****Actual Rating 2.5 Stars****
I get the feeling the author didn’t know what to do with this volume but needed something to bridge the events of the first one with the events in the third one so he just randomly pulled this idea out of a hat and went with it. I kinda wish he hadn’t, lol. Or at least if he had maybe approach it differently? Because what even was this?
(And we’re not even going to talk about the melting graffiti art style that I hate so much…)
Basically Thor, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange get sucked into a magical ruby where it brainwashed them (mostly Thor and Carol) into fighting all the time. Sounds really cool, except we only see them get sucked in through a flashback, which I think would have worked better as the beginning of the story to set up context and really set the clock for the other Avengers to get them out. And Count Nefaria (that name—really dude? That’s the cheesiest comic book villain name I’ve ever heard of 😂) wants the stone because…he wants to rule the world? Destroy the Avengers? It’s unclear and he’s honestly a lame bad guy when in volume one it was eluded that he would be a lot bigger threat then he turned out to be, another example of how I don’t think the author knew what to do with this story. There also was only like one line that was funny in the slightest, otherwise zlich, nada, no humor anywhere which was really annoying.
Doctor Strange is basically useless here! Why IS he here? I get that his magic doesn’t work in the ruby but why? Give me a one sentence reason at least! Nah, he just can’t for some reason, which is stupid since both Thor and Captain Marvel can use their powers soooo…where’s the logic in that? Also Doctor Strange tries to stop Thor from doing something by talking him down. When has that ever worked with Thor when he’s in fighting mode?! Just tackle him or something! Don’t just stand there yapping while his life and sanity are on the line! That’s your friend! Good grief this made no sense at all. 🤦🏼♀️ Also his and the good Count’s appearances were too alike, so much so I was confused in one panel as to why Black Widow was punching Doctor Strange until I realized it was the other guy, oops.
I really wanted to like this, but I guess I can’t always have everything I want.
‼️Content‼️
Violence: fighting with weapons, superpowers, and hand to hand (PG); a ship crashes into a man and blows up (PG); a character flies/blasts through a mud monster; a character almost drowns; a sea monster is dropped on a character
Other: magic; magical objects and powers; superheroes/supervillains/superpowers; characters are sucked into and trapped inside a magical ruby; monster like creatures; explosions; a man had glowing red eyes and shoots red lasers out of them