Captain Marvel: 10 Comics You Must Read Before The Film

8. The Death Of Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel
Marvel Comics

This stone-cold classic is important not only for its impact on the Captain Marvel title, but also notable for being the first Marvel graphic novel.

Even today, the death of Mar-vell remains significant, for a number of reasons. For one, it stuck; outside of flashbacks and time travel storylines, Mar-vell has stayed pretty much dead, and no-one gets to do that in comic books - not even Jason Todd.

And what it did for Mar-vell wasn't the usual punch-fest, exploding building or supervillain plot, but cancer instead. Granted, that cancer was a result of inhaling lethal gases during his cosmic adventures, but the end result is the same.

Magnificently written and illustrated with poignancy by the great Jim Starlin, The Death of Captain Marvel has since gone down as perhaps the greatest 'death of' book in comics history - and there have been a lot.

Contributor
Contributor

A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.