Sunday Splash Page #368

"Werecat Combat," in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #19, by Brian Reed (writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciler), Matt Ryan (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

One aspect of House of M was that Ms. Marvel was the "world's greatest hero" (whatever that means), because that was apparently the specific desire Carol Danvers had, that the Scarlet Witch granted. This volume was, in theory, Carol trying to make that a reality once the event was over.

In practice, it never comes around, at least not in the two years I bought the title (roughly half its 50 issue run.) Which could have been the point, I suppose. You don't set out to be the world's greatest hero, you just keep showing up to help and maybe one day it turns out you've become the world's greatest. If that was Brian Reed's goal, I dropped the book long before he got to it.

The biggest issue was, Civil War started up early in the book's run, and Carol sided wholeheartedly with ol' Tony Stank. Going so far as to team up with that dolt Wonder Man to run down and capture other heroes, like Julia Carpenter (going as either Arachne or still Spider-Woman at the time), and the Shroud (this might constitute the last time the Shroud was depicted as both sane and competent, depending on how you rate his two-issue appearance in Heroes for Hire vol. 3's Fear Itself tie-ins)

Reed never provided a reason for Danvers siding with the pro-reg forces I found believable (actually, I don't even remember what the justifications were now), and it's not easy for me to enjoy a book where I don't particularly care for the main character, and honestly like it when shit rains down on them.

Beyond that, I mostly recall vague impressions of what went on. Arana was positioned as an apprentice to Carol, seemingly mostly so she could be hurt by Doomsday Man to make Carol angry (and Arana's dad angry at Carol later.) There was something with a blue, tentacled alien that left a part of itself in Carol that let her heal faster. She got a SHIELD sponsored strike team that included Machine Man (Reed using the NextWave version that drinks heavily and insists on being called "Aaron") and Sleepwalker. Which is why I still had the issue the above page is from, as it's the one where, as part of undercover work, Aaron "disguises" himself with a big, bushy, sloppy handlebar mustache.

What can I say? It tickled my fancy.

That storyline involved Puppet Master setting himself up like a warlord in Chile, putting a bunch of superheroes under his control. The comic does not get into what he's using them for besides security, but come on, he only caught women superheroes, I feel like we're meant to connect the dots. Carol shakes his control (thanks to the alien thing), and then, when she has a chance to capture Puppet Master, lets him blow himself up instead, confident the unknown healing thing will protect her.

Which I wouldn't necessarily object to, except she has no idea how big a blast he plans to set off, and her team was still evacuating all the people Masters abducted, and had given no sign everyone was clear. He kidnapped a lot of average joes, what if they couldn't run fast enough? More annoying, even as Reed writes Carol's internal narration as her being willing to make tough choices and live with consequences, he has her lie to her team about what happened, saying she didn't have time to stop Puppet Master.

If she's willing to live with the consequences, why not have her lay it out, coldly and clinically, and use that as a springboard? How does her team react, does it hurt or help her standing with them? (I suspect Aaron wouldn't care, but Sleepwalker's human half almost certainly would be uneasy about it.)

Again, maybe that was all leading to some big epiphany for Carol, but it left a bad taste in my mouth, and after the Civil War mess, I wasn't inclined to cut the character (or Reed) much slack. When the book was about to start Secret Invasion tie-ins, I decided it was time to bail out, though I clearly should have done it sooner.