Marvel Age #1000: Earth's Greatest Weapon Review

 

Writer: Dan Slott

Artist: Michael Allred

Colorist: Laura Allred

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $9.99

Release Date: August 30, 2023

 

Story

When rocket scientist Walter Lawson asks why NASA moved up Orpheus One's launch, Colonel Carol Danvers is tight-lipped. So the Kree spy Captain Mar-Vell—known as Captain Marvel on Earth—tells his superior he failed to discover the rocket’s payload. Colonel Yon-Rogg connects Mar-Vell with Supremor, and the Supreme Intelligence orders him to prevent the launch.

 

After Dan Abnett reminded readers of this Silver Age character in his recent Groot series, Spider-Man writer Dan Slott portrays him as a recent emigrant to Earth. While I didn’t understand the secrecy surrounding Orpheus One, Captain Marvel’s response to Supremor’s orders, or why he called the rocket's payload precious, his story reminds us of 1960s fears of another world war and the U.S.S.R.'s rapid industrial and military growth that prompted the space race. 

 

Captain Mar-Vell action figure available at Amazon.com

 

 

Art

Michael Allred honors Captain Marvel’s origins with 1960s superhero depictions, period interior design, and pop culture portrayals in Marvel Age #1000. The Supreme Intelligence dominates scenes, and characters seem approachable and relatable. Laura Allred’s colors brighten this tale about overcoming our fears and embracing the unknown.

 

 

Genis-Vell (son of Mar-Vell) action figure available at Amazon.com

 

 

To preview interior art for Earth's Greatest Weapon & other stories in Marvel Age #1000 see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

 

Captain Marvel and the Air Force Academy Chapel

While Colonel Steve Austin represents the Air Force of the past, perhaps no one represents the Air Force of the present better than Captain Marvel. While Carol Danvers resembles a normal female officer, she isn't actually Human. Instead, she's an alien living peacefully on our world, and a member of the Kree race. Yet she's brave, capable, and strives for excellence, like all cadets who attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. It's fair to say that she wouldn't naturally belong to the Protestant faith, to which the upper, and best known chapel, is dedicated.

While the Air Force Academy may impose many strictures on cadets, their choice of faith is not curtailed in any way. The lower level of the building hosts a Catholic chapel, which is also very beautiful.

Then there is the Jewish chapel, which was filled to capacity during our visit. 
 

While our world often pits one religion against another, cadets who would worship in the Muslim and Buddhist chapels enter and exit through the same outer door to reach their separate sanctuaries. As this would prove impossible without creating dissension and violence in some parts of the world, this exemplifies how the Academy strives to install a yearning for greatness in every cadet.
 

Apparently, there's even an All-Faiths room, which can be utilized by individuals and congregations of less popular faiths. And somewhere outside, those belonging to Earth-centered faiths such as Wicca, Paganism, and Druidism can practice their religions in the Falcon's Circle. Perhaps we would have seen the latter, had it not been raining during our visit. 

Thus, while Cadets cannot take freedoms like speech, time, and movement for granted, they are allowed to pursue the faiths of their choosing,  regardless of their race (or planet) of origin. While striving to impose order and discipline, and imprint their concept of a model officer on cadets, the Air Force Academy recognizes that celebrating diversity can make us stronger. 

Either that, or the leadership has been taken over by shape-shifting Skrulls, striving to make us all weaker, and preparing our world for invasion. Hey, it happened in the movie...

Dragon Dave