Ms. Marvel, Volume 3: Operation Lightning Storm

Ms. Marvel (2006) (Collected Editions) #3

by Brian Reed (Writer), Aaron Lopresti (Illustrator)

A new beginning for Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers, made herself a promise to be "the best of the best" - but after the events of Civil War, has Ms. Marvel lost her way? As the stress mounts and Carol finds herself less and less sure about what she's doing or why, a crossroads is reached and a decision is made - a decision that will change the course of Ms. Marvel's life - and possibly the Marvel Universe Brian Reed (New Avengers: Illuminati) and Roberto De La Torre - plus guest-stars Iron Man, Araña and Wonder Man - kick-off the new era.

Collecting: Ms. Marvel 11-17

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fantasy

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2007

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Marvel deals with A.I.M. as she gathers a S.H.I.E.L.D. strike team to go after these types of threats. It's not all that exciting. The more interesting elements like the infighting amidst A.I.M. doesn't even have anything to do with Ms. Marvel.

I was happy to see Roberto del la Torre leave the book. He has a hard time drawing faces, especially if slightly turned. Aaron Lopresti is a much more talented artist.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite a good collection like with Carol fighting Doomsday man and then what that results for Arana and like her taking over as leader of the Mighty Avengers, helping Julia get her child back and the conclusion to that dramatic tension there and finally taking on AIM and Modok and the various splinter cells which makes for a great read plus her growth for sure and I love the dramatic tension between her and Simon, they make for such a great couple! Also the art here is pretty good and it does well to tie into the aftermath of Civil war and how that world is like. I like how the writer is showing Carol growing beyond her doubting self and that publicist angle seems like it will reach for an amazing conclusion later on! So yeah a recommendation from me for this one!

[Adam Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book collects Issues 11-17 of Miss Marvel.

It contains three stories: First off in Issues 11 and 12, Miss Marvel faces off against a villain she defeated back she was at the Avengers. Interesting story, particularly loved the villain Doomsday Ma throwing off on the Avengers for failing to keep track of him so that AIM was able to snag him.

Issues 13 and 14: The Deal: Carol agrees to lead the Mighty Avengers in exchange for Tony Stark (currently director of SHIELD in this book) giving her her own detachment of superheroes and SHIELD agents (not actually reporting to SHIELD) to prevent major crimes before they start. After taking out an AIM sight, she decides to use this to help Julia Carpenter, who in the previous volume, she captured and dragged off to secret prison with her daughter watching and described bringing her in as "her pleasure." Carol's efforts to help Julia are meant to soften that image a bit, but instead the characterization is so off that the story instead makes me wonder whether she's a fit mother as she has little concern for her daughter's welfare and commits a parental kidnapping from the grandparents with SHIELD help.

Issues 15-17: The book ends with a big AIM story and it's a blast. It involves an AIM Civil War, witha variety of factions that include MODOK and different alternatives to him. It contains the cheesiest scene in the book , but is still a ride.

I thought both the first and last stories were pretty good. Carol also showed herself to be relatable. Not only does she feel regret over what she did to Julia, she also begins to question the wisdom of the entire Superhero registration movement in light of AIM being able to carry ou tattacks due to Tony spending an inordinate amount of time enforcing them.

Teenage superhero Anya Corazon was likable and this book made me curious to read her solo stories.

On the other hand, most characters in this book are either unlikable or flat. Tony Stark and Maria Hill come off as particularly unlikable. In one scene, Carol references "debriefing Tony Stark" and Maria asks if that's "the only time you debriefed him?" What is she? In High school?

The story tries to add in romantic subplot, maybe a bit of a triangle. However, both Wonderman and the non-hero potential love interest are dull, so it's hard to get into them.

In the end, this isn't bad, but there's a lot bad about this book. Hoping Volume 4 gets better.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay book. But it should be a bit better. It's all about going after A.I.M. but it feels more like monster of the week. And Carol still reads weak and confused to me but not in an interesting way. But I did like the bits with Anya and Julie. Eh. 3.5 of 5.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite so far. Sort of ho-hum, but not awful.

[Rylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So essentially this is season 2 of Brian Reed’s Ms. Marvel. The stories in here are pretty good, I’m glad Carol helped Julia after what happened in civil war. The art in here is much better than the previous volumes where some of the faces looked wonky, I guess since the book proved to be popular it was able to garner a better artist.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, time to jump off this ship and jump back once Kelly Sue takes over. I was reading this for background, but it's just painfully bad and comic book-y.

Brian Reed tries to make Carol's life "Marvelized" by giving her angst, but it's the stupidest thing imaginable, and the supporting characters are all acting about as dumb as possible. The whole AIM plot is just meh, and Modok doesn't see a good use here.

The art is okay, but has a lot of the usual standing and posing that too many Marvel books had then and still have now. No life in the panels, just a lot of people looking stern and attractive.

Nothing to see here at all.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of MODOK and AIM will enjoy this volume of Ms Marvel, which feels like something of a swan song for the evil organization, but I was a little disappointed that the mystery of Carol's latest beau was left unresolved.

[Cande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I had a hard time sympathizing with Carol. She makes many mistakes and never takes responsibilities for her actions.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm just not vibing still, rip. This volume deals with the aftermath of the civil war event and I sleep. Carol deals with many different threats but they didn't really feel connected to each other. I love Carol even though this has been boring and looking at her outfit pisses me off. I think I will look for another run (where she gets to wear pants) and hope it gives what I want her to give.

Also it's so funny to me that I've read a lot of comics lately and AIM has shown up in SO many vs HYDRA who haven't as much. Compared to our pals in the hazmat suits that we've never seen in the MCU lol.

I have the rest of the volumes checked out from this run but I don't think I'm going to force myself to continue.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not quite as exciting as the previous two volumes, this story of Ms Marvel having to take down a fractured AIM, and deal with a seemingly dying MODOK had its fun moments. I'm also enjoying how Reed deals with Carol Danvers's mental health. He uses a much more subtle approach than most comic book writers, as he lets everything unfold in her actions, rather than having thought balloons explain to the reader what she's thinking.

While I've rated this a star less than the previous volumes, this is still a B+ book.

[Rohail · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 Stars for the first two issues, story was bland and Torre's art was getting worse and worse.

The Deal story where Ms. Marvel uses her new team Lighting Storm to help Spider-Woman get her daughter back wasn't bad, I'm glad Julia got her daughter back. 3 stars.

Finally the Ready, A.I.M story with a dying M.O.D.O.K was nerdy but I really got used to Lopresti's art finally. 3 stars.

"But Tony the new registration law is stupid-" ...continues to follow it. Overall 3 stars.

[Ralph Wark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good storyline

The scientist supreme, Modok has a son, interdimensional storage of a DNA altering device, betrayal, Arachne and her daughter..... A lot happens in this compilation, all good, all interesting. The art is wonderful, and Ms. Marvel's personality continues to progress. All sorts of fun....

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think a lot of current Marvel readers know a lot about the strange organization known as AIM and this Initiative tie-in book has us exploring one of the stranger schemes that the super-science organization has cooked up. It also has Ms. Marvel in charge of her own little SHIELD taskforce that's a quirky yet interesting enough idea.

[Christopher Ogden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid story held back by slightly too much melodrama

Good story telling. The art work is well done, there is no major shift during the book. Definitely looking forward toward the next one.

[Mickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good story, involving Arachne and the fallout of Carol putting her in prison during the Civil War event, is sandwiched between an OK story about AIM. Overall, this run continues to be just OK.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had some nice Carol moments. It was good seeing her try to fix some of her Civil War mistakes. And a MODOK story is always fun.

[Doctor Doom · Rating 3 out of 5]

really great artwork pushes this to the 3 star range... story would hold it back slightly.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is all over the place and doesn't know it, that is where we start.
Good art, good writing.
Good to go back and see where Tony and Carol start their own "War"

[ilham · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 3.5*

[MC · Rating 3 out of 5]

During and after the events of the Civil War arc in the the Marvel Comics' universe, the lives of several heroes are emotionally off the rails, as they question what they have done, and should do, with the rest of their lives. As volume three of her eponymous series begins, Ms Marvel is no exception to this. Though she doesn't regret all of her moves during this crisis, she does regret some of them, such as the arrest of Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter, and her subsequent separation from her daughter.

Ms Marvel wants to be friends with Julia again, and even helps her see and obtain physical control of her daughter from her parents, who now want nothing to do with Julia, and in fact, want Julia to stay away from her own daughter. So Ms Marvel helps her flee with her girl. What does Julia do? She says she'll never forgive MM again.

I have to say that I absolutely despise this part of the current story arc. It is entertaining to see Ms. Marvel run around stopping bad guys, kicking butt, and taking names, as it were. But that is all she is doing. She has no purpose, no real reason for being. She is aimless. This in itself wouldn't be so bad. A story of a hero “discovering herself” can have merit. The problem is how they writer her as so disillusioned with the pro-registration side in the Civil War storyline.

This drives me nuts. I can understand that the methods of some of the heroes on Iron Man's side were bad, but the forces aligned with Captain America, including the oh-so persecuted Julia Carpenter, were just as far from being on the side of the angels. They responded (or sometimes did so pre-emptively) by attacking, hurting, and in some cases likely crippling or almost killing, federal agents and police. How is this good? Most of the people they hurt just tried to do their job, and only responded with force after being attacked, especially in the case of Carpenter. Moreover, these underground heroes could easily have “registered” and then fled to another country, thus averting all need for violence.

For a comparison, there is a reason that, though she and Ollie had killed before (in fairness, Ollie was becoming more non-lethal when he can due to the influence of his partners Diggle and Felicity), that, on the television show Arrow, Huntress is seen as a villain by most fans now, while Oliver isn't. When she mowed down nearly a dozen federal agents in an attempt to kill her mob boss father, she cemented herself as a bad guy. In a similar vein, Julia Carpenter was brutal and hurt people, so she is not an innocent.

I don't mind seeing a soul-searching Ms Marvel, but if the reason for this is her angst over the Civil War stuff, then please stop it. Unless you balance it with angst on the anti-reg side, then it is just more of the stupid story-telling at work. Give Ms Marvel emotional growth without the Civil War stuff please.

Just one last issue here. A pilot in the United States Air Force is an officer, not enlisted. So how come in her dress uniform, MM was wearing a rank of an enlisted personnel? Tiny point, but that stuff bothers me. I was in the Army and getting these tiny, but important details right is a must. Do better, Marvel.

[Geeky Like · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think what draws me to Ms Marvel is she is a woman who has exceled in a very male dominated military world and hell she is Captain Marvel now. Maybe it is also because my friend Lada has done cosplay of her along with so much more. She looked interesting and a name that comes up quite often when discussing women in comics.

Carol Danvers wants to be more than just Ms. Marvel. She wants to be something more not only in her professional life, but in her personal life. She is strong, but has self-doubt. She wants normalcy in her private life and tries so hard to go on a date and have that slice of normal, but desperately wants to get past her demons and become something more than she has been as Ms. Marvel. Civil War apparently messed her up pretty badly, so she has things to prove to herself and others. She gets her chance when Iron Man asks her to be the leader of the new Avengers team he is putting together as he has too much on his own plate running SHIELD. But she wants to do it her own way and instead assembles her own Lightning Storm Strike Team (including a mini-carrier) which will take the offensive against serious threats like A.I.M. before they get to Avenger like threat levels. It’s not a bad team consisting of Wonder man, Machine Man, Sleepwalker, Agent Sum, and Arana. We even get to see M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing).

Things I loved: As per usual Marvel does a great job of giving you a brief synopsis of recent history exposition at the beginning so I wasn’t lost. Of course, I had no idea that I was also reading Volume 3 instead of Volume 1. The art is also nice though it is penciled by two different artists; Roberto De La Torre (11-12) and Aaron Lopresti (13-17).

While I haven’t really read any Ms Marvel before, I didn’t feel too lost. Granted I am still unsure of what her power set really is, I really liked the dynamic between her and her companions. Carol is a strong female character and while, yes, her off time is spent going on the mysterious Mr. Wagner I love that she has doubts that this guy wants to date her because she’s Carol and not because she is Ms. Marvel. I think that is interesting question that is posed. Does he like the woman or the superhero and cant he like both?

It has a nice blend of letting me to get to know some new characters that I have not been introduced to before and the plot blends everything from zombies to your traditional drag out fights. The Cliffhanger ending made me want to read more and grab Volume 4 the next time I hit the bookstore. I also really liked having A.I.M. in there as the baddies.

Things I didn’t love so much: Some of the art style wasn’t exactly my cup of tea though Carol’s got some great hair I must say and while yes I feel like I wasn’t too lost, I really do feel like I should have started with Volume 1.

Buy or Borrow: Borrow. This may not be the best place for newbies to start, but I was pleased enough that I want to read more.

Part of: A series. Start with Best of the Best

[Holden Attradies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually the first volume of this newer Ms. Marvel series that I've read, so at this point I don't know how it compares to the two previous volumes. That out of the way I was pretty damn impressed.

I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the way Carol, and the narration in general, had an almost (ALMOST) snarky breaking of the fourth wall genre awareness. The best example was what Carol said at the end about M.O.K.O.K.: "M.O.K.O.K. disappeared in the explosion, because that's what bad guys do when they're caught in a bomb blast and everyone thinks they're dead. They escape."

From looking at others reviews of the volume I see that a lot of people felt the story and Carol's motivations weren't clear, that they kind of wondered. But having just read Essential Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1 it all felt very Ms. Marvel. She has a deep history of not knowing what she wants, of being easily distracted and wondering off on little side projects. I read it as Carol Danvers, the woman who strode to be the best of the best in a male dominated military setting, not quite knowing how to deal with things now that she has so much power things aren't always an uphill battle.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.K., they are classic Marvel and it's good to see them shine with modern art and story telling. Speaking of the art I was pretty indifferent to Robert De La Torre but Aaron Lopresti was an perfect fit for the volume. As someone else pointed out, her hair looked awesome.

Last, I am left REALLY wanting to know who William Wagner really is. I'm hoping it is something that is built apon and not just left in the dust.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again it was alright... still messy, and she still has to reply on other people to save the day. Wonder Man is in this quite a bit and to me he's a complete blank place holder of the character. Nothing to get excited about there.. I think there is meant to be some sexual tension (and if I recall in House of M they were together), but honestly.. *yawn* There's also some shadiness involving the guy she's dating.

Greg Horn's covers are no better than Frank Cho's so I'm still repulse at the start of each issue. She does not look powerful or intimidating, she looks like a tacky glamour model.. and so shiny.

This is my first introduction to A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.K. which took a bit of getting my head around (M.O.D.O.K. is pretty weird). I found bits confusing but that might be because I was getting pretty bored with it and losing concentration!

Still sticking with this series.. but if it doesn't pick up soon I'm giving up.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely the weakest volume in the series yet.
Ms. Marvel feels her mission is weakened, and, now, instead of trying to be "the best of the best," tries tackling "the worst of the worst." M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. are her villains in this volume--it's nice to see an acronymed terrorist cell besides HYDRA, and A.I.M. is both funny and a serious threat.
Overall, this book takes several steps back. I don't understand why Ms. Marvel is so broken up over what happened with Arachne in the last volume. Her new "Lightning Storm" team isn't too well fleshed out (though that's probably left for future volumes), and the change in artists from De La Torre to Lopresti is a definite downgrade.
All in all, this book wasn't quite as fun as the first two Ms. Marvel books.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone said tht a plus to this is that Greg Horn does the covers. I really disagree. I'm not a fan of Horn's style. I really just don't think his Ms. Marvel looks intimidating. She looks like a swimsuit model.

Carol refocuses on being the "best of the best". She thinks that part of doing this is actually being proactive rather than just reactive. She goes after the "worst of the worst" with her new surgical strike team. She compares the Avengers to a sledgehammer and her new team to a scalpel.

I like that there are a couple of story arcs here rather than just one. Even if they follow each other so that they seem like one. It keeps the collection moving.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I don't remember what the deal with the voices is.

[The Sapphic Nerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Marvel's costume is... For starters, the red sash is impractical and even a safety hazard in her line of work so I don't know why it's there. And then bikini line is just plain distracting - especially when you have scenes where she has her legs open, which is often. It's annoying and unnecessary.

As for the character, I dont know who was created first, but Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel reminds me of a less sassy/entertaining version of Karen Starr/Power Girl, right down to the orange cat. That said, I do like Carol as well, so this is more akin to a compliment than a critique, but a bit less in common would be nice.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this. I like the character and don't mind following her adventures, but this isn't anything outstanding.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Marvel convinces Tony Stark to let her start her own team and even gives her a mini-carrier. A few Shield Agents and Wonder Man join her to right wrongs and to battle the A.I.M. organization.

Ms. Marvel has some of the most ambiguous powers for a primary character (with Wonder Man bringing in a close second) but her professional wrestler looks seem to inspire better then average art.

The story is typical so this book will most likely appeal to Marvel fans.

Notes
Excellent cover art by Greg Horn

Learning Curve
Moderate: Those new to Marvel comics might be confused.

Reading Order
Occurs before Secret Invasion

[Mairi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent three shorter stories, focusing on fighting AIM and creating Operation Lightning Storm. Decent character development for Carol Danvers; I generally enjoy the internal monologue-ing that is employed heavily. Nicely hints at more to come later, such as William's real identity, or Agent Sum's powers. The artwork is generally decent (bar the usual complaints about her superhero outfit). The covers, however, don't really work for me, and don't match the rest of the art.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gods - I love this series! Brian Reed is a terrific writer. We get the follow up resolution to the Civil War story here. And much more. I'm a huge fan of Carol Danvers current series Captain Marvel but am starting to think this series might be the better one.

I wish Marvel would hire Reed to continue this series to fill in the blanks between this series and the current one. Wouldn't that be magnificent? Yes, it would! Indeed!