Ms. Marvel (2nd series) #2

Issue Date: 
May 2006
Story Title: 
Untitled
Staff: 

Brian Reed (writer), Roberto De La Torre (penciler), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson (asst. editors), Andy Schmidt (editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief), Dan Buckley (publisher) Frank Cho & Jason Keith (cover art)

Brief Description: 

While Ms. Marvel’s new publicist, Sarah Day proceeds with plans to launch Carol as a major superhero superstar, Carol herself has been actively seeking action in her costumed identity. She finds herself tangled up in a seeming assault on Earth by the alien Brood but quickly realizes that the Brood are merely fleeing from a far greater threat, the alien hunter known only as Cru. The Brood lured Cru to Earth by tempting it with the Cavorite Crystals, a rare and wildly unstable energy-enhancing crystal. The Brood hoped that Cru would use the crystal and trigger its explosive properties, thus destroying their enemy and half of Earth in the process. After defeating the Brood, Ms. Marvel tries to stop Cru from getting a hold of the Cavorite Crystals but she appears to have arrived a moment too late.

Full Summary: 

Sarah Day sits in her Manhattan office, reviewing a promotional spot for Carol Danvers’ (AKA Ms. Marvel) upcoming appearance on Super Powers, a talk show focusing on the world’s superhuman celebrities. Sarah is pleased with the spot and calls to share the news with her client. She gets Carol’s answering machine and a very standard outgoing message. Sarah leaves a message for carol starting with a blunt critique of how dreadfully boring her message is. Sarah suggests that they have it professionally recorded and suggests getting Peter Coyote, whose voice she adores. She eventually gets to the meat of her message and informs Carol that the interview with Super Powers is all set and a promo is already airing starting tomorrow. She suggests a time for the taping and that it take place at Carol’s apartment.
A short time later, an Acanti enters our galaxy. The docile, whale-like race has long been enslaved by the vile alien Brood and transformed into cyborg starships to transport the war-like aliens throughout the known universe. Inside the Acanti, a cadre of Brood warriors fights valiantly to escape from a creature known as Cru. An explosion stops them in their tracks and a handful makes a dash for an escape pod. Several pods jettison away as the Acanti’s immense body is wracked with explosions.
Hours later on Earth, Ms. Marvel arrives in a small town in Georgia to find that it has been overrun by Brood warriors. She pauses for an instant to wonder why they are there before launching into battle in a valiant effort to save the frightened townsfolk who are the focus of the Brood’s attack. She dive-bombs a Brood warrior and uses her super-strength to slam him forcefully into the pavement. Spinning about, she fires a blast of photonic energy which fells another.
Noticing her, the Brood turn the focus of their attacks on her. Carol lifts a smashed car and hurls it into the air. It collides with the approaching Brood. She then grabs another mangled pile of automotive debris and brings it crashing down on a pair of Brood on the ground in front of her. She pants heavily and looks around as several more Brood emerge to confront her. Their leader orders them to attack and carol is soon entangled in the tentacled arms of a half dozen Brood. She lashes out with both her strength and energy blasts while engaging in some heroic banter with the alien sleazoids. She dispatches this first wave of Brood but is taken by surprise from behind by another. In seconds, there are another half-dozen Brood on top of her. The weight of their bodies presses against her and force her to the ground. The leader urges the others to kill her quickly before Cru gets there. Carol struggles against their superior numbers and wonders who… or what Cru could be.
Her question is answered by a flash of brilliant blue light and an odd buzzing sound. Before she knows it, the Brood attacking her are disintegrated. As she gains her bearings, she looks around and is unsure of what just happened. She then catches sight of Cru, a massive and sinewy creature with turquoise skin, gleaming red eyes, tentacles in place of legs and a huge cybernetic device that winds about the right side of his body shifting into a gun around his arm and snaking across his face to provide a sensory-enhancing monocle. Carol mentally notes that she’s traveled throughout the galaxy and never seen anything like this. She asks the creature what it is and begins to introduce herself but is cut short as the creature leans forward and the optic sensor scans Carol.
Cru grabs Carol’s throat to further probe her. Reacting instinctively, Carol defends herself by firing a photon blast at the alien. She blows its head off and it promptly grows back! She then sees an image of a Cavorite Crystal in her mind’s eye followed by one of McCord Army Base.
Carol quickly surmises that Cru is yanking images from her mind. With the knowledge it was seeking secured, Cru tosses Carol aside like a rag doll. She tries to grab hold of it as it takes to the sky but it easily shakes her off. She watches it rocket into the night sky and realizes she should pursue it despite how wiped out she feels.
As she ponders her next move, the townspeople who survived the Brood’s attack begin to emerge. One asks who she is and another replies that he doesn’t know but wishes someone famous had come to their rescue. Realizing there may still be lingering Brood, Carol flies into the chasm where the Brood escape pod crashed and confront the pair of Brood who remain within.
The Brood realize that she is not Cru and move to attack her. Carol beats them to the punch and incinerates one of them with an energy blast. She stalks forward and punches the other. She asks it again what that thing was and if it is indeed this Cru character they are so fearful of. Under threat of death, the Brood warrior reveals that Cru hunts them and has brought the Brood to the brink of extinction. The Brood lured Cru to Earth to make a final stand against it. The Brood explains that Earth has a supply of Cavorite Crystals and that they made Cru believe that it could use Cavorite as a weapon to enhance its ability to channel radiant energy.
Carol realizes that if Cru tried to channel its energies through Cavorite, the resulting explosion of energies would destroy it… and half the planet! The Brood acknowledges this and states that the loss was deemed acceptable given the threat posed by Cru. Ms. Marvel asks if he is the last of the Brood aboard the escape pod and when the Brood replies that it is, she destroys him with a focused energy beam.
With the contingent of Brood neutralized, a weary Ms. Marvel launches herself into the night sky in pursuit of Cru. Meanwhile, Cru has attacked McCord Army Base and made short work of its standard military defenses and troops. As she flies to McCord at her fastest speed, Carol recalls her previous involvement with Cavorite Crystals while working with NASA. The Crystals were being tested for use as an enhanced energy source but its wild instability led to the end of the project. The remaining Cavorite was stored at McCord which was built to withstand a nuclear attack. Cru however proved far more powerful. As Cru makes his way towards the vault holding the Cavorite, Ms. Marvel arrives on the scene. She arrives in the secured chamber where the Cavorite is stored just in time to see Cru grasp a crystal. Determined not to be too late, Carol flies onward as a brilliant white energy floods the room.

Characters Involved: 

Ms. Marvel
Sarah Day
Brood warriors
Acanti Brood-ship
Cru
Innocent bystanders

Military personnel at McCord Army base

Story Notes: 

Sarah Day was Carol’s publicist in the House of M reality warp as revealed in GIANT-SIZE MS. MARVEL #1. Carol hired her on as her publicist for real in MS. MARVEL (2nd Series) #1.
The Super Powers TV segment was also first shown in GIANT-SIZE MS. MARVEL #1.
The promotional spot for Super Powers uses the phrase, “This woman…this warrior”. This is a reference to the title of the first issue of the original Ms. Marvel series as well as the name of an extensive Carol Danvers fansite online, THIS WOMAN, THIS WARRIOR: The Carol Danvers Homepage http://www.geocities.com/binaryan/mainpage.htm
Peter Coyote is an actor who has enjoyed a long and varied career in television and movies. His notable credits include E.T., Outrageous Fortune and Jagged Edge. He most recently appeared on the TV series, “Commander in Chief”.
Carol first met the Brood in UNCANNY X-MEN #161-166. Their experiments on her resulted in her transformation into Binary. She and the X-Men defeated the Brood and she was single-handedly responsible for the destruction of a Brood outpost and the death of its Brood Queen. The Brood came after Carol for revenge in CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS II.
The Cavorite Crystals (sometimes spelled Cavourite) were encountered by Carol during her early days as Ms. Marvel. She battled the Super-Skrull for possession of a Cavorite Crystal in MARVEL TEAM-UP #61-62 alongside Spider-Man. Apparently the Cavorite Crystals were successfully harnessed by the Skrulls to power their interstellar craft. Later, the subterranean prince called Grotesk tried to steal a replica of Cavorite in the pages of MS. MARVEL (1st Series) #6 and 8. Later, it was sought by the Viper and Silver Samurai in NEW MUTANTS (1st series) #5-6. Actually the term “cavorite” was coined by H.G. Wells. It’s a fictional antigravity metal from his novel “The First Men on the Moon”.

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