Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982)

With February being Black History Month, I wanted to review a comic that focused on an African-American character. With the series WandaVision on Disney+, I saw an opportunity to showcase an African-American superheroine who I don't think got to appear here before now: Monica Rambeau, aka the second Captain Marvel, Photon, and most recently, Spectrum.

 Unlike Carol Danvers, Monica has never gotten her own ongoing series. However, that didn't mean she fell into obscurity. She's been a member of the Avengers (even got to lead the team for a period of time and was the team's first Black member), been a part of the more comedic team known as Nextwave, and most recently has been a member of the Ultimates. She's also made many appearances in various other comics over the years, mainly connected to the Avengers. And considering that both Captain Marvel and WandaVision have been making her more of a household name, I figured we should take a look at her origins this week. So let's look at Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16!

The cover is a John Romita Sr./John Romita Jr. piece, and it's pretty awesome, in my opinion. It shows Spider-Man, the Thing, and the Avengers reacting to a figure bursting out of the ground as a blast of light. It gives the impression that whoever this is, this person is a big deal, and we should keep an eye on them. 

"Who's That Lady?"
Writer: Roger Stern
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: John Romita Sr.
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter 

The story begins with Peter Parker at a bus station. He's waiting for his friends Harry Osborn and Liz Allen-Osborn to arrive when a lady sets off his Spider-Sense.

Peter decides to follow the mysterious woman, who walks into a rough part of New York City. Peter worries about this, as no native New Yorkers spend a lot of time there if they can help it. A pair of hoods try to make off with her purse, but the lady is also a bit of a tiger. She easily dispatches the men with a handy bit of judo.

Spider-Man swings down to compliment her, but she blasts him away.

That's gotta hurt!

The woman looks over the unconscious superhero, and naturally, he'll be alright. The woman then changes into a silver-and-black outfit. Spider-Man wakes up to see the woman blast off in a streak of light. He climbs up a nearby building with his wall-crawling ability and finds that the Empire State Building has lit up like the Fourth of July. 

Monica Rambeau is amazed by the sheer size of New York City. It's so different from her native New Orleans. So, how did our heroine end up like she did? Well, her tale begins at the headquarters of the New Orleans Harbor Patrol. She's been passed over for promotion to captain...again. And she wants to know why.

Her boss claims that he only has so many captain vacancies to fill, but Monica believes that he doesn't want a woman being the captain of a patrol boat. They argue, and she stomps away to her office. It's here she meets up with an old friend of her grandfather's: Professor Andre LeClare. He's a physicist who's considered a bit of a crackpot. His theories did get an audience in a South American dictator named Generalissimo Ernesto Ramirez. Ramirez funded LeClare's research in drawing energy from other dimensions...for the purpose of creating weapons.

When LeClare discovered this, he fled South America. Undaunted, Ramirez hired a former assistant of LeClare's named Felipe Picaro to continue the research. Picaro has been doing so on an old oil rig located off the Gulf of Mexico. LeClare fears that any potential weapon created from his work could make the atom bomb look like, in LeClare's own words, a wet match. LeClare couldn't get anyone in the US government to believe him, so he's come to Monica for help. 

She's unsure what she can do, as she's a harbor patrolman, not a government official. LeClare is hoping she could find a way to get the government's help...and he's aware that Monica has a reputation for being...unorthodox in her work. Monica gets an idea...

The next day, Monica and LeClare are heading to the rig on a speedboat. The plan is a basic one: She'll check things out, and if there's anything fishy, they'll head back and alert the Coast Guard. The speedboat arrives at the rig, and guards from the ne'er-do-well corporation Roxxon are there to greet it. They tell the speedboat to go away, so Monica goes into her "beach-bunny" act, giving the guard boys quite the view.

This gets the attention of Picaro, who lets Monica on board and tries to turn on the charm. The two have a picnic, and an alarm goes off. Turns out LeClare snuck on board the rig in an attempt to shut down whatever Picaro has going on in the rig. Picaro drags Monica with him, as he's convinced she's involved. She comes to the rig and an alarm goes off? Yeah, that's no coincidence, and he realizes that.

Picaro decides to show what his new device can do. He's gonna blow up Fort Benning, Georgia. Because he can. Monica gives him an elbow to the gut and smashes at the machinery with her fists.

This is why you bring a crowbar with you everywhere...

Her attack makes the machine explode, and she is transformed into a streak of light. She makes her way to the New Orleans waterfront, materializing on the docks. A confused Monica makes her way to a warehouse with a radio. She doesn't realize that the radio is unplugged...but that's no problem! She unknowingly powers it up, giving the radio a lot of transmission power, enough to call a Coast Guard ship out in the Gulf of Mexico. 

It's a bit chilly for a bikini and robe, so Monica goes to scare up some clothes. She discovers that she's in a storage shed full of costumes from Mardi Gras. Using some of the clothes, she cobbles together a costume to help keep her identity hidden. 

"So, what should I call myself? Photon? No... Spectrum? No..." 

Monica returns to the oil rig, noticing that the guards are out cold. She runs down and sees Picaro shoot LeClare. She then gives the renegade scientist a kick in the gut. The injured LeClare tells Monica that the machine has created a hole between universes that is getting bigger. If it's not stopped, it'll grow large enough to cause the destruction of the Earth. The newly-empowered heroine then feels herself getting sucked into the hole, but she feels the hole getting smaller. It's as if her body is absorbing the energies that created it.

Picaro wakes up and prepares to give LeClare another bullet, one he hopes will kill the old man this time. Monica is able to free herself form the hole, closing it and giving Picaro a nasty shock. She then gets the injured old man and herself out of there. The authorities will be here soon, and they'll have a lot of questions.

As they leave, one of the guards calls her "Capitan est Maravilla". Basically, Captain Marvel. Two days later, a hale and hartier LeClare comes to visit Monica in her office at Harbor Patrol HQ. He's ran some tests on Monica, and discovered that she now has the power to transform herself into any energy on the electromagnetic spectrum. Infra-red, visible light, X-Rays, ultraviolet radiation, that kind of thing. He's also given her a gift: A version of her makeshift costume from unstable molecules (The substance the Fantastic Four's costumes are made from). Monica is reluctant to take the suit, as she has no desire to be a superhero. LeClare tells her this is her destiny, and she's made the papers, with them giving her the name "Captain Marvel".

Monica goes to her boss's office, and tends her resignation. And all that was a few weeks ago.

She's come New York City for some help. Her energy levels are rising, and she fears that she'll cause an explosion. As such, she heads for the Baxter Building. She finds the building a wreck due to the events of Fantastic Four #242 (May 1982). Basically, a being called Terrax wrecked the place. She meets Ben Grimm, who informs her that the previous Captain Marvel, the Kree superhero Mar-Vell, had passed away months earlier.

"Don't worry, kiddo. You'll get on the superhero gossip grapevine soon enough..."

She needs Reed to help her deal with the energy buildup inside her. Unfortunately, Reed and Sue are on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Ben uses the computer to call Avengers Mansion. They have some science guys there, maybe they can help. Monica uses her powers to travel to the Mansion, where Iron Man is on duty.

"Tony, did you try and download an emulator on the Avengers' computer again?"

Her arrival unintentionally overloads Iron Man's armor, and triggers the Mansion's security system. Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' butler spots our heroine over the fallen Golden Avenger. She tries to explain herself, but her body starts to glow. Spider-Man arrives and tries to web her up, but she's able to destroy it. With the help of his Spider-Sense, Spidey KO's her, but Iron Man and Wasp arrive to explain the situation. Spidey and Tony rig a way to leech out Monica's excess energy reserves using Tony's armor, Spidey's webs, and some cables. 

"Tony, this is no time to pretend you are a spooky ghost."

Wasp tells Spidey "You know, she might explode, we better get out of here." No problem, Janet! Spidey whips up a webbing shield. With the help of Spidey's webbing and Iron Man's repulsors, Monica is able to channel out the excess energies she's holding inside her. Ben Grimm finally arrives at Avengers Mansion (even superheroes have a tough time getting cabs in New York City), fearing that the worst may have happened. But he doesn't need to worry.

"Man, you Avengers can party!"

...where were the other Avengers when Monica arrived? Maybe they were all out doing other things? Anyway, Spidey can't stay, he's got a bus to catch. He makes it to the bus station, but it seems that he missed them. The Parker Luck strikes again...NOT.

Yup, they had to take a different bus, and Peter was just in time to meet them. Hey, even the Webhead deserves a break every now and then. The story ends with them going to get some lunch.

I enjoyed this story. Even though this is a Spider-Man comic, Monica is the clear star of the show. We get a great idea of who Monica is. She's a tough-as-nails woman, but her gaining superpowers makes her feel like she's in a bit over her head. I also liked that the story allowed her to sort of get to meet some of the heavy hitters of the MU, mainly the Avengers. Perhaps it was foreshadowing her future membership? Roger Stern did bring her into the Avengers during his time writing the book...

John Romita Jr. turns in some great art here. It's really interesting to see how much his art resembled his father in style at this point. Although I can't help but wonder if that's because Romita Sr. inked the art here.

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Captain Marvel: Monica Rambeau. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask! See you next time, when we join a new Thor in his first adventure...