Avengers volume 3 #7 discussion post (Live Kree or Die, part 4)

[elspethdixon]

Part 3 of "Live Kree or Die" occurs in Quicksilver #10 - Live Kree or Die: Blue Moon. Unfortunately, Marvel hasn't seen fit to add the 13 issues of the 1997-1998 Quicksilver series to their digital unlimited collection. However, a very brief summary of the issue (with cover art) is available on ComicsVine here.

Avengers #7 - Live Kree of Die: The Court-martial of Carol Danvers



Writer: Kurt Busiek
Penciler: George Perez

Carol faces the music for her actions during the Kree invasion. Unfortunately, the Lunatic Legion are far from finished with earth.

Comments

[marinarusalka]

Ouch. Poor Carol. Those court martial scenes were not fun to read.

I mean, I get that she largely brought it on herself. She fucked up repeatedly, after multiple warnings and rejected attempts to reach out to her. And her actions endangered other people as well as herself. But if you're going to try and help a teammate whose problems are clearly being caused by massive self-esteem issues, hauling her out for public humiliation may not be the best way to handle it, STEVE.

Tony clearly wasn't thrilled about it either, but I don't see how he had any choice but to back up Steve in a mess like this.

The Wanda/Carol vibes were pretty strong in this one, though I wish they'd had a chance to interact more before all the shit with the Kree hit the fan.

What was the deal with Firestar using her powers to open the portal? Why was she reluctant to do it?

[eruiel]

I was extremely surprised by the court martial sequence. Shouldn't this have been an intervention out of uniform? It's true that Carol has been rejecting everyone's attempts to understand her, but the court martial felt a bit much. I would have rather seen the Avengers provide a safe space to share their concern and let Carol know no one was actually judging her, but that she couldn't remain on active duty in her current condition. Seriously, there needed to be more Jan and hugs and less "testimony".

I think Wanda wishes she had a chance to interact with Carol more too. It seems like she is only now realising how important Carol's friendship is to her. Of course Wanda has had her own problems to deal with since the Avengers reformed. Why does everyone have to have overlapping crises?

Hopefully they provide a bit more information about Firestar. I have no idea why she was reluctant either.

[elspethdixon]

I can't remember if this is mentioned in a previous issue or a later issue, but Firestar's reluctance to use her powers at full-blast is because at that level the radiation from them (they're microwave based) actually damages her cells. If she ever went Omega-level her mutation could kill her.

(IIRC later in this run Hank & Tony make her a costume that has built-in radiation shielding)

[eruiel]

Ah! So she is on the right team after all. Willingness for self-sacrifice is a good step towards becoming a full fledged Avenger.

[marinarusalka]

Yeah, I think this was a case of Steve coming down too heavily on the side of being Carol's commander rather than Carol's friend. You can stage an intervention for a depressed alcoholic, or you can stage a disciplinary hearing for an Avenger who fucked up in the field, but you can't do both at the same time. Not that I think an intervention was likely to work with Carol at that point, but a court martial was absolutely guaranteed not to work. And, sure enough, it didn't.

The fact that many of the people involved were the same people who'd stood around cheerfully waving while Carol was carried off by her rapist doesn't exactly help. The whole thing is a huge mess, really.

[elspethdixon]

people who'd stood around cheerfully waving while Carol was carried off by her rapist

I tell myself that Marcus was mindcontrolling the rest of the Avengers as well, because that's the only way the whole team blithely nodding along while he and Carol relate the saga of magical kidnapping, sex on the astral plane, and him impregnating her with himself and then having more sex despite the fact that now his rape victim is also his mother makes any sense at all. Even if the entire thing were consensual, it would still be amazingly weird even by comics standards.

(That said, of course Carol resents their attempts at disciplinary action here - the one time before that she actually needed help they were all "By, have fun with Marcus the incestuous astral rapist!")

[marinarusalka]

Group mind control certainly makes more sense than any other explanation. Or at least, any explanation that involves the Avengers acting that way on purpose.

I was glad to see that Wanda, at least, remembered the whole mess in this issue and acknowledged that the Avengers had failed Carol then and were possibly failing her now.

[elspethdixon]

Poor Carol. Those court martial scenes were not fun to read.

On the other hand, if I ever hadto get court-martialed out of the Avengers, I'd definitely want Thor to be in charge of it. I especially liked his scolding Pietro for insulting her.

[marinarusalka]

I really, really liked Thor in this issue. He came across as genuinely compassionate and determined to help Carol rather than condemn her. Not that it did much good, but he tried.

[eruiel]

Thor has been excellent this run. In retrospect, Carol may appreciate what he tried to do for her.

(By the way, was Thor there during the Marcus debacle?)

[marinarusalka]

The Marcus storyline is another one that I mainly know from summaries and scans, so I don't remember if Thor was part of it. Steve definitely was, though.