5 Days of Death: The Death of Captain Marvel

Ladies and gentlemen, the finale of the 5 Days of Death, the Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin. This was the first numbered Marvel graphic novel and, as you may guess, it deals with Captain Marvel's death. Mar-Vell is a Kree warrior, an alien with powers of cosmic awareness and Nega-Bands that lend him massive strength. However, even the strongest of warriors may fall -after the jump, that is.

First thing's first - exposition ho!

Full disclosure; when I first read this I had very little idea of who or what this incarnation of Captain Marvel was. It's one of those mantles that has been taken up by many heroes. I thought Captain Marvel was the black woman in Secret Wars - which, of course, she was. This tidy bit of exposition cleared everything up - in the space of three pages you get enough information to ground your understanding of the character. There's even a nice little character moment at the end, as Eros worries about his friend.

Anyway, Marvel and these Mentor and Eros fellows are going to the spaceship of Thanos (Mentor's other son), who I do remember as being an evil bastard. Since there doesn't seem, to be a Mrs Mentor, he probably was an actual bastard, but that's besides the point. Thanos was defeated when almost all of the heroes in the Marvel universe teamed up to take him down. He was turned into stoned by Adam Warlock (?) and now his family have come to take him back to Titan and be buried. When they arrive on the spaceship, however, they are ambushed by fanatical followers of Thanos. The three heroes defeat them easily, but Captain Marvel seems winded...

Hmm, maybe he's dying. In all seriousness, there's a real sense of peril here, as the powerful figure of Marvel is suddenly weak and helpless. After returning to Thanos, Mentor confirms what Captain Marvel fears - he is dying of seemingly incurable cancer, following a fight with Nitro a few years ago. He was exposed to a large amount of nerve gas, which seems to have incubated into cancer via comic logic. His Nega-Bands have kept the cancer in check, but now it's taking over and slowly killing him. This leads to an unhappy situation - Marvel must tell his lover Elysius that he is dying, and it's presented in a really classy way...

The subtle way Captain Marvel tells her of his illness is really awesome, as is Mentor looking on silently and then leaving the two of them alone. This is a great example of scenes without dialogue done well. This could technically be called decompression, but this isn't lazy like other culprits. Every panel is different, slowly progressing the scene in an emotive way.

Anyhoo, Captain Marvel goes to see his human friend Rick Jones, to tell him about his illness. Turns out, Rick is a dick.

Yeah, don't console your dying friend, make it about you. Captain Marvel is showing genuine concern for his friend by getting him checked out (their whole bonding thing could potentially affect Rick) and Rick responds by yelling at him. I'm not that familiar with the character, but either this is out of character, bad writing (unlikely considering the high quality elsewhere) or Rick Jones is one of those characters I would find annoying as all hell. You know what I mean, the whiny annoying sidekick presumably added to be someone for the reader to identify himself with; but why would you want to identify with a random kid when you could be Captain Marvel? Unless he's dying of cancer, that is.

The search for a cure goes on (though in a book called 'The Death Of Captain Marvel' I wouldn't expect much) while many of Earth's heroes turn up to pay their respects to the Captain, who has collapsed and is bedridden...

This is an OK group shot, but I have a few issues. I also have a few problems with the picture above. Why is Franklin Richards there? Bringing a small child to see a guy die is a bit odd. Why is the Human Torch powered up and dicking about with Spider-Man? That's more than a little inappropriate. Most noticeable of all, what the hell is going on in the middle? It looks like Hulk is flirting with Tigra, and this is pissing off Namor and Hercules for some reason. It doesn't make sense that everyone seems to be dicking about on such a solemn occasion.

Among the people showing up is Dick Jones the Dick, who has the typical reconcilement expected of the annoying whiny sidekick...

Yeah, well, he's still a dick. Also; final panel almost makes it seem like they're having sex in there. Hmm.

Presumably, seeing Dick Jones the Dick again was too much for Captain Marvel; he slips into a coma and approaches death....

This is a touching moment and all, but what is up with Mentor's expression? His good friend has just passed into a coma, and he has this weird little vicious smirk going on. I also find a bit odd that Ghost Rider is there - bit inappropriate to have a flaming skull hanging around as a dude is dying. This doesn't really draw away from the effect of this page; it's still awesome.

While the heroes stand over Captain Marvel, he dreams of Thanos...

Here begins a pretty cool segment of Captain Marvel, as he fights Thanos and several other foes to try and save his soul. It's a fairly good bit of symbolism, as Marvel is really fighting the cancer in his body. Eventually all of his enemies have fallen except for Thanos. The Captain attacks him and overpowers him...

Wow. That is classy as hell. As far as deaths go, this rivals Jean DeWolff's three page life flashing before her eyes. The idea of Marvel's heart soul stopping is great, as is the way Marvel accepts his fate and embraces the true face of death. The reaction of Mentor and the other heroes tops it off, with the act of Mentor turning off the machine representing Marvel's final departure from the world.

This was a strong graphic novel for Marvel to start their numbered line with; it has a good mix of action and emotion. I wasn't really emotionally attached to the character at all when i picked this up, but by the end I was truly moved.

And now back to your regular programming - Max is back.