Captain Marvel #6 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (Writer), David Lopez (Artist), Lee Loughridge (Color Artist), VC’s Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

The Story: Captain Marvel does her best to be the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

The Review: FINALLY! It took me six months, but I finally got everything I wanted from a Captain Marvel book. (Well, aside from getting rid of the mohawk helmet, but that’s a rant for another time.)

For too long, I’d read the book and always have a “but.” You know, as in “I like these characters, but…” or “this is going in a good direction, but…” or “Captain Marvel looks like she’s gearing up for action, but…”  This is the sixth issue of the ongoing storyline, and it is jam-packed with pay-off. All those buts are gone because we get answers to questions, resolutions actually happen, and we see characters actually DO things, including many pages of Captain Marvel in space battle against a fleet of starships.

The plot is nicely wrapped up since the various mysteries are finally out of the way and we can focus on the denouement. Our villain is exposed to be unequivocally villainous, which helps to give the plot (and our characters) a target, literally and narratively. Everyone gets a chance to shine, including the leader, Eleanides, who returns to being defiant and savvy.

It’s not without a few missteps, however. Jackie is suddenly revealed to have a deep and meaningful relationship with some character introduced within mere panels. We know this from the catch-phrases they throw to each other, but if there’s really no purpose to it, a few panels won’t be enough to really let the reader appreciate it, and I would like to invest a bit more devotion to characters rather than take them for granted. See also: Jackie’s sudden interest in background music and making mix tapes for friends. Because, you know, that’s what everyone does in sci-fi action comedies these days.            

Speaking of mix tapes, there’s also something a bit unsophisticated in having so much of what’s going on in an alien worlds be so familiar at the same time. From slang to body types to customs to even just characters’ names, is there really anything alien at all in outer space except for a few animal-looking faces?   

Which is kind of the problem with the dialogue, too, in that things do get far too cutesey, like it’s trying to hard to be a quip-filled wink-wink-nudge comedy romp. I don’t mind that per se, but when nearly every character starts doing it, it becomes overkill and threatens to diffuse what is also being set up as an impossibly tense situation. Also, it falls into “every character sounding the same” territory; for example, the phrase “I hate to see you leave, fellas, but I love to watch you go” is split between two characters without a beat between them. Might as well have been one voice, right? Some other lines are a bit unwieldily, like “Leave now or I will find that other side of that projection and if I live to be a hundred I will never come to grips with what I do to you next.” It’s hard to be technobabbly and quippy and threatening at the same time, especially when it relies on a tired trope of “oh! I had the mic on the whole time you were ranting!” There’s also at least one instance of what seems to be a typo, so we’ll let it slide; just know we do notice these things.

My absolute favorite thing about this book is the art, though. The characters are so expressive, integrated so well into panel layout and environment, and it’s all topped off with some truly vibrant and purposeful colors. The space battle is better displayed than previous attempts, which again is helped by the colors and effects, although I still think there should be some uniform look to the Spartax fleet overall. I hope that Captain Marvel continues to visit some alien worlds, as David Lopez seems so well fit to realizing the variety of alien beings and environments.

The Bottom Line: While it borders on the cliché and overly-cutesey at times, this issue finally realizes the potential in the storyline so far, allowing its hero to really shine. The art is a wonderful combination of talents, which is truly the strongest selling point of this series.

Grade: B+

-Danny Wall