After the Moench/Broderick run of stories in 1979's Marvel Spotlight, which were inventory ( and an odd idea to launch a Showcase-style comic with a recently-cancelled hero; I could understand if it had been three or four years previously...), a standalone CM adventure was published.
Spotlight 4 features a Ditko fantasy tale where CM leads a rebellion against soul-stealing shadow monsters. It's a little like a 60s Dr. Strange tale. This is particularly interesting because just like Mar-Vell, Doc was transformed by Roy Thomas, in an attempt to boost sales, into an homage of a Golden Age hero ( the Vision, in this case). This comic however was plotted by Marv Wolfman and I suppose some of its ideas were embodied in Raven later that year in DC's NTT.
While a Ditko series of psychedelic adventures might've been a good direction, CM's fate was sealed in Marvel's very first Graphic Novel. This was more like the European album-style comics than the collections that we recognise today. Ironically, it's probably Mar-Vell's best and most important story, crafted by Jim Starlin, who revivified CM in the early 70s.
But what if... Jim Starlin hadn't received the go-ahead to use a dying title to establish his Thanos/Titan mythos? Clearly, Rick Jones was always the more engaging character in the series: he was used to comment on Vreeeland's Youthquake and then, the post-Altamont scene, tripping out like Englehart and Starlin themselves. Giving him Mar-Vell's powers directly might've been the better culmination of the Kree-Skrull War. But what if the Hulk's next sidekick, Jim Wilson, gained the Nega-Bands instead? I could easily see 1971-72 Marvel reviving the Golden Age Black Marvel persona for a more-Relevancy flavoured character.
Another awkward, stereotypical addition to the well-meaning white pantheon of ghetto super-heroes - a Brother from Another Planet- might not be the greatest idea. What if Steve Englehart - whose early work is often an homage to Thomas's stories -had substituted Mar-Vell for the woebegone Silver Surfer in the Defenders, one month before CM's revival in 1972?
Squint and this could just be a Defenders comic from the early Seventies
He seems like a far-better fit for the non-team with its divided characters: Namor the hybrid, Hulk, the split personality and then Valkyrie, the possessed madwoman. Mar-Vell's officer-class skills would perhaps unite a disparate crew of titans in a way Nighthawk never could.
But if Mar-Vell had never become the kozmic Kwai Chang Caine, then perhaps the Thanos saga would've played out in Iron Man instead and we'd still have had Avengers Infinity War. Maybe the green-skinned Drax the Destroyer would've become an Avenger in the Seventies. Certainly, the space-going aspects of the character that Starlin and Englehart made use of were more interesting than further earthbound exploits.
Yet, The Man Who Fell to Earth angle of CM's origin was revisited in the debut of DC's own Ziggy Stardust, the First Issue Special Starman. I finally read this comic in Burghead last summer. It's the story of blue-skinned Mikaal Tomas who fled his militaristic race to defend the Earth. Gerry Conway 's blatant Mar-Vell rip-off didn't catch on- unsurprisingly, given that Englehart, Thomas and Conway himself couldn't make a success of the concept at the House of Ideas. In the 90s and Noughties, James Robinson brought the character back in Starman and JLA (but it's the unrelated late-80s Starman who's resident in the latter series now.)
Mar-Vell had quite the legacy at Marvel, however: Without him. we wouldn't have the heroic dynasty that embraces three versions of Ms. Marvel; the 80s Captain Marvel, formerly Photon, Pulsar and now Spectrum; and his children Legacy/ Photon/ Capt. Marvel, Quasar/Martyr and Hulkling.
And of course it's the erstwhile, original Ms. Marvel who brought the name to the movie screen, (after her own odyssey as Binary and Warbird) and who has starred in three titles recently; her own book; the licensed IDW title Marvel Action ( where the Kree "weaponised" cuteness with the Flerkens) and Mravel Team-Up where Carol joined forces with her mentee Kamala against Walt Lawson from the very earliest issues of Mar-Vell's 60s series.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Coming soon: Star Trek, the Eleventh Doctor and Planet X
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