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Captain Marvel #30: Review

Jan 1974
Jim Starlin, Jim Starlin

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Story Name:

... to be free from control

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Captain Marvel #30 Review by (November 19, 2013)
Jim Starlin is sole writer, as he was last issue. Captain Marvel was given photonic powers by Lou-Ann's father Prof Savannah in #22. Rick Jones met Mordecai P. Boggs in #18. We don't actually see the planned meeting with Rick, which, because of the Official Index gap described below, must occur before the end of this issue. But when Boggs resurfaces in #34 he will already be Rick's manager. As well as enabling Controller to siphon strength from his victims without the Absorbatron he used in his Iron Man #12-13 and 28, Thanos' improvements now have given him control over them, which Thanos needs for his plan to take over the world. Controller hasn't really been disintegrated. He will turn up in IM#88 buried under the rubble of the building the fight happened in. Drax knows Iron Man because he met him in IM#55. How he knows about CM is unclear. The final scene with Drax is described as occurring 12 hours after the CM/Controller fight. However the Official Index inserts a lot in between, so it's probably more than that. This is the usual problem with having long-running stories, exacerbated by the fact that Captain Marvel was bimonthly at the time. In particular the gap includes Avengers #119-124 and IM#57-67, not necessarily in that order.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain Marvel #30 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Captain Marvel has returned to Avengers Mansion after being given Cosmic Awareness last issue by Eon. Rick Jones now urges him to save his girlfriend Lou-Ann from the Controller. While Lou-Ann was here in #27-28 Iron Man measured the frequency of the command beam to the control disc on her neck. Combining his skills (as inventor Tony Stark) with CM's advanced Kree knowledge they have built a tracer.

Iron Man now leaves for Marvel Feature #12 to investigate the desert base where he 1st met Thanos in IM#55. Mar-Vell is going to wait for daytime, when his photonic powers will be stronger, before going after Controller.

Meanwhile he and Rick swap places, and Jarvis takes Rick to see a visitor, the would-be manager of his singing career Mordecai P. Boggs. If Rick survives the weekend, he'll meet Boggs on Monday.

The Controller has gathered his thousands of disc-slaves in his base. Not because their nearness gives him extra power, just to exult in his control. Thanos contacts him and is not pleased at the risk of exposing their pawns. He warns Controller that Marvel will be coming for him.

Next day Captain Marvel flies through the air with a new sparkly contrail. He tracks Controller to his lair, and easily KO's some guards. Then, rather than fight Controller he tries to talk him out of serving Thanos. This is part of Mar-Vell's transformation from warrior to Protector of the Universe last issue. He reminds Basil Sandhurst what happened to previous lackeys of Thanos when he had no more use for them :- Super-Skrull in #27 and another Skrull, Skragg, in #26. But Controller can't be swayed, so CM uses a judo-like move on the attacking villain to send him crashing out of the  building.

CM now finds Lou-Ann, still under the villain's control. But Controller returns to the fight. And in true super-villain tradition explains the masterplan. Thanos broke him out of the asylum he was in in IM#28 and upgraded his power so that he could control many VIPs. Thanos planned to attack Earth with his spacefleet, and Controller's slaves would sabotage Earth's defences. Then Thanos would use Earth as a base to conquer the galaxy with the Cosmic Cube he acquired in #28. And he would leave Sandhurst to rule the Earth.

What follows is a long fight between the 2. CM leads Controller away from his base, so that the battle doesn't endanger Lou-Ann or the other disc-slaves. Instead they lay waste to a presumably abandoned building. Mar-Vell is outmatched by Controller's strength. But he uses his Kree fighting skills to gain the upper hand, and his new Cosmic Awareness to know exactly where and when to strike.

Finally Thanos interrupts the battle from afar, when he senses that Mar-Vell is about to win. He appears to banish Controller from reality. The mastermind tells CM he'll let him live for a while, in order to understand what has changed in the hero.

Finally CM brings Rick back for a loving reunion with Lou-Ann. Like all the others she is no longer enslaved because the discs have fallen from their necks.

Some time later Drax the Destroyer appears at the door of Avengers Mansion asking Jarvis for Iron Man or Captain Marvel.


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Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

Jim Starlin
Al Milgrom
Jim Starlin
Jim Starlin (Cover Penciler)
Jim Starlin (Cover Inker)
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski.
Editor: Roy Thomas.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel

(Mar-Vell)
Drax
Drax

(Drax the Destroyer)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)

Plus: Controller (Basil Sandhurst), Lou-Ann Savannah, Mordecai P. Boggs, Super-Skrull.

> Captain Marvel: Book info and issue index

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