#eric danvers

[comicwaren]

From Captain Marvel: Dark Past #003

Art by Lucas Werneck, Eder Messias and Rod Fernandes

Written by Paul Jenkins

[carol-danvers-liveblog]

Captain Marvel: Dark Past (2026) #3

[Review for issue #2 here.]

Jess

I'm glad Jess is here. I wish they would give her her baby back. That's what Carol should be investigating with her in this comic.

Jess yells Carol's full title when she gets zapped. I don't know why; she saved so much time with "Car" earlier. It's cute that there's an attempt at a nickname, but I try to say "Car" aloud in my head and it never sounds right. Why not "Kirk"?

Funny and in character. Fun movement in the art.

In issue #1 (which I have not reviewed yet), Jess mentions having a spidey-sense (she does not) and also her apartment looked too clean, so I am evaluating her appearances here very critically. (I'm distracted by Jess appearances post-Big-Anthonyed Gerry in general.)

Anyway I'll take more Jess if they want to keep including her. I'm thrilled that she and Carol pretty consistently come as a set these days.

Whump

For those unaware, whump is when your favorite character gets the shit kicked out of them, and it rules.

Pretty good whump 👍

Eric Danvers

This is apparently Carol's cousin, Eric. He tells Carol he knew her dad before she was born.

"We were taught to hate 😈... to be as strong as our purity 👼. ... Your father knew this to be true. He knew his place, and he knew his race. 🏁 And he destroyed it all by marrying Paloma, an Argentine 🇦🇷 Immigrant. ❌ That woman -- the mother of your two half-breed brothers -- was an an act of rebellion against our cause. That was dear Uncle Joey's greatest betrayal. 😔 Now imagine: what was grandmother supposed to do? Ours was a movement based on purity of the blood. Clearly, the Argentine had to go. 🚗"

OK well. A lot going on there but:

If they had scaled this down to specific issues and not the exaggerated actions of a supervillain org, this could have been meaningful, but alas.

Seeing as Joe's most established canon quality was being extremely misogynistic, Joe being not racist seems like the retcon here to me. Or more likely, by introducing Joe's Ultra Racist Family, we are now able to view Joe as being Not That Racist, by comparison. Carol, you should be grateful that your abusive father was not AS racist and misogynistic as he could have been.

Life of Captain Marvel (2018) retconned Carol's brothers as both being older than her, and also as being her half brothers. Presumably so we didn't have to deal with superhero JJ Danvers. Their mother was not really elaborated on, so this issue closes that open thread.

(Originally Carol was oldest, then middle, now youngest.)

Eric is angry that Joe left him alone with his abusive grandma. Eric seems all-in on the racism, but does hate her.

It actually reminded me of Joe Jr in Life of Captain Marvel (2018). Overall, I have some pointed issues with the comic, but there were definitely pieces I liked, including this scene.

Carol has kept her distance from her family in adulthood; she enlists in the AF "without a word to her parents, or a backwards glance", and when she comes to see her dying father, she has not seen them in years.

It's reasonable, to me, that Joe Jr would hold some resentment for that. It bothers me that he's older than her now, for a lot of reasons, but one is that it was always kind of sad that Carol disconnected from her little brother when she left their abusive home. Pre-LoCM, Joe Sr was already established as physically abusive, and JJ was years younger than Carol was, so after Steve was killed off, it would have been just JJ at home with his parents, suddenly losing both of his siblings around the same time. Could have been interesting to explore more.

Not only "scold the wicked girl for something you imagine her father did".... she doesn't even LIKE her father. That could come up more explicitly.

Anyway, Eric is like Joe Jr but worse, and Joe Jr was already kind of wasted potential. We'll see how it goes.

Bonus:

Explosion! The lightning bolt suit again. I actually have seen it drawn well occasionally in the past, and I don't hate it, but the amount of ass and tit shots in Ms. Marvel (2006) means that it has to go up on a high shelf for all but the most trustworthy of artists. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I like time shenanigans when they unveil or explore meaningful aspects of a character that they would never tell you outright... good when handled by a good writer....... anyway new issue next month.

Review: Frustratingly ungrounded; Whumpy at least

It was great in Ms. Marvel (1977) when misogyny and the Women's Lib movement was a recurring topic; what made it impactful was that it was actually progressive for its time, and challenging current social norms.

The issue with new narratives about exaggerated supervillains spouting old-timey racism is that it fails to challenge current social norms, and so it ends up not really saying much, while still positing itself as an anti-racist story. Just like how a lot of Captain Marvel stuff over the years has been frustratingly shallow Girl-Power stuff without including any modern, progressive feminism.

The art is fun.

[comicwaren]

“Keep them busy. Or dead.” – Desecrator

Cover art for Captain Marvel: Dark Past #003

Art by Lucas Werneck

[thefoxholecourtrp]

THIS IS YOUR GAME

Name: Eric Danvers Age: Twenty One Class Year: Junior Position: Vixen Hometown: Charleston, South Carolina

THIS IS YOUR MOMENT

Everything in life is a surprise, no matter how good or bad that surprise may be—it didn’t take much for Eric to learn that. As the son of a wealthy businessman his whole life was supposed to have been scoped out for him from beginning to end. He was supposed to spend his life living it up, with endless amounts of cash to fall back on no matter what. After all, that’s what was to be expected when your father owned what was thought to be an exceedingly successful business.

Going to college was never even something which played on Eric’s mind as he spent his childhood learning himself, working out what he was and what he wasn’t, the things he loved and the things he resented. He developed a strong love for gymnastics and dance—it wasn’t the most conventional, but his parents supported him no matter what. There was no need to worry about anything as his future was set in stone for him. Regardless of his smarts or wit, he’d grow up, spending his childhood and adolescence doing whatever he liked, and then inherit his father’s business and continue it on.

He played his cards carefully. He wanted to be respected fairly and looked up to by his peers, and so he never even took the time to consider drugs or alcohol. He didn’t dare sleep around, either, both for lack of interest and fear of an unwanted outcome. Good things happen to good people, is what everyone had told him—so why wouldn’t he have believed it? And, for a long time, he did. Always striving to be as good as he could be so that he would surely be destined to have that equally as charming karma come back to reward him. Even as he grew through his teenage years and up to adulthood, he genuinely believed that all actions would be rewarded as they were presented.

That is, until his mother took off, without a trace—without warning, with as much money as she could take from their account, with one of his father’s business partners. It was a turn no one could’ve preempted, a hidden affair disguised by the countless layers of false affection for her husband and son. He couldn’t help but wonder what he’d done to warrant such a vile prize for his actions. And the domino of events that it set off afterwards only made matters far worse.

The dent she’d made in the bank account wasn’t too bad—not at first, anyway. His father was too naive to believe what had happened, and he constantly waited for her to come back home and laugh it all off, claim it was all just a joke. But as time went on, that became less likely—especially as they watched the numbers in their bank account count down from destinations across the globe. As that realisation set in, Eric’s father was left unable to work, hardly able to even function, left feeling so irreparably betrayed by both his wife and business partner. The business itself was declining fast whilst it wasn’t being run properly, and money was dissipating far more quickly than it was being earned. All the while, his father tried his best to keep Eric out of the fray, to keep him completely oblivious to the deterioration of any potential future he might have. But within a few short years, their savings had almost completely depleted, the fortune that was supposed to have his name on it had been spent on expensive luxuries which they were no longer able to afford. They had been too frivolous with what was left of the money from being so unused to having to be mindful of their spending.

College slowly became a very real prospect, and Eric was fortunate enough to have had private tutors through the vast majority of his life meaning that he was beyond capable of getting in. Paying off the debt would be something he’d work out later, but for now, he’d be able to focus on getting himself somewhere in life where he can live comfortably again—no matter how hard that would be. Palmetto State was an obvious choice due to its locality. It was the closest to home and as far as he was concerned, a university was a university. They’d all give him the same qualifications he’d need.

SEIZE IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT

The novelty of being somewhere new and different wore off quickly, however, and even with the short distance between home and Palmetto, he soon grew homesick. Between his lessons, there wasn’t much else to do; he didn’t click particularly well with anyone and often found himself bored and alone. As Spring came around and the first year rolled to a near-end, the appearance of flyers advertising the Vixen’s cheer-squad try outs came into sight. He hadn’t thought much of it at first, not until he connected the dots of dancing and cheering—sure, he’d rather work alone, but it was better than nothing.

Tryouts went smoothly, but integrating into the squad was a lot harder than he’d expected. But fortunately, they were much more willing to try with him than he was with them and, eventually, something went right. While he didn’t hit it off perfectly with them, it was a step in the right direction—an opportunity to be a part of something more than himself, one he was willing to take.

ERIC DANVERS is portrayed by GRANT GUSTIN and is CLOSED