MARVEL COMICS
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Jim Starlin
ART: Jim Starlin
COLORS: Steve Oliff
LETTERS: James Novack
EDITOR: Al Milgrom
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jim Shooter
COVER/BACK COVER: Jim Starlin
68pp, Color, $5.95 U.S. (1982)
Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan
Introduction by Al Milgrom
“Marvel Graphic Novel” (MGN) was a line of paperback original graphic novels published from 1982 to 1993 by Marvel Comics. The books were published in an oversize format, 8.5" x 11", similar to French comic book “albums,” which generally had cardboard covers, full-color, slick pages. [In response, DC Comics would also establish a competitor line known as “DC Graphic Novel.”]
The first Marvel Graphic Novel was released in 1982. Entitled The Death of Captain Marvel, it was written and drawn by Jim Starlin, who had been the comic book creator most associated with the character of Captain Marvel up to that time. The rest of The Death of Captain Marvel's creative team included colorist Steve Oliff and letterer James Novak. The late Allen Milgrom was the graphic novel's editor and also provided a short introduction to the story.
Captain Marvel is a Marvel Comics superhero and science fiction and fantasy character. He was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and designed by artist Gene Colan and first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (cover dated: December 1967). He is the original bearer of the name “Captain Marvel” within the world of Marvel Comics.
Before he became Captain Marvel, he was named “Mar-Vell,” and he was a member of the alien Kree race. Captain Mar-Vell came to Earth to spy on humans, but he eventually rejected the Kree, and took the name “Captain Marvel.” While living among humans, he also used the identity of “Walter Lawson” and was a member of the Avengers.
As The Death of Captain Marvel opens, Marvel has been living a live of semi-retirement on Titan, one of the planet Saturn's moons (satellites). Marvel is recording a mini-autobiography of his life while on board a spaceship belonging to his allies, the demigod, Mentor, and his son, Eros. Mentor and Eros are also the father and brother of the recently defeated and killed, Thanos, the mad warlord of Titan.
The trio is heading to the command central ship of Thanos' space fleet. Inside, Thanos is dead and encased in stone (because of events depicted in Marvel Two-in-One Annual 1977), and they want to make sure he has stayed that way. A surprise meets these heroes, however, as they discover that followers of Thanos live aboard the ship, awaiting what they believe will be the inevitable resurrection of the mad Titan.
The intense battle to defeat these alien zealots inadvertently reveals the secret that Marvel has been keeping from his closest friends, Mentor and Eros. Marvel is dying of cancer – what the Titans call the “Inner Decay” and the Kree call “the Blackend.” [Captain Marvel was exposed to the nerve gas that would lead to this cancer in Captain Marvel #34 (cover dated: September 1974)]. Now, Marvel must also share his diagnosis with his lover Elysius, the woman with whom he had hoped to share his life. He must also inform, Rick Jones, the young human who once shared an existence with Marvel. When he shares this news with the current members of the Avengers: Black Panther, Iron Man, Thor, Vision, Wonder Man, Beast, and Yellowjacket, they immediately spring into action, bringing all their scientific knowledge to bear in a bid to save Marvel from death.
As the greatest heroes of the Marvel Universe gather on a deathwatch, Captain Marvel still has one final battle. The hero must face his greatest enemy, Thanos, and Thanos' dark mistress.
THE LOWDOWN: I first discovered the existence of The Death of Captain Marvel via in-house ads published in various Marvel Comics titles that I read at the time. Those ads made me quite interested in the book, but it was only sold in comic book shops via the “Direct Sales” market. At the time, I bought all my comic books at the now-defunct K&B drug store chain (headquartered in New Orleans, LA), and a few other places that sold comic books, mostly other drug stores and grocery stores. They all placed the comic books in those old “spinner racks.” I didn't know if there were any comic book shops near me, although it turned out that there was one about a 45-minute drive from where I lived at the time.
When I first started visiting comic book shops, I sometimes came across a copy of The Death of Captain Marvel, By that time, however, I wasn't really as interested in reading it as I was when I first heard about it. I recently decided to go back and re-read the Marvel Graphic Novels that I had previously read and read the ones that I had not. On eBay, I found a nice copy of the second printing of The Death of Captain Marvel, which went through several printings just in the first decade of its original publication. The second printing was apparently published within months of the first printing.
I am glad that I read The Death of Captain Marvel now, as I don't know if I would have appreciated it decades ago the way I do now. The way comic book stories are told and structured has radically changed in the four decades since the debut of The Death of Captain Marvel. This had made me appreciate what Starlin did with only 66 pages, which is more than most modern comic book writers do with over 100 pages.
Jim Starlin was certainly a good comic book artist. His drawing style has similarities to some of the most popular comic book artists that came before him. Still, Starlin's style is unique, and his illustrations always grab me. The background elements, the figure drawing, the landscapes, the backdrops, the costumes, the alien and fantastic landscapes: the way Starlin illustrates a comic book page is like nothing anyone else did or does in superhero comics books. Starlin has created a unique visual and graphical language, and no other artist's work could be mistaken for his.
Surprisingly, Starlin may be an even better comic book writer than he is a comic book artist. The stories that he writes and other artists illustrate maintain Starlin's imaginative and inventive storytelling. Starlin was one of the best mainstream comic book writers of the last quarter of the 20th century. Yes, he was right up there with Alan Moore, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Steve Englehart, and Grant Morrison, to name a few.
You can discover this for yourself, dear readers, in The Death of Captain Marvel. This stand-alone story references the past, but is singularly focused on Captain Marvel's final battle. It is philosophical, thoughtful, and contemplative. It is surreal and also matter-of-fact in its realism, all of it leading to the last act, a breathtaking death-dream that gave me pause.
Starlin offers some melodrama, mainly involving the characters to which is he intimately connected – from the bitter and frustrated anger of Rick Jones to the quite acceptance of Elysius. I am surprised that Marvel Comics published a story in which a superhero must face his imminent death – and one executed with such honesty. Captain Marvel freely admits that he does not want to die, and that he thought that when death came – a long time in the future – it would be a warrior's death.
Instead, the hero died in bed, ravaged by disease. Still, The Death of Captain Marvel gives the title character the kind of epic story of his end that would be befitting of elite superheroes. We know, however, that such superheroes don't stay dead. Instead, the story of Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell's death is one of Marvel Comics' greatest stories, and he did stay dead. I'd like to believe that Jim Starlin created a story so powerful that even the most arrogant Marvel editors and superstar creators could not summon the gall to undo it.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of the greatest Marvel Comics stories ever told will want to read The Death of Captain Marvel.
10 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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