Snap Into Marvel! — Marvel Boy Goes From Knight To Snap!
by Austin Gorton
Real Name: Noh-Varr
First Appearance: Marvel Boy #1 (August 2000)
Powers: A member of the alien Kree race from an alternate dimension enhanced with insect DNA, Marvel Boy possesses enhanced strength, speed, stamina and durability, along with the ability to reroute his neurological impulses to avoid feeling unwanted stimulus (like pain). He can scale smooth surfaces, fly under his own power, and emit energy blasts from his hands. He is capable of surviving in space under his own power, his saliva can act as a neurtoxin that gives him limited control over people it infects, and his fingernails can transform into crystal spikes.
Comic Book Chronicles
Like Cassandra Nova, Marvel Boy is another creation of Grant Morrison who, alongside co-creator JG Jones, introduced the character in his eponymous Marvel Knight miniseries. Marvel Knights was a turn-of-the-century pseudo imprint at Marvel in which creators from the world of Indie comics were brought in to work on second-tier Marvel characters (it brought writer Brian Michael Bendis to Marvel, and also gave us a version of the Punisher where he was an angel with guns that shot hellfire).
In Morrison’s hands, Marvel Boy is a fairly unique character. Implicitly a legacy character tied to the history of the original Captain Marvel (an alien Kree warrior who defected to defend Earth, which led to Ms. Marvel aka Carol Danvers, who eventually adopted the “Captain Marvel” moniker herself), he is also tacitly a Kree from another dimension (Earth-200080, if you want to get technical), and thus, is not textually related to the earlier Captain Marvel in any way.
His initial Marvel Knights miniseries is largely an experimental exercise for Morrison and Jones. Marvel Boy is the hero of the story, but he’s not terribly (or at least traditionally) heroic. Meanwhile, the creators try to eschew the usual storytelling techniques in comics lifted from cinema and instead look to music and music videos for their inspiration. It all results in a character and story that is both part of the Marvel Universe, yet slightly askance from it.
Later, Brian Michael Bendis brings Marvel Boy into his Dark Avengers book, and from there, Marvel Boy gradually becomes more of a “traditional” figure within the MU. Created by Norman Osborn in the wake of the Skrull attack on Earth during the “Secret Invasion” crossover event, the Dark Avengers consist of villains and other amoral characters adopting the identity of an established Avenger. In Marvel Boy’s case, he becomes Osborn’s “Captain Marvel”. After Osborn’s fall from grace, Marvel Boy becomes part of the regular Avengers for a time, taking the name “Protector” and serving with them through the “Avengers vs. X-Men” event.
From there, Marvel Boy gets folded into the Young Avengers, the justification for his inclusion in this season of Marvel Snap. Marvel Boy joined that group in the second volume of their series, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Jamie McKelvie. There, his existence as a younger/teenaged character is played up, and he begins to date Kate Bishop while further exploring his sexuality (eventually coming out as bisexual). He follows Kate to the pages of the West Coast Avengers, and from there, returns to space as part of a new iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is where he remains at this time.
Fit & Finish
Not surprisingly, all of Marvel Boy’s initial cards lean into variations on the white-and-green look he sported in debut story and during his Young Avengers tenure. That said, I’d love to see a Chris Bachalo or John Romita Jr. variant featuring his “Kree soldier” Protector look from his time on the Avengers.
Form and Function
Already a staple of Zoo decks and even finding himself being slotted into a handful of other archetypes, the correlation between Marvel Boy’s “boost your 1 power cards” Snap ability and his comic book super powers is relatively nebulous. This is largely because Marvel Boy’s comic book powers are themselves pretty nebulous/generic. The most notable thing about his abilities is probably the whole “has insect DNA” and “toxic saliva” things, and those doesn’t translate into a CCG ability very well.
Where the card/comic book synergy comes from here, I suspect, is in Marvel Boy’s connection to Kate Bishop. A romantic pairing in the comics, it’s probably not a coincidence that they are being released together in the same week. And this is where Marvel Snap’s particular interpretation of his abilities comes into play, as Kate Bishop drops a pair of 1 power cards into your hand. Meaning, that by pairing them together in a deck, you get both cards to boost and the means to boost them. Whether or not that’s an intentional connection on the part of the developers, it makes for a neat synergy between these two one-time romantic partners.
