Avengers Issue 200

The Avengers #200 True believers! This is not how you celebrate 200 issues of The Avengers! Book Type: Comic book Genre: Superhero Author(s): David Michelinie Publisher: Marvel's Comics

The Avengers #200 is the 200th issue of Marvel's The Avengers series of comic books. It was published in October of 1980.

Plot

Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers undergoes a nine-month gestation period in the span of a few days, completely unaware as to how she got pregnant. She gives birth to a baby boy named "Marcus", which grows to a full-sized adult in a few hours and begins to assemble a machine. The Avengers destroy it, believing it to be a threat. Marcus explains himself and reveals that he is the son of the Avenger's longtime enemy, Immortus who used Ms. Marvel in an attempt to free himself from Limbo. However, with his machine destroyed, his gambit has failed and he must return to Limbo. Ms. Marvel, feeling a strong bond between herself and Marcus, decides to quit the Avengers and join him in Limbo.

Why It Sucks

1. For something that's supposed to be the 200th issue of The Avengers, it doesn't point out many notable events that happened in the comics.
2. A bizarre storyline that involves Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel gives birth to his baby boy named "Marcus", and its get much grosser (see below).
3. Originally, the Supreme Intelligence was to have impregnated Ms. Marvel in order to create a new Human-Kree hybrid, but that idea was scrapped at the last minute because it had already been used in What If? issue 20. What we got instead was a much, much worse (see below).
4. The opening narration is a complete non-sequitur, as it rambles about the ideals of America being something to wage war over.
5. Speaking of the Avengers, they act more like sitcom characters then superheroes, as shown by Beast and Wonder Man walking around thinking about something while Captain America is arguing with Hawkeye as Iron Man looks at Captain America.
6. The fight scenes are not that great in comic standards.
7. Unnecessary filler scenes where dinosaurs, spaceships and WWI-era fighter planes attack the Avengers Mansion.
8. Outdated jokes like Beast from the X-Men saying "It's a National Poke-a-hontas Week!".
9. This issue feels like it's made for someone that they wanted to tell and kinda ran out of ideas to make this mess happen.
10. The nonsensical and awful plot in later pages of this issue where it's revealed that the baby, Marcus is the child of Ms. Marvel and Immortus who ultimately falls in love with his mother, due to how he is the form of Immortus, just screams incest, and none of the Avengers (except for Hawkeye) seem to be upset about it.
    • It's also implied that Marcus drugged and raped Ms. Marvel.
    • As a result, she goes with Marcus to Limbo so that he will never be alone.
11. Rampant sexism, at the hands of the Avengers' longtime enemy Immortus and his "son", Marcus being the worst offender.
    • Immortus' plan (impregnating Ms. Marvel and implanting his essence within her in order to escape Limbo) is ridiculous on so many levels, and is just because he was alone in Limbo and needed to find a bride to the point they give birth to Marcus. When Immortus died, Marcus was left alone in limbo and could not exist on earth without disrupting the timeline. He even tried to plucked Ms. Marvel out of time to Limbo in wooing her along with implanting his seed in her so she could give birth to him on earth.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The art from George Perez is decent for the 1980s.
2. Hawkeye is the only Avenger who has the sense to call Marcus out.
3. It is the epitome of how NOT to make a love story in a superhero comic.
4. This is undone when Ms. Marvel is brought back in The Avengers Annual #10, where it's revealed that she never loved Marcus and he was actually mind-controlling her.
5. Marcus only appears in this issue and the 10th annual issue of The Avengers, where he dies by rapid aging.

Trivia

• Chris Claremont, the creator of Ms. Marvel, felt so bad for Ms. Marvel that he brought her back in Avengers Annual #10 (which came out a year after this book and also introduced Rogue, who would later become a member of the X-Men), where she berates the Avengers, saying how she was still under mind control from Marcus and has lost all faith in them after they failed to see it.
• All of the writers of this issue including Bob Layton, Jim Shooter and David Michelinie have since publicly stated that they regret writing it.
• Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug named this issue of the Avengers as #1 in his "Top 15 Worst Comics I Ever Reviewed" list.

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