Carol Danvers and the Changing Times: Captain Marvel #34 – September, 1974

Carol Danvers is back. Her role may be small, but the changes in her interactions with her soldiers are worth noting.

It's been about three years since Carol Danvers' last appearance in Avengers #93 – November 1971. However, even back then it was mostly a Skrull pretending to be her. One of the reasons for her absence is because she was a supporting character in the Captain Marvel comics which was canceled for a few years. When Captain Marvel came back (with an excellent plot by the way), Carol did not. Now she's back for a short appearance.

Now the very talented Jim Starlin is the new writer on Captain Marvel and he decided to bring back Carol Danvers. And through the situation that her character is in, you can see that second wave feminism is having a broad impact in the U.S.

We see that Carol and her subordinate, who doesn't even know how to address her, because obviously he doesn't know any other women who outranks him. So he just stutters and calls her boss-lady. Then he decides to call her by her first name, Carol. She corrects him and tells him to call her Miss Danvers. She adds: "I can't head up security on this job and be your friend, too!" Basically calling her by her first name implies a friendly relationship and not a military hierarchy relationship. Danvers puts him in his right place.

Carol complains that ever since Captain Marvel "foul-up at the cape, [she's] been on the spot with some four-star chauvinists -- so [she's] running this show tight". That's not exactly how it happened though. The problem is that Captain Marvel committed a crime on her base, but she defended him when it was illegal to do so. However, she is still a high ranking officer in the military; she should not be hearing any comments from her soldiers. Therefore, she is dealing with problems that only women deal with when they are working in places that are considered masculine. Even though she messed up, you would think that her soldiers will ease up after Mar-vell saved earth and the galaxy. It's impossible not to wonder if a man in her place will be treated in the same way. This is a very progressive depiction and that shows that second wave ideas are becoming more widespread.

And then Nitro shows up to steal compound thirteen which is under her responsibility.

This is Nitro we are dealing with, the human bomb. He explodes and knocks out Carol and her soldiers. But she is their equal. She may be described as a "rag doll," but her soldiers are described as "toys." They are all the same and have the same power when they are standing up to a super-villain.

After Nitro leaves, on his way he gets into an accident with another car. Rick Jones is in that car, so the standoff between Nitro and Captain Marvel is inevitable. However, Captain Marvel doesn't achieve victory and Nitro gets away.

Carol and her soldiers apparently recovered pretty fast because they arrive at the scene and find Mar-Vell alone. Carol becomes all emotional and is happy to see Mar-Vell and she's not very professional. Mar-Vell reminds her that what is really important is defeating Nitro. And she explains to him that Nitro stole compound thirteen, which is a form of a lethal biological weapon. As soon as he hears it, Mar-Vell runs off to stop Nitro.

Mar-Vell manages to defeat Nitro, but he is exposed to compound thirteen and passes out at the end of the issue.

This issue brings back Carol Danvers in an interesting way. Even though she's still too emotional when she sees Mar-Vell, we get to see her as a professional working woman in the army. Most importantly we get to see problems that are unique to women in the work place, something that we have not seen since her few first appearances in comics. We also see that she demands respect from her subordinates, something that has not happened before when she was mistreated. A small breeze of fresh air has been blown into her character.

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