The First Superhero to Follow in Ms. Marvel's Footsteps

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Apr 20, 2017

In their latest look at abandoned comic book plots, CSBG examines the superhero who briefly followed in Carol Danver's Ms. Marvel footsteps.

In every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without actively retconnng away the previous story. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today, we look at how Ultragirl briefly followed in the footsteps of Carol Danvers.

Ultragirl debuted in the mid-1990s, at a really bad time for any new superhero to be showing up at Marvel. She was a clever creation by Barbara Kesel and Leonard Kirk of a modern riff on Supergirl, basically "What would Supergirl be like if she debuted in the mid-1990s in the Marvel Universe?"

Ultragirl was a model who turned out to be half-Kree/half-mutant. She had Supergirl-like powers and she decided to become a superhero. First for the publicity it would give her modeling career and then just to make a difference. Her shortlived original series also was notable for featuring the New Warriors in what I believe was their first appearance since their book was canceled.

Anyhow, she went into comic book limbo and didn't show up again until "Civil War," when she was seen as part of the forces fighting alongside Captain America's Anti-Registration side. She and Justice soon began a relationship. Around this time, it was revealed that off-panel, Ultragirl and Slapstick had become members of the New Warriors before that team broke up in the 1999 "Nova" series. So she was part of the sizable group of former New Warriors members who were at the Avengers: Initiative following the "Civil War," as Ultragirl ended up having to go through superhero training. When Justice (who was an instructor at the Initiative) and a bunch of New Warriors left the Initiative after they thought that too many shady things were going on, Ultragirl decided to stay behind and finish her training.

This impressed one registered hero in particular, Carol Danvers, then going by the name Ms. Marvel, as seen in "Avengers: The Initiative" #12 (by Dan Slott, Christos Gage and Steve Uy)...

So much so that Carol decided to give Ultragirl her original superhero costume (as they both had Kree connections, so it made sense) when Ultragirl graduated into full registered superherodom at the end of the issue...

(Note that while Carol was going by Binary, another new hero named Ms. Marvel had shown up, Sharon Ventura, but she had nothing to do with Carol)

A problem arose, though, following "Secret Invasion," when the benevolent leadership of the Initiative by Iron Man was usurped by Norman Osborn, who was put in charge of the group after he took over SHIELD due to Iron Man falling flat on his face during that crossover and Obsorn being seen all across the globe as delivering the kill shot on the Skrull Queen.

Osborn formed his own team of Avengers (the "Dark Avengers," although he didn't call them that) in "Dark Avengers" #1 (by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato) and Osborn's Avengers intentionally took on the codenames of former Avengers, like Bullseye becoming Hawkeye, Daken becoming Wolverine, Venom becoming Spider-Man and, of course, Moonstone (formerly of the Masters of Evil and Thunderbolts) as Ms. Marvel, using the original Ms. Marvel costume...

So over in "Avengers: The Initiative," Christos Gage had to deal with it in the first issue of the "Initiative" to be under the "Dark Reign" banner (a description used for comics eet after Osborn took over SHIELD), "Avengers: The Ultimate" #21, with art by Humberto Ramos. In that issue, Gage has Ultragirl informed that she has to drop the costume...