Splitting The Difference

From Ms. Marvel #21, page 8:

Carol Danvers: We're the same person. I am Ms. Marvel. It's just a costume --

Cru: Questioning: How you lead life you do, and believe that?

So what does that mean? It seems to suggest that Carol, unknowingly or not, divides herself into two people, Ms. Marvel and Carol Danvers, and that the two are very different, and will approach things differently. It's probably true, since in #19 she tells Rick Sheridan that's she only Ms. Marvel when the costume is on, which certainly suggests a division in her mind. Is it really there? I'm going to poke through my issues from this year (so starting at #11) and see if anything jumps out.

Well, in #11, Carol has gone on a date with the mysterious William Wagner, and they've made it back to her apartment, and Carol hears a noise. She immediately shifts to her costume, and finds Arana and an AIM agent in her bedroom. It seems as though when the Ms. Marvel part of life comes into play, all "Carol" stuff just has to get set aside until it's convenient. When William asks her to call him later, when everything's OK, Ms. Marvel says 'I promise', but she's off panel at the time. Then in the next panel she's standing with Arana and the AIM agent, but William's nowhere to be seen. Ms. Marvel did try to call him, during a fight with Battleaxe, but that makes it seem as though she's just fitting him in where she can.

In #14, it's Carol that's telling Tony Stark she wants to help Julia Carpenter, and when she tells Julia she's going to help her, she's in costume, but not wearing the mask. Then in #15 she has a dream about a date with Mr. Wagner, only it ends with her waking up next to (ugh) Wonder Man (in the dream, not in reality). She's not in costume, but she is wearing a shirt that says "Property of the Avengers". That actually reminds me a little of Buffy wanting to have steadfast Riley Finn around to talk to, but being more attracted to the Angels and Spikes of the world. Carol likes to get out of the superhero world for awhile, but Ms. Marvel is too big a part of life for that to seemingly work out.

Following that, we have the MODOK story, where the end consists of Carol blowing off some steam by punching a piece of metal (since she'd punched right through a standard heavy bag two issues earlier, while sort of wearing the costume. It was a tube top sort of setup. No idea how to interpret that.) At any rate, Carol's hands actually bleed from punching the metal, while Ms. Marvel hadn't bled in any of the recent issues.

It seems as though Carol is more vulnerable than Ms. Marvel, and more eager to talk. When she wanted to check on Arana after the Doomsday Man skirmish, Arana's father yelled at her and she retreated in the face of his anger. She stood there dumbfounded when Maria Hill may have implied Carol was getting her freak on with Director Stark. She seems more willingly to express the doubts she had about rounding up heroes during Civil War when she's in civilian garb. She tries to mend relationships more readily, while Ms. Marvel seems more aggressive, confident certainly, a lot like Spider-Man back in the old days, only Carol's not nearly so timid as "puny Parker" was. It's certainly not a complete division, because Ms. Marvel doesn't just resort to violence right off the bat. When dealing with mind-controlled Wonder Man, or Tigra & Silverclaw, she wanted to talk initially, and struck back when it became obvious that talk wasn't going to solve things, but she was willing to stand there and little Puppet Master blow himself up, and she was about to kill Doomsday Man at one point. Hmm, does Carol seem to be fighting a lot of people who want to die (Doomsday Man), or are near death (MODOK, Puppet Master)?

The dichotomy certainly seems to exist in her relationships. Wonder Man seems as excluded from Carol's life, as William Wagner is from Ms. Marvel's. After the kiss incident, Simon wants to see if Carol wants to do something later, and Carol politely declines, and tells him maybe he should take a few days off, get away from the helicarrier for a bit, in other words, get away from her. So I think Carol really is two separate people in a sense, and she either isn't aware of that, or tries to deny it. I wonder which is the more uncommon situation amongst the capes as a whole.

The one thing I'm uncertain about is why Ms. marvel always takes her mask off to interrogate prisoners. She does it when they captured the Scientist Supreme, and those Chilean soldiers. Of course, she is usually trying to get information, so perhaps the friendlier, Carol approach, works better.