Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #21
Monster and Marvel, Part 1
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) has just been ambushed by Cru, and alien warrior she thought she had destroyed.[1] As she fights, her cell phone is knocked around enough that it goes to voice mail and Carol can hear the messages in the middle of her battle. The first one is from William Wagner, the man she has been dating recently. He says that he has been ghosting on her after a meeting with her agent, Sarah Day, and the photo of her kissing Wonder Man (Simon Williams) in the newspaper. However, he cuts it short not wanting to say what he has to say on voice mail. This is followed by a message from Wonder Man himself. He admits that he misses seeing Carol and wants to talk about the kiss they shared as well. As Agent David Sum — a member of Carol’s Operation: Lightning Storm team — rushes in to help her there is a third voice mail. This is from Sarah Day, who has called to warn Carol that she has recently become the target of Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson and they need to talk.[2] When Cru finally talks, Carol is surprised to hear that it is with a female voice.
Cru, meanwhile, turns its weapon on Agent Sum, blasting off all of the flesh from his upper torso. Machine Man (Aaron Stack) attempts to avenge his fallen comrade, but is sliced in half. Cru then grabs Carol and flies off. Miraculously, Agent Sum’s body regenerates and he is updated on the situation by Aaron.[3] They then rush to get Stack a Life Model Decoy (LMD) that he was given as part of his payment for joining up with Lightning Storm, as it is the only spare body around for him to repair himself with.
Meanwhile, Carol Danvers has been pulled into her mind where she meets and speaks with a version of Cru. It shows her images of Cru’s home world and tries to explain that they are linked. Danvers isn’t interested in hearing anything and wants to Cru to get out of her mind. Despite Cru’s protests Carol forces herself out of the mindscape. When she wakes up she finds herself on a tropical island with Cru laying lifeless on the ground next to her. As she tries to make sense of where she, Carol is attacked by a giant creature and realizes that she has been stranded on Monster Island!
Back aboard the mini-carrier, Araña (Añya Corazon) has spent her time trying to find Carol’s cat, Chewie, but can’t find him anywhere. When she Añya goes to see if Agent Sum has seen the feline, she arrives just as he is finishing attaching Aaron Stack’s head to a new body. Araña is shocked to see that a LMD version of Monica Rambeau’s old Captain Marvel costume. Sum then calls SHIELD and asks Maria Hill to put him in touch with Director Tony Stark. Unfortunately, Tony is unavailable to take his call.[4] That’s when Wonder Man arrive and says that Sum’s troubles getting Avengers assistance has to do with the recent change in codes and that using the old codes makes everyone edgy. However, the reason why is top secret and Simon can’t talk about it.[5]
On Monster Island, Carol finds herself running for her life but ends up surrounded by a group of monsters. That’s when Cru appears and starts defending her. The alien tells Carol that they need to undo their link as it will make them more powerful than before. After a moment’s hesitation, Carol agrees to link with Cru so it can finish the process of detangling themselves from one another. As she works, Carol enters Cru’s mind again and sees how the Brood wiped out her world. Cru hopes that she can finish the needed work before the Brood can track them both down. Little do they know that the Brood have arrived and have their physical bodies surrounded.
Recurring Characters
Ms. Marvel, Operation: Lightning Storm (Agent Dave Sum, Machine Man), Cru, Wonder Man, Araña, Brood, Maria Hill, William Wagner (voice), Sarah Day (voice)
Continuity Notes
Carol and Cru last battled in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #1-3. The fight ended with Cru seemingly being destroyed in an explosion. However, readers saw that Cru wasn’t quite dead as their body has been reforming in Earth orbit this entire time.
Carol’s romance with Will, her kiss with Simon, and the Daily Bugle are all intertwined, so let’s break it down:
Carol first met William Wagner in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #9 and the two went on two dates in issues #11 and 15. He was called into a meeting with Sarah Day in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #16 where she blackmailed him to stay away from Carol because of his past. We’ll learn in issue #25 that he’s actually a Kree sleeper agent.
Wonder Man has been carrying a torch for Carol since Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #6. In issue #15-16 he was mind controlled by MODOK and Carol was forced to kiss him to break MODOK’s hold. This was photographed by a bystander who….
Sold it to the Daily Bugle, landing it on the front page. Sarah Day has been trying to do damage control over it since issue #18. Carol has no idea that it has been published yet.
According to Marvel Comics #1001, this is not the real Machine Man but an impostor. The real Aaron Stack had gone into space to live with the Celestials in X-51 #12, with this impostor turning up in Nextwave #1. As of this writing (May, 2024), the reason why this impostor was posing as Machine Man has yet to be revealed.
At the time of this story, Iron Man is preoccupied dealing with the Mandarin as seen in Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #21-26.
He is hinting at the fact that Iron Man had just recently learned that there have been Skrulls infiltrating positions of power on Earth. See Mighty Avengers #6. This is all part of a larger invasion of Earth that will take place in Secret Invasion #1-8.
Topical Referneces
Carol’s cell phone is depicted as have physical buttons and an antenna. While these styles of phones were quite common in 2008 when this issue was first published, they have fallen out of popular use thanks to the advent of smart phones. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.