“And using it to further a White Man’s story is so f**king awful…” Thoughts on those who forget the past

This past May, the comic reading community once again had reason to be upset when Marvel decided to kill the popular Kamala Khan incarnation of Ms. Marvel in, curiously, the pages of Amazing Spider-Man.

While no longtime reader of comic books expects the beloved Ms. Khan to stay dead, especially in lieu of that character being featured in an upcoming motion picture- one can understand the maddening logic of “creative” to do such a thing to a character that understandably means so much to a large and loyal portion of their audience. For many readers, Kamala Khan is someone they can identify with and who has been largely portrayed as competent and relatable. But what really stuck out to me was the general consensus of the weak reasoning for Marvel’s corporate motivated storytelling.

“Killing off Ms Marvel, a Muslim girl, is both sexist and racist. As well as the fact she’s dying in a title of a character she’s unrelated to and having played very little in this storyline. And using it to further a white man’s story is so fucking awful. Hope you get fired” – Aidan BLM, Twitter.

“A white male American comic book writer has killed off a Brown female Muslim character in a white character centered comic book for… No real good reason outside of a Fridged trope. He killed Ms Marvel Kamala Khan to motivate Peter Parker Spider-Man.” – Tamala Khan, Twitter.

These fans would be absolutely correct that it’s resorting Ms. Marvel towards being a prop in the overall narrative of Peter Parker; she becomes just another story device in the literal decades old familiar moping of Spider-Man since, as we’ve seen, Marvel has no new ideas except to regurgitate old familiarities.

Using her to further a White male’s narrative… well, the only issue I have with this is that it’s- this won’t surprise you- been done. And with far less passive respect than Kamala Khan was given.

In fact, the blatant and rampant dehumanizing of a very prominent Woman of Color some thirty-five years earlier- remains galling even now. Today we will look at what Editors did to the first female Captain Marvel- a character whose rank was revoked, whose powers were depleted and whose reputation in her fictional universe was repeatedly and routinely torn to shreds.

There weren’t as many readers of color, especially female, in the late Eighties so one considers how they could have affected them. For what Marvel Editors did to Monica Rambeau was- and is- shocking.

The Monica Rambeau version of Captain Marvel was created by Roger Stern who theorized that the rank of ‘Captain‘ could apply to any gender. Stern was on a healthy and well received run as writer of the Avengers, where he groomed Monica to become Avengers leader. Competent and well respected, she eventually becomes nominated by Captain America himself in issue #279.

Consider the excerpt under the first fan quote above: four panels from Avengers #265 which shows Captain Marvel capable to handle two characters steeped in raw power and strong egos- Prince Namor and Hercules- as an example of her competence and natural leadership. That was written by Roger Stern. Outside of the introductory sample under the blog title, in which the left panel shows Captain America referring to Marvel as “Madame Chairwoman”, every other example from these stories were not written by Stern. The reason for that?

Editor Mark Gruenwald is pretty much sainted in Marvel lore, largely due to his untimely death and affable, fan-friendly persona. That being said, he’s the catalyst of what happened to the vibrant character of Captain Marvel largely due to his own passion for the title he scripted for an unprecedented run, the solo Captain America title itself.

Sales on Captain America were down tremendously and Gruenwald, who was the Editor on the Avengers, instructed Stern to remove Monica as leader and reinstate Captain America- with the logic being, curiously, that this would somehow improve sales on Cap’s solo title.

I’ve always found that to be rather bizarre logic and have to wonder if there wasn’t some other reason- like a competent Black female being the leader of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes- but we will give the late Gruenwald the benefit of a doubt here. (Notably, John Byrne also once answered a fan who asked why Quasar was a member of his run on the Avengers and Byrne explained that Editor Gruenwald insisted on his inclusion, since he was writing the character’s solo title, so…)

After all, I’ve never been a comic book Editor so what do I know? Did Superman being the leader of the Justice League help his solo series? Who would give a shit about that? “Well, the other superheroes elected him chairperson, shit I’d better check out his solo book that I wasn’t buying before!” I suppose it’s possible.

Stern understandably didn’t want to do this. He’d invested so much in Monica’s growth as a character, so much in her growth as a leader. The other characters had also bought into it, realizing she was an equal and eager to follow her lead. So, Stern refused.

Gruenwald fired Roger Stern. And then placed his Editor on Captain America, Ralph Macchio (a longtime comics scum who was the nephew of Win Mortimer and an early letter page attacker of Jack Kirby in the 70s‘) to script the Avengers immediately following Stern’s abrupt departure.

This is especially notable due to the extreme and blatant- one could say over the top– handling of Monica’s sudden and extreme incompetence, lack of faith and, most chillingly- the blatant feelings of disrespect and disbelief from her fellow Avengers.

You wouldn’t even need to show that just to push a character out of view- but Gruenwald and Macchio did it anyway, and with great relish.

The Black Knight catches a limp, unconscious colleague and audibly remarks, “I wonder where DEAD WEIGHT is on the electro-magnetic spectrum?” You can’t make this shit up.

Granted, Macchio is a terrible writer but the need for a character who formerly was a huge booster of this incarnation of Captain Marvel– it’s shocking, galling as a development.

After more scenes of either Monica doubting herself in uncharacteristically emo fashion and/or Avengers routinely going into grandiose speeches about what an inspirational and natural leader Captain America is- Gruenwald and Macchio depower Monica and also have her parents come pick her up, like a child.

The Rambeaus were supporting characters in Stern’s Avengers with her father being her hero and her mother being particularly knowing and supportive of them both; an earlier scene written by Stern had Monica (who had refreshingly revealed her identity to her parents) discussing a possible business venture with her father so that he could retire and her Mother giving subtle support.

When her parents appear in post-Stern scenes, they’re right out of a dialogue script from Gone With The Wind; it’s as if the editorial team at Marvel had largely observed Black people via the Golden Age of Hollywood. “Honey Child! We’re gonna fatten you up on Hominey and Chicken!“

Why should modern comic fans know about these things? After all, they genuinely have enough grief in modern times with casual racist tropes and dismissive plot devices to have to depress them all over again- but really, it’s important to know that this is what Marvel is going to keep doing, even unintentionally. Most writers are middle aged males whose life experience is predicated on going to comic conventions for the past four decades. These writers don’t even realize what they’re doing. They think they’re progressive.

More importantly, it’s a disservice to the character and what she means and could still mean to more readers, regardless of gender and color- a strong, brilliant and capable woman who can lead literal Gods into battle. And when this character was reintroduced into the MCU as a sidekick to the Carol Danvers incarnation of Captain Marvel- fans celebrated.

Understandably, they were caught up in the admittedly infectious performance of the well cast Teyonah Parris. But when you look at how the MCU retconned this character- suddenly, Monica is a child who calls Carol Auntie (!)- it’s beyond insulting. In the comics, Monica looked up to her father. She was the first woman to call herself Captain Marvel. Now she’s brought back to be an accessory, to diversify the movie starring a bland white woman with limited charisma.

It’s criminal. You should be pissed off about this too.

I had thought to consult Ralph Macchio for his feelings on this out of respect, but you know- fuck Ralph Macchio.

I was going to post every instance I could find of the Avengers dismissing Monica but there’s just so many.

Regardless, the Stern written issues of the Avengers are largely worth exploring and due for a reevaluation on how a strong woman of color can succeed in a largely white male extended universe. If you want to do more, share this story- not even this specific blog post, but the truth about Monica Rambeau. She sadly paved the way for Kamala Khan far more than people seemed to know.

(Dedicated to everyone that was overlooked and marginalized due to the ignorance of clueless men in power.)