Carol Danvers Is My Home Girl

Every so often, when I have to go pick up the Missus from work, I drive along with Dick Gordon and The Story from American Public Media. And over the summer, I listed to a fascinating interview with Kelly Sue DeConnick who was rebooting and refreshing Captain Marvel in a new series for Marvel Comics and I got hooked- because she was finally bringing Ms. Marvel, the old feminist icon super hero of the 1970s into the 21st Century and making her the new Captain Marvel.

Kids, I'll be honest: I'm not really a comic book guy. I got hooked on the movies because X-Men started this whole superhero wave we're living in and I grew up in the early 90s, where the excellent animated series was a staple of my Saturday morning cartoons. Marvel's recent efforts have transcended paint by numbers love letters to fandom and actually been genuinely good movies so that helped as well- despite all that, I've always had a peripheral, vague knowledge of comics, thanks mainly to my brother who seemed to know every story line and would analyze every movie and know in great detail just exactly what it had gotten wrong and how it differed from the comics. So Ms. Marvel and her alter ego Carol Danvers, I had a passing familiarity with both of them.

And there's something incredibly refreshing about this character getting a shot at the big time again. Conceived, as I mentioned as a feminist superhero (hence the Ms. in Ms. Marvel) in the late 60s, early 70s it was all hunky dory for Ms. Marvel until she hit the 80s, where a controversial storyline where she is kidnapped and forcibly impregnated against her will, leading to angry backlash over what was called 'The Rape of Ms. Marvel.' She harbored some resentment towards The Avengers for not getting her out of that jam before she ended up being attacked by the (then evil) Rogue and being absorbed into her for awhile. (Which is where I first became aware of the character, as Rogue dealt with the guilt over what she had done.)

Soon separated out, she meandered through the Marvel Universe as a new hero, Binary before re-emerging as Ms. Marvel in the early 2000s and finally becoming Captain Marvel today. In short, Carol Danvers has had some shitty luck over the years, so it was nice to hear that she'd be taking the mantle of Captain Marvel- and DeConnick was so enthusiastic in her interview with Gordon that I decided I'd check out this new series and see what's what:

Two months later and I'm already five issues in. (Yes, it's my secret brown bag of shame...) I'm going to do my best not to get sucked in to the crazy, sprawling world of comics but I have this feeling I might be fighting a losing battle. Either way, it's fascinating to get past graphic novels and see what the original medium of comics is actually like for myself. I sense I might be acquiring a new vice- but at least it's cheaper than single malt.