Marvel 1976.03 - Captain Marvel #43

Captain Marvel #43

Title: "Destroy! Destroy!" screams the Destroyer

Writer: Steve Englehart

Artist: Al Milgrom

Villain: Supreme Intelligence, Drax the Destroyer

Regulars: Rick Jones

The title is spread over three pages, but this in the only splash page. I can't remember anything like this being done before. Al Milgrom is a good artist. I'm surprised that I've never paid attention to him in the past.

Drax is flying through space, destroying everything in his path. First he smashes a small asteroid to pieces. No big deal? Then he flies into the heart of a small sun and rips out its molten core, causing it to explode. Drax is one of the most powerful beings in Marvel's comics. My guess is that James Gunn didn't have time to read the comics before he introduced the character in "Guardians of the Galaxy". In the film Drax isn't even Art Douglas from Earth. What a mess!

The Supreme Intelligence is watching from Hala. He wants to bring Captain Marvel and Drax together, so he causes the metal horse to malfunction. Captain Marvel and Rick Jones have to land on another of Deneb IV's moons. Rick flies off to explore while Captain Marvel tries to repair the horse.

Rick sees the girl from the western town again. This time she speaks with him. She tells him her name is Fawn. She encourages him to take off his helmet. When he takes it off, he collapses. The air isn't poisonous, but it's hard to breathe.

Meanwhile, Drax senses Mar-Vell's presence on the moon and flies down to attack him. His first punch smashes his helmet. Captain Marvel collapses, but he pulls himself together and stands up again. Drax says he's angry with him because he killed Thanos, which is what he wanted to do himself. Anyone else would have said thank you.

There's a fierce fight, in which Mar-Vell's skin gives him a slight advantage over Drax's raw strength. But however often he knocks Drax down, he stands up again. Mar-Vell flies into space, but the can't escape Drax. Drax grabs his ankle and smashes his head onto space debris, knocking him unconscious. Then he throws him back to make him burn up in the moon's atmosphere.

So far we've still only seen two of the scenes from Captain Marvel #41, P1 and P4.