Captain Marvel has fought a number of enemies from Thanos to Super Skrull, but he had one memorable fight that almost led him to killing The Fantastic Four’s The Thing.
In Captain Marvel #26 by Mike Friedrich, Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum, Mar-Vell is sharing a body with Rick Jones and they are on the hunt for Super Skrull. However, while hunting Super Skrull they discover a much more sinister plot.
Thanos is coming to Earth and he plans on enslaving the planet, and he’s slowly been doing it through slave discs.
What Mar-Vell and Rick Jones don’t know is that Thanos is attempting to mentally break Mar-Vell in order to make him easier to defeat.
They also don’t realize that the Super Skrull hasn’t just attacked them, but has also attacked The Thing.
The Super Skrull lures the Thing into an apartment building where some kind of contraption takes his voice away.
While The Thing is lured into this building by Super Skrull, the Skrull Skragg lures Rick Jones and Mar-Vell to the same apartment with Jones’ girlfriend Lou-Ann Savnnah.
The ploy works like a charm for Thanos and his minions and The Thing and Rick Jones/Mar-Vell both believe they are fighting the Super Skrull.
The fight begins with Rick Jones allowing Mar-Vell to take over and land a killer right hook sending The Thing flying.
The battle continues with The Thing giving Mar-Vell a dose of Clobberin’ Time even though he suspects the two of them have been set up. However, he’s unable to voice his concerns to Mar-Vell given he lost his voice.
While The Thing unloads on Mar-Vell, Mar-Vell dishes it right back and even tosses The Thing through a wall.
The Thing quickly recovers and lifts up part of the room’s floor and uses it to bash Mar-Vell.
It’s not enough. Mar-Vell responds by using a loose cable to electrocute The Thing. The electrocution leaves The Thing hobbled on the floor, dazed and confused, slow to recover.
Mar-Vell moves in for the kill with some kind of green metal spike he picks up from the wreckage. He approaches The Thing from the back and shouts, “And now, murderer–You Die!”
As he swings the metal spike to the ground he purposely misses, refusing to kill The Thing saying, “I can’t do it–! I’ve never killed even a hated enemy so coldly!” He adds, “I won’t start with you, low-life!”
And thus Captain Marvel almost killed The Thing, but he refused to compromise on his principles even when believing that his foe was the murderous Super Skrull.
While The Thing didn’t end up dying at the hands of Captain Marvel, one person did die at the end of the fight. Failing to break Mar-Vell’s mind and drive him into insanity, Thanos kills the Skrull Skragg.
The whole story is definitely worth checking out and can be picked up in The Avengers vs Thanos trade paperback.