Carol Danvers is Part of the Background: Avengers Vol 1 #196– June 1980

Avengers Vol 1 #196: "The Terrible Toll of the Taskmaster"

Ms. Marvel has no particular role in this issue.

This issue opens a few moments after the previous one ended. It ended with Taskmaster coming for the WASP while carrying unconscious Yellow-Jacket and Ant-Man with him. Now we see WASP, Yellow-Jacket and Ant-Man captured inside special hand and leg shackles. They are so special that if they try to shrink, their hands and legs won’t shrink with them. Someone is prepared to capture some superheroes.

The Taskmaster is in charge of training and distributing the villain’s goons which he does in special academies that he has created. He cannot let WASP, Yellow-Jacket and Ant-Man go because they will tell the others about what he has been doing, and he is not going to kill them because it is a censured Marvel comic character. The WASP asks the Taskmaster who he is, and he replies that he is an educator. Then he gives her an example of how he trains his goons, trains them to fight the likes of Captain America and Hawkeye. The WASP is impressed, and she says it out loud and asks how he did it. That is of course so the villain can give her his entire back story. He can remember and imitate the movements of everyone he sees and decides to be a villain instead of a hero for the money. He decided to teach others to be villains, because that is less painful as he avoids actual fights. So, I guess he is not really that talented.

The Taskmaster does kill the Dr. who raised the clone because that exposed him to the Avengers. In order to cover for the death, he means to make the clone grow old faster, so it could take the place of the Dr.

Outside, the Avengers are just waiting, drinking hot cocoa that Beast made and passing the time. They’ve been waiting for so long that no one but Beast can drink anymore. Iron Man wonders at how the Avengers have changed, and how they all get along now. He also wishes that people on the outside can see them as they see each other. Ants appears and crawl all over Iron Man who understands that it’s a signal that their friends are in trouble.

Beast makes a quippy remark and Ms. Marvel tells him to can it. But, the Avengers do threaten the Taskmaster unless he releases their friends. Obviously, not death threats, but still.

The WASP tells the Taskmaster that Ant-Man sent a distress message, before the Taskmaster took off his helmet.

The Taskmaster calls his goons and Iron Man activates his wide-beam repulsor blast, but the goons have technology that reverse it and causes it back fire, causing all of the Avengers to get hit. The Avengers recover, and a battle starts. During the battle Selbe, the clone, frees the WASP, Yellow-Jacket and Ant-Man in gratitude for their help.

The Avengers win against most of the goons, but now they are faced with the Taskmaster powers. He is formidable, but his not interested in finding out if he can win in a battle. He locks them inside a room and intends to flood it with sleeping gas. Which makes no sense as they broke the wall to get into the room, so there is a really big whole in the wall, or they can break their way out.

Nitpicking aside, the Taskmaster meets Jocasta outside of the door, a female android who is part of the Avengers. He cannot win because he has never seen her or knows what powers she has. While she’s blocking all of his moves the WASP and Yellow-Jacket attack him. The Avengers are done with all of the goons and now the Taskmaster is left with the choice of whether to fight them all or surrender. The Taskmaster lights up a flare that blinds the Avengers and he escape. Iron Man and Vision recover the fastest, but the Taskmaster is in a fast-moving aircraft and they cannot over take him. The Avengers feel grateful towards Jocasta and welcome her as an official Avengers and promise not to ignore her anymore. She likes that very much.

Ms. Marvel is just part of the background in his issue. She has no particular role or lines, she’s just part of the team, but not an outstanding one. Other than telling Beast to “can it” she has no lines in the issue, she doesn’t ask the WASP for forgiveness or has any reunion with her. She just fights with the Avengers and recovers with them. That’s it. She’s a background character.

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