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Happy New Year, everyone.
Well, if you're reading this, it's a fair indicator that
we've weathered the Y2K transition and can get on with our
lives for another few years. Fortunately, that's not the
subject of my column. Flipping through comics, looking for
inspiration, I came across a couple of relatively recent
issues of Iron Man, guest-starring the heroine formerly
known as Ms.Marvel, now Warbird.
Looking over the history of this character, I decided she
would be a good subject for my pencil, brush and paint
program. Originally appearing with Marvel Comics' alien-born
super-hero, the Kree Captain Mar-vell, Carol Danvers, was
security chief at NASA's facility at Cape Canaveral,
Florida. During an attack by the commander of the Kree
invasion force, Colonel Yon-Rogg, she was exposed to the
radiations of a Kree device called the psyche-magnitron,
when it exploded. The weird energies of the psyche-magnitron
altered her genetic structure making her a Kree-Human
hybrid, endowing her with superhuman speed, strength and the
power of flight, as well as the fighting skills of a Kree
warrior.
Some time later, she adopted the identity of Ms.Marvel, her
costume and code-name, as well as her powers, making her a
counterpart to the Kree-born Captain Mar-vell. Her first
costume, a few details aside, was a virtual copy of
Mar-vell's. Ms.Marvel's costume lacked the red leggings, of
the "masculine" version of the costume. Carol also wore a
red scarf, a feminine touch, I suppose.
The feminization of the costume was a sharp contrast to the
attitude of the character, as portrayed in her own series.
Ms.Marvel, as the name implies, was shown to be a strong
feminist. Carol Danvers had been an Air Force major, and was
the youngest security chief at NASA. She even expressed
resentment, on occasion, about being a "copy" of a male
original.
During one battle, where she was being targeted by sensors
keyed to her Kree-manufactured costume, she removed her
original costume in favor of a plain blue body-suit,
allowing her to sneak up on her attacker and defeat him.
This led to her second costume, based on the blue body-suit,
with a yellow streak, or lightning bolt down the front. The
red scarf, it seems, became the sash of her new outfit, and
she adopted the blue, peaked opera glove and thigh boots.
Over the next couple of years, she was to become an
Avenger, for a short time. Later, she was mind-controlled
and taken to Limbo by the so-called son of Immortus. When
she escaped, she was attacked by the mutant power absorber
called Rogue, who drained not only her Kree-spawned powerd,
but all her memories, even her personality. With the help of
Professor Charles Xavier, founder and leader of the mutant
super-team, the X-men, her memories were restored, but they
were unable to re-establish the emotional connection to
them. While she could remember everything that had happened
to her, she remembered it as if she had merely observed it
happening to another.
During her stay with the X-men, she was captured by the
alien Brood, along with the other X-men. The Brood
experimented on her and somehow unleashed the potential of
her enhanced hybrid genes. She gained unimaginable power,
linked to a white hole, she was able to channel it's power
to fly through space, among other things. Adopting the name,
Binary, she joined the Starjammers, for a time, before
returning to earth.
Her powers as Binary have been somewhat erratic, leading
her to find ways to re-energize the white hole that is the
source of her energy powers. Today, her powers are only a
fraction of what they once were, but she is still quite
formidable, having sufficient strength to stand toe-to-toe
with Iron Man in a fight. She has returned to wearing her
second Ms.Marvel costume and taken another new name,
Warbird. Her love of flying had led her to the Air Force,
then NASA, her affection for the old warbirds led her to
take that name for herself, a connection to her past.
Warbird. That's a starting point. What does it imply? Well,
for those of us who love the old propeller-driven planes of
the 30s and 40s, it means flight, speed, graceful lines and
power. To my mind, no jet aircraft has been built that
compares, aesthetically, to the great fighters of World War
Two. The sleek, powerful Hurricane , the Spitfire, the P-51
Mustang, the P-38 Lightning or the P-40 Warhawk, they evoke
memories of the heroic battle to protect the free world from
tyranny. Boiled down to their essence, isn't that what
super-heroes are all about?
For my Warbird costume, I combined design elements of all
the costumes Carol Danvers has worn. To incorporate the bird
motif into the design, I went with a stylized bird on the
chest, with the bird's wings extending over the shoulders
and flowing into a kind of wing-like vane, stretching
between her arms and sides. The gloves are integral with the
navy blue top, her boots have the peaked tops at the thighs,
like her old ones, but with the blue-white starburst accents
at the peaks. The top and bottom of the suit are joined by a
stylized waist similar to the tops of the boots.
It's interesting to note that one of the artists who
defined the Ms.Marvel character, in the 70s, was Jim Mooney,
perhaps better known for his work with DC Comics' own
Danvers girl, Linda, also known as, Supergirl. The fact that
both Carol and Linda Danvers are blonde, and have powers
derived from alien sources, is pure coincidence. This is the
original Supergirl, cousin of Superman, not the current
version.
Well, I'll close this article, now. As always, I am open to
suggestions, e-mail me with any ideas you may have and I'll
give them a look.
Until next month....
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