The Death of Captain Marvel

The Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After collapsing after a routine fight, Captain Marvel reveals he has terminal cancer and perhaps three months to live. In his last days, he records his memoirs and gets his affairs in order.

Captain Marvel, the Protector of the Universe, is stricken with cancer and none of the super heroes and scientists in the Marvel Universe can save him. This is his swan song.

For a book written in the early 1980's, this holds up very well. Captain Marvel is on his way out and his friends come to say goodbye. This was a touching read. Spider-Man and Rick Jones had some emotional moments and a single man-tear welled up when a Skrull gave Captain Marvel a Skrull medal of valor out of respect.

As Captain Marvel fights the disease, he recounts his memoirs, giving a condensed account of his super hero career and battles with the Kree, Skrulls, Thanos, and others.

Man-tears were in a near thing at the end of this one. Super-heroes die all the time. Mar-Vell is one of the few that has actually more or less stayed dead. After reading this, I'm glad they didn't cheapen the story by bringing him back. Four out of five stars.


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