Higher, Further, Faster — Reviewing ‘Captain Marvel Vol 1: The Omen’

Captain Marvel soars high again in the debut of a whole new series, with her whole world turned upside down. Par for the course when one is among the premiere heroes of their home planet.

Captain Marvel Vol 1: The Omen collects the first four issues of the Avengers leader’s newest adventures from Alyssa Wong, Jan Bazaldua, Ruairi Coleman, Carlos Lopez, Bryan Valenza, and Ariana Maher.

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.

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.

Helping this is the fact that the overall plot lends itself to the series dipping into a variety of types of stories in just the first four issues. Kicking off with a super-hero slugfest, a super-powered chase scene, a magical horror misadventure in the Sanctum Sanctorum, and a Negative Zone heist. Talk about some well-rounded stuff.

Characters that are heavily invulnerable, super strong, and carry powers levels off the scale can be tough to write. A natural instinct might be to toss them up against other heavy hitters, solving everything with fists/blasts. Often the real fun comes from avoiding such a box for them. Throwing said characters into a space where they must rely on other skills, or people in this case, shining differently. Wong understands that Carol is a multifaceted character and has far more to offer than being one of Marvel’s heaviest hitters.

Yuna, our resident new character thief, gets so much room to shine and grow. Much of the foundation of this series rests on the vast moments of characterization and this issue doesn’t skimp there either. Really this is the Goldilocks zone of series when it comes to pacing and development. Not too much, not too little, just the right amount. Enough that Yuna feels like a character we’ve known for years, easily bouncing off the Stranges, Captain Marvel, and the (fake) Black Cat.

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. A keen eye for depth and scale helps, allowing the characters to fill the page when necessary or be pulled back in comparison.

Plenty of fluidity can be seen in the pages as the characters move so easily, the action just really works.

Artistic collaborations on single issues, or even swapping through issues of a series, are more common these days as a feature of comics. Sometimes they feature artists that are similar but have clear style differences, and other times the styles are extremely different which either works splendidly or is jarring. With Bazaldua and Coleman, it’s a situation right in the middle of the spectrum.

By that I mean I didn’t even honestly notice there was an artist change until I doubled back to the credits after a first read. On closer examination there are clear differences between the two; Coleman’s work being a bit smoother while Bazaldua’s has an inherent roughness, but they are very much in the same vein. It’s a situation where the chosen artists are compatible, creating a pretty harmonious issue.

In either case, there is a bold superhero energy to everything. Characters flow through the panels/pages as if they are truly in motion. A whimsical beat is visible everywhere, making sure the fun aspect of the story and comics is felt always.

Part of that comes from the color choices Valenza and Lopez make. Plenty of bright, poppy, and vivid colors swirl around, especially with the superhero or magical elements. They are paired with plenty of darker, shadowy tones which add to the weight of everything. All around them are far more natural toned-down colors, giving everything that tiny injection of realism — as real as stories with superheroes and wizards and such can be. Basically, the combination makes sure that even as far-fetched as the story is, concept-wise, it feels like something that potentially could happen in our world since the world feels “real.”

Anyone who has read my reviews of books that she has worked on will know how 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 Vol 1: The Omen is now available from Marvel Comics.