Captain Marvel #6

Jun 2016
Christos N. Gage, Kris Anka

Story Name:

Lonely at the top, part 1


Synopsis

Captain Marvel #6 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Captain Marvel, Commander of Alpha Flight, is personally doing repairs outside their space station after the Satori incident in #1-5. When she reports back to Puck he reveals that he only wanted her to do the repairs so that they could set up a surprise Anniversary party for her - 6 months on the job.

Inside she finds the rest of AF including Aurora and Sasquatch. And her 'present' - a visit from boyfriend War Machine, which embarrasses her because she'd thought nobody knew about their relationship. Jim Rhodes only has 2 hours to spare up here so Puck excuses them from the party so they can spend time together. Which they do in her bed.

Aurora gives them all the time they have before calling to say the Board of Governors want to see Carol Danvers.  We see familiar faces Black Panther, Henry Peter Gyrich and Mentor of the Shi'ar among others unknown. Gyrich is unhappy with her handling of the Satori. Mentor doesn't like the increasing cost of the team. Philippe Beaulieu, the Ambassador from Canada (the original Alpha Flight's home), is more conciliatory.

In particular they compare the slow reaction to the Satori attack to the immediate response to the Celestial Destructor in Civil War II #1. CM is forced to admit that they had advance warning from the Inhumans, but she avoids mentioning that it involved a precognitive Inhuman named Ulysses. She notes that Panther keeps quiet about that too. Carol does say that the Inhumans have a method of predicting things which she is involved in testing. But she adds that some like Iron Man distrust it. The meeting agrees that she should continue.

Kree member Capt Bar-Konn takes CM aside after the meeting to relay some bad news. He reminds her that the Kree empire is now split into factions, and says that his side have only just learned that her foe Kree scientist Dr Minerva is still on Earth, in California creating a biological weapon.

Captain Marvel flies there with Aurora, Puck and Sasquatch following in a plane. On the way tries calling the Ultimates and A-Force for more backup, but Black Panther and She-Hulk say there's no-one available nearby.

Minerva suddenly appears from a cloaked state in midair, in her version of Carol's original Ms Marvel costume, and attacks. She rips Puck out of the plane. Aurora flies out to save him, and Minerva goes after Sasquatch. But CM takes her down.

Unfortunately Minerva has already unleashed her biological agent which has infected nearby humans, turning them into monsters. The mad Dr boasts that it only affects humans, so Carol hopes her half-Kree nature will protect her. She destroys the source of the infection with a petrol tanker. But the mutated humans all die.

Minerva has escaped cloaked again. CM is sure she'll be back with an 'improved' formula. And she decides she needs to get Ulysses capable of reliably predicting threats like her.


 

Review / Commentaries


Captain Marvel #6 Review by (July 13, 2016)
This issue obviously falls in the 3 week period in Civil War II #1 between the battle against the Celestial Destructor and the fight with Thanos that kills War Machine. It sounds like it's very soon after CD, and before Captain Marvel starts actively using Ulysses, eg in Ms Marvel #8.

Carol Danvers and James Rhodes have been in a relationship since the start of her previous series (before Secret Wars).
Captain Marvel was 1 of the people who survived into Secret Wars and Battleworld itself. There were at least 2 other CD/CM's in Battleworld, in Hala Field in the Captain Marvel And The Carol Corps series and in Arcadia in the A-Force series. Presumably it is the original who has continued into the post-SW universe, but she presumably doesn't remember Battleworld. But the usual caveat applies that we don't really know what the relationship between the old Marvel Universe and the new 1 is.
What we do know is that in the new MU Carol has been put in charge of Alpha Flight, A-Force and the Ultimates.

Aurora, Puck and Sasquatch were part of the original Canadian Alpha Flight team. Other originals were Guardian, Northstar, Shaman, Snowbird, Talisman and Vindicator but the team has been split up a lot lately. The last major appearance together (but never all in the same issue) was World War Wendigo in Amazing X-Men #8-12.

This is the 1st appearance of the new Alpha Flight's Board of Governors. As well as the 5 mentioned in the synopsis I see a Kronan and a Rigellian, plus 3 more I can't place and loads of others just in silhouette.

I guess the Kree empire split (this time) after the capital planet Hala was destroyed in the Black Vortex crossover event involving the X-Men and the Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Dr Minerva isn't really an enemy of Carol Danvers. She was initially a foe of the original Captain Marvel, and only cameoed in #19 of Carol's original Ms Marvel series while Mar-Vell was visiting. Her costume isn't so much a copy of Carol's original as that both costumes were based on Mar-Vell's. She donned the costume in Quasar #10 after the Kree Psyche-Magnitron gave her the same powers as Carol got from it.
Minerva's biggest role was in the Operation: Galactic Storm event. She wasn't seen after the early '90s until she fought Spider-Man and the new Ms Marvel in ASM(2014)#7-8, where she was trying to add Inhuman genes to Kree. CM says she's been looking for Minerva since then. (So Bar-Konn's news shouldn't have been a surprise.)


> Captain Marvel comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
KOTOBUKIYA BLACK PANTHER MOVIE BLACK PANTHER ARTFX STATUE
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Kris Anka
Kris Anka
Matthew Wilson
Kris Anka (Cover Penciler)
Kris Anka (Cover Inker)
Kris Anka (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Panther
Black Panther

(T'Challa)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Sasquatch
Sasquatch

(Walter Langkowski)
She-Hulk
She-Hulk

(Jennifer Walters)
War Machine
War Machine

(James Rhodes)