MS MARVEL versus PROWLER

Battle Lines (Marvel)
Where: Ms. Marvel #6 When: October 2006
Why: Brian Reed How: Roberto De La Torre

The Story So Far...
When super-villains fleeing the New Warriors caused the destruction of Stamford, Connecticut and deaths of thousands, the US government is mobilized to create the Superhuman Registration Act. Supported by prominent figures, like Iron Man, the act makes it law for super-powered individuals to divulge their personal details and enlist as part of a fully sanctioned force.

Some heroes follow the example of Captain America, opposing the invasive authoritarian action by going underground. To apprehend and detain these rogue individuals, SHIELD deploys a task force nicknamed the CapeKillers, along with registered heroes such as Ms. Marvel. With suspicions of a mole working within their ranks, the Unlicensed Hero Recovery Team targets The Prowler!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Ms. Marvel 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Prowler 3 (Straight A)
Speed: Ms. Marvel 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Ms. Marvel 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Prowler 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Ms. Marvel 4 (Trained)
Energy: Ms. Marvel 5 (Lasers)
Total: Ms. Marvel 29 (Metahuman)

The Civil War event of 2006 made strange bedfellows & brawls out of a divided superhero community. We're going back to check out one of those curious asides directly caused by the Superhuman Registration Act!

Ms. Marvel has a long history with the United States Air Force and SHIELD, making it unsurprising she was on the side of government registration and regulation during Civil War. It was during her service with the Air Force when Carol Danvers was accidentally caught in an explosion that imbued her with hybrid alien genetics. Exposure to the Kree hero Captain Marvel meant she gained super-human strength, stamina, durability, and the power of flight.

After fighting the renegade Secret Avengers during the initial conflict [Civil War #3]; Ms. Marvel was assigned to the Unlicensed Hero Recovery Team, formed to track down and detain costumed vigilantes still operating without authorization.

One such unauthorized target was the original Prowler!

Hobie Brown first donned the purple & green costume of The Prowler to stage crimes he would later appear to solve in his civilian identity. After a robbery at the Daily Bugle escalated to violence, he was turned away from crime by Spider-man, turning his skills in engineering to become a force for good.

Prowler possesses no super-human abilities, but his costumed is equipped with various inventions of his own design, such as talon-like climbing gloves, various pneumatic weapons, and a reinforced but flexible suit. He's at home tackling the riffraff of New York City - but out of his weight class against Ms. Marvel!

This is the first time we're seeing Prowler in action, but we've seen Ms. Marvel demonstrate her power against big time threats like: Symbiote possessed Avengers [New Avengers #36], the Dormammu possessed Hood [New Avengers #54], and an Agamotto possessed giant Luke Cage [New Avengers #2]!

Prowler's only hope is to use speed, agility, and the familiarity of the city to try to turn the tables on the super-humanly strong Marvel! Good luck!

The Tape: Ms. Marvel Ranking: Ms. Marvel (#84)

What Went Down...
Choppers fill the night sky over New York City, casting a light upon the shadows that are home to Manhattan's scum and villainy. On this night, the criminal is not the usual breed. As the gliding form of Ms. Marvel exits the helicopters, use of force is authorized against a man whose only crime is not being registered.

Prowler is informed of his violation of the Superhuman Registration Act and ordered to stand down. Ms. Marvel hovers over him as he expresses disbelief for his government's reaction to efforts to help people. Like so many of his crime-fighting brethren -- Prowler chooses to go down fighting!

Pneumatically propelled explosives fire from Prowler's gauntlet, detonating against the alley wall behind Ms. Marvel. The hovering hero has no trouble evading, repositioning to return fire with cosmically charged consequences!

The energy bolt finds its target. Any hope of escape is thwarted. Prowler hits the cement - hard! An instant kayo as SHIELD Cape-Killers descend upon the alley to take the neutralized target into custody.

The Hammer...
So much for an upset! Prowler was always going to be outclassed against the might of Ms. Marvel, but who knew it would be such a devastating defeat? Such were the unflinching tactics used during the bitter conflict of Civil War!

A harsh Secret Wars on Infinite Earths debut for Prowler - but a no less welcome one! You may've seen another Prowler in the animated theatrical release, Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse, but this here is the bona fide original!

Prowler is technically the first character conceived by artist John Romita Jr, who submitted the design to his father John Romita Sr, and Stan Lee, when he was just thirteen years old! The result is a cult character who debuted in 1969, and has gone on to capture the imagination of generations of readers!

There must be something about that combination of purple and green that just tickles a child's mind. I'd drawn a similar figure in my own childhood, and thought Prowler was pretty cool once I discovered him some time after. I even bought an action figure when the character joined Spidey animated series line!

Not such an easy sell for Ms. Marvel. Carol Danvers will become a household name in March when Captain Marvel is released theatrically -- but it wasn't too long ago she was toiling in easily overlooked supporting roles, suffering from a strong of also-ran revamps, and changing identities.

Even during the conceited rebuild of the 2000s, it was easy to think of Ms. Marvel as a slightly dull and uninteresting character. The Warbird years seemed to work at creating an identity entirely distinct from Mar-Vell, but the slightly damaged militant affiliated with the Avengers and SHIELD could read quite dry.

I was never all that enticed by the flaming figure of Binary, who just didn't seem as cool as Phoenix or others, but the black suited Warbird often seemed like an over correction, existing too far from the character's colourful cosmic origins, still dogged by a sense of being a no-fun holdover from the seventies.

Captain Marvel's iconic death arguably should've freed his successor to inherit the legacy as fully as she has now. Instead, the burden of being a gender-swapped derivative of another hero seemed to persist, while upstarts like Genis-Vell, Marvel Boy, and Quasar were created to capitalize on Mar-Vell's legacy.

It wasn't necessarily an obvious move to relaunch a Ms. Marvel solo series in 2006, but EIC Joe Quesada, and Avengers writer Brian Bendis, seemed pretty determined to restore some of Marvel's seventies icons to their former glory.

Bets were hedged, relegating Danver's solo adventures to second & third tier guest characters and alternate realities, but the underrated hard work of Brian Reed and his collaborators helped get the character to where she is now. And let's be honest: Ms. Marvel throwing down with the likes of Prowler, Shroud, and Arachne might not make headlines -- but you know I'm gonna dig it.

The fight with Prowler plays as a nice pre-credits action sequence, getting the issue rolling into the Civil War tie-in. Itself another interesting, seemingly counter-intuitive facet, given the positioning of Carol Danvers as an antagonistic agent of the government's pro-registration, anti-vigilante hardline. Civil War had its arguments for both sides, but the romantic heart of the superhero concept was always to favour of Captain America, and the anti-registration side.

Regardless of divisions: the Marvel Universe is clearly better for having Carol Danvers in it, and I'll be looking forward to returning for more battles from Ms. Marvel's history in the coming months!

If you want more Ms. Marvel in your universe, you can find today's featured fight in multiple collected editions! Amazon purchase links are provided for your convenience, but shopping with them also ensures Amazon will support the site at no extra cost to you! Marvelous!

Find more classic combat and bigger battles by diving into the Secret Archive of every featured fight! Follow on Twitter and Facebook for daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day!

Winner: Ms. Marvel
#53 (+31) Ms. Marvel
#870 (new) Prowler

QUICK FIX DOUBLE FEATURE: Secrets Illuminated!
TONY STARK versus SKRULLS
(Marvel)
Where: New Avengers: Illuminati #1 When: February 2007 Why: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed How: Jim Cheung

Quick Fix...
With the total lack of recent purchases, you'd be forgiven for missing the supposed underlying theme of reflection in the Infinite Wars. Apparently, or so Haseloff keeps trying to tell us, the Infinite Wars are attempting to reflect the year as a sort of obscure, sport league style time capsule.

Icelandic pop sensation, Björk, theorises that there's an inevitable tangibility between all decisions made within the space of a year. That regardless of conceit or design, hindsight will reveal a commonality between all events and junctions within the span of a certain time period. Obviously one has to allow the opportunity for transition, but it's a nice way of supposing that even without a weekly bombardment of spent pennys, the Infinite Wars remain relevant by accident.

Long winded introductions aside, today we are looking at a couple of issues that very much represent a force from within 2007. Though divided they were on both sides of the Civil War, and it was their actions that led to World War Hulk.
In case you've been living under a rock, or been victim to their conspiracy, I explicitly refer to them as The Illuminati!

I would begrudgingly acknowledge the subtle brilliance of retro-fitting a secret super-society of intellectuals and power players into the Marvel Universe. It's with some chagrin, because lord knows we haven't yet learnt to stop worrying, and love the Bendis -- particularly where the milieu of the Marvel history is concerned.

Fortunately this mini-series that explores the team introduced in the pages of the first incarnation of New Avengers, carries with it the placebo of co-writer, Brian Reed. Yes, that's co-writer. Brian. Reed. Something I feel the need to put particularly emphasis on, because even the most credible sources seem to be completely dismissing Reed's involvement, to talk, good and bad, about Bendis.
I, of course, will only be talking bad about him.

If you place any weight on the reviews hidden beneath our fight club antics, then it's a damn good thing I've waited nearly a full year to review these issues, because the immediate reaction was not good. Not good, at all.

Essentially the only linking qualities of this series is the conspiratorial nature of the team, and the way these pages lift the curtain on their operations. Stories feature events from present and past, illuminating subtle reprieves experienced, and yet to come. And it's that future aspect that makes leaving this review until now such an important quality.

We now know in intimiate detail that a Skrull invasion is coming to the Marvel Universe, and it's in the pages of this first issue that we learn much of the history involved. Sure, the Skrulls have always had a naughty desire to invade our planet, but the Illuminati's behind-the-scenes intervention during the 1980's crossover event, The Skrull-Kree War, highlights a personalized layer to this latest incursion. Not only that, it reveals how the Skrulls may have found ways to evade the most efficient of detection means, including; Dr. Strange's mystic prowess, Mr. Fantastic's technology, and Wolverine's nasal dexterity!

We're still running late so to spin things along; essentially the gang teleport into a Skrull mothership, tell the Skrulls to bugger off and never come back, and then set Black Bolt on them for some Inhuman killer-karaoke. Chaos ensues, the team struggle to escape, and after Namor enjoys a slightly premature and psychotic celebration of the carnage, find themselves captured.

As though they'd been swapping architectural recipes with Dr. Doom, the Skrulls just happen to have a set of customized traps ready to incapacitate the Illuminati. A giant barbecue for Namor; a massive bondage machine for Reed Richards; the usual odds and sods once keeps on an evil alien spacecraft.

We enter the scene with a naked Tony Stark; the most easily debilitated of the team, given the removable nature of his power source.
In between fighting off the shrinking chill of deep space, and dealing with a heart condition maintained by constant use of his armor, Stark finds himself confronted by a rescue brigade of Avengers. Cool! Nah?

See, the problem with running a secret club behind the backs of your mates is, when you get captured by shape-changing space aliens, noone knows where you are to save you. This was the eighties, too, so you can forget text messaging.

Being a pretty seasoned chap, Stark is full aware of the Skrull's cerebral warefare, and sees through the ruse, incurring the wrath of Skrull-Thor.

In an illness defying scene of Rocky 4 proportions; Stark proves he's more than tin cans and string, opening an addictive can of whoop ass on those Skrully bastards. A roundhouse and a few naked spin-kicks later (try not to visualize), and Stark stands triumphant.

I've got whole other issue to talk about yet, so I might just abruptly wrap this up here with the picture of naked Stark. Sure, that's maybe not what you came here for. Maybe that's not what the major sites are doing. Maybe that's just a little too cutting edge for you, but you know what? That's what I do.

The Fix: 3.5 The Issue: 4
Winner: Tony Stark

This first issue of the Illuminati mini-series details events occuring behind the scenes of the Skrull-Kree War. Though it's by no means required reading to appreciate the short amount of story contained within the issue, it wouldn't hurt to splurge this Christmas and get some history before the Invasion! Know the enemy!

---

NAMOR/STRANGE/XAVIER versus THE MIND GEM
(Marvel)
Where: New Avengers: Illuminati #2 When: March 2007 Why: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed How: Jim Cheung

Quick Fix...
I mentioned in the previous fix initial concerns that were central to my first reading of the first couple of issues, and to a certain degree they remain.

Essentially these first issues, while very nice in concept, deliver little that we haven't seen before. Before knowing the specifics of the coming Skrull invasion, one could be forgiven for panning the series as a dull tour through retroactive history, devoid of any real purpose or scope.

Unfortunately, there remains a hint of truth to this assessment, even with a greater goal in mind. Certainly as an element that was introduced through a special, there was a lot of unexplored territory in the Illuminati's clandestine operations, but invariably one can't help but feel there needs to be more at work, even in the asthetics, than a tour through neo history.

Staring down this issue's cover, it would be unfair to say the book was without repercussions. Inherently the title immediately fails if it alters established history, but by playing with the present, the Illuminati are conceptually enabled as they gather the veritable pandora's box of power that is the Infinity Gauntlet -- another call back to the eighties and nineties of Marvel event comics.

Those who don't know Brian Reed may adopt an air of cyncial suspicion when they learn his entry into comics essentially came from penning the Ultimate Spider-man game with his Illuminati co-writer, Brian "How much for the rabbits?*" Bendis.

Reed has since entrenched himself in the Marvel writing staff with a sturdy run on the well sponsored, but inherently B-list, Ms. Marvel solo-title.
Continuing the theme, Reed has now expanded into even less admirable territory, taking up the writing chores of the resurrected, and conceptually maligned, Captain Marvel. More surprising than that, some say he's actually doing a pretty damned good job of it, too.

Now, I'm going to attempt to bend logic in ways even the infinity gauntlet would struggle to do, but stay with me here. We devolve into an abridged version of the Brian Reed history, because there's an important note to be made of Illuminati.

Given the collection of characters involved and the conceptual potential of their adventures, New Avengers: Illuminati does read dramatically under par, but even so, it holds on to a steady mediocre because of reasonably solid characterization. A skill monsieuer Reed appears to have adopted from his contemporary writing partner, who also, despite repeatedly bashing his chromed head against a wall built of his weaknesses, is undeniably competent when characterization is concerned.

Though not especially shown off by this particular scene, these slightly underhanded compliments lead us to our battle in-question, featuring the [spontaneously fan-favourite] Sub-Mariner, Professor X, and Dr. Strange.

Attempting to traverse sub-spacial concept, the trio split from their fellows in the hopes of obtaining the Mind Gem. Having apparently lodged itself outside of reality, into the collective consciousness of the universe, the Mind Gem is not without it's defenses against those who would use it's power for evil.

In an apparent sea of awareness, Dr. Strange warns Namor to pluck the crippled Professor into airborne safety as a giant acquatic behemoth bursts from the blue [pictured above].

Picking up on Dr. Strange's philosophical descriptions of the plane in which they stand, Namor recognises that the potent reality created within the Mind Gem may in fact be of his own doing. Thus, Namor does what he does best, barrelling head-first into the maw of peril!

Namor disappears into the beast's gullet, earning a dramatic "NOOOO!" from Dr. Strange. As if he needs an excuse to be theatrical. Oh yes. Went there!

Not surprisingly, Namor re-emerges from the sea-creature, and gets down to a good socking, while Dr. Strange lends the vital assist with some magickery.
Professor Xavier should be noted as present, but hopefully to the delight of the feminists, purely in the role conventionally occupied by the damsel in distress.

The Fix: 3.5 The Issue: 4
Winner: Sub-Mariner (w/ Dr. Strange)

It's 2:30am, so I shant delay in wrapping this up. If you're done with the Kree-Skrull War, and you want to read-up for some more perspective, move your Christmas purchases on to the Infinity Gauntlet, which inspired the beautiful Jim Cheung cover here. Lots of love to Reed and the gang, and stay tuned for more Infinite Wars, Friday!

*Not an actual nickname for Brian Bendis.