AVENGERS POLL: MAR-VELL

[Doctor Bong]

How do you rate Mar-Vell as a (potential) avenger, on a scale from 1 to 8 points? I'm qualifying the question because Mar-Vell was only made an avenger after death but, should Marvel ever decide to bring back the real deal, would it be a good idea to have him (re)join the Avengers...?
How well do you think he would work for you within the dynamics of the team?
How much do you like/dislike him as a character?

[scottharris]

Not really an Avenger.

Could have been a really interesting team member, had he ever joined the team, but since he didn't, it's moot.

[dlw66]

A 1 from me. Too cosmic for my tastes, although he's had some nice guest appearances through the years.

[Dr. Hank Pym]

scottharris sums it up best. Wasn't even interesting to me, but then again, anyone affiliated with Rick Jones doesn't interest me all that much (Although the issues that led to his death, and his death, were actually great dramatic reads!)

[woodside]

Agree with scottharras. Not a member, but would have been a great one.

[Van Plexico]

If he was made an Avenger after his death, and we're talking about now vs before, then that means he is an Avenger.

Not to mention that he participated as a very important character in at least three of the most important Avengers sagas ever:
The Kree-Skrull War
The Korvac Saga
The Thanos War (Avengers Annual 7 /MTIO Annual 2)

He was a great Avenger, and he would have been an even greater one if given the opportunity to serve during his lifetime.

The fact that he rarely lived up to his full potential during his lifetime was due not to him but to the writers who (mis)-handled him.

Doug Moench and Pat Broderick had him on the right track at the end of his series. He was becoming an even more interesting and compelling character than he had been before. He had a great supporting cast in Eros, Mentor, Drax, Elysius, Rick Jones, and co. The art was fantastic.

It's the most bitter irony that Marvel decided to bring Jim Starlin back and kill Mar-Vell off just as Moench was turning him into one of the company's very best characters.

[The EVIL Dr. Bolty]

Mar-Vell is in the same league as Hal Jordan and Barry Allen for me: he was before my time, I'm more acquainted with his successor, and I think he works better as a dead legend than as an active hero.

I'd rather have Genis-Vell...who fit better with the Thunderbolts, anyway.

[woodside]

Jul 16, 2008 20:52:33 GMT -5 The EVIL Dr. Bolty said:

Mar-Vell is in the same league as Hal Jordan and Barry Allen for me: he was before my time, I'm more acquainted with his successor, and I think he works better as a dead legend than as an active hero.

I'd rather have Genis-Vell...who fit better with the Thunderbolts, anyway.

I agree 100%! Give me Kyle Rayner and Wally West over those two old foogies! Same with Genis.

[starfoxxx]

I gave Mar-Vell a one. I guess "honorary" status is OK, since he fought alongside the team, but not a real member. His death was a really cool, well-done story, but bringing him back is a bad move, IMO. I hope this new Mar-vell is a skrull, his various "returns" have soiled his legend.

[Doctor Bong]

Four. I think it would have been interesting to see him serve actively for a longer period of time and how he would have fit in.
On the other hand, he's not one of my favorite characters and I think he would have been the type to vie for leadership but the Avengers already have, IMO, many excellent leaders.
But I will say that Van's strong defense of him has left me curious about checking out his adventures as written by Moench. Does anyone know if the Moench run as been collected on the Essentials...?

[Van Plexico]

But I will say that Van's strong defense of him has left me curious about checking out his adventures as written by Moench. Does anyone know if the Moench run as been collected on the Essentials...?

Has ANY of Mar-Vell's series been ESSENTIAL-ized yet? There have been a number of reprints of various parts of his stories in color TPB form over the years, but AFAIK, the Moench/Broderick run has not yet been reprinted. Which is a travesty.

(Note that the Titan Saga begins in the mid-#50s, continues beyond the last issue of his regular series, #62, and ends with MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #1-3.)

I cannot recommend that story highly enough. It includes everything I love in a superhero story. It introduces his future love, Elysius (among others). It establishes Isaac of Titan as a potential threat to the Earth. It has Eros (Starfox) being himself. It has references to Thanos and his horde. And more.

But then, I like almost everything Moench wrote back in the day. And Broderick has that same classic style as a Byrne or Perez in the late '70s / early '80s.

[Van Plexico]

I hope this new Mar-vell is a skrull, his various "returns" have soiled his legend.

You would already know the answer to that question if you read his recent series!

[Shiryu]

5 for me, mostly out of iconic value. His death is my second fav story of all times, coming just behind Avengers-JLA, and he was there with the team against the likes of Korvac and Thanos. His powers were interesting too, cosmic awareness is not something other Avengers have, and could be handy against cosmic menaces.

On the other hand, I can't picture him against, say, the Wrecking Crew or even the MoE, and I haven't read his book, so 5 is the most I can give.
I'll come back to it after having read the books Van suggested if I can find them somewhere.

[Tana Nile]

Mar-Vell is a favorite of mine, at least after Starlin got ahold of him! Van's right on here, Marv was involved in a number of important Avengers stories. Therefore, I am giving him a 5, which probably would be higher if he had actually served as an Avenger.

[Van Plexico]

I'll come back to it after having read the books Van suggested if I can find them somewhere.

I just did a quick Ebay check and there are like a dozen copies of CAPTAIN MARVEL #58, for very cheap. That's pretty much the first issue of the Isaac/Titan storyline, where Drax shows up to kill Mar-Vell. I imagine the whole run can be had pretty inexpensively.

It's roughly 58-62 (series ends there) plus MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #1-3.

[Shiryu]

I got hold of Marvel Spotlight, now I'm searching for the issues from his original series

[sharkar]

Jul 18, 2008 11:48:34 GMT -5 Van Plexico said:

Has ANY of Mar-Vell's series been ESSENTIAL-ized yet?

Jul 25, 2008 9:20:20 GMT -5 Shiryu said:

I got hold of Marvel Spotlight, now I'm searching for the issues from his original series

"Essential Captain Marvel",covering issues #1-#21 (his first run), was published recently. This collection includes the "green and white costume" period, as well as his later association with Rick Jones (the body-swapping routine a nod to the earlier, Fawcett Captain Marvel/Billy Batson relationship).

I'd like to buy this volume since I missed all of his issues the first time around. I mean, naturally I had heard of Mar-Vell (via the Bullpen Bulletins and house ads) but I never actually read any of his stories.

When he (and Rick Jones) showed up all of a sudden in Avengers #89, I thought Mar-Vell's presence was intrusive. I knew his own book had been discontinued, but what was he doing in the Avengers book?

As the Kree-Skrull War saga progressed, though, he began to grow on me. I still have yet to read the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel but I have read some of the stories others here have mentioned. I think he's a decent character who has figured in some important Avengers stories (as the others have said). So while I can't consider him an essential Avenger, I'll give him a 5.

[Tana Nile]

I highly recommend "The Death of Captain Marvel". It is a strong story, which never fails to make me a bit teary when I read it. Seeing Mar-vell slowly fade away as the cancer kills him is really hard. Starlin was brought in by Marvel to kill the character off and came up with a number of plots where he would die heroically in battle. But none of them worked for him. His own father had passed away from cancer 6 months earlier, and so he decided to use his experience with his father's death to write the story. It is a very honest and moving story, and (especially at that time) very different from most comics.

[spiderwasp]

I gave him a 1. I never really liked the character and was surprised, after his death, how much people seemed to look back on him as one of the greats. The only story I ever thought made him seem that great was the graphic novel in which he died.

[Bored Yesterday]

Gave him a 5 after reading everybody's discussion. He does have a lot of potential, but in all his guest appearances, seemed like he was always going on about some personal problem. Some issue was causing him trouble and keeping him from kicking butt. And Rick Jones was always in the middle of it. Kind of annoying to me. Dare I say -- he reminds me of the Sentry in that he always had a promise of power, but often ended up just moaning and groaning about some issue or another?

I'm being a little bit deliberately unfair, because I don't remember the stories all that well. I'm sure I'm missing something, and I can only speak from the barest of surface impressions that I took away from the comics.

But I do like him. He's a great.

[Shiryu]

Jul 28, 2008 22:33:18 GMT -5 Tana Nile said:

I highly recommend "The Death of Captain Marvel". It is a strong story, which never fails to make me a bit teary when I read it. Seeing Mar-vell slowly fade away as the cancer kills him is really hard. Starlin was brought in by Marvel to kill the character off and came up with a number of plots where he would die heroically in battle. But none of them worked for him. His own father had passed away from cancer 6 months earlier, and so he decided to use his experience with his father's death to write the story. It is a very honest and moving story, and (especially at that time) very different from most comics.

I quote every word, that graphic novel is a masterpiece