Captain Marvel #14 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Scott Hepburn & Gerardo Sandoval (art), Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: Yon-Rogg tries to make a metropolis sandwich—with his mind.

The Review: As we wind down on the biggest and most important arc on this series thus far, it’s become increasingly clear that Captain Marvel launched without much more of a goal than to boost the titular heroine’s profile in the Marvel U.  There’s no denying she deserves it—needs it, even.  But it takes more than an ongoing series to bolster a character’s popularity.  It takes a cohesive vision from the creators and a total love and understanding of their star.

I’m not sure we’ve really gotten that from this title, if both its steadily declining sales and shortage of critical acclaim say anything.  After ten issues, you can’t say that you’ve grown more attached to Carol, nor do you have a much better handle on what makes her tick than before.  DeConnick has established her as strong-minded, compassionate, occasionally snarky—but how does that set her apart from all other Marvel women?  Sadly, you find her second banana, the wisecracking, compulsive eater Spider-Woman, more compelling than Carol herself.

Captain Marvel #13 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Scott Hepburn & Gerardo Sandoval (art), Jordie Bellaire & Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: That awkward moment when you realize your foe has been spying on you all along.

The Review: You may recall in my review of Avengers: The Enemy Within #1 the thinly veiled irritation I had over DeConnick pointlessly continuing her Captain Marvel storyline in another title altogether.  For an issue that had Avengers in its name, it really had little to do with the Avengers, and for anyone who wasn’t somewhat intimate with the plot already, much of its significance would have been lost.  So yeah, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the issue.

I was even less so when I came in to buy my comics for the week and discovered, upon opening this latest installment of Captain Marvel, that I was reading the third chapter of the “Enemy Within” storyline, not the second.  When I flipped to Enemy Within #1 again, I was nonplussed to find on its final page an announcement that the storyline would continue in Avengers Assemble #16.*  My running thought was, Really?  Has the situation gotten so out of hand that it’s not an Avengers problem and not just a big Carol problem?

Avengers: The Enemy Within #1 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Scott Hepburn (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: It’s a pretty sweet life when you can call upon a god for lizard control.

The Review: I always find it rather irritating when instead of continuing a storyline in its own title, from which it originated and where it rightfully belongs, it carries over into a different title or into a new series altogether.  Seems like a mean way to force a reader to fork over some extra money to buy into books he wouldn’t ordinarily ever consider getting.  It’s only ever worth it if the story is truly big and critical enough to require extra page-time elsewhere.

At this point, it doesn’t seem like DeConnick’s story of Captain Marvel’s latest crisis fits that bill.  This issue doesn’t have any significant difference from a typical issue of Captain Marvel, either in tone, substance, or structure.  It simply follows from the events of Captain Marvel #12 and does little to expand the scope of the plot any further.  In fact, there’s no reason for Marvel to split this story into a mini besides taking advantage of the Avengers brand to boost sales and attention to an ever-weakening property (Captain Marvel ranked #120 in March, compared to #42 when it first debuted in July 2012).