Thursday 26 February 2015

This Book could be Ours (6): Captain Marvel Volume One: Further, Higher, Faster, More by Kelly Sue deConnick and David Lopez



Captain Marvel Volume One: Further, Higher, Faster, More by Kelly Sue deConnick and David Lopez
First in Captain Marvel: Marvel Now! Series
Genre: Adult, Graphic Novel
Published: 21st October 2014
Publisher: Marvel
Length: 136 pages
Format: Trade Paperback
Source: My local comic store

Tell me more, tell me more...

Hero! Pilot! Avenger! Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Hero with an attitude to match, is back and launching headfirst into an all-new ongoing adventure! As Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Carol Danvers, comes to a crossroads with a new life and new romance, she makes a dramatic decision that will alter the course of her life - and the entire Marvel Universe - in the months to come. But as Carol takes on a mission to return an alien girl to her homeworld, she lands in the middle of an uprising against the Galactic Alliance! Investigating the forced resettlement of Rocket Girl's people, Carol discovers that she has a history with the man behind the plot. But when the bad guy tries to blackmail Carol and turn the Avengers against her, it's payback time! Guest-starring the Guardians of the Galaxy!

COLLECTING: CAPTAIN MARVEL 1-6


(I've given up rephrasing blurbs for books I review. From now on all blurbs in Italics are from Goodreads.)

Why did I read this?

I wanted to find out more about the first woman planned to star in a film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bring it on 2018!!

What I liked:

Carol Danvers: Guys, Captain Marvel such a strong, badass, confident woman complete with realistic flaws. I love that Connick has shown that despite being a powerful superhero Danvers is 'only human'. For example the latter struggles to soothe one character and argues hotly with another over a minor matter. Her powers (which include staggering strength, the ability to fly and being able to shoot photonic blasts from her hands) are AWESOME and I love that she goes into space to find herself.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Cameo: I read this book about two weeks after first seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, so it was interesting comparing the same characters from two different medians. Starlord is a bit more mature and seemed to be slightly more of a stereotypical Marvel superhero leader. I'm happy to report that Rocket is as hilarious as ever. Sadly Gamora, Drax and Groot barely featured, so I might go and check out the latest run of Guardians of the Galaxy Comics to read more about them.

What didn't work so much for me:

This wasn't the story I wanted to read: When I brought this book, I didn't realise it was a soft reboot of the previous Captain Marvel series which launched with In Pursuit of Flight in 2011. I thought the book was going to cover briefly what she was doing before she gained her superpowers, how she dealt with them at first and then her gradual growth into being a superhero. The most I got was a one page summary of her origin at the end of the first issue.

Now, let me make it absolutely clear. I found absolutely nothing wrong with the book itself. The story is solid, the art is amazing and it's a lot of fun to read. Not knowing about Captain Marvel's character origin in depth does not in any way hurt the experience of reading this book. I believe the Marvel Cinematic Universe is no longer doing character origin films either. Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't a character origin film and I'd be one of the first to say it's stunning. My preconception of what the book was going to be was the only reason I went away not feeling quite satisfied. 

Who might like this?

Those curious to see who Captain Marvel is before 2018 who are not looking for a full blown origin story would love this book!

Final Thoughts:

This book was fun despite not being exactly what I was looking for. I think I would personally benefit from going back to read In Pursuit of Flight before reading Volume 2: Stay Fly, the latter which is coming out this April.


Do you have any thoughts on Captain Marvel?

2 comments:

  1. Yazzi, I've nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. I'm not sure if you've been nominated before but you can find the information about it in my blog post here (http://mountainrhinestones.blogspot.com/2015/02/versatile-blogger-award.html)

    ReplyDelete