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I suppose that this is being released to tie into the Thanos Imperative? This is a simple collection for Marvel to release and one that is definitely due. It collects only 4 issues – Captain Marvel #34 (Sept. 1972), Marvel Spotlight #’s 1 and 2 (July & September 1979) and the tent pole of the book Marvel Graphic Novel #1 (1982). Jim Starlin does most of the work here. He did the writing and the art for Capt. Marvel #34 and the Graphic Novel (Steve Englehart handling the scripting for Marvel #34). Doug Moench and Pat Broderick teamed up for the Spotlight titles with Moench handling the pencils and Broderick working the pencils.
The first three stories really just serve as a prologue to the graphic novel. Captain Marvel #34 saw Mar-vell battle Nitro and Nitro used his explosive powers to steal a deadly chemical that could kill a lot of people if airborne. Nitro is defeated and sent into the Negative Zone that Mar-Vell had inhabited while not on Earth. The agent is released and Mar-Vell must absorb it all into his body. The Spotlight books focuses on Mar-Vell, Drax and Rick landing on Titan and finding that Isaac, their AI, has taken over because of Thanos’ commands. Mar-Vell and Drax stop the evil computer, turn things right and Mar-Vell seems to have made Titan his new home. Like I said; this was just a prologue to the big event of this book and that is the graphic novel. There’s no mystery what happens here. Captain Marvel dies. The damn thing is called the Death of Captain Marvel. What happened was Mar-vell had cancer, a cancer that developed due to the events of Marvel #34. This was quite an amazing look at the last months, days and hours of the Kree warrior. His body starts failing him due to the cancer and all of his friends come to meet with him one last time before he finally succumbs. This story works because of the way that Starlin takes these human feelings and emotions and makes them come out loud and clear through an alien comic book character. I didn’t really read a lot of Mar-Vell’s stories but you could feel what his friends were going through watching their friend die. It reminded me of those I loved who had cancer and watching them die and how helpless everyone involved feels. It’s a powerful, moving story and I think the reason Mar-vell has stayed dead so long is because how great this story was.
-The Bottom Line- This is going to get an easy recommendation for two reasons. First I’ll look at the financial aspect of it. This is a $25 book. The Overstreet prices for the Graphic Novel, the Capt. Marvel book and the two spotlights in NM condition add up to $58. Plus these are much clearer than those books would be in terms of paper quality. Second: the story is just amazing. I explained what I meant in the main review but you really have to check out the book just to see and feel how well of a job that Jim Starlin did with Mar-Vell. Words can’t explain how good it is. Highly Recommended.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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