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| Front cover of Captain Marvel (2019) TPB volume 1 - Re-entry |
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
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| 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
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| 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
Quick Reference Details
Writers: Kelly Thompson
Artists: Carmen Carnero, Tamra Bonvillain
Published By: Marvel Comics
Published When: Sept. 10, 2019
Parental Rating: Teen+
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| Back cover of Captain Marvel (2019) TPB volume 1 - Re-entry |
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