By the time Captain Marvel #30 came out in October, 1973, Marvel Comics readers had already had a couple of opportunities to see the newly-enhanced (as of issue #29) “Most Cosmic Superhero of All” in action — namely, in Marvel Team-Up #16 and Daredevil #107. But the subject of our discussion today was the first time that writer-artist Jim Starlin, the creator who was actually responsible for the big changes to Mar-Vell’s status quo, had himself had a chance to show just what those changes meant for the hero, and for his fans, going forward; and the creator obligingly responded with a story that, if it didn’t quite deliver on its cover blurb’s promise of “pure action — from cover to cover!”, still managed to come pretty damn close to living up to that claim.
Joining Starlin (who colored the story as well as wrote and pencilled it) as collaborators for “…To Be Free from Control!” are fellow members of “the Detroit gang”, inker Al Milgrom and letterer Tom Orzechowski, who’d both worked on the previous issue as well; as implied by that geographical label, all three knew each other from earlier, fannish days, though “Orz” was a few years younger than the other two.
Someone who, unlike my younger self, had actually read Captain Marvel #28 — as I’ve covered in previous posts, my own first issue of Starlin’s run was #29 — might wonder about the absence of the other Avengers who’d been present when the villainous Controller “tore Avengers Mansion” (or maybe just one part of it) down around Mar-Vell’s ears, to borrow Iron Man’s phrase. Such readers would likely to recall that the Controller had taken out the Black Panther, the Vision, the Scarlet Witch, and Captain America, as well as Iron Man himself, prior to lowering the boom on Captain Marvel. Are they all still unconscious, and if not, wouldn’t they want a piece of this? Oh, well.
Even if he opted to ignore the other Avengers for a while, at least Starlin didn’t forget that he had Iron Man’s involvement in another chapter of the Thanos saga to account for, continuity-wise — the 12th issue of Marvel Feature, which had preceded Captain Marvel #29 to stands by about a week, back in August. My sixteen-year-old self quite appreciated this, as that comic had been my first full-fledged introduction to Starlin’s epic storyline (after getting a brief taste the month before in Daredevil #105, of all things).
This is probably also a good place to note that another couple of comics that had already seen print (the aforementioned Marvel Team-Up #16 and Daredevil #105) as well as one that was released the same day as Captain Marvel #30 (MT-U #17, which wrapped up the story begun in the previous issue) may be presumed to follow after the events of “…To Be Free from Control!”. Besides the simple urgency of the need to rescue Lou Ann, it will soon become clear that the Rick Jones we see in this story hasn’t had a chance to observe the new, “cosmic” Captain Marvel in action yet.
This epic’s big bad — Thanos — only appears briefly in this issue. Appearing even more briefly is his silent, dark-robed companion, whose presence has yet to be explained, but whom previous installments have strongly implied to be some sort of personification or representative of Death itself.
Rick Jones’ would-be manager, Mordecial P. Boggs, had made his debut in Captain Marvel #18 (Nov., 1969), and had appeared in several issues thereafter; but since the last issue of CM I had bought before #29 was #17, the only place I’d seen the guy was in a single flashback panel back in Avengers #89 (Jun., 1971). Still, the gist of the men’s relationship was easy enough to pick up from this scene’s dialogue, as Boggs explains to Rick that his previous offer of representation stands; if Rick is willing to resume his fledgling music career, Boggs will make him “a star, the idol of teen-age America!” Seeing as how Rick is a) broke, and b) tired of sponging off the Avengers’ hospitality, he’s prepared to accept this offer. Of course, Rick does have “a few things to take care of over the weekend“, so the two men make an appointment to meet on Monday; after Boggs leaves, Rick muses that if he’s unable to make that meeting, “it’ll be because… I’ll be dead!”
In Captain Marvel #29, we’d seen our hero make a conscious decision to turn from the way of the warrior; in issue #30, Starlin shows us what that means in practice. The “new” Mar-Vell is fully committed to attempting to resolve conflict without violence; after addressing the Controller respectfully as “Mr. Sandhurst“, he not only offers hm the chance to stand down; he offers him good reasons why he should do so. On the other hand, should the way of peaceful resolution be rejected…
…Mar-Vell is ready and willing to take care of business the old-fashioned way; what’s more, he can do it better than he used to.
The Controller pulls Captain Marvel into a bear hug, while gloating over how his slave discs not only allow him to control over a thousand people, but give him their strength as well. “Now I have everything I want, strength and power! That is why I serve Thanos!”
In the previous issue, Eon told Captain Marvel that he had “become aware” as a result of his metamorphosis. But the last caption above is as close as we’ve yet come to what will soon become the standard way of referring to this new ability of our hero — his “cosmic awareness”.
Over the next four pages, Starlin gives us a full-out, high-energy fight scene in the classic Marvel style. But even though the action alone would probably be enough to keep most superhero comics fans riveted to their chairs, the writer-artist generously enhances the visual excitement of the sequence by treating us to a variety of page compositions as well, moving from a vertical three-panel layout…
…to a full-page splash…
…to a more standard rectangular four-panel grid…
…to a layout that, after the first panel, dispenses with borders entirely.
Yeah, it’s a whole lot of fight scene. And I’ve shared the entire scene with you here, something I don’t generally do. But what can I say? I just couldn’t resist the temptation. I happen to love this sort of thing, and nobody was doing it better than Jim Starlin was in late 1973 — not even the two giants on whose shoulders he was unquestionably standing, Jack Kirby and Gil Kane.
With the conclusion of Captain Marvel #30, one chapter of the Thanos saga comes to a close, even as the arrival of Drax the Destroyer at Avengers Mansion heralds the beginning of the storyline’s final phase. From this point on, the focus will no longer be shared with “borrowed” antagonists like the Controller or (in earlier issues) the Super-Skrull, but will be held firmly by Starlin’s own creation, the mad Titan himself; while our primary protagonist will be joined not only by Drax and the Avengers, but by the mysterious Moondragon, as well.
Yep, the next three issues are going to provide quite the show — one I look forward to sharing with all of you, beginning with Captain Marvel #31 in December.
SHAMEFACED UPDATE, 10/19/23: In looking ahead to our Captain Marvel #31 post, your humble blogger has just discovered that he inadvertently stopped reading (and writing about) CM #30 with one entire story page left to go. Since I suspect the majority of this blog’s followers usually consume a new post in the first week after it comes out, this error will also be acknowledged/rectified in the CM #31 post when we get there in December. Still, I wouldn’t want those of you coming in a little late not to have the full Captain Marvel #30 experience, so…
One of my favorite comics at the time. Good call to put the fight scene in. Thanos just gives up the whole Earth plan at the end. A thousand mind-controlled agents across the world because he doesn’t want to get involved with the fight? And he implies he can kill CM, but will hang back and see what these cool new powers are first. Comics!
One thing about this issue that struck me 50 years ago was the seeming focus on daylight. The previous three issues, set on Titan, Avengers mansion and in the strange realm of Eon, all had dark settings. But in this issue, Marv specifically waits for daylight, when his powers will be at his peak, and he wins a decisive victory. Given that the full story within C.M. is 9 issues and this is the 6th one, seems Starlin was playing with tones to set the mood. The first three issues focused on the Skrulls and setting things up. The middle third on the Controller, with issue 28 being very dark as the Controller thoroughly defeating the Avengers and Captain Marvel and Thanos takes the Cosmic Cube after defeating Drax. Issue 29 was the pivot, wherein Marv gets a new perspective and his powers enhanced and then goes on in this issue to nearly defeat the Controller on his own before Thanos intercepts to “kill” the Controller himself rather than see Marv win. The outlook seems much brighter even if the biggest fight is still to come. The final third, is focused on direct confrontations with Thanos, with more darkness and light.
If memory serves (and at my age, your guess is as good as mine), I didn’t begin reading Starlin’s run on Marv until the Magus storyline. I may be wrong about that, but the Magus, Marv’s future or alternate self with the killer white afro is the first visual memory I have of the run. Therefore, since I don’t remember this story, I’m assuming I didn’t read it fifty years ago. I’ve always been a big Starlin fan, however, and really liked the way Starlin engineered Marv’s power upgrade and the way he handled the whole Rick Jones thing and all that.
Starlin is a wordy guy, however, and I almost think he went with bigger but fewer panels on those four pages so that the word balloons didn’t cover up all the action. Marv certainly kicked a lot in his fight with the Controller, didn’t he? In one sequence he threw one kick and immediately followed up with another from the other leg, that, if not practically impossible for without Marv’s ability to defy gravity, would certainly threaten to pull a groin muscle. Still, Starlin certainly delivered on the action front and the issue holds up now as an exciting comics story as much as it did back in the day.
Drax of the Guardians movies is so different from the Drax we see here that I almost didn’t recognize him. Amazing how much of the Guardians came from Starlin first. I hope he was well-compensated for his hard work. Thanks Alan. Since I don’t believe I read this original saga fifty years ago, I look forward to looking at it with you all through fresh, if aged, eyes.
Dumb Drax is entertaining in the MCU, but as it is with most things, I much prefer the version of Drax from the comics that I grew up with.
“Amazing how much of the Guardians came from Starlin first. I hope he was well-compensated for his hard work.”
Sadly, I doubt that was the case. When I saw Starlin at a Baltimore ComicCon a few weeks ago. I kind of foolishly asked him that question (I was still kind of stunned to be talking to him one-on-one because as I wrote elsewhere he had no line at the time I was there). He smiled wryly and delivered an answer with practiced politeness: “yes, once a month Marvel brings over a large truck and dumps the money on my driveway.”
That’s a shame. I’m pretty sure I remember reading somewhere — this was probably at least five years ago — that Marvel had provided Starlin with *some* compensation, but I don’t doubt that it’s less than what they *ought* to give him, whether they’re legally obligated to do so or not.
The Magus storyline was in Warlock, not Captain Marvel.
What did I say at the outset? “If memory serves?” Just goes to show. Mea culpa. You’re right, it was in Warlock and Magus was Adam’s alt-self, not Marv’s. My apologies. Just forget I was ever here…(insert face palm here)
Well, they *do* have very similar hair… 🙂
I would argue that for a while there, they were practically interchangeable, but I will own my mistake.
Milgrom was an Anderson assistant (like Dave Cockrum) and was clearly influenced by him, at least at this point,
Looking at Starlin’s full art on early issues of the Warlock feature in Strance Tales, he also had an Anderson influence. I’ve read he was a fan of MIS and Strange Adventures, where Anderson was ubiquitous in the early 1960s.
Kirby and Kane were also big influences on Starlin, but Ditko was another. The fight sceanes here have a Ditko energy, also.
Keith Giffen, a slightly younger artist, just passed away recently. It’s hard to see that generation pass away when they will always be innovative young creators to you,
My Gen X wife is fifty but I still think of Generation X as the young punks who are redefining the nature of work (a common theme in articles when Xers were in their twenties, later echoed for Gen Y, Gen Z and millennials).
I did read somewhere that in response to this issue, Thomas advised Starlin to lighten up on the exclamation POINTS!!!! Still, although clearly influenced by Kirby & Ditko, as were so many other top artists of his generation, Starlin quickly developed his own unique style of drawing & writing. The page with the “End of an Empire!” placed very boldly at the bottom of the page wherein Marv slams into the Controller provides a strong hint that Starlin wasn’t too keen on empires and autocrats, a theme he would explore to a greater degree in his Warlock run. As with Super Skrull, I would have preferred that the Controller remained dead rather than both resurrected in ridiculous ways, but that’s typical for comics. I get the sense, whether Starlin intended it or not, that Thanos didn’t particularly care for thralls who were too full of themselves and would look for any excuse to get rid of them permanently. A bit like Stalin or Hitler.
Of course, Starlin had to come up with a reasonably compelling reason why Thanos didn’t just blink his enemies out of existence once he had the Cosmic Cube. Whether what Starlin came up with works depends on how charitable any individual reader is willing to be for the sake of the story as it is rather than what would have made rational sense for the baddie in question. The baddies always have to make some ridiculous errors in judgment, but that often applies in real life too. Hitler, after all, wasn’t quite the strategic genius some people have made him out to be, which I for one am pretty grateful for!
They are always “strategic geniuses” by doing something the other side does not experct . . . until the enemy figures out the schtick.
Genghis Khan and Napoleon kept them guessing teh longest.
Now that I’ve read the Controller stories in Iron Man, I suspect I will appreciate this one more. Which is not to say I disliked it — Starlin was amazing in this run.
So Goodman took the name, and Stan created a so-so hero; Roy and Gil dramatically re-invent the hero, taking him back to his golden age roots, with Rick Jones as Billy Batson; now Jim Starlin reshapes him with Captain Atom partly as inspiration, using a New Gods theme as the backdrop. Added in some unused villain ideas from when Jim was doing Iron Man, and you could say that this had all the hallmarks of a convoluted mess. Bit it isn’t. It’s brilliant!! A stand-out comic and series in all respects.