Something New, Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: ‘Captain Marvel’ #1 Review

Never fear, the Captain has returned. Though she hasn’t been gone long, Carol Danvers’ whole world is about to change. Par for the course when one is among the premiere heroes of their home planet.

Captain Marvel #1 kicks off a whole new adventure and status quo for the hero, alongside a whole new creative team. Hang on as Alyssa Wong, Jan Bazaldua, Bryan Valenza, and Ariana Maher take their title character, and all of us on an exciting ride.

If you couldn’t tell by some of the words used above, I was into this issue.

Carol was a character that I liked, but didn’t follow that much for the longest time. Til 2012 happened and she rocketed forward into a bigger space as Captain Marvel. There were a few missteps here or there with the character (still not over her behavior in Civil War II) but overall, it’s been a pretty solid decade for the character. High off the work that was done in the last volume, I was curious to see what this team would bring to the plate.

Taking something that is very classic and giving it a new-age polish can work wonders in this space. Especially with how these shared never-ending universes tend to move in cycles. We get some of that here as Wong pulls the whole Nega Bands, Captain Marvel and a regular human switching places thing back into play. The twist is the person that Captain Marvel is now connected with isn’t a superhero sidekick/groupie but instead a big-time thief.

Good luck Carol!

The team does a fantastic job at capturing Carol as a character, introducing this new threat in Omen, and allowing us to get to know quite a bit about our new character Yuna Yang. None of it feels forced or out of nowhere, just smoothly done. Part of that comes from the fact that the issue just opens with Carol doing the hero thing and Omen showing up. No big setup or pages and pages of things to get to the point. This is our adventure, our status quo, and we’re off and running.

Also, good to see Genis-Vell back in the picture. Though I’m sure he wishes the outcome for him in the story was a bit different, still good to see him bouncing around. Definitely intrigued to see where this all is headed.

I love a good bit of artwork that is both expressive and detailed, but also has a unique flair to it. That’s what we always get with Bazaluda in the driver’s seat. There is a lightness to it all, a bit of exaggeration and whimsy, but it also feels very tight and detailed. With just enough of a grounded/real edge to it to keep us moving along as if this is the world outside our windows.

Plenty of fluidity can be seen in the pages as the characters move so easily, the action just really works. We open with Carol having to catch a building, and it’s fully felt and believable. Just in the panel shot of her holding it, there is depth and scale that really hit home what a major feat that this was. Love just how expressive all the faces are as we can really sense and feel what the characters are at any given moment, filling the pages with such life.

The same thing can be said about Valenza’s color choices here. So much bright pops all over the place making sure that the superhero or fantastic elements in play feel that way. Yet, the setting spaces are pulled back to more realistic levels to create depth and a sense of familiarity. Buildings and streets should feel ‘normal’ in a sense while Captain Marvel’s bright costume or the use of various powers should feel strange and out there because to us they would be.

Anyone who has read my reviews of books that she has worked on will know how much I get excited about Maher’s lettering work. Such energy and presentation make it really stand out. Not just in how the letters are placed on the pages or even how the fonts and such are chosen. Care is put into choices like color schemes, how to handle the bubbles, choices in case styles, and even how to go about making the SFX just stand out. It creates such a fully fleshed-out world because the voices and words of the characters are so clear within our heads.

We can see so much in comics, but we can’t actually hear anything of course. Yet, with the right application of tools with lettering, we can in many ways. Natural and unnatural sounds become clear, and the characters’ voices crystallize within our minds as we read each word. Whether we know the character or not, we can create that wound in our heads and enhance our reading experience.

Captain Marvel #1 is now available from Marvel Comics.