Feb
22
2017
0

The Mighty Captain Marvel #2 Review

Written by: Margaret Stohl

Art by: Ramon Rosanas & Michael Garland

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Without a doubt Captain Marvel has returned to form, for the better. This is one of those books that I will be blunt and say didn’t prosper from the Civil War II event. Sure plenty of people still buy and like Captain Marvel, but that doesn’t change what they did to her throughout the course of that time. Making her out to be the villain and ultimately losing despite her being built up to be this big A-lister. Yeah, no.

Luckily between the #0 issue, the first issue and now, they have taken strides to set Captain Marvel back on track to being the hero we admired her to be.  So far I am just thankful that they aren’t pushing too much of the Civil War event onto this book. It is back to being elf-contained as it should be. From the start of this issue I enjoyed the fact that we could get back into that warm feeling of what life is like for Alpha Flight. Sure their job doesn’t come without risk, but being out there in space they are kind of like family which I always found engaging. Aside from when Cap was with Rhodey, these guys are who she is herself the most when around. While their dialogue could be a bit more serious at times, you do look at this from their perspective along the lines of not letting the pressure of their jobs overwhelm.

The plot development is a bit of a slow crawl, but I do like when they take their time with these things. There are a lot of loose ends to tie up for Danvers, and a lot of things going on in her life in general. So as long as they are finding the time to keep things moving forward with these bounty hunters trying to hunt for alien refugee children, that is satisfying. There has to be a reason why these specific kids are being targeted which thankfully they aren’t trying to drag on because it was too obvious when things were going weird for Captain Marvel’s powers.

With that said it has been a bit humorous seeing the things that Danvers has to deal with in order to continue doing her thing as Captain Marvel and as leader of Alpha Flight. Regardless of whether this was because of Civil War II, eventually someone was going to have to put their foot down about the money it takes to run Alpha Flight and not only fund their equipment, but their repairs. Saying that to yourself and seeing the damages they go through it is hard to argue that resorting to things like shows would be viable choice. I did manage to laugh a bit just for the fact that certain things you question yourself when it comes to creative decisions about adaptations on television or movies.

I do have to say the artwork for this issue was quite explosive. Which is nothing new with Captain Marvel, though not what you expected this soon into the new book. That said the art team brought more energy to the story through this. A swift reminder of how strong Captain Marvel is, and how easy it is to forget what the Alpha Flight station looks like when it is actually stable. It’s impressive that anyone who works on the art for this book can capture that much structural damage in one place. What stood out most for Ramon Rosanas’ pencils this issue was how he captured the lighter tone of story. Again this is the perfect time to remind readers of how fun it is for her to be in her element out in space and with the Alpha Flight crew. She clearly enjoys their company and if you didn’t gt the message then the singing surely made the statement. Michael Garland’s colors are bright, but not overpowering for a cosmic story. Explosive when things escalate, though for the most part his colors are leveled out and detailed particularly for the characters. What I personally like is that the colors aren’t too in your face when it comes to scenes in space. It can be beautiful, though sometimes it is nice to remember that it can be pretty dark out there.

The plot for ‘Alien Nation’ is picking up traction with a lot of potential for Alpha Flight dealing with dangers that do in fact take more than punching to overcome. Mighty Captain Marvel #2 also strikes a good balance between being light-hearted and serious. Hopefully they don’t take things too lightly, but at the same time not lose us to anything like the role they threw her in during Civil War.