Captain Marvel #11-17 read now like a prophecy of DC post-crisis: the solution to boosting sales is a drastic reboot. Followed by another drastic reboot. And then another.
Marvel Comics introduced the Kree warrior Mar-Vell as a way to lock in the Captain Marvel trademark. “Marvel’s Space-Born Superhero” plodded along listlessly for multiple issues, picking up slightly when Arnold Drake came aboard, In #11, Drake tried shaking things up with a soft reboot, killing Mar-Vell’s lover Una, introducing the cosmic entity Zo and ramping up Marv’s powers. After Drake left, writers struggled with the new status quo until #16, when Archie Goodwin finished it off, revealing Zo was a fake (though now that I think about it, Mar-Vell’s enhanced powers were real. Hmph). Then Goodwin launched a new reboot including, as you can see, a costume change.
Roy Thomas, who took over as writer with #17, takes credit for imposing the new look when he was associate editor. I’m guessing he also worked with Goodwin on the ending, in which Mar-Vell is trapped in the Negative Zone — forever! If I’d read this when it came out I’d have known better, but I doubt I’d have anticipated the resolution.
Over in Captain America, Jim Steranko had given Rick Jones Bucky’s old costume and made him Cap’s new partner. That changed when the Red Skull traded bodies with Cap and drove Rick away. Heartbroken at shitty treatment from the man he reveres, Rick races across New York and into Captain Marvel #17 (drawn by Gil Kane)
In case you’re wondering, the narrator is the Supreme Intelligence, chatting with Mar-Vell. Supremor nudges Rick to hitch a ride out of New York, then get out in the middle of the desert.
You were right the first time, Rick. It can’t be. And isn’t. It’s part of the Supreme Intelligence’s scheme to lead you into a hidden lair where Mar-Vell’s evil superior Yon-Rogg has fled with Carol Danvers as his captive. Once inside the base, Rick discovers the legendary Kree nega-bands (which by mistake Marvel is apparently wearing already at the end of #16).
In that instant, Captain Marvel trades places with Rick and discovers he’s become more powerful, more invincible than ever before!
Roy intended this to mirror the Captain Marvel/Billy Batson relationship, with Marv and Rick changing places. This issue, however, makes it considerably creepier. The story makes it clear Rick’s not doing any of this by his own choice: Supremor and/or Mar-Vell are manipulating him to leave New York, stumble across the Nega-Bands, put them on and take Marvel’s place in the Negative Zone. None of it is really Rick’s decision. And why even pick Rick? Yeah, in terms of storytelling it makes more sense to use him than some rando closer to that Kree base, but in the story itself?
Given the end of the Kree/Skrull War hinges on Rick tapping humanity’s latent psi-powers, the Destiny Force, that provides a retcon explanation for why Supremor selected him. Or was it a retcon? I find it hard to believe Roy already had the finish of the war in mind (that would mean planning two years ahead) but he might have conceived of the Destiny Force without any immediate plan where to use it. Then again, maybe he was just winging it. Mind-control and memory wiping was common enough in Silver Age comics Mar-Vell’s treatment of Rick here isn’t that out of line.
Either way, this reboot took. Rick/Marv would become a defining element of the series through Jim Starlin’s legendary run and beyond. The friendship between Rick and Marv would last even after Rick got his normal (or as normal as Rick ever gets) life back.
Art top to bottom by Barry Windsor-Smith, Don Heck, Jim Steranko, then Gil Kane
One of the distinctions of the Captain Marvel reboot, as opposed to modern DC is, it still feels like the same style and tone after. The characters mostly feel like the same characters.
With a lot of them, the new versions are unrecognisable.
That is a fair point. Though I do wonder what people reading at the time, with no knowledge of what was ahead, made fo it.