Emperor to Villain in a Blink - Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) volume 1 - Emperor Quill

 

Front cover of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) TPB volume 1 - Emperor Quill

This book collects the following comics: Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) #1-5

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A middling score for a middling book. There are some moments of aching beauty, lots of entertaining banter, some brilliant wordless action sequences. But to reach each of those almost-sublime moments, you must dig through many other stretches of text-heavy boredom and confusion.

My Review

Following the Marvel Comics crossover Secret Wars event of 2015, several series relaunched with new #1 issues. Guardians of the Galaxy was one of them. And, befitting such a relaunch, it includes some substantial changes in the makeup of the team.

Most notably, it introduces two Earth-born heroes. Former X-men member Kitty Pryde has picked up the mantle of the Star-Lord. Her natural leadership abilities do lead to some tensions with Rocket Raccoon, who assumed the slot of the top Guardian was entirely his. 

Other Earth-connected characters also join the team. There is Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, making a jump from the Fantastic Four to a new team. And Flash Thompson aka Venom, not a character known as a team player.

The title of Star-Lord was up for grabs because its former holder, Peter Quill, came out of the events of Secret Wars as the new emperor of Spartax. It's hard to go bounding through the stars on great Guardian adventures when you have countless governance meetings to attend.

Spartax is at the center of the action throughout this book. First, the last surviving great Kree warrior comes, intent on avenging the destruction of her home world, Hala. The destruction that follows in her wake is intense and immense. She repeatedly defeats mighty Gamora and only some clever teamwork from the Guardians can stop her.

Before Spartax can catch its breath, though, Yotat the Destroyer arrives with blood on his mind and soon on his hands.

It all leads to some political shake-up as the new emperor's reign proves very short. A bloodless coup sends him fleeing with his old Guardian friends.

Artist Valerio Schiti shows some visual prowess in these pages. When given the space by the narrative - more on that in a minute - he fills the pages with sequences of intense, wordless images. They are powerful, suspenseful, moving, a real tribute to the power of visual storytelling in such capable hands.

Kudos to writer Brian Michael Bendis for trusting his artist enough to let the pictures tell key parts of the story. Unfortunately, sometimes those words left out of one page appear in another, burying the reader under occasionally burdensome narration and drawn-out dialog.

When that excessive dialog works, it gives us some real fun interplay between the characters. But other times it is prone to filling too much space trying too hard to be humorous.

It is also not clear why the rebooted series needs to borrow so heavily from Earth-born heroes. Kitty Pryde was established as a reluctant space-based hero in the Legendary Star-Lord series, now in it for the long haul. She is a bit of a stretch as a Guardian, but sure. But how to justify Ben Grimm? Or Venom? These are weird choices, head-scratching additions to a beloved team.

While it does continue a pattern, with for example Captain Marvel also taking turns bringing some Earth-based reasons to care about the Guardians, the series would be stronger to double-down on its interstellar space romp. Rocket, Groot, Drax, Gamora, each has emerged as a beloved alien character; why could Bendis not introduce some new alien-born characters. Or if Earth needs to be a part of it, maybe as an anchor for future crossover events, give us an unknown Earth-born hero. The approach of borrowing heroes and characters from other books leaves me cold.

It is also frustrating how swiftly Peter Quill goes from Emperor to Villain. By the end of this book, still only issue #5 of the ongoing series, he is out. Was it an internal power move? That's fine, it is just politics. Was it a coup? maybe. Was he not suited to that level of leadership, presiding over an entire planet? Undoubtedly. 

But by the end of the story arc, he and the Guardians with whom he flees have suddenly been declared "enemies of the galaxy." The basis of that declaration is.. what exactly? It is a gaping hole in this tale, a frustrating twist that moves the plot away from Spartax but leaves us scratching our heads about the logic.

What I loved

Visual storytelling in issue #3

Comics and graphic novels are inherently visual forms of communication. Too often, though, word-based storytelling eclipses image-based elements. But sometimes the author resists the urge to fill the space with words and lets the artist tell the story through their art.

Bendis does just that a few times in this book, to positive effect. Schiti rises to the challenge and gives us intense images that drive both the action and the emotion. A picture is worth a thousand words, the old cliche tells us; and in these instances, it works. In the example above, something momentous is clearly about to happen between two determined and powerful women.

What I didn't love

Too much dialog in too many places

The flip side of the What I Loved section above. Sometimes Bendis cannot resist filling the panels with text.

The nuance and details in this dialog would be challenging to show without words, but the conversation adds little to the story despite filling most of the space in the panel. Too many times, a chain of word bubbles mars and hides the artist's contribution.

Related Reviews

Guardians of the Galaxy vol 5 Through the Looking Glass Black Vortex tie-in book

Guardians of the Galaxy / All-New X-Men - the Trial of Jean Gray

Legendary Star-Lord - Rise of the Black Vortex (coming soon)

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Brian Michael Bendis 
Artists:  Valerio Schiti
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  Dec 14, 2016
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) volume 1 - Emperor Quill

Love, Laughs and Lies - Legendary Star-Lord (2014) vol 2 - Rise of the Black Vortex

  

Front cover of Marvel TPB Legendary Star-Lord volume 2

This book collects the following comics: Legendary Star-Lord (2014) issues #6-12

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A mixed-bag collection that opens with two charming tales of the thrill of new romance, another that starts to set up the Black Vortex event, followed by three chapters in that crossover extravaganza, and ending with an adventure of a related but very minor character. Sometimes fun, often-times confusing, it shows the potential to become quite a source for space adventures but is not there yet.

My Review

The second volume TPB of 2014's Legendary Star-Lord by Marvel Comics continues to add some depth to this character. With family history and a budding romance with an Earth-bound love interest, Peter Quill is given opportunity to express a range of emotions. It is an important chance to stretch beyond his most common frat-boy-esque devil-may-care attitude.

Writer Sam Humphries handles the blossoming love very well. The action in the first chapter of this collection centers around an awkward holo-date between Peter and Kitty Pryde. Long-distance relationships are challenging at the best of times, but what if that distance is measured in interstellar parsecs? Thankfully, the technology exists to allow a hologram call between the lovers, apparently with zero lag time in the transmissions, too!

It is the most fun chapter of the collection. Humphries gives us inner-voice narration by both Kitty and Peter, as they each stress over how it's going and did they just say or do something stupid? Such cute mind-games, made all the more difficult when the Slaughter Squad is trying to hunt him down.

But have no fear - the ever-resourceful Kitty knows a space-jet she can commandeer on short notice, one capable of traversing the distances in minutes or some other relatively short period of time. Which begs the question: why bother with a holo-date in the first place? Why not make what is apparently no more than a day-trip to cover the distance?

Once she does arrive, the dramatic rescue sequence, saving Peter by phasing him out of Mister Knife's fortress, gives artist Freddie Williams II an opportunity for some of the most creative work in the book. The slashing panel, following the tumbling heroine, works perfectly.

All of this wraps around the big twist that galactic villain Mister Knife is none other than Peter's father, the deposed emperor himself. It sets up some fun banter as they argue about his motives and actions. But the whole "I Am Your Father" angle feels overdone, and not particularly well handled in this case either, other than as one-dimensional archetypes.

The middle of this book is entirely devoted to this title's contributions to the Black Vortex crossover event. This ancient celestial artifact fills those who embrace its temptations with immense cosmic energy, making them far more powerful and amping up their greatest strengths.

Spreading its stories over this title as well as Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men titles, the Black Vortex lasted over a dozen chapters in all. Legendary Star-Lord does a better job than the others at filling in key details of the characters and forces at play, so kudos to Humphries for that.

And lead artist Paco Medina infuses the images with a vibrancy and intensity befitting the conflicts between and within these characters and teams. 

But it is not a strong or compelling story. As each character is in turn faced with the temptation to take on the cosmic energies for themselves, we do get a little nod to their internal struggles. But it does not compensate for the chaotic story or the excessive number of characters all crowding for panel space. A disappointment, overall.

The final chapter of the book is also the final issue of the ongoing series (ended as part of the Marvel "Secret Wars" storyline and then relaunched with a new premiere issue). It focuses on Peter's half-sister Victoria and her own schemes and plots. In a long-running series, there is lots of room to dedicate an issue to a deep-dive into a secondary character or introducing a new peripheral character. Here, it feels like a place-holder, a throw-away tale while the main characters are on hold, awaiting the company-wide crossover event about to hit. It fosters the one-dimensional "bad Dad" personality of former emperor J-son but little else.

The book, and the series that came to an end with these tales, had some shining moments but they were sadly outnumbered by the uninspired, confusing or overly chaotic sections. I give it two capes out of five.

What I loved

Kitty Pryde phases through the enemy fortress

Kitty to the rescue! With boyfriend Peter in the hands of Mister Knife, her rescue plan was to point her spaceship directly at his coordinates, crash into the fortress holding him and use her momentum to phase through all the barriers until she reached him.

It is a creative plan, with at least a passing nod to superhero physics. Best of all, though, is the way artist Freddie Williams II illustrated the action: a wonderful, tumbling, slashing strip cutting diagonally across the page, with loads of fun little encounters en route.

What I didn't love

Black Vortex version of Star-Lord

As I complained elsewhere (see Related Reviews), the Black Vortex crossover event is not one of the better cross-title tales you'll read. It is chaotic and confusing, with odd choices of participants, a questionable name (Vortex has a meaning, but the magic mirror at the centre of these tales has little to do with it) and an over-kinetic, overloaded and hyperactive plot that is difficult to follow.

All of which applies to the three and a half Black Vortex tales in this book. They do include a little more explanation about the foundations of the story than the Guardians of the Galaxy tie-in, filling in some of the gaps. But the story remains somewhat incoherent with too many characters, too many starts that fail to finish and, ultimately, it fails to hold the reader's interest.

Related Reviews

Guardians of the Galaxy vol 5 Through the Looking Glass - Black Vortex tie-in book

Guardians of the Galaxy / All-New X-Men - the Trial of Jean Gray

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Sam Humphries
Artists:  Paco Medina (#6, 9-12), Freddie Williams II (#7, 8)
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  July 22, 2015
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Marvel TPB Legendary Star-Lord volume 2

Loves Past and Present - Lost Girls Book 2 - Neverlands

Cover of Lost Girls book 2 by Alan Moore

 

This book collects the following: the middle 10 Lost Girls stories

Score (out of 5 Capes)

While the Lost Girls books continue to be an amazing achievement of erotic artistry, this volume falls short of the first volume, by bending a little too far into the frantic and frequent couplings of our many characters. In doing so, it becomes a touch repetitive and loses some of the power and multi-layered textures of the original book.

My Review

In this, the middle volume of Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's stunning and controversial Lost Girls books, we no longer need to meet and catch up with our main characters. Volume one introduced us to Alice and her affection for mirrors and looking glasses, Dorothy with her midwestern American upbringing, and Wendy in her loveless marriage and sexual repression. Freed from the setup details, our creators can dive fully into the heart of the tales they have to tell.

The overall effect is more sex and nudity but a less compelling read than volume one. Still definitely for Mature readers, only.

Let's take a look at the ten short stories in this volume first.

The first story, titled A Caucus Race and a Long Tale, is framed as a letter written by Wendy's husband to an associate. With clever double-entendres aplenty, both in word and in image, the story is a sequence of couplings, a new pair on each subsequent page: Starting with two male hotel staffers posing for the manager's erotic painting project; one of them then enjoys a maid in a closet; she then is fiddled with by Alice; who then gets it on with Dorothy; she, in turn, beds Bauer; who then masturbates while watching Wendy in the sauna; she returns to her room where her husband fantasizes some dark things while watching her from across the room; he finally takes a bath, and masturbates while flipping through the manager's in-room book of paintings, and the circle is complete.

In Shaking and Waking, Alice first dominates and humiliates before finally affectionately seducing Wendy. This is an artistic accomplishment with the unfolding events told and pictured in stacked panel, perfectly paralleled by a tall, narrow single panel per page stepping through each of the infamous "seven deadly sins." Word and picture work hand in hand more purely and compellingly in this chapter than in any of the others.

Contrarywise then follows this same artistic layout - stacked panels on the left, telling the unfolding present, paralleled by a single page-height panel to the right, a water-colour retelling of Dorian Gray. As in the preceding chapter, Moore weaves the two stories together with skill and verve; as Mister Potter learns some things about pleasure and pain from Mister Bauer, so, too, Dorian Gray has his own education. Gebbie again rises to the occasion, rendering this challenging tale with grace and care.

The Straw Man returns our three heroines to sharing their stories with one another. Dorothy regales her audience with the birth of her love of pretty shoes - a parental bribe for leaving her home alone during a tornado storm. Thus, shod in her sparkly new pumps, and bolstered in her confidence, she promptly seduces the slow-witted hired hand for a fling in the barn. It is a sweet coupling, one that, in processing it after, awakens her to new and exciting possibilities down the road.

This tale also launches a new artistic element. As the ladies share their fond memories and coming-of-age tales, Gebbie interrupts the flow of the tales with a single, dreamy, full-page poster of the tale. Six in all, two for each of the women. Beautiful, erotic works of art.

Wendy goes next, in The Island Come True. This time, instead of Peter coming to her chambers, she and her younger brothers seek him out in the park. Interrupting an encounter with Annabel, they are nearly discovered by a suspicious, lurking adult. The visuals return to the layout and structure we saw in volume one for Wendy's memories, with a silhouetted upper banner over three vertical and full-colour panels - Wendy's visually distinct pattern with Gebbie's careful touches.

Alice gets two chapters in a row for her unfolding tale of her flowering youth. In The Garden of Live Flowers, she recalls the sexual escapades she and her classmates got into at their all-girls boarding school, whether with other students or with a certain teacher - Miss Regent, in a rich nod to the Red Queen in the original source material. Gebbie then runs with this motif, sprinkling several clever clues throughout her visuals.

Following completion of her schooling, Alice is then hired by her former teacher and the sexual encounters quickly take a more twisted turn, first with bondage and then increasingly risky methods and places of their couplings. All told in an appropriately titled chapter, A Mad Tea Party.

Dorothy's turn telling a memory comes next, in The Cowardly Lion. In perhaps the sweetest tale of the entire collection, she seduces a timid farmhand, only to produce an awakening, a coming-of-age in him. His confidence and love blossoms into life, but not for her. The new respect and courage she sparked in him launches him into a world of deeper and more meaningful relationships with other women.

In Wendy's final tale of this volume, Peter Breaks Through, the mysterious adult of her previous chapter returns with his own evil designs. The Hook to Peter's Pan, he interrupts the young lovers with his own gratification, leaving Wendy with a lesson in the darker and more disgusting side of her newfound sexuality.

The tenth and final tale, Snicker-Snack, overlays a romantic threesome outing with larger political events. Echoes of the power and costs of sexuality and freedoms, threaded so well through the earlier tales, all come together in this closing chapter. In his writing, Moore swings for the fences but only manages a simple base-hit. He cannot quite land this ambitious merging of the many themes he has laid out before us. It is the most forced and heavy-handed of the chapters.

Fortunately, there is one more volume in this collection, so he will have more opportunities.

In all, this is another breathtaking collection of erotic fiction and art. The themes are woven so intelligently into the threads taken from the source material - Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz. The visuals continue to dazzle with their innovative layouts and compelling use of colour and space.

It cannot quite live up to the heights of volume one, unfortunately. The complexity of the plot doesn't quite gel into a unified whole; and the erotic imagery becomes reductive, repetitive and stiff on several occasions. Still, an amazing collection of stories.

What I loved

A typical oval panel framing another memory from Alice's story

The artistic commitment to form, with all of the tales that focus on Alice's remembrances framed in oval panels, reminiscent of a parlour mirror looking glass. Even as her past reflections turn increasingly disturbing, from schoolgirl larks and explorations to power dynamic imbalances and manipulations behind the increasingly dangerous assaults, the pattern never breaks, never cracks. Metaphorical reflections abound, and any artistic constraint caused by the lack of corners in these panels affect Gebbie and her creations not in the least.

What I didn't love

Stamp-like image of the archduke

As with volume one, so in this second volume the weakest story is the final one. The visual artistry remains very strong, with the upper two-thirds of each page portraying the ongoing explorations and awakenings of our heroines in bursts of colour and highly stylized jungle imagery, with the bottom third a starker and darker parallel story of the assassination that would launch a world war. Gebbie does her best to salvage this chapter.

But as in volume one, Moore's story becomes overburdened with his artistic ambitions. An already narratively heavy book slips even farther into over-extended text. At the same time, the parallels between the two sides of the split narrative - the women and their afternoon dalliances set against an historical political assassination - falls flat and fails to do full justice to either side of the line.

Related Reviews

Lost Girls Book One - Older Children

Lost Girls Book Three (coming soon)

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Alan Moore
Artists:  Melinda Gebbie
Published By:  Top Shelf
Published When:  Aug 26, 2006
Parental Rating: Mature (X)

Oh the Tail Puns - Review of Rocket Raccoon (2014) vol 1 - A Chasing Tale

  

Front cover of Marvel's Rocket Raccoon TPB - Volume 1 A Chasing Tale

This book collects the following comics: Rocket Raccoon (2014) #1-6

Score: 2 out of 5 Capes

A sometimes fun, candy-coated trip through Rocket's more colourful personality traits that, like any guilty-pleasure candy, crosses the too-much-of-a-good-thing threshold.

My Review

Take every endearing element of Rocket Raccoon. His wisecracking humour. His love of exotic weapons and spaceships. His reckless abandon. His violent, tactical brilliance and strategic depth.

Take the most essential elements of his back-story. His uniqueness. His tragic origins.

Now crank the dial up to max on every one of them, simultaneously. Throw in some heavily stylized art and a colour palette so loud it hurts. What do you get?

That is the formula behind Skottie Young's short-lived monthly series focusing on Rocket and his sidekick Groot. As both writer and artist, Young has complete creative control of this series (well, within any restrictions the editors at Marvel Comics imposed). He takes full advantage of that freedom, delivering a vision of Rocket that exults in all of his best / worst behaviours.

The result is a blurringly fast-paced, gaudily rendered tale (or tail, as the pun is made more than once). Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen, because this is one wild ride.

The backbone of this book is Rocket's attempt to both clear his name and uncover what appears to be an evil twin's efforts to pin murders on him. A chaotic escape from ringside seats at Groot's wrestling match leads to a prison break from a maximum-security penitentiary, then to an interstellar battle with an armada of ex-girlfriends, a mafia deal and a final showdown with Blackjack O'Hare.

It's loud; it's angry; it's occasionally sweet and always violent. Like Rocket himself.

And that is just the first four chapters.

The fifth is the best of the collection. Groot tells the tale of a grand quest he joined Rocket on, a treasure hunt of epic proportions. Best of all, as the narrator, Groot's inimitable style of speech saturates the story. So much imagination, told in a way that the Groot gimmick remains fresh throughout, never tipping over into complete farce.

It is a balance that Young cannot manage to maintain through the rest of the tales / tails. As fun as it is sometimes, bathing in the crazy eccentricities of Rocket Raccoon, somewhere it crosses the threshold of too much of a good thing. When it does, when the reader reaches their saturation point of Rocket's trademark snarl and combat brilliance and cheeky sense of humour, when the unique and strongly stylized visuals reach their max, the book turns into more of a slog than a joy for the worn-out reader.

Young drives the plot relentlessly, whipping it in an onslaught of ever-accelerating tempo. Like the worst aspects of your social media feed, it turns into the comics equivalent of doomscrolling, an endless series of train wrecks in candy-wrapper colour schemes. Perhaps he sensed his time was limited and needed to get all his ideas out there. The finished product is weaker for it, unfortunately.

What I loved

A tale told by Groot sounds a lot like Groot

A true pinnacle of Skottie Young's creative vision is the chapter narrated almost entirely by Groot. Of course, everyone only ever says "I am Groot". Everyone. In every panel. Because that's what it sounds like Groot is saying to us. 

By stripping out the words - or rather, replacing them all with "I am Groot," Young forces his art to carry the entirety of the storytelling. Why is that such a rare thing in graphical stories like comics and graphic novels? Seems so natural - use the visuals to drive the plot!

The result here is over the top, hilarious and absolutely brilliant.

What I didn't love

About to enter Guppy Warp

The zany silliness never lets up, never stops. Everything, every plot twist, every character element, is all wrapped in layers of carnival-coloured absurdity. Every aspect of Rocket's personality and back-story is amped up to max. The results can be hilariously funny. They also can and occasionally do become a never-ending assault on the eyes and senses. When this happens, the whole topples over into weary exhaustion.

Related Reviews

Captain Marvel (2014) volume 2 - Stay Fly

Guardians of the Galaxy: Guardians of Infinity

Guardians of the Galaxy volume 5 - Through the Looking Glass

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Skottie Young
Artists:  Skottie Young (#1-5), Jake Parker (#5-6)
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  Nov 3, 2015
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Marvel's Rocket Raccoon TPB - Volume 1 A Chasing Tale

Long-lost Hero Lost Again? Review of Captain Marvel (2019) volume 1 Re-entry

  

Front cover of Captain Marvel (2019) TPB volume 1 - Re-entry

This book collects the following comics: Captain Marvel (2019) on-going series issues #1-5

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A new start, back on Earth, that hits a few fun notes but shifts to an uninteresting and poorly handled setting for the bulk of the book.

My Review

After a year in space, with all those star-spanning adventures and new personal growth in courage, diplomacy and inter-personal relationships, Carol Danvers and her Captain Marvel power returns to Earth.

When she left the planet at the start of her previous ongoing series, somewhat abruptly, the choice hit pause on some pretty significant relationships: her close friendship with Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman; a blossoming romance with James Rhodes / War Machine; an at-times tense affiliation with the Avengers, especially with Tony Stark / Iron Man.

This new series starts off on the right foot, reconnecting her to each of these people and more right in issue #1. She and Spider-Woman team up to save Manhattan from a giant, tentacled monster then, still covered in the creature's purple gore, make a coffee date to catch up.

Then Tony Stark charm-manipulates her into mentoring the young mutant Hazmat as she struggles to come to terms with her lethal powers.

Followed closely by a lunch date with Rhodes, to catch up and see if there is still any spark after so many months apart.

And finally, she and the Avengers join forces to take on Nuclear Man and stop him from destroying a city block. But in pursuing him as he attempts an escape, Captain Marvel falls through a portal and into a trap: Nuclear Man has enclosed Roosevelt Island in a time-distorting dome. While only an hour passes outside the dome, a whole month passes inside.

This is where the story jumps the rails, unfortunately. In the first issue, writer Kelly Thompson did a solid job of re-grounding Captain Marvel in the places and relationships that contributed to her becoming such a beloved hero in the Marvel universe. She even worked in some nods to the origin story ret-con The Life of Captain Marvel.

All of that gets set aside for an extended Mad Max distraction. A small collection of women heroes - Spider-Woman, Echo, Hazmat, She-Hulk and Captain Marvel - have been trapped under Nuclear Man's dome. Some have even had their powers dampened or completely disabled. They must band together, scavenge for weapons and launch an assault on Nuclear Man's central headquarters, to regain their freedom.

As weeks pass under the dome, the world trapped within quickly degenerates into a dystopian nightmare. I mean very, very quickly. While the warzone itself seems relatively quiet, with only the occasional skirmish between the sides, somehow society and the environment devolve into a dark, dangerous place.

Some of that rapid entropy could be caused by Rogue, who is also inside the dome and is being mind-controlled by Nuclear Man. It leads to the single most significant development in the four dome-entombed issues: a re-enactment of the log-past Rogue vs Captain Marvel confrontation, resolved only when they both make sacrifices for the others. 

This is a non-trivial evolution in their characters and continuity. It is a shame that we must wade through so much dreary darkness to get there.

Thompson has written Rogue before, including the Rogue and Gambit series in 2018 that garnered her a Best Writer Award nomination. So, she certainly has a handle on the character, and most of the others in these pages. And the casual misogyny of Nuclear Man as he battles an army of women is well handled. It is in these character portrayals where Thompson most shines. What falls flat are the choices of setting and societal reactions.

Fitting that setting, the art by Carmen Carnero, with colours by Tamra Bonvillain, is dark, intense, brooding and scarred by the rapid societal collapse. Such a contrast with the vivid and emotionally powerful covers! Amanda Connor and Paul Mounts make each one a striking, eye-catching poster of Captain Marvel, highlights of this new series.

Overall, issue #1 feels like a tease to those of us clamoring for more of Carol's relationships - with Rhodey, Stark and the Avengers, Jessica and others. The rest of this book then pulls us, not into space, but into an alternate-reality realm, a frustrating side-trip and disappointing start to this much-anticipated re-entry.

What I loved

Part of the beautiful cover for issue #4

What I loved most of all in this paperback collection of the first five issues of this rebooted series are the superb covers by Amanda Connor and Paul Mounts. They are so vivid and expressive. And the one above, from issue #4, is my very favourite. The faces are so intense yet beautiful; the muscles so defined and flexed; the colours of Rogue's white and Carol's blond, it all works beautifully, positively shouting about the dramatic events within. If a cover's job is to sell the book, this one has me reaching for my wallet!

What I didn't love

Another beautiful cover, one that illustrates
the radical social changes in too short a time

The extended, time-manipulated, dystopian setting for most of this book was an unfortunate choice for kicking off Captain Marvel's overdue return to Earth. With so much to catch up on, so many relationships to renew, so much potential for exciting new directions for this hero, why lock her into an island-sized bubble for most of the first five issues?

The extent to which this neighbourhood turned all Mad-Max dystopian also does not hold water. Outside the bubble, only a day passes over the course of this story; inside, however, several weeks or months pass. Part of the mysterious powers of our primary villain. But is that really long enough for this small society to reach the state of disfunction that they do?

Especially reading this post-Covid, in which society also went into an almost time-shifted bubble for months yet failed to reach anything close to full breakdown chaos, the rapid onset here of the depths of dystopian fantasy just don't work.

Related Reviews

Captain Marvel (2014) volume 1

Captain Marvel (2014) volume 2

The Life of Captain Marvel

Rogue & Gambit: Ring of Fire

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Kelly Thompson
Artists:  Carmen Carnero, Tamra Bonvillain
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  Sept. 10, 2019
Parental Rating: Teen+

Back cover of Captain Marvel (2019) TPB volume 1 - Re-entry

I Know it When I See it - Review of Lost Girls book 1 - Older Children

 

This book collects the first 10 Lost Girls stories. 

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A daring reimagining of Dorothy, Alice and Wendy, with a true artistry to the visuals.

My Review

Note: the book reviewed here is for Mature readers due to its frequent, explicit and graphic depictions of sexuality and nudity. This review is rated for Teens - it is neither explicit nor graphic but does briefly mention some of the disturbing topics that arise in the book. 

"I know it when I see it." Justice Potter Stewart of the US Supreme Court coined this phrase in a 1964 case over whether a particular work of art met the threshold of being "obscene."

How would Justice Stewart have ruled on the Lost Girls work by acclaimed comic writer Alan Moore and lavishly illustrated by Melinda Gebbie? On the one hand, Moore himself described it as "pornography". On the other hand, it is clearly a powerful work of art, imagination and storytelling, so much so that any titillation stimulated within the reader is almost incidental and beside the point.

Moore's powerful storytelling abilities are on full display in this series of ten short chapters. Drawing on fairy tales, classical music, mythology, history and so much more, he crafts a stunning masterpiece, the whole very much dwarfing the sum of its parts.

Each of the ten chapters fits together; each is an essential element in painting the whole picture. The work would be lessened, even nonsensical, if any one of them were omitted.

The Mirror opens the collection. It introduces us to Alice of Looking-glass fame, now an old but still libidinous woman. The tale is told through images entirely framed by the same ornately carved mirror. Panel after panel compels us to dwell on the individually drawn repetitions of the highly suggestive carvings. How many hours did Gebbie spend on these images? Through simple structure with ornate details, her images contribute to the growing mystery of what is really going on behind us but in front of the mirror? It all leads to a delicious perspective-flipping reveal.

Next is Silver Shoes, which brings Dorothy Gale of Wizard of Oz fame to the Hotel Himmelgarten (meaning the Garden of Heaven). Upon her arrival, Dorothy is promptly seduced by the smooth-talking Captain Rolf Bauer, who with his fetish for feet is drawn to her and her silver shoes. If The Mirror touched upon mature subject matter but with discrete images, this second chapter ups the visually graphical ante. Gebbie also dazzles with her use of space, keeping a six-panel page layout but switching between 2x3 and 3x2 structures as needed to draw our eyes to the most critical elements, usually those silver shoes.

Missing Shadows brings the third and final central character into the mix, Mrs. Wendy Potter. She and her husband, with all their married repressions in tow, check into the same hotel. This chapter also gives us the first story-within-a-story as Mr. Potter discovers his room's copy of the hotel owner's hand-made book of erotic art and fiction. We readers get glimpses into this racy book. Gebbie handles the shifts in artistic style between the two nested stories with such grace and ease and gives a visual double-entendre through the shadows of the Potters.

In chapter four, Poppies, the three women meet for the first time at the hotel. Old Alice wastes no time in seducing Dorothy, while the Potters, in the room next door, are left to wonder what might be the relationship between the two women. Our perspective shifts smoothly into the following chapter, Straight on till Morning, which retells the preceding chapter but from Wendy's perspective. I love the way Moore weaves her suspicions and tensions into how and what she hears thru the thin walls of the hotel. Perhaps the most poignant chapter of the collection, as through simple narration and striking images, we grieve for the growing distance and mounting frustrations between husband and wife.

Queens Together at last brings all three together for a deeper connection. In the beautiful and secluded grounds of the hotel, they discover an affinity and friendship that is at once physical, spiritual and emotional. This chapter is also framed by another story-within-a-story, a series of Easter-Egg-like nods to the canonical tales of the three, as they agree to share their deeper stories with one another.

Dorothy goes first, with her tale of The Twister. Her sexual awakening, with all of its emotions and sensations and confusing teenaged hormones set amidst the stormy chaos of a storm. The famous tornado is both catalyst and brilliant metaphor for the raging, thrilling swirl of life she discovers. And the contrast between muted, earthy tones in the Kansas recollections versus the candy-coloured exaggerations of their present day, perfectly enhance the experience.

Wendy goes next, in Come Away, Come Away. She narrates her chance meeting with the street urchin Peter and how he entered her chambers and taught her and her brothers about the joys of their sexuality. This is now the eighth chapter of the collection, and Gebbie gives us at least a seventh distinct visual style. These images are sharply distinct from Dorothy's tale, with her swirl and horizontal structure replaced by thin, vertical panels topped by a second scene entirely in silhouette.

Finally, it is Alice's turn, in Looking Glass House. In yet another stylistic shift, this visually jaw-dropping tale is framed in ovals reminiscent of old-fashioned parlour mirrors. Yet it tells a deeply disturbing tale of Alice's awakening through being assaulted by a trusted family friend. She survived the uncomfortable and troubling experience by losing herself in a fantasy dream while staring into a large mirror in the family parlour. Again, Moore plays his characters on multiple levels, such richly imagined back-stories to characters we once thought ourselves familiar with.

Book 1 closes with Stravinsky, a story in which the main characters travel from the hotel into the city and attend performance of the Rite of Spring. In the darkness of the theatre, surrounded by friends, family and strangers, Dorothy, Alice and Wendy connect with one another in ways that weave perfectly into the music and drama around them.

The combined result of these ten stories is a beautifully brilliant book filled with intriguing reinterpretations of the core three characters. Moore has crafted the elements of his tale on so many levels, and his intelligent narrative is matched and equalled by Gebbie's visuals, simple yet ever-changing style and sensitive handling of the material.

The book is rightly rated Mature, this subject matter is not for the young or weak or impressionable. The frankness with which it handles previously taboo subject matter is admirable, and it all leaves the reader with much to think upon.

So, what would Justice Stewart conclude? In this reviewer's opinion, it could certainly be considered some degree of titillating, but it is far more a superb piece of art, both in writing and in imagery.

What I loved

Right from the start, from the first chapter The Mirror, the level of quality in Gebbie's renderings and Moore's storytelling is evident. An ornately carved mirror frames every panel of this chapter, with no copy-paste short-cuts. Each one is lovingly redrawn, showing the passion and care these creators have poured into this beautiful work of art.

What I didn't love

The final chapter, Stravinsky, layered art upon art. With pages creatively laid out with the stage show above and, in a 180-degree turn, the audience in the bottom panel, it retells the classical drama in such a way that the growing passions of our main characters mirror it almost perfectly. Gebbie's visuals are as stunning as in any other chapter. All of that is great and consistent with the rest of this book. 

But the narrative text boxes are so oppressively large, filled with lines and lines of small and hard to read cursive-font text, and the wild romantic advances between the girls in the audience so inconceivable in a crowded theatre, that this is the least enjoyable of the chapters.

Quick Reference Details

Writer:  Alan Moore
Artist:  Melinda Gebbie
Published By:  Top Shelf
Published When:  Aug 26, 2006
Parental Rating: Mature (X)

What is the Maine Story - Review of The Life of Captain Marvel

  

Cover of the Life of Captain Marvel TPB by Marvel Comics

This book collects the following comics: The complete The Life of Captain Marvel mini-series issues #1-5

Score (out of 5 Capes)

Like the character herself, this story is an awkward blend of styles and themes - a powerful and poignant human-interest story on one page, an interstellar slugfest on the next.

My Review

The adult we grow into is heavily shaped and influenced by our childhood experiences. Key moments, friendships and crushes, relationships with important grown-ups, the atmosphere of our home life, these and more are the ingredients that get baked into our adult selves.

Why should our heroes be any different? Are they not human, like us? Do they not, as the cliché goes, put their pants on one leg at a time?

Um... about that...

The Life of Captain Marvel sets out to trace some of these early influences and childhood experiences that formed the Carol Danvers into the mighty Captain Marvel. Author Margaret Stohl takes a current-day visit by Carol to her childhood summer home and swirls into it dozens of flashbacks to those carefree summer days of her early life.

Her tense relationship with an abusive father. The distance that grows between her and her siblings. Her love but lack of respect for her mother. The old friend whose puppy-love crush in their early teens comes as a surprise to adult Carol.

Even the place becomes a character in our tableau. Most of the action unfolds in and around her family's vacation residence in Harpswell, Maine. The art team indulges themselves with beautiful seascapes and coastal sunsets, making this a joy to look at. With local colloquialisms and the occasional misspelling to evoke the stereotypical Maine accent (which is, granted, inconsistently applied and becomes grating at times), those who know Maine will find enough to recognize the place.

Stohl moves the narrative backward and forward in time, adding some back-story colour through frequent flashbacks. In a clever technique, the flashbacks are drawn by different artists, lending a visually distinct feel whenever the memories arise. 

Carlos Pacheco does the bulk of the drawing, giving us all the present-day panels. His parts are strongly drawn with vivid colours, fluid action and basic inking. Even through the emotionally challenging bits, his work is steady and engaging.

The trio of Marguerite Sauvage, Erica D'Urso & Marcio Menyz share the flashback sections. Their work contains more muted colours, faded inking and leaves us with the sense of the wispiness and vagueness of our memories.

Where the story starts to lose its power, sadly, is the present-day revelation and ensuing extended battle. Stohl set up a chance to connect the humanity of this powerful Captain Marvel hero to simpler, every-woman roots. Sibling rivalries, family secrets, past loves all point this way, to a common human experience.

When it veers suddenly into the big reveal - she is NOT 100% human! Her own mother has a secret past - the emotional punch of the setup gets usurped by the interstellar roots of Mom's secrets. Suddenly Maine gets forgotten and the flashback memories get turned on their heads. But rather than multiplying the impact of the story, it undercuts its power and poignancy.

As a retroactive continuity reboot, this story lays a foundation with some important new twists in Captain Marvel's origin story. But, despite where the story seemed headed in its first half, it ultimately works against humanizing our hero. Two and a half capes.

What I loved

Variant cover of issue #1 by Fiona Staples

Variant cover of issue #1 by Yasmine Putri

Marvel Comics treated this mini-series as a huge event, a significant ret-con moment of one of their increasingly popular heroes. That included the variant-cover treatment. Every issue received multiple variant covers, inviting established artists to give their own special twist on the character and story.

These ten, included as thumbnails in this collection, are truly delightful. The whimsy and playfulness of these covers add texture to the whole mini-series. Two of my personal favorites are included above: Fiona Staples's relaxed, seaside image that ties in so well with the sense of place in these stories; and Yasmine Putri's delightfully playful uniform-swap selfie moment with Ms. Marvel.

What I didn't love

A dramatic moment in Carol's relationship with her mother

The deep back-story of Carol Danvers, her childhood, her home life, her rivalry with brothers and hatred for her father - it all adds up to a powerfully humanizing story for this immensely powerful hero. It grounds her after years of space-bound adventures.

Alas, the story takes a turn, not only back into the interstellar mythology of the character but roots it even deeper by making her half-alien. The big reveal that her mother is a champion of the Kree empire is a powerfully dramatic moment. Unfortunately, it also undermines the effort to ground and humanize this hero. It's an eye-roll moment that rips the reader out of the tensions and tenderness of her struggles with coming home and propels us back into space.

Related Reviews

Captain Marvel (2014) volume 1 - Higher, Further, Faster, More

Captain Marvel (2014) volume 2 - Stay Fly

Captain Marvel (2019) volume 1 - Re-entry (coming soon)

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Margaret Stohl
Artists:  Carlos Pacheco (present day), Marguerite Sauvage, Erica D'Urso & Marcio Menyz (flashbacks)
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  Jan 15, 2019
Parental Rating: Teen+

Back Cover of the Life of Captain Marvel TPB by Marvel Comics