Remember that one time Ms. Marvel gave birth to her rapist?
Okay, so there is no dancing around this, but I'll try to provide context to an otherwise awful story. In 1980, The Avengers had gotten their 200th issue and received a plus-sized, special issue written by some of Marvel's top men. Editor-and-chief Jim Shooter, legendary artist George Perez, and big name writers Bob Layton and David Michelinie who were best known for their work on "Iron Man". In this super-special issue of "The Avengers", Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel is pregnant despite not hooking up with anyone recently. Rather than investigate or worry about her or suspect she could have been kidnapped and drugged or something the Avengers eagerly await Carol's child! Too eagerly, I might add. With both The Wasp and Beast offering to babysit and the other Avengers making cribs and buying toys.
Now, a normal pregnancy takes about nine months. But in the realm of comic books nine months is like ten years, so she gives birth in three days. You think her pregnancy sped by fast? Well, get this: the baby grows into a man in less than a day. Yes, this man-calling himself Marcus-reveals himself to be the result of a prior relationship between Ms. Marvel....and himself. What? Oh, meanwhile dinosaurs and pirates and medieval knights are attacking New York City. Hawkeye-in his infinite wisdom-suspects Marcus could be behind it. Oh really, Clint? What gave you that idea? The fact that he's growing up faster than a kid from the Disney Channel or that weird machine he's been building in Avengers Mansion since he was a toddler!? Yeah, Marcus has been building a machine. And The Avengers-either too stupid or too far up their own asses-accept his constant lies and distractions. Hawkeye confronts Marcus about the machine and all the time mumbo-jumbo while everyone is in the room and we get the reveal you've all been waiting for.
First of all, Marcus is actually the son of Immortus. Not what you were waiting for? Hold on. Immortus is the future version of Kang The Conqueror, time-traveling foe of The Avengers. That's not it either? Alright, let's cut to the chase. Marcus was from another dimension and knew of only one way to truly leave it. He used the power from Immortus' machine to warp to Avengers Mansion a few days ago, kidnap Ms. Marvel, and pop back into his dimension. While captured, Carol was brainwashed into believing the two of them were in love. She was then impregnated and "the essence" of Marcus was embedded into her. He then dropped her back on Earth immediately after and-because of silly science-fiction "time moves differently here" logic-it had only been a few minutes after she was kidnapped. This allowed him machine-energy-free passage from his dimension to ours.
So-for clarity-Marcus' dimension was at risk of destruction and there were other beings living there. All Marcus had was a machine his father Immortus left there, so he used it's power to kidnap, brainwash, and knock up Carol just so he could rebuild it in our world. He did all this because having the machine in our world could stabilize his, but destroy our world in the process. So he's, like, redeemed and stuff. But no. Hawkeye destroys the machine and Marcus agrees to go back to his world and just fix it himself, but Carol offers to join him. Yes, Carol joins her rapist, telling her friends that she still has some feelings for Marcus and feels close to him. "Him" being her rapist/son/kidnapper. And so she leaves never to be seen again.
Okay, so Ms. Marvel was brought back almost immediately because people hated this story. People hate this story to this day. Every fan of Carol Danvers laments this story, it's the absolute worst thing that's ever happened to the character. It's like her "All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder" or her "One More Day", it's just an example of what writers can get away with when they don't think of the consequences. Chris Claremont-writer of The X-Men from the 70's to the 90's-hated the story so much he brought Ms. Marvel back in the pages of "X-Men" and returns her to Earth. Sure she is almost instantly drained of her powers and life force by Rogue, thus giving Rogue the powers of super strength and flight she's been known for having for the past thirty years while Ms. Marvel fell into obscurity until the early 2000's. But she returned none the less.
It must really bite Marvel in the ass now because of how Carol's been pushed in recent years. In 2010 she became Captain Marvel, in 2015 she led A-Force, then she led The Ultimates, now she leads Alpha Flight, and in a few years she'll be getting her own film. A film-mind you-set in the 90's, featuring both The Kree and The Skrulls, and exploring the early career of Nick Fury! All of that and all that came before and now this little blemish on her story. As if alcoholism and getting her powers through the involvement of a man wasn't enough to distance herself from the "Wonder Woman" comparison, this obscene, thoughtless, disgusting display of mishandling will forever besmirch her. While this event cannot be forgotten, we must look towards the future for Captain Marvel and hope that the better moments of the character can shine brighter than the darkest day in Carol Danvers' history.
Thanks for reading.
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