Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #34
Now…
Fugitives from the law, Carol Danvers (aka Ms. Marvel), Rick Mason (aka the Agent), and Michael Rossi are trying to stop terrorist Rashid Ghazi from using something called Ascension after it was given to him by Norman Osborn.[1] Carol enlists the aid of her friend Spider-Man (Peter Parker) who has something in a storage locker at Grand Central Station, leaving a spider-tracer as a calling card.[2] Carol promises Rick that they can trust the wall-crawler.
36 Hours Earlier…
30 hours later, she is meeting with Machine Man (Aaron Stack) in Central Park.[3] He is surprised to hear that Carol knows about an artificial intelligence known as the Essential and that she wants to gain access to its massive database.[4] She gives him a severed robot head that contains a device that can provide lossless data transfers onto the internet, which she intends to offer the Essential to get the information she is looking for.[5] After locating the device, Stack removes it and Carol is soon on her way.
That night, Carol goes to the shipyard in Queens where the CIA are covertly preparing to transport the Essential to another location. Despite her best efforts to be stealthy, she is soon caught and the alarm is raised. Although she is somehow without her powers, Carol manages to hold her own until she is greatly outnumbered. That’s when Spider-Man swoops down to rescue her. The web-slinger recognizes Carol even though she is out of costume and doesn’t understand why she isn’t using her powers.[6] He is horrified when Carol threatens to use lethal force against one of the CIA operatives he has webbed. He stops her from taking his life and when more soldiers arrive, he pulls them both to safety so they can regroup. At first, Carol thinks that Spider-Man is with Norman Osborn and is about to shoot him in the head.[7] The wall-crawler, however, is more agile and easily breaks out of her arm lock.
With military helicopters appearing in the area, Carol convinces Spider-Man that she needs to get into the shipping container because the fate of the world hangs in the balance. While the web-slinger stays outside to keep the CIA busy, Carol goes into the container. There she is greeted by the Essential, who appears to be a little girl. The artificial intelligence knows all about Carol and her mission.[8] Carol says that she has come for all the data the Essential has on Norman Osborn and has it all transferred onto a hard drive.[9] The Essential does this in exchange for the device that will allow her to transfer her mind onto the internet. She warns Danvers that the data she has on Norman Osborn will make her a larger target than ever before, but admits she looks forward to what happens next.
Leaving the shipping container, Carol is glad to see that Spider-Man is still there and hands him the hard drive. She tells him to stash it in a locker in Grand Central Station later for her to pick up. Spider-Man decides to blurt out that he will only do so if Carol agrees to go out on a date with him.[10] With no time to argue, Carol agrees and dives into the river to make her getaway while Spider-Man heads for home giddy at the prospect of landing a date.
Recurring Characters
Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, The Essential, Machine Man, the Agent
Continuity Notes
This story takes place following the events of Secret Invasion #8, where Norman Osborn is made the top cop in America after he killed the leader of a Skrull invasion of Earth. Carol has been an outlaw ever since she turned down Osborn’s offer to join his team in Dark Avengers #1.
Carol paraphrases Spider-Man’s credo, “With great power comes great responsibility”, which was first coined way back in Amazing Fantasy #15.
This is not the real Machine Man but an impostor, according to Marvel Comics #1001. It had apparently took the place of the real Stack after he went into space in X-51 #12, starting in Nextwave #1. As of this writing (June, 2024), it is unknown what purpose this served.
Here Carol reminds Machine Man of some of her past credentials, namely that she worked for the Department of Homeland Security (from Avengers (vol. 3) #69 to Giant-Size Ms. Marvel #1), and that she was the leader of the Mighty Avengers (from Mighty Avengers #1-20).
This is the robotic head that once house part of programmer Stuart Cavenger used after he uploaded his mind onto the internet. Carol encountered these SCAVANGERS in Ms. Marvel Annual #1.
This is the first reference that Carol’s powers aren’t working properly. This is due to the fact that when the alien Cru severed their link, she restored Carol’s Binary powers at a great cost. See Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #1-3, 22-24 and lastly issue #36 for an explanation.
Carol’s concerns that Spider-Man might be working for Osborn isn’t that outlandish since Norman has Venom (Mac Gargan) on his team posing as the web-slinger. See Dark Avengers #1 (again).
Here, the Essential identifies Carol’s parents, noting that her father is deceased. When we last saw him in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #31, he was in the final stages of terminal cancer. It is interesting to note that the Essential is cut off before it can talk about Carol’s mother. Which makes me wonder if it would have known if Carol’s mother was secretly a member of the Kree, something that Carol herself will not learn until a few years after this story in Life of Captain Marvel (vol. 2) #4.
Carol rhymes off some facts about Norman Osborn that were believed to be true at the time:
That Normans was formally the Green Goblin, this is correct, he started off as one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes in Amazing Spider-Man #14.
She mentions that Osborn was also in charge of the Thunderbolts, a team of criminals that were forced into government service to atone for their past crimes. Indeed Normy was put in charge of the group starting in Thunderbolts #110.
At the time of this story, everyone believes that Norman’s wife Emily died giving birth to their son Harry, as explained in Spider-Man: Revenge of the Green Goblin #1. However, in reality, she faked her death to get away from her husband and will turn up again in Amazing Spider-Man #789, although her true identity won’t be discovered until issue #799 of that series.
She also brings up Norman’s son Harry, but his status at the time of this story is quite complicated. See, the real Harry Osborn died back in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. More recently, Harry seemed to return from the dead in Amazing Spider-Man #545, claiming that his death was faked so he could recover from his dependency on the Goblin formula, as told in Amazing Spider-Man #581. However, this is all revealed to be a lie and that the Harry Osborn walking around is a clone and part of some revenge scheme from beyond the grave. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #74.
Carol and Peter will eventually go on this date in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #47.
Errors
At the beginning of the story, the narration states that it has only been 36 hours between Carol’s encounter with the Essential and picking up the hard drive at Grand Central Station. However, later on in the story, Carol tells Spider-Man to stash it there two weeks from then.