Issue 17- Comic Take Down: Avengers #200

After taking down the Comics Code way back in Issue #3, I realized there were a few more things I wanted to truly destroy in the comic world. Now usually I try to keep these issues more optimistic since everyone seems to enjoy reviewing the dredges of comic history but seriously, this comic has to die. By my hands!

Avengers #200 is a complete and utter waste of paper. Meant to be a “celebration” of 200 issues of Marvel’s answer to the justice League, instead we get a story about Ms Marvel’s, Carol Danvers at this time, rape. Oh, not just any rape either but we will get into that.

(Woo boy, not sure Toys R Us wanted that advertisement on a story about RAPE! Eh, they’re out of business now anyways...)

Who To Blame?

Let’s start off with the fact that this single issue, double-sized as it was, had 4 writers and three editors working on it. That right there is a mess in itself. Bob Layton, David Michelinie, George Perez, and Editor-in-chief at the time, Jim Shooter all had their names attached to this monstrosity.

Want to know how much worse it gets? None of them want to either take responsibility for the story taking place whatsoever. There were hints that Michelinie had a beef with writer Chris Claremont who was instrumental in a lot of key moments in Carol’s development. So essentially it sounds like David just wanted to screw over Claremont’s by screwing over Ms.Marvel. Very Adult guys.

(DAMNIT JANET! WHO WROTE HER LIKE THIS!)

Story (If You Can Call It That) Overview

This won’t take long since I’m going to cut straight to the chase. Ms. Marvel is pregnant, the Avengers all seem happy about this for some reason, she’s scared. Baby Born. Baby ages rapidly and is given tools by Iron Man.

Machine is build. Oh look, the baby is actually Ms. Marvel’s rapist! That’s special. Ms. Marvel falls in love with said baby/rapist who is now a grown man and they head off back to hell/limbo with the Avenger’s Blessing. Fuck this noise.

(WHO WROTE THIS! Ugh, Carol falls victim to instant Stockholm Syndrome.)

Carol Danvers in the Refrigerator (Again)

Carol is probably the most abused female character I’ve ever read. If you’ve read my other articles you may have seen the term Women in refrigerator's coined by Gail Simone. The term refers to comic book women who have been depowered, raped, murdered and/or had their lives ruined specifically in order to fuel the stories of men. Danvers had had every one of those done to her.

Seriously. In this story she was raped and forced to fall in love with her rapist baby. Later on she was depowered when Rogue stole her abilities. She’s died, twice. Later on, and while this makes perfect sense in story considering all the previous events, she was kicked of the Avengers for becoming an alcoholic.

(WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!)

Claremont’s Response

There was luckily a fix in the works down the line. In Avenger’s Annuel #10 Claremont finally got a chance to right the wrongs.

In that issue, Chris was able to use Carol as a mouthpiece in order to pretty much try and fix all the problemes with #200. She spelled out exactly how badly the Avengers reacted to the situation and how they pretty much let her leave with her rapist. She chided them, chastised them, explained how much they wronged her and in the end, was the bigger person in all of it.

(And Carol Dropped the Mic here)

Sure, Carol was going to have a long hard road ahead but at least for the moment, she was once again in control of her future.

Ugh, I need a breather, Next time we’re going to do another Out of Context issue, this time focusing on some of the very best, of the most insane comic book covers. And following that, we’ll be back with the next installment of My Hero! Excelsior!