Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Captain Marvel #1
Marvel Comics
DeConnick, Lopez & Loughridge
The latest launch of Captain Marvel allows readers to get a solid grasp of the lead character, while understanding the motivations behind the shift that will propel the book's direction. It's a solid first issue that does a good job of picking up the pace in a book that doesn't contain much action in it. Rather than dumping the reader with a lot of exposition about Captain Marvel, her home life, love life and super-hero life, DeConnick lets the characters and their conversations drive the reader to the answers to these questions. This looks to be a great start to what is looking like a classic, character-driven comic.
The book is put together in a straight-forward manner. The comic starts off with Captain Marvel on a space mission that is right out of a Flash Gordon serial with a touch of Saga to bring it into the 21st century style of storytelling. The brief introduction gives the reader an idea of the cast set out in outer space and it also presents some fantastic dialogue that puts some nice personality stamps on the characters offered up.
Then the book moves into the flashback portion where we see how things unfold that leads Captain Marvel into space in the first place. We get a little action with Captain Marvel and War Machine and then some Iron Man action. These action scenes are peppered with dialogue that helps to push along the mental processing that drives the decision to leave Earth. After a scene at home and a scene with her secret boyfriend the answer to leave is sitting out there too obviously to ignore.
The book isn't sad or dramatic but reads like real life. Anyone that has ever decided to pick up and move or take a sabbatical from all that they know and love can relate to this book. Even the people that have considered doing this but maybe opted to stay put can understand how the feelings play tug of war with the need to spring away. It's beautiful storytelling because it feels real.
The artwork is fantastic. There is a subtle tone to the entire book. This isn't to say the pencils aren't detailed or the coloring isn't vibrant. The book just has the look of simple looking people dealing with normal life, but they are wearing costumes and stopping problems above normal people's abilities. The feeling in this book is a testament to the artwork and definitely gives the comic a timeless look that is going to help a lot when it settles in the stars.
Captain Marvel is a terrific first issue. The direction for the series is set and this issue moves those pieces nicely into place. There isn't anything complicated to understand or some world threat to deal with. It's a person that decides for herself to break away and doing something she needs to do. Great start to a series and one everyone should keep their eye on if they aren't already picking this book up. This one has "Hawkeye of 2014" written all over it.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
