Captain Marvel #1 (1989)

“The Dream is the Truth”

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Pencils: “Doc” Bright

At Marvel, the name “Captain Marvel” has a long, complex, and interstellar history. I suppose most people nowadays (2019 as I write this) are familiar with the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Hey, she’s getting her own movie n’ all, so I’d say she’s pretty popular. To add to the pile there are also about 5 or 6 other characters who have used the name “Captain Marvel”; mostly associated with the Kree.

Yet when I first got got into comics as a wee lad in the early 80’s, there was only one character whom I identified with the name “Captain Marvel”. Her name was Monica Rambeau. She was an Avenger, a former cop, fought in the Secret Wars, and was pretty frickin’ powerful, thanks to her light-base powers. She could could fly faster-than-light and zap you with a stream of electrons.

Her name, itself, was something of a lesson for my under-developed brain. I was only in the single digits of aging, but up until that time I had always kinda’ associated the name “Captain”; especially in comics; with a dude. Captain America. Captain Cold. Even Captains Universe, Canuck and Caveman. When I saw Monica in the pages of “Avengers”, it hit me: “there’s nothing that says a Captain has to be a dude”. It was quite eye-opening. Add in the fact that she was African-American and eventually became the LEADER of the Avengers…and her character was quite progressive. And impressive. To me, it was somewhat baffling that Monica Rambeau kinda’ faded away by the end of the 80’s.

Sometime in those late 80’s– Avengers #293 to be exact– Cap lost her light-based powers while fighting a giant sea serpent. It was all part of the usual “Avengers Break Up” story and she sorta’ faded away (no pun intended…but I’ll take it). Then she suddenly popped up in this FIRST ISSUE one-shot in 1989. Since losing her powers, she’s returned home to New Orleans, moved back in with her parents temporarily, and landed a job as the captain of a shipping vessel. Owned by her old friend Ron Morgan, her first gig is to transport a load of wheat (and a mysterious package) to Brazil.

Of course, somebody sailing a big shipping vessel wouldn’t exactly make a good comic. So the ship gets hi-jacked by some Brazilian pirates and their boss, a big lummox named Powderkeg. He’s kinda’ like a low-rent Juggernaut, but with explosive punches. This may have been Keggy’s one-and-only appearance…I’m sure I’ll look him up, next time I’m bored at work.

Monica had packed her old Captain Marvel gear out of instinct, so she gambles a bit by putting on the costume and threatening the pirates. The pirates give up, but Powderkeg’s a physical ruffian and wants to duke it out. During the fight, Monica finds that her powers are returning— she can fly and is now super-strong. Powderkeg’s headstrong ways ignite the vessel, but Cap is able to save the remaining passengers.

As some subplots thicken, Cap flies to New York and Four Freedoms Plaza, to let Reed Richards analyze her new powers. Reed concocts a theory about how her powers are based around a “dimensional interface”. She had been pulling energy from the dimension, but now it seems she’ll sending energy to the dimension. She doesn’t have the cool zapping powers anymore, but flight and super-strength ain’t so bad. However, it’s noted that she’s now susceptible to physical harm. Or as the Thing would say: “now ya’ can punch ‘er”. Yup, that’d be foreshadowing.

The rest of the plot unfolds, as it turns out Ron Morgan found some old Stark International tech and cut a deal with a Brazilian baddie named Kristina Ramos. Once he found out she was a crime-lord, Morgan backed out on the deal, so she’s been looking to steal away the tech. Thus the attempt by Powderkeg and the pirates.

Captain Marvel flies to Brazil to tie things up, where she runs into Moonstone— another agent of Ramos and a longtime recurring Avengers foe! Moonstone gives Cap a good run for her money, but gets punked in the end.

Kristina Ramos, herself, then shows up in a (presumably stolen) Guardsman armor. Ramos has applied the Stark tech to the suit and is giddy with the power-up. Thankfully (or conveniently), James Rhodes of Stark Enterprises shows up and gives Cap a deus ex machina of a scrambler device. After a few rounds with Ramos, Cap dumps a car on her, then tags her with the scrambler.

The loose ends with Morgan are addressed and Cap flies off, seemingly “reborn” and ready for more. The story ends with an enlightening quote from no less than Zora Neale Hurston from “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. It works well in the context of this story, so here it is:

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

Hey… a tidy, coherent, action-packed story with no less than 3 super villains to punch, and even some cameos from Marvel regulars. Not to mention the welcome reboot for Captain Marvel. Pretty cool. When can we see the regular series? Or even a mini-series?

Well, unfortunately those things never happened. Instead, Cap hung around in the background awhile as more “Captain Marvels” appeared at Marvel. There’s a somewhat convoluted trademark deal that stated Marvel had to publish a book titled “Captain Marvel” every so often to keep the name away from DC and “Shazam”.

So while it may seem like this particular one-shot FIRST ISSUE was published out of obligation… don’t tell that to the creative crew, who spun a nice, significant, story here. I’ve always liked M.D. “Doc” Bright’s pencils and you can’t go wrong with a Dwayne McDuffie script. For a one-issue, self-contained story, it’s maybe not a total home run, but you could score it a bases-clearing double! (Or even a triple, if you want to increase Cap’s slugging percentage). The only real issue I have with the plot is the sudden appearance of Jim Rhodes and the fix-all scrambler. It’s also a little disappointing that Cap’s light-based powers have been replaced by what is, essentially, “super-strength and flight”. Yeah, that’s unique…

She’s gone through a few name and power changes, but Monica’s still around today. Over the years, she’ll pop up in various Avengers-related titles, using the names (in order) Photon, Pulsar and now Spectrum. I think she assumed a leadership role, again, in the off-shoot “Mighty Avengers” of a few years ago. People think of “iconic Avengers” (who don’t have their own books) and mention names like Hawkeye, Vision or the Wasp. But ever since I was a wee lad, I’ve put Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) on that list; or at least the “All-80’s Team”. For my money, she’s an underrated character who Marvel should use more often.

Summary: Monica Rambeau goes to Brazil. Gets new powers, hew hair-do, and thumps 3 villains.
Cover Price: $1.50
Rating: $1.50 out of $2.50