Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #22
Monster and Marvel, Part 2
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) have discovered that recent biological oddities have been caused due to her being linked with an alien warrior known as Cru.[1] Taking Carol to Monster Island, the alien has physically linked with Danvers so it can separate bond between the two of them before the Brood return. However, Carol hears the insectoid creatures approaching and forcibly removes herself from the link. Unfortunately, Cru shut down Carol’s Ms. Marvel powers to separate themselves and all she has to defend herself is a large tree branch. She manages to club one of the Brood and steals their laser weapon and begins blasting the monsters. They ultimately, retreat taking Cru’s body with them. Still mind linked with Carol, Cru tells her that they need to find the body fast or they will both perish.
Meanwhile, back aboard the Operation: Lightning Storm mini-carrier, Rick Sheridan meets with the ship’s doctor. The doc has whipped up a device that can knock Rick out for up to three hours, allowing him to summon Sleepwalker from his mind whenever he is needed. The device works and knocks Rick out, allowing Sleepwalker to emerge from his mind. The doctor reminds the alien being of the 3 hour limit as well as a warning that the device cannot be used more than once every 24 hours or else it might cause Rick permanent brain damage. He explains that he didn’t tell this to Rick directly, because he worries too much already.
Elsewhere on the ship, Agent Dave Sum tries to convince Araña (Añya Corazon) to return home before her father throws a fit. However, Añya refuses to leave as she wants to help find Carol, especially after she rescued Añya from the puppet master.[2] When she suggests faking a quarantine to prolong her time with the team it inspires Agent Sum to try scanning for a trackable alien energy source to follow to Carol’s location. With the required data, they are able to track Cru down to Monster Island and set course to find Carol.
Meanwhile, Danvers has tracked the Brood back to their ship where they have also imprisoned various monsters as well as a group of the Mole Man’s Moloids. Seeing the Brood and potential infected, Cru’s mind attempts to seize control of Carol’s body. Carol tries to fight back and feels herself pulled into her mind again. Cru doesn’t understand why Carol is so reliant on her powers and so reluctant to use them to rule her planet. There, Carol finds herself face-to-face with her Ms. Marvel persona. The two are then showed how Cru became the warrior that she is today. Along the way through Cru’s memories, Ms. Marvel changes between her iconic appearance, to her Warbird persona, and lastly Binary. They watch in horror as Cru was forced to watch the death of her husband and children. Filled with a desire for revenge, she underwent the painful process of being turned into a living weapon to avenge their deaths.[3] Ms. Marvel tells Carol that they are both alike in the same way.
While Carol is making these discoveries, Cru has taken full control of her physical body and fighting her way to the Brood ship. Unfortunately, without Carol’s powers or her own, Cru is quickly incapacitated and taken prisoner. With Cru knocked out, Carol regains control of her body and discovers that she has been kept alive for the Brood Queen herself, who is somehow still alive even though Carol thought she had killed her years earlier![4]
Recurring Characters
Ms. Marvel, Cru, the Brood, Operation: Lightning Storm (Agent Dave Sum, Machine Man, Sleepwalker/Rick Sheridan) , Araña, Wonder Man, Chewie
Continuity Notes
This link happened when Ms. Marvel and Cru first fought in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #1-3.
The Puppet Master was recently kidnapping female superhumans, Araña being one of them. See Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #18-20. The reason why Dave is concerned about Añya’s father finding out is because he filed a restraining order against Ms. Marvel after his daughter was injured in a fight with the Doomsday Man in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #12.
Carol has undergone a few name and costume changes over the years and most of them are shown to her while reliving Cru’s memories. They are:
Carol in her iconic Ms. Marvel costume, which she started wearing in Ms. Marvel #20.
We also see her in her Binary form, an identity she took on in Uncanny X-Men #164. The cosmic powers she had in that form were the product of the Brood as much as Cru’s transformation was. As seen in Uncanny X-Men #163, Carol was actually experimented upon by the Brood, giving her these new powers.
Lastly, we see Carol in his Warbird persona. She took that name on in Avengers (vol. 3) #4. However, the costume she is wearing in this persona wasn’t adopted until Avengers (vol. 3) #65.
This Brood Queen, also known as the “Great Mother” first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #162. She attempted to turn Carol and the X-Men into Brood as that’s kind of the Brood’s whole thing. The X-Men seemingly stopped her using the power of the Acanti Prophet-Singer to turn her into crystal, as seen in Uncanny X-Men #166. This doesn’t explain the apparent appearances of the Great Mother in Contest of Champions II #1-4. See below.
Errors
This story incorrectly states that Monster Island is located in the Bermuda Triangle. However, most stories state that it is located in the Pacific since it first appeared in Fantastic Four #1. This isn’t the first story to make that mistake, as this was done in Fantastic Four #347-349. There could be two explanations for this mistake (if you wanted to get into no-prize territory) (1) Monster Island actually is two islands, one in the Pacific, the other in the Bermuda Triangle. Since the island is connected the Subterranea, perhaps the two islands are different ends of the same tunnel. (2) In the real world, the Bermuda Triangle is believed by some to be a place where strange things happen due to the fact that a number of ships and planes went missing in the area. It’s conspiratorial non-sense, but this infamy has bled over to popular fiction. Perhaps Monster Island occasionally shifts location to the Bermuda Triangle every once and a while. This is a fiction where the entire city of K’un-Lun disappears for a decade, so the idea that Monster Island occasionally blips over to the Bermuda Triangle every now and again isn’t that crazy.
The Brood Queen’s Continuity
In this story, we see the Brood Queen in the crystal form she was turned into in Uncanny X-Men #166. However, this doesn’t account for her appearances in Contest of Champions II #1-4, which was published between that story and this one. In that limited series, the Brood Queen appears to have reverted back to normal. She also tries to get revenge against Carol in that story by taking possession of Rogue and having them fight. They eventually defeat her and our heroes believe her destroyed. The Brood entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 confirms that this is indeed the same Brood Queen and not a successor or someone posing as her. It simply gives a handwave explanation that she briefly regained her new form for Contest 2, and eventually reverted back to her crystaline state.
Since she seemingly slew the Brood Queen in Contest of Champions II, we can assume the issue of Carol thinking her dead is a moot point. As for an explanation for her brief reversion to her non-crystal form, I guess we can chalk this up to a temporary cure of some kind.
