Book Review: The Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin

The Death of Captain Marvel written and illustrated by Jim Starlin

The original Captain Marvel was a Kree warrior named Mar-Vell who was scouting out the Earth as a possible conquest for the Kree empire. He became enamored with Earth (what alien in Marvel Comics doesn't?) and turned against the Kree. He adopted the name "Captain Marvel" and fought with many of Earth's heroes. He even joined the Avengers for a while. This book tells his final tale, the battle he has with an unbeatable enemy: cancer. He'd been exposed to toxic radiation years before but ignored the signs that he was getting sick. And it turns out that cancer is the one illness that no race in the universe has cured. Mar-Vell returns to his home on Titan (Saturn's moon) where he records a final testament for the Avengers. Many of Earth's most brilliant heroes come to Titan to work on a cure; the scientists of Titan also get in touch with the other species in the universe, looking for some way to preserve Mar-Vell's life.  As the title of the book suggests, things do not turn out well.

The book is surprisingly somber. Mar-Vell reviews his life, hitting the highlights of his partnerships, his loves, and his enemies. Thanos was a recurring enemy. As someone in love with death, Thanos (as a ghost or memory) becomes a key sounding board for Mar-Vell's internal monologues. Mar-Vell struggles between fighting his illness and accepting his fate, i.e. his mortality. He also wants to help his friends, especially Elysius the woman he loves, through this dark time. Even though he doesn't die in battle, he dies with his friends around him. The story is surprisingly moving and honest.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Infinity Gauntlet by J. Starlin et al.

The Infinity Gauntlet written by Jim Starlin, pencils by George Perez and Ron Lim, inks by Joe Rubinstein, Tom Christopher and Bruce Solotoff

The mad Titan Thanos is resurrected by Mistress Death, who assigns him the task of halving the universe's population. He's filled his gauntlet with the six Infinity Gems giving him control over the Soul, the Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space. For all practical purposes, he is God. But he is also a madman, a nihilist, and in love with Mistress Death. If that wasn't bad enough, his main advisor is Mephisto, the Devil himself. Once Earth's heroes become aware of the situation, they marshall their forces to stop Thanos. But what can their relatively puny powers do against a madman with infinite power out to impress a female who is seemingly impressed by nothing?

Marvel launches another epic storyline where the slaughter of half the sentient life in the universe includes half of the Marvel heroes. The remaining heroes band together to fight the infinitely powerful Thanos. They also have their losses, leaving very few heroes until a late plot twist (which seems really obvious from early on) undoes the damage. Much like the Age of Apocalypse storyline, this makes an interesting "What if?" scenario that's undercut by the ending that returns everything to normal with hardly any consequences.

Such a story would be okay if it includes some interesting insights into or commentary about the nature of power or love, or the characters are well drawn and interesting. The most interesting character is Mephisto, who walks the thin line between sycophant and betrayer. Thanos himself is just power-mad and love-struck without any real genius on his part. He has some character development by the end but not enough to wow a reader. The other characters do their usual thing. Thanos's love for Mistress Death reads like generic character motivation, not genuine emotion. The reflections on his infinite power are more engaging but not particularly deep or insightful. The mythology about the Infinity Gems is interesting but is quickly glossed over. Maybe the story of Thanos getting the Gems would be more compelling than when he actually wields them.

Having a bunch of diverse characters band together to fight a villain is the main appeal of this book to me. The bigger issues were too flat and generic to make this a great epic.