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Captain Marvel (1968)
Captain Marvel #33
This is it, True Believers! Captain Marvel and the Avengers combat the terror of the now god-like Thanos!
19 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 1974
1 person is currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Jim Starlin
965 books443 followersJames P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.
In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).
When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (
In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.
In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).
When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (
In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 21, 2025
The curtain opens...and the Marvel Universe gets to see the 'script' Thanos has written - the 4th wall crumbles! This is the image of Thanos that has become iconic - Jim Starlin does 'cosmic' illustrations second only to Jack Kirby. You can feel the 'Starlin Seethe' as ripples of energy frame the battle on the cover - one of my favorite issues in the original CM run.
March 27, 2021
It's so interesting to learn more of a back story for some of the characters and also see characters that haven't existed in the films. I'm enjoying getting an insight into the actual original stories.
April 24, 2021
IRON MAN #55, CAPTAIN MARVEL #25-34, MARVEL FEATURE #12, AVENGERS #125 (The Thanos War)
*Note: a nifty READING ORDER has been provided at the end of this review
It’s almost surreal that we now live in a world where Thanos’ name is common knowledge. You can tell from reading this storyline that he was clearly created in a vacuum, with the basic assumption that only a niche audience was still actively reading the Earth-616 mythology in the Bronze Age. Yet, it is precisely this vacuum mentality that encourages Jim Starlin — an incredible new voice — to fully explore as psychologically complex and developed a character as Thanos; fully unafraid to risk losing readers, given at that point there weren’t many readers to lose (certainly not as many as there were in the Silver Age).
I think it is because of this unapologetic experimentation and originality that allowed this character to endure to the point of becoming known universally, and certainly his emergence that triggered a new future for what might have otherwise been a dying mythology.
One of the most revolutionary decisions in comic book history, for instance, was Jim Starlin and Mike Friedrich’s publishing the storyline concurrently in multiple comic-book titles, each releasing simultaneously with one another. This leads to incredible narrative cross-cutting, such as when Iron Man and Captain Marvel decide to split up (in Captain Marvel #30); thus Iron Man goes on a side-quest explored in Marvel Feature #12, while Captain Marvel continues on the main-quest in Captain Marvel #31. This lays the ground work for the technique to come back in a powerful way in the final act of the story… which I won’t dare spoil. Needless to say, spanning the story across so many different comic books certainly helps expand the the scope of locations it encompasses; given the cosmic scale of the story, seeing the quantity of locations affected is appropriate.
It’s taken for granted now, but at the time this technique was unheard of. It set the precedent for the equally groundbreaking Avengers/Defenders War only a few months later… or earlier; the real world length of time these comic book storylines occupy can often cause them to overlap with other titles, which be confusing in the context of shared universes like this. This storyline, for instance, begins BEFORE The Avengers/Defenders War but ends AFTER it… begging the question as to whether you should read this story before or after that one. It’s certainly clear, nevertheless, this storyline practiced the technique of intercutting multiple different comic titles before that one did, to the point of inspiring that story’s even more radical use of it.
Regardless, the everlasting impact of this story cannot be stressed enough, which is likely the reason for its enduring legacy.
READING ORDER:
- Iron Man #55
- Captain Marvel #25-30
- Marvel Feature #12
- Captain Marvel #31-32
- Avengers #125
- Captain Marvel #33-34
*Note: a nifty READING ORDER has been provided at the end of this review
It’s almost surreal that we now live in a world where Thanos’ name is common knowledge. You can tell from reading this storyline that he was clearly created in a vacuum, with the basic assumption that only a niche audience was still actively reading the Earth-616 mythology in the Bronze Age. Yet, it is precisely this vacuum mentality that encourages Jim Starlin — an incredible new voice — to fully explore as psychologically complex and developed a character as Thanos; fully unafraid to risk losing readers, given at that point there weren’t many readers to lose (certainly not as many as there were in the Silver Age).
I think it is because of this unapologetic experimentation and originality that allowed this character to endure to the point of becoming known universally, and certainly his emergence that triggered a new future for what might have otherwise been a dying mythology.
One of the most revolutionary decisions in comic book history, for instance, was Jim Starlin and Mike Friedrich’s publishing the storyline concurrently in multiple comic-book titles, each releasing simultaneously with one another. This leads to incredible narrative cross-cutting, such as when Iron Man and Captain Marvel decide to split up (in Captain Marvel #30); thus Iron Man goes on a side-quest explored in Marvel Feature #12, while Captain Marvel continues on the main-quest in Captain Marvel #31. This lays the ground work for the technique to come back in a powerful way in the final act of the story… which I won’t dare spoil. Needless to say, spanning the story across so many different comic books certainly helps expand the the scope of locations it encompasses; given the cosmic scale of the story, seeing the quantity of locations affected is appropriate.
It’s taken for granted now, but at the time this technique was unheard of. It set the precedent for the equally groundbreaking Avengers/Defenders War only a few months later… or earlier; the real world length of time these comic book storylines occupy can often cause them to overlap with other titles, which be confusing in the context of shared universes like this. This storyline, for instance, begins BEFORE The Avengers/Defenders War but ends AFTER it… begging the question as to whether you should read this story before or after that one. It’s certainly clear, nevertheless, this storyline practiced the technique of intercutting multiple different comic titles before that one did, to the point of inspiring that story’s even more radical use of it.
Regardless, the everlasting impact of this story cannot be stressed enough, which is likely the reason for its enduring legacy.
READING ORDER:
- Iron Man #55
- Captain Marvel #25-30
- Marvel Feature #12
- Captain Marvel #31-32
- Avengers #125
- Captain Marvel #33-34
May 14, 2019
Nos enseña un poco el lado obscuro del capitán Mar vel
March 28, 2018
Once again, we have a re-telling of the story. I suppose that is helpful to new readers, but in a 12-issue arc, how man times does that need to be done?
Starlin's art is attractive. It is nice to have his ink after the Avengers issue, which was not as appealing.
As a god, one would think Thanos could easily control the situation. Apparently, not so. But, also apparently, he has a plan. While the Avengers were off Earth, Thanos shifted time. Now that the Avengers are back on Earth, they are out of sync with everything else.
We also learn that Thanos does indeed need the Cosmis Cube, which he no longer possesses.
Then it got so weird, I couldn't follow. The end.
Starlin's art is attractive. It is nice to have his ink after the Avengers issue, which was not as appealing.
As a god, one would think Thanos could easily control the situation. Apparently, not so. But, also apparently, he has a plan. While the Avengers were off Earth, Thanos shifted time. Now that the Avengers are back on Earth, they are out of sync with everything else.
We also learn that Thanos does indeed need the Cosmis Cube, which he no longer possesses.
Then it got so weird, I couldn't follow. The end.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews