Groove's Faves: "A Destroyer--Denied!" by Moench and Broderick

Captain Marvel was one of the first series' I ever started collecting regularly. I came in starting with the post-Kree/Skrull War revival (that began with ish #22, July 1972) and stayed on through the end of the series (ish 62, February 1979) and hung in with his move to Marvel Spotlight Vol. 2 (issues 1-4, 8) and of course the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel in 1982. Yeah, after Captain America and Adam Warlock, Mar-Vell was one of my all-time faves. While most of the love for the series goes (rightfully) to Jim Starlin's work, I thought the end-of-the-era Doug Moench/Pat Broderick was quite nifty. I love the way Moench took the loose threads of Starlin's storylines and brought them to satisfactory conclusions. Take ish 58's (July 1978) "A Destroyer--Denied!" Drax, the Destroyer, created solely to kill Thanos, finds himself without purpose after Marv, Warlock, and the Avengers have defeated ol' Purple-Puss. What is a Destroyer to do? Blame his uselessness on Marv and make it his new mission to kill our hero, instead. Not as deep as Moench's Master of Kung Fu work, but it was fun on a grand cosmic scale.

Speaking of a "grand cosmic scale" Pat Broderick did a great job of giving the good Captain's mag a fresh, exciting, and, yes, cosmic look. I especially loved Broderick's wild angles during battles and flights through space (just check out the third panel of page three, f'rinstance). Bob McLeod's inks on this ish gave everything a cool, slick sheen that just iced the proverbial cake. Check it out!