conway left the series and Marvel altogether with issue #3 it's hard to tell. By the time he leaves we have at least learnt the origin of Ms. Marvel, though Carol herself has not, as we discover she absorbed radiation when caught up in a fight between Captain Marvel and an enemy. Carol herself discovers her alter ego in the next few issues but the exact psychological relationship between the two is left unaddressed for some time – are they the result of a split personality or is Ms. Marvel a pre-existing Kree who is now sharing Carol's body, similar to Captain Marvel and Rick Jones? In general, Chris Claremont's changes to the character are gradual and work as an ongoing narrative, such as altering the source of her powers from her costume to her body as the result of a second exposure to radiation. This works much better than the "everything you knew is false" approach some writers take of introducing retcons and deceptions that simply wipe out a previous writer's additions to the mythology. Issue #13 finally answers the question about the two identities and establishes that Ms. Marvel is a split in Carol's personality due to her mind being unable to cope when her body was transformed into a Kree warrior. This is not entirely consistent with Ms. Marvel occasionally spouting Kree words such as "Hala" and "Great Pama" or having memories that suggest she was born Kree (though it wasn't clear if those memories were somehow transplanted from Captain Marvel) but the result is that we finally get an integrated whole character. But it's not until issue #19 that we get it fully established that the initial exposure to radiation and Captain Marvel's Nega-Bands resulted in Carol being genetically reconstituted as part-human, part-Kree as part of an overall scheme by the Kree Supreme Intelligence. It says a lot that it takes nearly twenty issues to fully flesh out the character's origin. Issue #19 also sees the first appearance of Captain Marvel, outside of flashbacks, and he and Carol end the issue agreeing to be friends but she also talks about how she's ended up as a female copy of him but wants to fully establish herself properly.

If readers picked the book up expecting a diatribe of second wave feminism then they would have been severely disappointed. However, that expectation may well have been critical in putting other potential readers off. But apart from a few individual scenes, inevitably in confrontations with overbearing male figures such as her father, Jonah or Iron Man, there aren't really that many moments of explicit feminist confrontation. Instead, we have a strong, self-confident independent woman who gets on with her life and gives her best in the situations she encounters. That's a much better approach than presenting a preaching, man-hating, castrating, bra-burning stereotypical crusader who would have dated rapidly. Speaking of clothing there's a minor change to the costume from issue #9 onwards which sees Ms. Marvel's midriff is filled in. Later on issue #20 shows signs of the warning sirens screaming on the title, with the telltale signs of the frequency dropping to bi-monthly, a new logo, "New" being prominently used on the cover and a new costume. It makes sense that Ms. Marvel would wish to move beyond being a derivative of Captain Marvel and ditching the Kree uniform is a natural way to go, but this isn't explicitly stated in the strip itself.

Despite the attempts to establish its own identity, one curious sign is that villains from other series are far more prominent than new villains. That's not to say there aren't any new villains, with the series also introducing the likes of Kerwin Korman the Destructor, Deathbird, Hecate, Sapper, Mystique and finally the Lizard People (who, contrary to expectations, are not engaged in umpteen conspiracy theories) but this seems to be their only appearance. But yes, the Deathbird and Mystique on that list are the famous X-Men ones and they are the main contenders to be Ms. Marvel's arch nemesis. But in general it's villains from other series who predominate. The first issue kicks off with the Scorpion, adding to the title's links to the Spider-Man "family", then the following issues then sees the appearance of AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics – they're the high tech guys in silly radiation suits) and their one-time leader MODOK ("Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing" – which isn't an accurate description) from multiple Marvel series such as Iron Man and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Then we get the Doomsday Man (from the original Silver Surfer series), Grotesk (from X-Men), the Elementals Hellfire, Hydron and Magnum (from Supernatural Thrillers), Steeplejack (from Power Man), Tiger Shark (from Namor the Sub-Mariner), Ronan the Accuser and the Kree Supreme Intelligence (both originally from Fantastic Four but they have each appeared in many other titles), the Faceless One (from Astonishing Tales) and, in the inventoried issue #24, Sabretooth (from the X-Men). Both the "reconstructed" issue #25 and Avengers Annual #10 feature the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, made up here of Mystique, Destiny, Pyro, Avalanche, the Blob and Rogue. If the story printed in Marvel Super-Heroes #11 is pretty accurate to what would have gone out in 1979 then that issue would have been the first appearance of all bar Mystique and the Blob. However I am a bit sceptical this would actually have been the case and so Destiny, Pyro and Avalanche made their first appearances in X-Men in the "Days of Future Past" story (and the Blob had also debuted in X-Men, albeit many years earlier) whilst the Avengers annual is the first appearance of Rogue.

The initial supporting cast is primarily drawn from the Spider-Man titles, most notable J. Jonah Jameson and Mary Jane Watson, but there are also occasional appearances by other Daily Bugle staffers such as Peter Parker and Robbie Robertson. Mary Jane Watson is quite prominent in the first few issues as she befriends Carol who she is in awe of, but she is rapidly ditched once Claremont takes over from Conway, and not mentioned thereafter. Jonah lasts for longer and there are occasional clashes between him and Carol over the direction of "Woman" which eventually result in him firing her – and in typical Jonah style he does it by letter! The series's original cast is mixed between characters who make a couple of appearances and a few more regular ones. Of the latter we get Mike Barnett, Carol's psychiatrist who discovers her secret even before she does, and who falls for her and hopes to marry her, but before this can advance he is killed off in what would have been issue #24. Another potential beau is Frank Gianelli, a photojournalist who make a mark in the Bugle building when he got so angry with Jonah he punched him. Sadly this incident occurred before his first appearance and is only talked about. At one point he and Carol share a kiss but that's as far as it goes. The other most frequent supporting cast member is Tracy Burke, a veteran top photojournalist who Carol recruits as her associate editor and who later succeeds her. There's also Arabella Jones, Carol's landlord in her later issues whom she befriends, though she isn't developed significantly in the time remaining. Otherwise the supporting cast tend to appear very briefly for individual stories or make only a couple of brief appearances across issues. Carol's parents, Joe and Marie, appear in both a storyline in the middle of the run and later in a flashback, and we see how Carol grew up in a family with highly traditionalist expectations summed up in her father's comment "Besides, you don't need college to find a good husband," which led her to sign up with the Air Force as a route to afford her way through college and then make her own way in life.

In general the stories flow quite fast, putting Ms. Marvel through a quite varied set of situations ranging from fighting a civil war within AIM, risking her life in a deep-sea mission to rescue Namorita or rescuing people from the Lizard People and finding a way for the race to exist in safety. All in all these twenty-three issues offer a pretty solid run and once again it's a pity that such a good book didn't catch on for whatever reason of sales. However there are a few problems. There's a long-running subplot involving the mysterious Mystique (now I wonder how her name was come up with) and her plans against both Carol and Ms. Marvel. But unfortunately the series ended before it could be fully developed. Considering how early it was begun this is not an accident of cancellation but an early example of how Claremont could let sub-plots run on and on without a clear sign of resolution. Marvel Super-Heroes #10 printed the story that had already been prepared for issue #24 and does take the sub-plot a little way forward with the murder of Mike Barnett (an event that could be held up as a sign of "Men in Refrigerators" or just that it's the curse of being a supporting cast member regardless of gender that results in unpleasant things happening to them, particularly when writing them out). But then it gets fuzzy. As noted above, Marvel Super-Heroes #11 contains more of a sort of "reconstruction" of what was planned for Ms. Marvel #25 but with two writers involved it's clear that a number of elements were added not only to bring Carol's story up to date but also to reconcile continuity. Whilst Mystique had been trying to kill Carol and Ms. Marvel for quite a number of issues, I am sceptical that Destiny, Pyro and Avalanche were going to have made their debuts in issue #25, though it seems that Rogue would indeed have done so. What we get is a mixture of Carol trying to trace her boyfriend's murder and getting side-tracked into taking down an arms smuggling ring, combined with an attack on her by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. It's all a bit confusing and some points aren't properly resolved within this volume, such as whether the murder is ever fully solved. The issue ends with prolonged scenes that show Ms. Marvel's battle with Rogue that took place off-panel before the start of the Avengers annual…

The volume is 512 pages long, one of the shorter of the Essentials, so what additional material could have been included in this volume had it needed to be longer? Appearances in team-up books are common and Ms. Marvel appeared in Marvel Team-Up #62 (which came out between issues #10 & #11 of her own series) and was one of several characters to appear in Marvel Two-in-One #51, the month after her own series ended. The Team-Up issue is, however, the conclusion of a two-part story and doesn't feature Ms. Marvel that significantly. It also doesn't touch at all upon the overlaps in Peter Parker and Carol Danvers's civilian lives. With the Two-in-One issue having Ms. Marvel as part of a crowd of Avengers it's probably for best that neither of these issues was included. But the biggest absentee of note is Avengers #200. Ms. Marvel started regularly appearing with the Avengers from issue #171 onwards, though didn't formally join until issue #183 (which came out a month after her own series suddenly ended). Issue #200 saw her written out very controversially, to put it mildly. The title of Carol Strickland's essay "The Rape of Ms. Marvel" says it all. Perhaps it's fortunate that it isn't included here. Avengers Annual #10 sought to make amends for some of the mess, allowing Carol (and Chris Claremont) to confront the Avengers (and their writers) about their complete failure to realise what had actually happened to her and that it wasn't consensual at all. The story otherwise introduces a new villain in the form of Rogue, a mutant with the ability to absorb other people's memories and powers through physical contact. However her contact with Ms. Marvel sees something go wrong and she permanently absorbs both. Carol is left depowered and with her memories only slowly recovering thanks to help from Professor Xavier. It's possible that Chris Claremont had planned the encounter with Rogue all along as a way to end the series, but the axe fell sooner than expected and Ms. Marvel's storyline wasn't carried forward in the pages of the Avengers. But whether the intention or not it's still a poor way to write out a character, having such fundamentals of her life stolen by another, leaving her broken and having to rebuild her life slowly. Because the volume is, unusually, not laid out in exact order of publication the two Marvel Super-Heroes issues come before the Avengers annual. As a result the volume ends on a downbeat note, rather than with 1992 additions that summarised Carol's story up until she became Binary. Curiously there's no Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry for Carol included here that could have served that purpose.

In spite of the problems with the ending, overall this volume is quite good and reveals another hidden gem from the Bronze Age of comics. Ms. Marvel may have been a spin-off of one pre-existing character, she may have been initially embedded in the world of another and she may have been created to ride a trend in the wider world, but she steadily proves her own worth in both her identities and gradually sheds the baggage from both other characters though not in such a way that it feels forced (and certainly not in the jarring manner that her contemporary, Spider-Woman, was subjected to with almost every new writer). Sure there are some narrative problems with lengthy underdeveloped sub-plots, an origin that takes many issues to fully flesh out and an early problem of the identity of Ms. Marvel and Carol, but by and large the series manages to propel itself forward in such a way that the problems don't show, and bit by bit almost every one is eventually resolved. Even better the series didn't descend into crude stereotyping but instead offered a strong character who got on with things. Overall this series is much underrated.