The Mighty Captain Marvel #0 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

…And How Do You Feel About That?

Written By: Margaret Stohl
Art By: Emilio Laiso, Ramon Rosanas, Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 21, 2016
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

To say that Captain Marvel has had a rough time as of late would be one of the biggest understatements in the comic world right now. What I mean by that at the beginning of 2016 Captain Marvel was one of the biggest female heroes at Marvel and she was widely loved by her fan base. We saw as much when her solo series with All-New, All-Different Marvel started with high sales. However, we then came to Civil War II which shows Carol Danvers as one of the most authoritative and unlikeable characters ever. Granted, Carol was trying to do the right thing but eventually it came down to Carol being uncompromising and paranoid to a fault. In addition, her solo series went on to have one of the most boring tie-ins with the event and people stopped buying her book. Well, with Marvel NOW! Carol will have another chance to fix her image and instead show that she is still the character that people loved. Let’s see if this zero issue is able to begin the healing process.

Our issue begins with Carol having a fun time around a poker table with her fellow female superheroes. A quick line of dialogue reveals that this is all a dream which makes a lot of sense but when Carol goes to answer the door and get pizza, she is instead punched in the face by Iron Man. Carol yells at Tony for Iron Man to only reveal that whoever is under the mask is not Tony Stark. This is when Carol wakes up from her dream and we find that she has been undergoing a sleep study with a psychologist due to the fact that she hasn’t been able to sleep since the events of the superhero civil war. Her therapist tells Carol that she is most likely not sleeping due to anxiety and that there isn’t a simple way to fix it. She suggests reaching out to her friends, namely Jessica Drew but Carol hesitates to do so due to the events of Civil War II.

Carol reaches over for a remote when her therapist tries to talk more with her and exits what we learn is a hologram and Carol has been on board the Alpha Flight Space Station the entire time. Carol checks in with an Alpha Flight member named Wendy who informs her that things are going fine with her, although due to an incident Carol caused when she destroyed a couple satellites, she is being served papers by NASA. This is when Puck calls in and her call is heard in the cockpit. During this call, Puck goes on to insult Carol several times, granted nothing malicious but enough that he feels very embarrassed when he realizes that Carol is on the other side of the phone. After the call, Carol notices that Wendy is wearing her symbol around her neck and she questions her about it. Turns out that Wendy is a part of one of Carol’s fan clubs that have sprung up and after giving her a quick autograph the two return to work.

Carol goes to her office until she is startled by Brand. It’s an overreaction on her part and the two end up sharing a nice conversation. Brand and Carol catch us up on some characterization and on the events that recently passed. While Carol has won the recent superhero civil war, she certainly doesn’t feel like a winner. The conversation is interrupted by Puck and Wendy as Puck delivers a package from Carol’s old apartment. It holds a bunch of her stuff and reminds her of her past. We learn of Carol’s love of the stars from a young age and about how her father told her that he couldn’t afford to send her to college and would instead send one of her older brothers. He even suggests that Carol simply marry to a good and wealthy man so that she can have a comfortable life. It’s not a surprise that the next day Carol enlists in the Air Force. Despite her beginnings, Carol was able to reach space and when she was there, she inherited the powers of a planet and became the person she was always supposed to be.

Carol’s reminiscing is interrupted when the alarm goes off and she finds a ship going straight towards the Space Station. Carol suits up and is able to stop the ship from colliding only to find out that the ship was a decoy and there is another ship heading for Earth. The ship is stopped and they find alien refugees on board and despite the initial conflict Alpha Flight works to find them a safe place to stay. Carol leaves the situation to meet up with Spider-Woman and the two seem to bury the hatchet for the time being. Carol apologizes and Jessica embraces her and gives Carol a chance to rest. Meanwhile, we see a strange figure in the refugee camp and the figure seems to be after some kind of bounty. We cut back to Carol who is finally asleep but she is having the dream once again except now she knows that Tony Stark isn’t the one inside the suit, but it is herself. They are doing the Jedi in the Dagobah cave thing. This is where the issue leaves us.

So, this book got a lot of attention surrounding the origin story that they seem to rewrite in this book. Now, I’m not too familiar with the original origin story but I have to say that I liked this one quite a bit and it definitely made Carol likeable. This issue really gets off on the right foot with everything else though. We get a sense of the world that we are living in and how Carol fits into it but the book also kind of reads as an apology to Captain Marvel’s fans. I think the creative team was saying that they knew the mistakes that had just recently happened and they apologized for them and promised a better future. That’s really how this comic reads to me. I really liked it and the art was incredible. This may have been the Captain Marvel book that her fans deserved from the start. Hopefully, they haven’t been scared away for good.

Bits and Pieces.

This is a great issue for people to jump in on and this comic really breathes new life into a character that had fallen on some hard times. The origin of Carol Danvers that we are given is a really touching and human tale and couple it with some amazing art and decent introduction and we have got ourselves one hell of a zero issue. I really enjoyed this book and I hope it is able to build on the momentum that it has received.

8.0/10