Ms. Marvel Epic Collection, Vol. 2: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

Ms. Marvel Epic Collection

by Chris Claremont, Jim Shooter, David Michelinie

Chris Claremont weaves complex plots and compelling characterization in the conclusion of Ms. Marvel's original adventures. The highlights are many: Ms. Marvel meets the Avengers for the very first time. Mystique makes her first appearance. A battle with Ronan the Accuser brings Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel together and leads to an all-new look for our heroine! Encounters with underground lizard-men, Deathbird, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Sabretooth set the stage for a controversial Avengers saga and a life-altering battle with Mystique and Rogue. The story reaches its epic conclusion in a Marvel milestone including Ms. Marvel, the X-Men and the Avengers!

COLLECTING: MS. MARVEL (1977) 15-24, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1974) 51, MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) 10-11, AVENGERS (1963) 200, ANNUAL (1967) 10 AND MATERIAL FROM AVENGERS (1963) 197-199 AND MARVEL FANFARE (1982) 24

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels

376 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2019

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I've never been a fan of the way they drew/draw women in comics, there was a brief moment in this collection that really makes it worth reading. Carol finds out she has been mysteriously impregnated with a rapidly aging fetus. She goes through 9 months of pregnancy in the span of hours? days? Then the baby rapidly grows into a man. The Avengers think all of this is awesome/hilarious. But Carol comes back with perhaps the best dialogue I've ever read in a superhero comic. She basically says that being forced to go through a pregnancy she didn't want is not okay. She points out that no one thought of either the emotional or physical trauma she was put through and instead just made jokes about her predicament, even saying she was lucky to be a mom. I'm not really one for political agendas in comics, but I love that a character who is drawn to wear what is basically a swimsuit for fighting crime is allowed to speak up for her rights as a women.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Claremont-headed collection of Ms. Marvel and other related titles is a nice set of stories and they're generally stronger than you'd expect from the late Bronze Age. Carol is written as a strong, competent woman (although one must question why a former Air Force and NASA member is now running a Woman's magazine). There's some nice subplots, with a surprising number of the stories revolving around X-Men foes such as Deathbird and the Brotherhood. Overall, the Ms. Marvel run is strong.

We also get some forgettable crossovers in Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One, and then the cringeworthy Avengers #200. Hard to even know what to write about the whole mother-to-her-lover-who-saw-her-as-a-prize-to-be-won-and-brainwashed-her-to-do-so storyline. They should have known better at the time, and the story's just gotten more inappropriate year by year. What's more impressive is how Chris Claremont responded when he brought Carol back in Avengers Annual #10.

Overall, a worthwhile collection of the early Carol Danvers.

[Cameron H · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s crazy to me that at the time these issues were being written, Claremont was killing it over on X-Men. I mean, it’s clear he loved the character and treated her with a lot of respect. (At least, as much as you would expect from a man writing a feminist character in the 70’s, I suppose.)

I’m not really sure what happened here. He obviously loved Carol - evidenced by his rebuttal in an Avengers Annual of the character assassination she suffered in the atrocious Avengers #200 (both included here). It’s clear Claremont always wanted the best for Carol. His heart seemed to be in the right place. Yet, for some reason, her solo issues are missing the tight plotting and storytelling found over in X-Men. Perhaps his creative energies were being stretched to their limit, or simply his true passion was for the Merry Mutants, but the stories here feel pretty forgettable. That being said, I can only shudder to think of what the book would have been like without Claremont.

Bottom line: Carol deserved better, but it could have been so, so much worse. It’s definitely worth it as time capsule reading.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's was ok, but not as good as the first collection. There is just a struggle to try and find what to do with Carol. It feels like the writers don't know what direction to take her in. There is an attempt to update her, and make her more of a modern (for the time woman) woman, but I don't think this is the problem. I feel the same way about this book as I have with other Marvel books from the epic line I've given low ratings. Carol just doesn't have a supporting cast I care about. With Spider-Man, the FF, the X-Men, they all have people I care about. With Ms. Marvel it's just her. The book just suffers from trying to find an identity and never finding an audience.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be brutally honest, this character was originally conceived in the era when both Marvel and DC were both worried about the potential of loosing their intellectual properties to another company coming along and developing a character with a similar name. We can see this is DC’s Wonder Woman and Marvel’s Wonder Man. So Marvel, at least for this review, had a rash of characters developed really just to ensure no one would get the bright idea of having a Spider-Woman, or a She-Hulk, or … Ms. Marvel? Well, there had been a Mary Marvel and a Captain Marvel Jr. before Marvel sued and got the name clamped down. The problem is that Marvel had no idea what to do with Ms. Marvel. And it shows. Ms. Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 1: This Woman, This Warrior illustrates just how ill-conceived the character was. But enter Chris Claremont and things started working. Well, sort of. The character still floundered but it was developing. The first half of this volume offers some nice stories that are doing their best to really develop the character and make her her own person, her own superhero, and not just a female version of Captain Marvel. And speaking of Mar-Vell, after finally meeting him as Ms. Marvel, Carol decides that she needs to stop living in his shadow. New costume (designed by Dave Cockrum) and now there’s hope for the character. Except … the title gets unceremoniously canceled and then her first tenure as an Avenger comes to an abrupt and ignoble end. It was like they were throwing the character in the garbage. Literally. And I’m sure Claremont wasn’t happy about it. He did his best to bring her back. First as a de-powered supporting character in the pages of Uncanny X-Men and then as a re-powered character Binary (eventually she did return to the ranks of the Avengers, as Warbird, then as Ms. Marvel (again) and finally as the new Captain Marvel). This volume doesn’t cover the stories of her as an Avenger or her time among the X-Men (or the Starjammers, but that’s yet another story), but it does fill in the stuff in between those tenures. What we get in this collection is the attempts to salvage a character that was treated rather poorly by many of the writers involved with her. Claremont did his best to save her and keep her relevant. Perhaps he succeeded, in the end, as she’s now a major player in the Marvel films.

[Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another nearly 400 pages and the second volume in Marvel's Ms. Marvel Epic Collection series. It basically collects the second half of Carol Danver's arc as Ms. Marvel, before becoming Binary and Warbird and Captain Marvel and later in the 2000s becoming Ms. Marvel again and Captain Marvel again. Marvel storylines are simplicity itself.

These Epic Collections only collect Marvel characters up to the 2000s or so, therefore it makes sense to end the series here in the early 80s before Carol goes cosmic. And it is an interesting bunch of stories. Written as they are by the great Chris Claremont, they are pretty gripping and interesting, as usual I'm actually more interested in the quiet moments of development of Carol's character and relationships than in the actual monster fights, but it seems that so was Claremont, so it suits me.

A particularly good arc comes towards the end of the volume with a pretty creepy sudden pregnancy followed by a kind of incestuous relationship with her own son/past-lover, Marcus, who kind of brainwashes Carol into going with him to Limbo. The story itself is creepy, but the follow up from 1981 when Carol comes back is a tactful exploration about why that was problematic and how the Avengers were complete assholes for letting it happen, it's basically all about rape and toxic relationships in 1981, and how the people around the victim dismiss the problem. But you know, it's now that they are making comics political, right? Right? RIGHT?!

[Tom Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always liked the character of Carol Danvers and Chris Claremont clearly liked the character, as well, having incorporated her into his X-Men run. Well before becoming a big-screen success as Captain Marvel, she began in the seventies as Ms. Marvel, part of a trend at the time of creating female counterparts to male heroes. However, the character actually predates the Ms. Marvel series, and Chris Claremont never wrote her as anything less than her own person.

This collection wraps up the original seventies series, as well as including the Avengers stories that essentially wrote Ms. Marvel off the active fictional landscape for years to come. Claremont's writing here is solid, a reminder that his skills aren't limited to team books. The art on the Ms. Marvel issues is solid if not spectacular. The Avengers issues fare better in that department, with top-notch work from George Perez and Michael Golden.

Storywise, the latter part of this volume clearly suffers from Marvel canceling the series, then trying to write off the character. Avengers 200 was a clumsy, controversial way of doing so, explicitly acknowledged in the Claremont-written Avengers annual. Still, there's enough in these Epic volumes to suggest why the character didn't completely fade away and ultimately became a mainstay of the comics and movies. A must-read for those interested in the character.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book got cancelled in the midst of changing the status quo.

And then the thing happened. Avengers#200 is known as one of the more despicable stories of Marveldom.

Claremont's outrage makes more sense realizing how much he'd put into the Ms Marvel character. And why he tried to pick her up and tell more of her story as much as he could.

I am uncertain who Mystique's master was supposed to be. I don't recall that getting picked up in X-Men.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first collection was charming but ultimately a string of 70s sci-fi tropes like alien technology and multiple personalities. This volume is where the character really shines, especially the amazing new costume, the tension with Mystique (introduced in this book, not the X-Men!), the fight against Sabretooth, and the tragedies of her manipulated pregnancy and her perfect grieving monologues after Rogue steals her powers. Loved this one.

[The_J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A joyful rampage through the end of the 70s, with some real insight into the changes happening in the society. But Claremont had a feel for action and a flare for presentation, but this character would never meet her potential and this is following through all of the incarnations, even powering Rogue. but some fun memories.

[Burton Olivier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jesus, they really went off the fucking rails with her story by the end of this volume. I had to skim over most of it, it was just too much bullshit. Maybe one day I'll actually read the whole thing but it hardly seems worth it.

I will maintain that the black one piece is the best costume Carol Danvers ever had though.

[Dan McNamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was pretty good. Lots of great issues of Ms. Marvel along with the costume change to the black suite with the thunderbolt. The Avengers #200 and Annual #10 was traumatizing to experience again but I’m glad that it’s over with and her character is better now.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything Chris Claremont touches is great. I was never a big Carol Danvers fan, but I enjoyed this. Much better than the new Ms. Marvel, although I am not exactly the target audience. And also, Avengers 200 was horrible. Although I’m pretty sure most were already aware.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun to finally read these, though the whole publication cancellation problem really made events feel a little twisted around.