Book: Captain Marvel
Issue No.: 56
Published: February 21, 1978
Title: “Survival Quest!”
Cover Price: 35¢
According to the ever-helpful page one explainer text, the hero of this book is Mar-Vell, an alien (of the Kree race) who fights to protect earth. So this Captain Marvel is not to be confused with the modern movie Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers, who was Ms. Marvel in 1978), or the original Captain Marvel (the Fawcett/DC character who young Billy Batson is transformed into when he says the magic word “Shazam!”).
I learned a lot about Marvel’s original Captain Marvel in this issue of his book. For one, his “nega bands” (they look like metal bracelets), which are responsible for at least some of his super powers, get energy from the sun. So he’s an extraterrestrial sun-powered hero... sounds a little like Superman!
I also learned Mar-Vell’s secret identity is one he “borrowed” from a deceased man, Walter Lawson. That’s a problem because the bad guy in this story is Deathgrip, a “cosmic vampire” who must feed on humans to survive. Deathgrip is understandably not happy about his condition and blames it on Walter Lawson, and he understandably thinks that Mar-Vell is Lawson. So Deathgrip takes some hostages and gives Mar-Vell 48 hours to cure him of his cosmic vampirism.
Curing Deathgrip involves reverse engineering some technology that the actual Walter Lawson created, and since he isn’t the actual Lawson, Mar-Vell calls in Marvel super-geniuses Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) and Hank Pym (AKA Ant-Man, AKA Yellowjacket) to help. These little one- and two-page in-universe hero cameos are such a fun aspect of Marvel books of the ’70s, and as a guy who grew up on these books, it is still wild to me that Hulk might show up in a modern big-budget Dr. Strange movie for a couple of minutes.
In the end, science doesn’t do much to solve the problem, and Mar-Vell ends up defeating the bad guy with repeated punches. But there is a philosophical moment where Mar-Vell regrets this fact, thinking “... it is only peace, gentleness, and mercy which can truly end violence.” I think Mar-Vell is a pacifist at heart, and I’m here for it.
After that hopeful note, the story ends with Deathgrip basically committing suicide, a tragic villain driven by desperation who ultimately kills himself in desperation. So my look at week four of Marvel’s February 1978 book releases is off to a melancholy start.
Next time — I’ll take a look at Howard the Duck in his solo mag. That should be wacky and fun, right?