Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
/48401.jpg "Captain Marvel vol. III #1")
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: February 1994
Cover Price: $1.75
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: M.D. Bright
A Minority Business Seminar at New York’s Empire State University takes Monica Rambeau (aka Captain Marvel; Photon; Pulsar) away from running her New Orleans shipping line for a few days. While on campus, she comes across emerging racial tensions fostered by the Sons of the Serpente – a white supremacist group. The Sons have been stirring up problems in the Marvel Universe since the “silver age” of comics but this time around, they’re being led by Skinhead (a Nazi villain previously seen in Web of Spider-Man). With some inside information from Rocket Racer (an ESU student and fellow super-hero), Captain Marvel is able to engineer the defeat of the racist villain – and hopefully begin his reformation.
This one-shot served several functions. Story-wise, it closed a loose end from a Spider-Man story and also spotlighted Monica’s learning process as she continued to learn the limits of her abilities, after having been depowered. It also walks the fine line between being entertaining and being preachy. Not that this is a rare occurence – especially for comics of the 80s and 90s (other books warned about guns, HIV/AIDS, smoking, sexual predators, and even land mines). But, when all is said and done, it’s a nice little bit of history in the life of Monica Rambeau (I’ve got a sweet spot for her from her time in the Avengers), written by the late Dwayne McDuffie and illustrated by the always-great Mark Bright.
On Ebay: Captain Marvel | Dwayne McDuffie | M.D. Bright
On AtomicAvenue: Captain Marvel