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

This Time with Attitude - Review of Captain Marvel (2014) volume 1 - Higher, Further, Faster, More

  

Front cover of Captain Marvel volume 1 Higher, Further, Faster, More

This book collects the following comics: Captain Marvel (2014) #1-6

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A solid series start that resets Captain Marvel as a galaxy-wide player, 3.5 capes out of 5.

My Review

In 2014, Marvel Comics released several new ongoing series starring a female hero, as I have outlined in several A-Force Presents reviews (see the Related Reviews section below). They all got a new start, including a much-celebrated new #1 issue. Some, like Thor and Ms. Marvel, introduced brand new characters. Others, like She-Hulk and this series, Captain Marvel, took familiar and established heroes in exciting new directions.

In the case of Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, that new beginning was in the stars. This series took her and the "Earth's mightiest hero" title off into interstellar space for some new adventures on distant planets with intriguing aliens.

The series debut issue gave us the internal debate, as she wrestled with the decision of whether to stay on Earth or not. 

Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick set the space- bound tone right from page one, dropping us into the middle of a story before rewinding six weeks to explain how we got to that moment. 

It is a technique that can work well in a film but here if feels jarring and out of place. The lead teaser is not a strong enough element on its own to make us wonder what led to this moment, so pausing it for the next four issues means we forget about that initial moment until the exact panels appear many pages later - many months later for the comics readers of the day.

Before leaving Earth, Carol had to wrap up some of the relationships that would tie her to the planet. Most notably, her budding relationship with James Rhodes of Iron Man and War Machine fame. While not a goodbye, as she promised to be back, maybe in a year or so, the scene unspools with a feeling of finality. But with determination and an awareness of the costs, of what she had to give up, Carol set out.

The rest of the book is set in space as Captain Marvel must help a population of exiled refugees wrestle with the decision whether or not to leave the new homeland they had been graciously granted.

Through the different scenes in these pages - in space, briefly meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy, working with the refugees, staring down their oppressors - both the strengths and weaknesses of Captain Marvel are apparent.

On the downside, while she made the choice to go to space willingly, if with a heavy heart, she has more than one chip on her shoulder and could use some anger-management counselling. She also fell completely flat in her attempts to speak and act as a diplomat; her efforts to mediate peace and a future were laughable and brushed aside by the leaders.

Yet she shows a great ability to connect with and lead on a more personal basis. She surrounds herself with a diverse group, essentially building a team out of almost the scrap heap. Her dedication to them and to their cause stands out.

And her biggest strength is, well, her strength. Her courage and power do not make frequent appearances in this book, but when they do, they steal the show. Artist David Lopez excels at these moments, with beautifully framed and perfectly proportioned visuals that highlight her indomitable and fierce spirit. 

The rest of his work is fun and playful, if a touch over the top on occasion. Its impact also gets lost from time to time, blurred out by the muted and unexplained shifts in colour tones. Alien planets may have a different looking sky or architecture, but for such an effervescent hero in a vibrant uniform, the page-wide colour tones are an overall negative.

What I loved

One of the most powerful Avengers gets worked up

This series gives us a very grounded, down-to-Earth (or at least down-to-Torfa) Carol Danvers and Captain Marvel. We see her humanity, the range of her emotions, how she reacts to and plays with others.

But when the time comes to turn up the power, boy does this story nail it!

Her strength, courage and awesome power leap from the page, in this sequence most of all. The armada commander might have no fear of the "flying Earth girl" but neither does she show any concerns in the face of such outnumbered odds. Chapter five ends with this awesome two-page spread, setting up a thrilling sixth and final chapter.

What I didn't love

Many pages include odd colour tones,
while Captain Marvel has anger-management issues

Colour artist Lee Loughridge paints with a muted palette throughout this book and, along the way, makes some odd choices of tones. Alien skies have beautifully gentle gradations but, placed alongside the beiges of terrain and buildings as in this sample page, have an overall dulling effect.

It is such an odd choice, given the vibrant blues, reds and yellows that define the Captain's overall appearance.

Carol Danvers also has some anger-management issues. This is not a new revelation in this book, of course. In many ways, it is built into the character herself. But it crops up in unusual ways and at odd moments in these tales, as in this image. She has a precious clue to the disappearance of her friend and a potential insight into what is really going on, and she very nearly loses it in a fit of annoyance and uncontrolled anger. Tsk tsk.

Related Reviews

Captain Marvel (2014) volume 2 - Stay Fly

A-Force Presents volume 1

A-Force Presents volume 2

A-Force Presents volume 3

Quick Reference Details

Writers:   Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artists:  David Lopez
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  Oct 7, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen+

Back cover of Captain Marvel volume 1 Higher, Further, Faster, More