Customer Reviews

The Death of Captain Marvel (Marvel Premiere Classic)

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There's a tendency to dismiss the comic book industry as being hopelessly juvenile with an infantile addiction to graphic violence and adolescent sexual imagery. Unfortunately, in some cases, this is a correct assessment. But then there are the other, too often ignored comics that transcend such self-imposed limitations. The Death of Captain Marvel is one such example.

Originally published in 1982, this was the first of Marvel's graphic novels and it has been said, quite correctly, that it revolutionized an industry that had started to grow fatally stagnant. Just as the title says, Jim Starlin's wonderfully written and illustrated novel details the last days of Marvel mainstay Capt. Marr-Vell (an alien better known as Capt. Marvel in one of those delightful comic book coincidences). After years of battling various cosmic foes of all size and evil, Marvel finds himself felled by that most human and realistic of diseases. He had cancer and a great deal of this graphic novel examines how his super powered friends react to the death of one of their own from a disease that could have afflicted any of them. Though Starlin allows for a bit of the expected super heroic melodrama, overall the Death of Captain Marvel is distinguished by a quiet, contemplative mood as Marvel deals with his impending death. In the end, its rather touching and truly thought provoking.

The term graphic novel is one that gets mocked. It sometimes seems to reek of fanboy pretension. The Death of Captain Marvel reminds us of what a graphic novel was originally supposed to be. A comic book, yes, but a comic book for adults -- a comic book that eschewed the melodrama and absurdities of a monthly title and instead used the format to say something truly special. The Death of Captain Marvel more than lives up to that promise.

A humane farewell to one of the finest character in the Marvel Universe. Captain Mar-Vell is depicted as a person who has to deal with cancer. Does he just give-up everything he stands for, or continue protecting the innocent and unjust? The answer comes in the form of Thanos... How will this end?

Jim Starlin provide a staggering story of facing an enemy that cannot be defeated. The guest appeareace of The Avengers and some of the Marvel Universe characters should attract most of the superheroes readers, but this time Starlin's depicted them in a more human perspectives. Try it out! You'll love it!

Unlike Superman, there was no miraculous return from the grave for Captain Marvel. Nor did Marvel die a heroic death in battle while saving the universe. But then he didn't need to, for he had already fought that great battle- against Thanos, the Titan who had become God Himself, and who sought to deliver the totality of Creation unto Death Herself....

No, Captain Marvel had already fought his great battles and was enjoying the hard-won fruits of semi-retirement. He had finally found the peace, and the love, that had eluded him for so long. And then he was diagnosed with what is known on Titan as Inner Decay, and among the Kree as Blackend- and on Earth as... Cancer.

Yet, the Captain faced this last foe with courage and dignity that put the rest of the Marvel Universe to shame. Hero after hero, from Captain America to Thor, came to wonder at the dignity and nobility with which the Captain faced a foe that could not be defeated. No, Marvel wasn't tired of living- he made that abundantly clear- but when he knew his time was done he accepted it. Not only that, he made sure that the comrades and loved ones around him accepted- and learned- from his example.

Of course, in a way, Marvel was the best prepared of any of the heroes for this final journey. After all, the bombastic Captain Mar-vell, super-soldier of the mighty Kree Empire had died once before- to be reborn as Captain Marvel, the cosmically conscious warrior champion of the entire universe. This was because Mar-vell had faced death once before with pride and power and ego- and he had failed.... After that, he was taken to a place beyond space and time by the being named Eon. Under the direction of this being, created by Kronos, the Cosmic Balance, some eight billion years before, Mar-vell the soldier died, or at least his colossal pride and ego did. After facing his inner demons, he was reborn as the champion of all-things. This was possible since he was now cosmically aware and he knew that he was truly part of all-things. The Universe had crystallized out an antidote for ultimate evil in its time of need- a cosmic champion.

You don't really have to he familiar with the saga of Mar-vell to enjoy this story. It is all spelled out right here. While I know of a number of graphic stories as good as this one, I really don't know of any that are BETTER than this one.

If there is one thing that comics do badly, it is the very concept of mortality. Characters die and are revived with such numbing regularity that the reader no longer equates it with the end. And those that don't die just live forever: Spider-Man debuted in in the early 60s but has yet to reach his 30th birthday.

The Death of Captain Marvel is the exception: a powerful, moving story about a hero realizing the limitations of his own power and learning to accept that his time in this world is really coming to an end. It is beautifully drawn and extraordinarily well-written. Even those not familiar with the character will be touched, I think.

Purportedly the top guys at Marvel Comics decided to kill off the Captain Marvel character, which had never been a big seller, in favor of a new version and asked Starlin, who had done a highly regarded run with the character in the 70s, to do it. The expectation was that Captain Marvel would die saving the universe in some epic battle for the company's new Graphical novel series.

Starlin took a completely different and much more sober-minded route. While revisiting the site of one of his greatest battles the Captain collapses and later discovers that he has an advanced form of cancer. His super-powered friends begin work on a cure for him but Captain Marvel stoically realizes it may already be too late and begins tying up the loose ends of his life, visiting old friends and loves to break the news. Ironically many take the news worse than he does. Eventually he gets sicker and sicker and, surrounded by his friends, just passes away. The end.

It was jarring and unprecedented for comics then and still highly unusual today.

This version pads the book out with a story from the 70s Captain Marvel series that relates to how he got cancer in the first place as well as a pair of stories not written or drawn by Starlin that apparently came out just before the graphic novel. None of them are bad, but they don't have the heft or force of the main story.

This was not Marvel's first graphic novel. There are many other story arcs that can be put forward for that claim. (I'm partial to the 12 part Dr. Strange story in Strange Tales 130-141, myself.) It was the first to be marketed as such in 1982's Marvel Graphic Novel: The Death of Captain Marvel.

The story revolves around superhero Captain Marvel (Marvel's version, of course, not the classic Fawcett/DC version) putting his affairs in order as he succumbs to cancer. It is written and drawn by Jim Starlin. It is a credit to Starlin's writing ability that such a simple and depressing premise can be made so compelling and indeed uplifting without the feeling that the 60 pages of story are at all padded.

Captain Marvel had always been at best a B list hero in Marvel's pantheon. Starlin run on Captain Marvel was by far the highlight of that series. Here in one prolonged death sequence Starlin ends the life of Captain Marvel in a very original (for superhero comics, that is) manner. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory he goes out quietly and with such dignity you can almost feel his strength of character being passed on to the assembled Marvel heroes.

Beyond the graphic novel proper (with its great Michelangelo homage cover) this hard cover collects Captain Marvel 34 and Marvel Spotlight 1 and 2. These really don't add much to the novel. They are tangential at best. They merely serve as padding to justify a hardcover edition. Even then the retail asking price is rather steep but this great story deserves hardcover treatment.

The only extra is a reproduction of the trade paperback wraparound cover.

Highly recommended.

While there are many superb graphic novels out there, 'The Death of Captain Marvel' belongs in the minority category of graphic novels that are timeless classics. I have yet to read another TPB that stands up to this one.

Captain Marvel faces an enemy he can't defeat: cancer. And that's exactly what gives this story its veracity: its closeness to humanity. Cancer is a horrible monster that we all know about, and sadly and grimly, undefeatable (or at least for the forseeable future). A superhero who faces such a monster is truly a touch of genius.

Like one of the reviewers said before, you don't need to know about the entire continuum of Captain Marvel's "story-verse" because it's all explained in the story. A stroke of genius.

It's a shame I can't go back to my youth for this review.

I read the Death of Captain Marvel about 25 years ago, and it really moved me.

Remembering that, I looked for it again, and ordered the hardcover edition. My old copy was lost in a move.

Well, it just didn't do as much for me. I think it was the deaths in my real life that have taken away the impact. Still, Starlin is a great writer, and I do recommend it. Perhaps, it will mean to you, what it used to mean to me.

There are a handful of works that transcend their genre and elevate it to new heights. Miller's Dark Knight Returns, Moore's Watchmen, Claremont's X-Men God Loves Man Kills. And this one. Jim Starlin in order to deal with the death of his mother creates the implausible first graphic novel Marvel produced.

There are no real battles in this, just a man facing death, which is so often not permanent in superhero continuity. Facing it with his friends, and even some enemies, yet at the end alone, with grace and dignity. Starlin makes this understated work in which very little happens interesting, heart touching and uplifting. A real challenge for a story about a superhero losing his battle with cancer. Though there were adult stories being told outside of Marvel/DC and even some within the two superhero giants you could arguably point to this work as the point at which it became commercially acceptable to tell stories of import that had final resolutions.

AS AN AVID COMC BOOK FAN SINCE THE AGE OF TWO, I REALLY KNOW COMICS AND SUPERHEROES. YOU EXPECT COMIC BOOK HEROES TO LIVE FOREVER, AFTER ALL-THEY'RE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS!!!! BUT TRUST ME, THAT IS NOT THE CASE WITH THIS BOOK. IT GRIPES YOU FROM THE FIRST FEW PAGES AND MAKES THE READER REFLECT ON THEIR OWN MORTALITY. IT HAS SUBSTANCE AND AFTER AWHILE YOU FORGET YOU'RE EVEN READING A COMIC BOOK!!!! I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE WHO READS, NO MATTER YOU AGE OR RACE. YOU WILL BE MOVED BY THIS BOOK.