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Captain Marvel #27: Review

Jul 1973
Mike Friedrich, Jim Starlin

Story Name:

Trapped on Titan

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Captain Marvel #27 Review by (November 13, 2013)
Rick Jones wouldn't particularly know where the Cosmic Cube is without the Supreme Intelligence's intervention, even though he was involved the last time Red Skull tried to use it against Captain America. Since then Dr Doom and Modok have fought over it in Sub-Mariner #47-49. It is unclear whether that happened before or after the Kree/Skrull War. Either way, how did the Supremor know where it was? Rick hasn't actually lost his mental power, and it will resurface as the Destiny Force in Avengers Forever. The Supremor is involved there, and that is possibly the doomsday he wants Rick for. The Avengers are featured in this issue and the next, and Iron Man in #30. We don't see their guests Mantis and Swordsman. Thor isn't here either, although he isn't off anywhere in particular. So the Avengers present are Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Vision. For the Avengers these issues happen within Av#119. Iron Man also packs in IM#55 where we 1st meet Thanos and IM#56 where he comes to tell the team about him. IM also follows these issues with Marvel Feature #12 where he goes after Thanos again. When Lou-Ann gets to Avengers Mansion she mentions Thanos, and Cap doesn't know who this is. True, Iron Man didn't manage to find the Avengers in IM#56 to tell them about him. But next issue it says they have a tape that Iron Man made for their files detailing his encounter with the villain. At 1 point an unseen entity appears to be watching CM. This is Eon, who we'll meet more fully in the next 2 issues.

Immediately after introducing Thanos in Iron Man #55, which he drew and co-wrote, Jim Starlin took over as artist for Captain Marvel with #25, and took Thanos with him. He only pencilled #25, but he also wrote or co-wrote the rest of the Thanos story through to #33, plus #34, and then left. As with last issue Thanos is accompanied by a hooded figure no-one else seems to see. We haven't yet learned that she is Death. Super-Skrull was an early foe of CM in #2-4, where we learned of the rivalry between Skrulls and Kree. He's been a champion of his race since his introduction in Fantastic Four #18, but now he's reduced to being a lackey. Much later he will be portrayed in a more heroic light as a noble warrior of his race, in places such as Annihilation, Young Avengers and Infinity. Thanos' other goons are a comprehensive sampling of the alien races seen by that time in the Marvel U. There's an Aakon from #8. The Hulk series supplies a Xeronian Space Parasite (from #103) and a Sagittarian (from #111). Sub-Mariner equals that with an Alpha Centaurian (from #17) and a Haab (from #58). Then there's a Badoon (from Silver Surfer #2) and a Rigellian (from Thor #131). There's maybe a Stonian from Astonishing Tales #21, and another I can't place. Plus 1 of the aliens from Amazing Spider-Man #2. Unfortunately they will later be revealed to not be aliens at all.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain Marvel #27 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Thanos has Rick Jones captive on Titan. We learned last issue that since Iron Man #55 he's taken over his homeworld. He wants a secret from Rick's brain which will enable him to conquer the galaxy, so he copies Rick's mind into the computer ISAAC. To check that the copying has worked he replays the events from the last 2 issues:-

Thanos had sent Super-Skrull and another Skrull against Captain Marvel disguised as several old foes, and then tricked him into fighting the real Thing. At the end of the battles Thanos revealed himself and caused CM to swap into RJ, which no-one else had done before. Rick's hands are now cuffed so he can't clash his wrist-bands together to get CM back.

The replay doesn't mention that Thanos has been using Iron Man's foe the Controller to put his control discs on lots of officials in a plan to take over Earth. One of those controlled was Rick's girlfriend Lou-Ann, who was made to betray him. Rick sent her to the Avengers for help removing Controller's disc.

We now learn that the Titan is after the Cosmic Cube, and ISAAC extracts the its co-ordinates from the copy of Rick's mind. Thanos goes to Earth to retrieve it. But before leaving he gives Super-Skrull his personal Unisphere which he promises will protect him against Drax the Destroyer or any other attacker. But Drax confronts Thanos on Earth.

Meanwhile Lou-Ann reaches Avengers Mansion with Rick's Avengers card, where she collapses into the arms of Captain America. Black Panther, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Vision are also there.

Rick is rescued by Thanos' brother Eros and their father Mentor, the last free Titanians. And to their surprise he turns into Captain Marvel. Mentor blasts their way past some guards into the Hall of Science, where Super-Skrull is using ISAAC to find out how Rick knew where the Cube was. CM beats on the Skrull, as the Titanian duo hold back more of Thanos' alien goons.

In the background ISAAC explains what happened at the end of the Kree/Skrull War. The Kree Supreme Intelligence had used a power within RJ to end the war. But when CM was forced to re-merge with RJ to save his life, SI reckoned that RJ might have lost his power. So he implanted the location of the Cosmic Cube in his mind, for use in an unspecified universal doomsday.

Super-Skrull uses the powers of the Fantastic Four against Marvel, but to no avail. And Thanos' men flee the resulting devastation. Eventually the battered Skrull calls on the Unisphere to destroy his enemy. But nothing happens because the device is useless, ans the Skrull collapses.

The heroes came to the Hall of Science because ISAAC would contain not only Rick's mind but also Marvel's. And Thanos would be able to use it to predict CM's actions against him. So they erase the memories from the computer. Then Mentor sends CM to Earth and the Avengers.



Jim Starlin
Pablo Marcos
Jim Starlin
Jim Starlin (Cover Penciler)
Jim Starlin (Cover Inker)
Plot: . Letterer: John Costanza.
Editor: Roy Thomas.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Panther
Black Panther

(T'Challa)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel

(Mar-Vell)
Drax
Drax

(Drax the Destroyer)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)

Plus: Eon, Eros, Lou-Ann Savannah, Mentor of Titan, Super-Skrull.

> Captain Marvel: Book info and issue index

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