Marvel Fanfare #22-23 chez Patrick Couture

(from the pages of Advanced Iron #56)

CAPTAIN MARVEL #14

"When a galaxy beckons…" - June 1969

Story: Groovy Gary Friedrich

Penciler: Fabulous Frank Springer

Inker: Vince Colletta

This book was published back in the good old days when comics only cost 12¢ (what the heck am I talking about, I wasn't even born then). It is apparently the second part of a trilogy that begins in Sub-Mariner #14 and ends Avengers #64.

Our story opens as Carol Danvers (yes, the very one destined to become the Avenger Warbird) is trying to convince Cap Marvel to give himself up to the authorities for a crime he didn't commit.

As this is going on, ten thousand feet overhead, Tony Stark is comfortably sitting in an airplane, flirting with a stewardess (this takes place right after IM #14). He suddenly feels compelled to go hide in the toilet and put on his invincible suit of armor. What he doesn't know is that he has become the latest victim of the Puppet Master. Unable to resist, Iron Man leaves the plane and attacks Captain Marvel who has no idea what's going on.

Carol Danvers is badly injured during the battle, but the fight goes on, the two heroes being too evenly matched. Finally, Stark suffers from a mild heart attack and falls to the ground. The Puppet Master is outraged by his slave's shortcoming and destroys the IM puppet, thus releasing his hold on the Golden Avenger. But by then, Cap Marvel is already halfway back to the Kree galaxy.

This comic has a very historical feel to it.

It's here that Captain Marvel and Iron Man meet for the first time (they would battle side by side on several occasions in the following years and Iron Man will even be present when the Kree hero dies) and it's also here that the Golden Avenger first comes across Carol Danvers (whom he will later help with her alcoholism and her readmission in the Avengers). In other words, the main thing that makes this comic cool is all that we know will happen afterwards.

The story is pretty average. The art is poor.

To top it off, the artist makes the same mistake on several occasions, omitting to draw one of IM's shoulder rings. The colorist even got the color of Tony's hair wrong, he made it brown! As a result, I didn't even recognise Stark when I first saw him.

On the plane, the stewardess responds to Tony's flirting: "Really, Mr. Stark! You're an even bigger flirt than the gossip columns say you are! But I can't say you don't have your… uh… charms! A girl could be impressed into holding hands… over dinner tonight!"

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