Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue DeConnick

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book collects the first six issues of the new Captain Marvel series starring Carol Danvers formerly Miss Marvel in the title role. This title was originally held by the male Kree Warrior Mar-vel.

The book is not bad, but it suffers from an affliction common to similar female productions: a sense of its own self-importance.

This is on full display in Issue 1 when the name change is the centerpiece of the whole issue. And Captain America, the First Avengers pushes her to do the change of title. He tells her, "Quit being an adjunct." And she appeals to Marvel's most popular character, the pre-Ock, Post-One More Day Spider-man for his approval and he gives it, while acting kind of pathetic and wimpy. Her assuming the title of Captain Marvel is given a huge front page billing in the Daily Bugle with "New Captain Marvel! And He's a She."

The big problems with this is that the book never explains WHY this matters in the Marvel Universe. Marvel died 30 years ago in our time, and since that time at least two other people including one woman have held the title. There's no reason for this to be front page news unless it's a very slow news day.

However, Issues 2-6 are an improvement as she takes the plane of her recently deceased girlhood hero Helen Boyd and ends up travelling back through time and encountering a World 2 team of female soldiers called the Banshees. Later, she travels forward to 1961 where female pilots are being denied a place in the space program and Helen has bought them a chance to get jet training, but at a price.

I won't say nothing interesting happens in the book: it does. However, the problem is the interesting stuff is tied to nothing in particular. Captain Marvel fights supervillains and alien tanks, and breaks into NASA in the 1960s and shows general guts and wreckless abandon but with no point whatsoever. She's offered a chance to get rid of her powers and be a normal women judged on her own merits, which would have been interesting...if she'd ever expressed an interest in that.

The other problem with the book is that it's supposed to be a jumping on point, yet character such as Carol's friend with cancer are shown without any real introduction. You'd have to know your Marvel to know that Jessica Drew was Spider-woman and especially to know who the friend with cancer is. There is an introduction of Carol Danvers' career and history that runs four pages of small print, but it doesn't help much, nor does it give readers a sense that we're dealing with a reliable hero with a strong personality. Instead, we get a picture of a character who has had three different secret identities and has been subject to constant redefinition by Marvel in her 40 year history.

Finally, the art is decent but rarely anything to write home about except perhaps in the first issue.

In the end, while Captain Marvel as written by Kelly DeConnick is an interesting character who could achieve some awesome things, she just doesn't get the chance in this volume. The book exudes girl power, but girl power can't make up for a weak plot and a book that takes itself far too seriously.





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