Captain Marvel Book 3: Alis Volat Propriis (#12-15)

"Let go" - Carol Danvers

Kelly Sue DeConnick rounds off her time with the redoubtable Captain with four issues that have the misfortune of having a wider Marvel crossover as part of them and the rushed nature of the concluding two-parter of her year representing the Avengers in space (co-authored by legendary UK writer Warren Ellis) makes me wonder if this was sprung on her at the last moment and was going to be spread across three issues.  Despite a somewhat abrupt send off for Tic, the alien from the planet Torfa who joined her in the first volume of the run, it's still fine stuff, the crossover stuff will be skimmed as I have no clue what it involved and the single issue showing her return to Earth and receiving some bad news is both sad and sweet at the same time ending her run on a high note.  A quick reintroduction then: Captain Marvel is Carol Danvers a super strong human with the power of flight and energy manipulation.  She's been doing a tour in space and picked up a companion the aforementioned Tic.  She also discovered that her bad tempered female cat Chewie is actually an alien called a Flerken, a creature able to create pockets to another dimension inside herself.  At the end of volume two a mutant called Lila who can travel the universe at the snap of a finger took her back to Earth where she met Santa and created an explosive display for a bedridden cancer stricken friend of hers.  The first two-parter then begins with Lila transporting Carol back to her highly intelligent ship and splitting leaving Carol alone.  Unfortunately it is immediately clear something is badly wrong.  Art for all four issues is by David Lopez, who has an appealing old skool style to his work.

Carol runs round the ship and finds neither Tic nor Chewie.  She tries to verbally interface with the ship's AI, Harrison but he is offline.  She pulls an emergency lever and this reboots him.  She asks him to report what happened, they were attacked by Haffensye pirates and Harrison shutdown to protect the systems when they were boarded.

"They have to have been after Chewie" says Carol.  She wonders why they didn't destroy the ship when they had her, instantly she realises this is a trap.  She calls for weapons and engines but both are offline.  She tries to leave via an airlock to take the fight outside, but the airlocks have all been sealed shut.  The Haff are going to burn the inside of the ship and salvage the shell and her death is a nice bonus for them (she tangled with them in book one).

Carol takes out the attacking ship with the force-shield.

The only thing Harrison can give her is the force-shield.  She activates the starboard side one and waits until the Haff ship gets close, then she has Harrison rotate the shield horizontally which cuts into the Haff ship and it blows up.  Given a breather, Carol starts all the self-repair systems up and checks the recordings of what happened.  Six hours later and she is repeatedly watching the footage of Tic and Chewie being taken.

Harrison: "With respect, Captain.  Statistical likelihood of analytical change after the fiftieth viewing is less than one percent."

Carol jokes that there is a chance then, but Harrison doesn't get it.  She says he doesn't appreciate her humour.  "Joke detection is enabled.  Perhaps I am not the problem he snarks".

Carol wonders why the Haff want Chewie, it is too much risk just to sell her on.  She decides to go to Haff space to find her and tells Harrison to aim for a shortcut, a subspace tunnel called the "Endless Envelope".  As they travel to it, she calls Gil and Jackie (see book one) on Torfa for help locating Tic.  They believe she is most likely on a disapora planet that is fully into the slave trade.  When Carol says she is travelling into the Endless Envelope they both yell "NOO!" Inside the envelope she loses comms and engines.

Into the Endless Envlope.

Harrison then tells her that the dimension they are in is a football field shoved into a matchbox and that it will actually take ten times longer now.  Then a huge space caterpillar appears with a couple of spaceships on it, which break off and come after Carol.

Carol: "Oh good.  Were going to try and outrun these guys powered solely by attitude thrusters through a giant subspace pocket."

Meanwhile, Tic is shackled to a post with some other prisoners on the Haff ship just outside the Haff end of the Endless Envelope.  The lead pirate holds up a muzzled Chewie and says she will be their secret weapon against a Mister Knife who has been encroaching on their territory.  Once she is of no use to them, they will destroy her.

Poor Chewie.

Back with Carol, she tells Harrison to work on getting her a weapon.  The force shield is almost depleted so she can't use it again.  Then one of the huge caterpillar things disappears, much to Carol's confusion.  Harrison postulates that the beings must be able to travel through the twisted space and time of the Envelope which "doesn't conform to established physics."

She steers the ship close to a mining rig on another creature and lets off some flares that temporarily fend off their pursuers.  Harrison says the mining rig is extracting an high energy fluid from the creature which he calls a "Warp Bear."  The fluid has "rare quantumn properties", it is "Warp Bear Juice".  The weapons are now online and Carol dispenses with their pursuers and flies up close to the rig.  Harrison says the culture must use "Warp Bear Juice to commit it's own warp events."

Carol: "You might have something with 'Warp Bear', but 'Warp Bear Juice' is never, ever going to be a thing people say".

Then we return to the Haff pirate holding Chewie.  He rants that they can hide an arsenal and armies inside her, take her into Mister Knife's territory and deploy from within, sort of like a feline Trojan Horse.  Tic is down below being put to work with the other slaves.  But she reassures them that "I have a friend on the way."

Carol tells Harrison to target the rig and get it off the Warp Bear.  Blasting it off releases a lot of Juice, and she flies the ship right through it, which accelerates the ship to an incredibly fast speed.

Warp Bear Juice.

Carol goes down to the engine room to divert some of the energy into a laser beam.  There is an ominous noise from the hull.  Harrison says the structural integrity has never been tested at such speed before.

Carol: "These last few months have tested both of us more than we anticipated, Harrison.  Maybe complacency can't survive in a vaccuum either."

Harrison makes a cheesy joke and Carol says she regrets engaging his humour protocols. The ship barrels out of the Envelope and bounces off the Haff ship there.

She then uses the highly precise laser to lance into the Haff ship, demanding they hand over Chewie and free Tic.  She is able to cut Tic's restraints and Tic immediately commendeers the ship, while the Haff flee. 

Carol links up to the ship back on Torfa, and Tic hands her Chewie and says with a crew made up of fellow prisoners, she'll go and battle the Haff slavers who are preying on the Torfan's disapora.  As Carol turns to go back to her ship, Tic says "I'm going to miss you".  And Carol smiles back at her safe in the knowledge Tic is going on to be a fine captain herself.

Tic's new ship.

The next issue is chapter eleven of a crossover event called "The Black Vortex".  The thing in question is a mirror that unlocks the true potential of those who look in it.  Thane, son of Thanos, looked in it and has joined up with Knife and the Slaughter Squad to cause havoc.  Captain Marvel swooped down into Knife's fortress and grabbed the mirror now everyone is after her.

She flies through space, taking the mirror to Spartax which has been encased in amber, so she can use it to save the planet.  She comes under heavy attack and ends up being knocked down onto an asteroid along with the mirror.

Carol looks in the Mirror.

She is tempted to look in it and sees herself at top potential, a being of almost pure energy.  "Is this what you want to be?" she thinks to herself.  But she resists, thinking that more power was not something she ever wanted.

The baddies have an disagreement about what to do with her, and a fight breaks out.  Carol uses this opportunity to take off with the mirror again to go save Spartax.  To be continued somewhere else.

Her tour of duty in space over, Carol arrives back on Earth.  She wonders if she needs to make herself up for the welcome home party.  Chewie is just her usual grumpy self and the ship lands at Avengers HQ.

Carol and Chewie back on Earth.

But when she disembarks, no one is there to greet her.  She goes inside and everyone is looking sad.  She realises this means Tracey, the sick woman from book two has died, about a week ago says one of her friends.  She left a letter and some things for Carol, who asks if someone else can read the letter.  We then see Tracy's ghost narrate things for us.  She leaves her a cane which she once whacked an Ultron with.

Tracy: "It's good for leaning on.  If you should find yourself in need of something to lean on from time to time."

Then the story flashes back to Tracey sulking at home with her leg in plaster, brooding over the death of her female lover Teddy.  Carol came to see her and gave her the cane.  She says Teddy wouldn't have wanted Tracey to isolate herself like this.

Tracey remembers back to when she first met Teddy.  She was a young woman and dropped her wallet.  Tracey bought it back to her and invited Tracey to dinner.  Teddy's ghost then appears saying Tracey had "fallen in love with me before the appetiser made it to the table."

Tracey and Teddy's ghosts.

However when they were older, Teddy died of heart failure.  This caused Tracy to lash out and kick the door, breaking her foot in the process.  Carol was there for her when Teddy died.

Tracey: "They let us have the room for a while.  To work it through, to say goodbye.  I would have stayed with her forever if you'd let me."

She and Carol took Teddy's ashes to the sea.  Traecy can't let go at first saying she can't imagine life without her.  But in the end she sprinkles the ashes.

With Tracey's urn Carol and friends go to the same place, but the urn turns out to be empty bar a note from Tracy:

Tracey: "Gotcha sucker.  Our last gift to you..."

Teddy: "... a day at the beach with your friends."

Teddy donated her body to medical science, as her and Teddy's ghosts depart, Tracy tells Carol "I love you kid.  Have fun.  Be happy and don't look back."  And Carol and her friends splash about in the water, laughing their heads off.  Which brings this run of Captain Marvel to an end.

The End...

What a fun series.  Moving effortlessly from high tech space opera to dealing with bereavement and loss, DeConnick really gets Carol, she is extremely relatable.  Hyper competant at the things she puts her mind to, able to plan effortlessly on the fly, she is everything that is good about the superhero archetype.  It's a shame that saving Chewie and Tic was over so quickly, it feels like there was room for a whole issue dealing with the Haff as a more fearsome threat than they ended up being.  Considering how important Tic has been across this run as a secondary protagonist, having one page chronicling her departure feels more abrupt than it possibly was meant to.  The art as I said in the intro is superb, especially when it comes to facial expressions, alhough the kersplosions look great as well.  This ends this run of Captain Marvel, with Tracey's farewell coming across as DeConnick's farewell and well wishes for the character she's helped redefine.  It has restarted at issue one again with a new creative team, Marvel seems to be really pushing the "seasonal" approach to their properties.  Lots more number ones for collectors if I am being cynical about it.  But for now lets hail Marvel's best female superhero and the subject of Marvel studio's first (now delayed) female superhero led film. 

Captain Marvel Book 2: Stay Fly (#7-11)

"Oh hell no!  I'm not giving anyone my cat!" - Carol Danvers

Well, phew, that Punisher story was pretty dark so lets indulge in some extreme mood whiplash and lighten things up a bit with the second Captain Marvel book.  And we're off to a good start already with the cover, look it's raining cats (or at least things that look like cats...).  You'd have to be a pretty hardcore cat hater not to crack a smile at that cover.  That's Rocket Raccoon from The Guardians Of The Galaxy standing on Carol's back as he makes a guest appearance in the first couple of issues.  This volume collects an initial two-parter then three done-in-ones rather than one long arc like the previous volume was. The set-up is simple, Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers is an Avenger deployed in space.  In the previous book she helped out the people of a planet called Torfa (which is made up of refugees from a cosmic disaster) defy tyranny and now she is heading back to rendevous with her ship on a borrowed shuttle where Rocket Raccoon has been minding things for her. That includes her misanthropic cat Chewie who he initially tried to kill insisting it was actually a dangerous alien creature called a "Flerken".  She's also picked up a stowaway, a green skinned female Torfan called Tic.  The whole tone of the book is light-hearted and fun under the smart, assured pen of Kelly Sue DeConnick and while it probably helps to have some background knowledge of Carol's continuity, I didn't find it difficult to enjoy what was going on with the information given.  So let us begin.

Although David Lopez is the regular artist, this first two-parter is drawn by Marco Takara. For a fill-in it's pretty good.  Rougher and more cartoony than normal but I like it just fine.  Anyway we start with Carol having a nightmare where she as Captain Marvel can't save all the people she cares about from The Builders.  She wakes with a start and Tic brings her some unappetising looking tentacle thing as breakfast.

Tic and Carol.

Carol asks Tic to make her some coffee, or "the hot, brown, breakfast beverage that I am pretending is coffee" and she might pretend she invited Tic aboard.  She says the rendezvous with her ship will be awkward as she left the Guardians of the Galaxy in charge and she was supposed to be taking Tic home, "and you're still here."

Tic says she will be Carol's "second".  Carol says she has enough drama having Spider-Woman in that role.  She wants to know what happened to Tic's whole "'Torfa is my home'" stuff:

Tic: "Nothing! 'Home' isn't the place you never leave Captain.  It's the place you always return to."

Carol docks with her ship and tries to communicate with Harrison her ship's computer.  She gets Rocket Raccoon instead.  She goes aboard and can't believe Quill left Rocket Racconn in charge.  He says he promised he wouldn't hurt her "Flerken" and shows her an annoyed Chewie confined in a cat carrier.

Rocket Raccoon and Chewie

Carol picks her up and fusses over her saying, "what did the horrible, ugly weasel do to my baby girl?"  Carol then tells Rocket Raccoon he has five seconds to apologise for putting Chewie in a box before she dines on "grilled weasel shish kebabs".  As Carol counts down, Rocket Raccoon tries to tell her an adult female Flerken is worth fifty thousand and that they are "gateways to pocket dimensions".

Just as Carol goes to zap him the ship is attacked by a giant oily space-flea looking thing.  They can't access Harrison as Rocket Raccoon has it doing something.  Then the computer meows at Carol.  When she queries this, Rocket Raccoon says "there is a perfectly logical explanation".  He had it trying to learn to speak Flerken.

Mysterious oily space flea.

Carol says for the billionth time, Chewie isn't a Flerken and "cat" is not a language.  The alien starts to bash its way in and Rocket Raccoon says it must be here for the Flerken and they shoud hand it over.  Carol says no and they look for Chewie, finding her lying amongst a pile of eggs she has laid.  Rocket Raccoon is all "I told you so" as laying eggs is what Flerken do to reproduce.

Carol: "I am choosing to be in denial about this while there are more pressing matters at hand, Okay?"

Chewie and her Flerken eggs.

Tic hugs Chewie and the eggs start to hatch.  Carol says "pinch me" and Rocket Raccoon lightly punches her and says she isn't dreaming.  Carol tells Tic to gather the eggs and get them onto the shuttle.  But when Tic gets herself and them aboard, Chewie jumps back out and onto Carol's ship while the rest are sealed in the shuttle.

Carol tells Tic to get the "Fler-kittens" out of here while she flies outside and tries to get the alien to leave.  Chewie and Rocket Raccoon aboard the ship have a tussle and Rocket Raccoon says he's sorry he tried to kill her:

Rocket: "But you're going to have to take my word for it that I feel a certain kinship with anything that's the last of its kind.  Even murderous vermin!"

Chewie gets a little payback.

The oily black tentacles penetrate the ship while Carol tries to blast the alien off.  Rocket Raccoon holds them off with his blaster and tells her the thing isn't a ship but a "hive" and they have to trap it somehow.

Combining her powers and the weapons aboard the shuttle Carol and Tic manage to pour enough firepower onto the alien hive to make it back off.  However there are still black oily tentacles attacking Rocket Raccoon and Chewie on the ship.  Suddenly Chewie disgorges a huge load of squirming tentacles of her own and swallows up the black oil remnants.

Rocket Raccoon: "That was the single greatest thing I have ever seen in my life."

Chewie looks demure.  With all the Flerken hatched, Tic brings the shuttle back round so Chewie can be reunited with her family.

DOCTOR OCTAGONAPUS BLAAAAARRGH

We then jump forward a few weeks to the "T.O Polyviv Refugee and Rehab and Relocation Centre".  Carol is discussing with an alien there that Rocket Raccoon has repaired both ships and got them up to code.  The alien says she thinks Chewie was gestating her eggs the whole time Carol knew her, "that would explain her temperament" says Carol.

The alien says Chewie is a bit like a hamster, she can access "bubbles of space and time" and can hide things like eggs and tentacles in them.  Carol arrives at where Tic is playing with Chewie and her kittens, Carol says she is here to say goodbye.  Tic can pilot the shuttle back to Torfa and Chewie can stay here where she is safe.

Carol: "I love you and because I love you, I have to leave you."

Awwww...

Sadly she takes off alone on her ship, then Chewie and Tic teleport aboard using Chewie's powers.  Tic says she doesn't know everything about Tic and having her and Chewie around means she must be brave.  Aren't Avengers brave?  Carol asks Chewie if her litter will be safe, and Tic says they are "on the finest rescue centre in the galaxy".  Carol gives in.  "You're a terrible mother" she says to Chewie, who looks affectionately smug.  And they set course for "adventure."

After that silliness, David Lopez returns as the artist.  Onboard the ship, Carol and Tic listen to some music by Lila Cheney. Suddenly Lila teleports onto the ship.  Carol is not amused and wonders how she can be there when her mutant power only lets her travel on Earth to places she has already been.  But it seems the ship not being on Earth is good enough to allow her to get there.  Carol and Lila briefly argue, then Lila plays her a tune and Carol relents and welcomes her aboard.

The woman herself.

Lila tells them that when she was young she'd "pop off halfway round the galaxy".  She even found a "play world" and got bethrothed to a prince there.  Two decades later she returns to the world and well... she teleports herself, Carol and Tic there.  She has to wed the now grown up prince.  Oh and everyone on this world speaks in rhyme.

The prince's parents greet Carol enthusiastically saying she must be Lila's mother.  Carol wants to know why Lila brought them here, Lila says she's a diplomat so go do her diplomacy thing.  Rhyming rather clumsily, Carol gets to speak to the prince alone.

One hot prince.

He says he knows she is not Lila's real mother as her rhymes are so bad.  Marrying Lila would forge an alliance with Earth and his mum knows what's that worth.  He says once Lila is marrived to him she will be free to go, "our marriage will be one of extrangement".  He can't reign until he is wed though.  The planet is a matriarchy where women choose their mates.

Prince: "A man's choice is not his own.  Not even when he's grown.  His parents chose for him.  Give his choice or sell it on a whim."

He says she can object during the ceremony but this will result in him being married to "Marlo of Sleen", a thoroughly bad egg.

So the ceremony starts, when objection time comes, Carol uncertainly starts protesting then Marlo of Sleen bursts in, objects and challenges Lila to a "fight to the death".  Lila wants to escape right there and then.  But Carol takes her place and steps up to fight.  There is a brief struggle and Marlo zaps Carol and knocks her down.  This just makes Carol mad and she armours up and downs Marlo with a huge energy blast.  The prince begs his father:

Prince: "I'll do what you say.  Marry whoever this day.  But I beg this concession.  Do not let a woman die for our succession."

Carol gets serious.

Carol says the planet already has an alliance with the Avengers now so the prince needn't marry Lila.  But her parents are adamant he marry someone.  Tic then steps forward, she tells Carol she doesn't have long left to live and so she wants at least one kiss, "plus.. you know.. I get a wedding and a happy ending, and to marry a really hot guy, even if it is pretending"
After the ceremony, Carol and Lila walk and chat privately.  Carol wonders how long she'll be away from New York and what to do about Tic.  When she mentions New York, Lila suddenly remembers she's been given something to pass onto Carol.  Turns out to be letters from home.

The happy event finally happens.

She starts reading the letter and we see the events described being played out.  It begins with Kit, the young daughter of a friend of Carol's.  She says that a villain called Grace Valentine has broken out of prison.  She commanded techincally augmented rats to chew through the walls.  Her prison guard faints and Grace takes her gun and leaves.

Kit is playing fancy dress with a couple of friends on the steps of the Statue Of Liberty which is where she lives, in Carol's home there.  The rats swarm towards them and they run up the steps to escape but one friend is too slow so Kit uses her lasso to grab him then all three of them climb the rope and sit up and out of the way of the rats.

Grace Valentine.

The rats arrive inside where Kit's mum and Jessica "Spider Woman" Drew are.  Jessica takes over the narrative saying Carol will remember how much she dislikes rats, and we get a flashback to her freaking out when one comes into her and Carol's flat, while Carol calmly catches it to take to animal control.

Back in the present,  Jessica phones a woman called Wendy Kawasaki and tells her the are inundated with rats.  Wendy knows because Grace is commanding them via ultra-sonics gathering them to attack the Statue Of Liberty.  Jessica is repelling them with "Venom Blasts" but they keep coming.  Wendy says she needs to find the "lead rat".  Jessica finds it and must not kill it but remove its transistor.

They might be rats, but they're pretty cute.

She approaches it and it bites her finger, but she manages to get the thing off its head.  The rest of the rats then just leave.  Wendy wonders what Grace's actual plan was.  Jessica says maybe she just wanted to ruin Carol's pad.  Which gives Wendy a brainwave.  Rhodey then joins the story.  Grace is in Carol's old flat and has explosives.  He goes in alone to confront her and finds her in a Captain Marvel outfit. 

Wendy tells him not to walk past her, but it's too late.  He does so and Grace sticks a bomb onto his back. When Rhodey asks why?

Grace: "I want to destroy her.  Erase her and everything she ever cared about, starting with you".

Rhodey says at this range the explosion will kill her as well.  "Worth it" replies Grace.  So Rhodey flies himself up into the stratosphere where he has a vision of Carol and this somehow helps him get the bomb off his back where it explodes harmlessly.

Rhodey: "Still saving my butt, baby.  Even from a million miles away.  I hope you find what you're looking for out there."

"Carol" saves Rhodey.

The letter ends with Wendy saying Grace has been captured and is awaiting a psych evaluation.  Then we are shown a sick woman called Tracey in a hospital bed.  Wendy reads to her about Carol's adventures on Torfa and the letter ends.  Back with Carol, Lila and Tic, Carol asks if Lila can take her back to Earth for twenty-four hours she has something she needs to do.  So Lila teleports her there and it's Christmas in New York.

Carol transforms into a warmer outfit and Lila asks if she wants to come Christmas shopping with her.  But Carol has other things to do, so they arrange to meet in this same place the next day so Lila can teleport her back.  We then cut to Carol sitting by the sick woman called Tracey's bed telling her all about the friends she made on Torfa.

She nods off and wakes up to find her arms shackled with power dampening cuffs courtesy of Grace Valentine and another woman called June Covington.  Carol angrily tells them to leave her friends room but she is knocked out and wakes up to find herself in a strange room hanging from the ceiling while a tatty looking "Santa" is tied up and gagged in the same place. 

The real Santa of course!

Grace threatens Carol with a knife but Carol kicks the Santa into them, then flips up and kicks herself free of the ceiling.  Now standing on the ground she thumps Grace and kicks June.  June grabs an axe saying, "I'll just have to get what I want for Christmas myself."  And she goes for Carol.  Then a fat jolly (real?!) Santa appears and Carol's cuffs break off.  She lets out a big zap which knocks out Grace and June and the jolly Santa goes "ho ho ho".

Carol calls Jarvis at the Avengers HQ to send someone to pick up Grace and June and deal with the explosives they have concealed.  But then she has a better idea and asks Santa for a favour.  We then jump to the next day where Lila is waiting for her.  Carol has a bag full of the bombs and flies high into the sky.  The sick woman Tracey is lying facing the window and sees Carol in the midst of a huge skyhigh explosion as she lets the bombs off.  "Merry Christmas" she says quietly and that brings this volume to an end.

Christmas goes with a bang.

This was all good stuff.  Of course me being a cat owner who has often blamed him for eating her socks and tea-spoons the first two-parter amused me the most.  I now accuse my cat Biff of being a Flerken whenever he is driving me up the wall.  The Rocket Raccoon stuff was very well integrated, DeConnick really has his "voice" down pat.  Having practically a whole issue in rhyme can be unbearably twee, but as a planet influenced by a pop singer it works and Carol's rather strained attempts to play along are entertaining. Tic remains an enjoyable sidekick and her wish to make the most of the few years she has left adventuring in space are contrasted nicely with Carol's push/pull need to prove herself in space versus missing her Earthbound friends immensely.  The letters from home issue tells a fun story and the differing art style for each narrator is a nice touch too.  Although I didn't know the backstory behind the woman in hospital in the Christmas issue it was still very sweet seeing Carol put on a show for her.  Carol remains a well written, warm and funny character who is also brave and caring and all that is best about the superhero character type and remains a good jumping on point for anyone who wants to enjoy good female superhero stories. Keep an eye out for volume three in a few months time folks.

Captain Marvel Book 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More (#1-6)

"You, me and those freaks back there?  I wouldn't bet against us, Tic" - Captain Marvel

So I'm putting in force my New Years Blog Resolutions a couple of months early.  Those resolutions are:  More female creators. More female characters. More Marvel.  Most of what I know of the Marvelverse is a hotch-potch of what I have seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and things covered in articles on sites like "Comics Should Be Good". I never planned to be a DC lifer over a Marvel Zombie, it's just that when I was reading comics in the 80's, all the writers I liked who wrote for UK comics went to DC and most of them founded what went on to become the Vertigo line.  Also the final kicker?  My local newsagent only stocked DC comics so I never picked Marvel up on a casual pocket-money basis, I was reading Suicide Squad and The Justice League over The X Men and The Avengers.  Anyway, I know a couple of things about Captain Marvel, first of all, there are more than one (and the first one was male and was a pre-emptive grab at the Captain Marvel name when the company publishing the "Shazam" Captain Marvel went under and was bought by DC).  I wrote about the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel in my look at Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.  This is not that Captain Marvel. This is the Carol Danvers one, who I only know for giving birth to her own rapist and the rest of the Avengers being totally OK with that.  Yuck.  Thankfully, she's being written by Kelley Sue DeConnick now so the taint of that misogynist shit has been thoroughly scraped off her. This first six issue arc does make reference to other stuff that has happened in the wider Marvelverse, but enough context is given that I could figure out what was going on without having to resort to wikipedia.  So thumbs up for that right from the start.  Let us begin.

It starts with Captain Marvel in the company of four diverse aliens.  They are on the Manaciano Outpost.  They realise they are being followed by the "Spartax Secret Police" but Captain Marvel is confident she can deal with them.  They confront a seller saying he's from Torfa, he responds "no one is from Torfa" while Captain Marvel accuses him of betraying it.  Then the Secret Police ask for their IDs.  The seller flees, yelling that they are with the Galactic Alliance and a fight breaks out as Captain Marvel and co. are attacked.  Tic, the green alien gets separated from them, while another grabs the piece of metal they were after in the middle of the melee.  Then suddenly Tic vanishes and events go back to six weeks ago.

Carol off to hang out with Iron Man.

Captain Marvel and Iron Patriot are out superheroing and find a capsule in the sky, it has Tic inside it.  The action then cuts to Captain Marvel now as Carol Danvers in her home inside the Statue of Liberty.  There is a young girl with her who I don't know, who Carol is babysitting.  When the kids mum returns they discuss the fact Carol has been feeling restless for some time now.

Iron Man appears and Carol becomes Captain Marvel.  He fills her in on the alien while they fly through the air. They stop and foil a street robbery, discussing the alien as they do so.  Iron Man says her world was destroyed by "The Builders" and that she was part of a group of evacuees they lost track of.  Iron Man thinks it's time to have a permanent Avengers prescence in space.  It needs to be someone who is an amazing pilot and in need of some solitude.  Iron Man suggest Rhodey and chortles to himself as he flies off leaving a fuming Captain Marvel knowing he's hooked her with the idea.

Breaking the news to Rhodey.

Later Carol and Rhodey are at a birthday party for an old woman.  They slip away for a heart-to-heart chat.  She admits that although she cares very deeply for him despite keeping their relationship a secret, she wants to go into space.  Rhodey is mometarily upset then says:

Rhodey: "You gotta go.  I will be many things to you Carol Danvers but... I'm not gonna be the one that holds you down."

As they embrace Carol asks if he'll feed her cat.  "NO", he says.  Carol later reflects on the fact that while in space, she hopes she'll find her place on Earth.  We then finish with a crayoned page showing Captain Marvel's origins in four panels.  Basically it goes; stumbled across alien artefact, got cool powers, fights crime as part of the Avengers. 

Works for me.

These one page origin stories are a great idea, ever since All Star Superman used one so effectively.  Means you get a superhero that's powered up and kicking arse from the start, not being bogged down in being normal first then figuring out what to do with their newfound powers and so on.  Of course once readers are used to a new character you can go back and revisit that origin, one thing I thought the DC New 52 did right was save every characters origin stories to be told after one year of each series rather than kicking off every title with one from the start.

The action jumps forwards to Two Weeks Ago, Captain Marvel is in her small spaceship and being confronted by some hostile aliens.  Also her cat Chewie is trying to sleep on the console and not helping matters.  She states that she is an Avenger on a medical transport misson to the planet Torfa.  The aliens are Haff mercenaries and get an update from their client to kill her.  She does some fancy flying, but when her ship gets hit, she activates an space helmet as part of her costume and goes out into space to fend off the aggressors.  Suddenly one of the mercenary ships explodes and they reluctantly withdraw.  Captain Marvel is confused as she didn't do that, but then The Guardians Of The Galaxy appear having arrived to lend a hand.

Is it a cat or a Flerken?  Poor Chewie.

They link up their ship to her ship via a tube and they walk down it, with Captain Marvel saying that all she is transporting is a "Nowlian girl in a coma".  So she has no idea why this provoked an attack. Chewie the cat appears and Rocket Raccoon freaks out and shoots at it, "you have a Flerken aboard your ship!" he yells.  While he and Captain Marvel argue about Chewie's species, Tic wakes up.

Now they are aboard the Guardian's ship, Captain Marvel manages to keep Rocket Raccoon from killing Chewie who returns to Captain Marvel's ship.  They then get to discussing Torfa.  Apparently it's a "poison planet".  The original inhabitants fled when they started getting sick, two hundred years later the Galactic Council relocated the refugees from the planets wiped out by The Builders on to Torfa and what do you know, they are getting sick too now.  The Galactic Council want to relocate the healthy ones, but they won't leave their sick behind.

Tic awakens.

Starlord says it's the one time he's agreed with his "dear old dad" Spartax (who sounds like some evil overlord), and that the Torfans needs to be evactuated.  Then a shakey Tic appears pointing a gun at him, and goes to shoot him, but Captain Marvel easily disarms her. Tic climbs into the airlock tube and shuts it down, and drives off in Captain Marvel's ship.  Captain Marvel flies out of the Guardians ship ready to give chase, saying "no one steals my Flerken cat!"

As I share my life with a grumpy old black and white cat called Biff, making a character a cat lover is basically a sure fire way of making me fall for them.  I do know if someone tried to catnap Biff he'd make them regret it very quickly!  Unfortunately the ship is faster that Captain Marvel.  Starlord offers her a ride, but then Captain Marvel's ship returns and fires on the Guardian's ship.  Captain Marvel tells them to hold their fire, "because she's a kid and she's confused."  Also her cat is aboard.

Captain Marvel gets close enough that her helmet is able to remotely override the controls. She returns to the interior to confront Tic.  She and the Guardian's question her.  She wanted to kill the son of the Spartax king who is trying to get them off their planet, so "he would feel our pain".  Starlord says she might have got a thankyou note from J'son instead.  Also what would he want with a poison planet?  Maybe he is trying to relocate them to save lives.  Then Captain Marvel scolds Tic for a "cowardly attack" on the son of her enemy and Tic bursts into tears.

Wonderfully expressive faces, I love the art in this book.

Starlord and Captain Marvel leave Tic petting Chewie and discuss the fact that the Torfans are buying into a conspiracy to get them off the planet for an ulterior reason.  Starlord says in the week and a half it'll take to get to Torfa maybe she can gain Tic's trust.  The action then jumps forwards a week and a half and to "Settled City, Torfa".  Captain Marvel disembarks and greets a large horned alien thus:

Captain Marvel: "Hi.  Captain Marvel of earth.  The Avengers and the Galactic Alliance."

The alien punches her in the face.  Tic calls him Gil and tells him she's with her.  Gil gives Tic a big hug then when Captain Marvel repeats she is with the Galactic Alliance, he punches her again.  So Captain Marvel wrestles him into a sleeper hold and asks to speak with the leadership.  An old female alien appears called Eleanides, Tic enthusiastically greets her saying she has a "champion".

Tic: "Go ahead Captain.  Tell them!  The Avenger is here.  Everything is going to be all right."

Eleanides is dubious.

Eleanides dismmisses the representatives of the Spartax Empire that were negociating with them and asks Captain Marvel to walk with her.  She asks Captain Marvel why she came.  Captain Marvel says to bring Tic back and to help out.  Eleanides points out she brings no medicine, no ships, no troops or weapons.  She is grateful for the return of Tic:

Eleanides: "But you are here still because in your arrogance you believe you have some unique understanding of the complex situation in which we find ourselves today.  You believe with a few well chosen words you will somehow make it clear to me that the longer we stay in this place the further we endanger the health of our people.  Is that so?"

Captain Marvel frowns and says nothing, realising the truth of what Eleanides says.  Eleanides says that abandoning their sick would sentence them all to death.  Is Captain Marvel OK with that?  Captain Marvel says she isn't and Eleanides says she might have use for her after all while showing her a huge room full of sick aliens.

The Council of Torfa.

Eleanides brings Captain Marvel before the council of all the various species that make up the Torfans's population.  Captain Marvel tries to speak but is shouted down.  Then a representative of the horned aliens speaks up for her saying the Avengers deserve respect for helping them escape The Builders.  But another one, wearing an enviroment suit says his species can't live anywhere else and the healthy should just leave them to die.

Captain Marvel suggests rigging their ships up so they can all leave together, but Gil shows her their shipyard it's practically empty with a few junked ships.  Gil tries to provoke Captain Marvel some more,  she says he can take a swing at her "but it's not going to make you feel any lesss doomed."

My favourite four panels from this book, so good.

Then another alien pops up accompanied by Tic, he's another one in a suit - a Sentimault - and his name is "B-Bop".  Another alien also appears, a female one with squid-like tentacles for hair, called "Ja Kyee Lrurt" or "Jackie" for short.  She's their chief engineer and defence minister.

Then the Haff mercenaries do a hit a run stealing parts from the shipyard.  Ever since the Alliance withdrew its patrols they've been preying on the Torfans, and they don't have working ships to chase them in.  But Captain Marvel tells Tic, Gil, B-Bop and Jackie they can go after them in her ship instead.

Meanwhile Eleanides is speaking with a projected hologram of J'son.  She is begging him not to force them to leave their sick behind as Torfa is in his space.  He roars:

J'son: "There is no higher authority.  I am not just your leader, woman.  I am your god!"

While Captain Marvel and her merry band steal back their ship parts and go looking for more, J'son says Eleanides has three days to oversee the relocation of the healthy or he will order an attack on the planet and wipe all of them out, "because it is my will!"

J'son being a right bastard.

Captain Marvel's group finally catch up to where this book started on the Manaciano Outpost, they stride out confindently with Captain Marvel thinking what can possible go wrong as one of Spartax's secret police watches them from the shadows.

The action then jumps to after Tic is captured by the Haff.  Captain Marvel hurls the piece of green metal away in frustration, then suddenly notices it is undamaged.  She blasts it with her full power and it gets not a scratch on it.  "I think I know what all this is about" she says.  In the meantime, Tic is in a large ship hanger with other prisoners, she uncovers a cart full of similar green metal pieces, and she and another Torfan realise it's not steel...

The plot device!

We then finally get the truth revealed when we cut to J'Son angry that his vibranium is still stuck in sub-space somewhere (vibranium is like adamantium only even stronger, I think Captain America's shield is made from it).  The vendor says it's not J'Son's vibranium until he pays for it.  J'Son says it's his as sure as "that pissant planet it came from is mine."  He then threatens to wipe the vendor out, the vendor points out J'Son doesn't have his vibranium enhanced fleet yet.  But he finally folds in the face of J'Son's anger and agrees to deliver the vibranium.  J'son then orders an attack on Torfa saying he changed his mind about giving them three days to evacuate.

Meanwhile Eleanides is breaking the news to the council that the healthy will have to leave, much to their distress.  Then Captain Marvel and the others arrive and break the news that they lost Tic, but that they don't think she is dead, just a prisoner.  They then tell her they know what has been happening.  "Vibranium sickness" is what is afflicting the population.  It's why the place was declared a poison planet before.

Eleanides is confused.  She says that there is no known source of vibranium left in the galaxy and they have no vibranium mines that she knows of.  But Captain Marvel shows her the piece they recovered and says if Spartax reinforced his ships with it, his fleet would be unstoppable. 

B-Bop, says to the other Sentimault there that it must be their people doing the mining as their exo-skeletons render them immune to the poison.  The other Sentimault confirms this is the case saying it was for the good of their own people to make a deal with Spartax even if it meant betraying the other Torfans.

Eleanides has no time for this shit.

Eleanides then calls off the evacuation and orders that people start being treated for vibranium sickness.  She and the others walk out to be confronted by J'son's envoy and soldiers saying the entire planet is under arrest.  Eleanides sends Captain Marvel away saying she has no duty to be there and to "tend to the business of the Avengers". 

So Captain Marvel boards her ship in frustration.  Then she realises Eleanides was giving her a coded message and she wants her help.  A planet is being subjegated by another, sounds like Avenger's business to her.  So Captain Marvel flies out and faces down the Spartax fleet with a badass boast.

"Now make yours".  So cool.

J'son asks if his fleet commander "fear the flying Earth girl?".  His commander says, "no more than the elephant fear the gnat."  Back on the ship where Tic is being held she and the others with her decide to do something about the situation.  Before we can find out what, we're back on Torfa where the Spartax troops are pushing a crowd of Torfans around.  Eleanides says:

Eleanides: "Emperors do not stay Emperors when word gets out they slaughter children."

But the Spartax commander on the ground says because they refused to leave the posion planet "no one will know or care."  Back in space, Captain Marvel says the one thing she can give the people of Torfa is time as she attacks the Spartax ships.

Eleanides says she told her to leave, Captain Marvel also says she asked her if she could live with the death of her people on her conscience.  "Can you work a bit of diplomatic magic?" she asks Eleanides.  Eleanides calls B-Bop who has discovered the vibranium mine.  She tells him to evacuate it and the area around it as fast as he possibly can.

She asks Jackie how many of their fighthers are air worthy.  Jackie says two now, so Eleanides orders her and Gil to get them in the air.  Before Jackie leaves her girlfriend tels her "you come back to me."  And they have a snog, "Always and forever" responds Jackie, hooray for space lesbians!

Of course they could be monogendered like the Asari, but I'm still claiming this one for the gays!

Eleanides then orders everyone there to sit down, then she sends some coordinates to Captain Marvel.  Captain Marvel says as soon as she leaves to go to them the Spartax forces will come down on them like a hammer.  But Eleanides says she has sent replacements.

Jackie: "One warrior goddess and one comically oversized goat at your service!"

Gil:  "Hey I resemble that remark!"

Jackie and Gil with some fancy flying, keep the Spartax forces occupied while Captain Marvel heads to the vibranium mines.  J'son's hologram appears giant sized to the large group on the surface of Torfa.  He says they all should have died when they Builders destroyed their worlds and he can take what he pleases from their planet.

J'son is thwarted, hah!

Captain Marvel then blows the vibranium mines up rendering them useless for at least 200 years.  J'son is enraged by this saying he'll destroy them all now.  Then Tic butts in.  She and the other prisoners overcame the Haff keeping them prisoner and now thanks to their networked ships, J'Son is broadcasting to the whole galaxy.  J'son admits defeat but says he won't forget this to Captain Marvel and the Spartax forces withdraw from Torfa.

The final page shows Captain Marvel sneaking away from the celebrations, but Jackie catches her.  Captain Marvel says she hates goodbyes, but Jackie thanks her and Captain Marvel departs with a photo of her, Eleanides, Jackie, Gil, Tic and B-Bop pinned up in the cockpit.

D'awww.  The end.

I really enjoyed this!  Maybe I have spent too long immersed in the grimdark of DC's New 52, Oldboy and Garth Ennis's Punisher, but having a breezy, fun, unabashedly heroic superhero doing proper superheroic things without horrible and tragic consequences felt suddenly refreshing to me.  DeConnick manages to set up Captain Marvel as having some doubts about her place in the universe but finding herself out in space by being challenged to step up and help save an entire world using her intelligence and raw power.  Her motley crew of alien friends are given more character in the space of six issues than I've read in entire runs of other comics (*coff* Demon Knights *coff*), I hope they reappear at some point along with Eleanides, because that lady is badass.  Putting Captain Marvel is space was a great idea because it frees her from much of the Earth-bound Marvel continuity and so makes an excellent jumping on point for newbs like me. The art by David Lopez is great as well, crisp, bright with bags of character it does exactly what it needs to, to complement the writing.  I also like Captain Marvel's superhero costume, it's modest and practical and there are no endless boob-butt poses many female characters get saddled with, she's drawn with a trim and realistically female figure. Really I was predisposed to like Carol Danvers just for being a cat lover, but her personality both fierce and kind when each are needed makes her very attractive and I shall definitely be getting the next trades in the series now along with other Marvel series I have had recommended to me in a similar vein like Hawkeye and Ms.Marvel.  So while this blog will probably still remain somewhat slanted towards DC because I think next year is going to bring the first set of trades from the DCYou that look pretty cool, there will be more for Marvel fans to enjoy as well.