CAPTAIN MARVEL #1-5 (2008)

I have a confession to make: I missed a Civil War tie-in.  Apparently, there was a one-shot where Mar-Vell was found by Sentry wandering around the Negative Zone–apparently not dead after 30 years of comics.

We’re led to believe that he is time-displaced, but eventually will still die of cancer.  Mar-Vell himself seems to believe that.  So he fights villains.

And does team-ups.

But in reality, he’s a skrull whose memories were reprogrammed so that he believes he is the real Mar-Vell. Throughout the series, his own truth begins to unravel.

We don’t learn his real identity until the end of the series.  In each issue, we see him engaging with heroes, living in the world, fighting bad guys.  We also see the world adapting to his return and inspiring a new cult called the Brotherhood of Hala.

(But that, too, is part of the skrulls’ master plan.)

The series is a launching pad for Secret Invasion, and as Mar-Vell reunited with old friends and fights old villains, more and more of them are revealed to be skrulls.

For the big finally, Khn’nr–which is his skrull name–is shunted back into the Negative Zone by Carol Danvers, but he is able to escape and decides that he IS for all intents and purposes Captain Marvel, and will protect planet Earth.

I’ve painted with a broad brush here, but this is a definite great read–highly recommended.