Captain Marvel: Earth's Mightiest Hero, Vol. 4

Captain Marvel: Earth's Mightiest Hero

by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Writer), Warren Ellis, Kelly Thompson

Stellar combat and Secret Wars! Captain Marvel's time as an astronomical Avenger has pitted her against some of the worst the galaxy has to offer, not least the Haffensye Consortium! They've been tracking Carol and Tic for weeks - and now they've finally caught up! Carol Danvers barely survived the last time she squared off against the Haffensye - is there any chance that she could be so lucky again? Then, when the Multiverse ends, there is only Battleworld. And in the domain of Hala Field, the elite Carol Corps are the best of the best, who will take down anyone and everyone who threatens their Captain! Riding with them takes guts, guile and a whole lot of grit - so get ready to aim high, fly, fight and win! COLLECTING: CAPTAIN MARVEL (2014) 12-15, CAPTAIN MARVEL & THE CAROL CORPS 1-4

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

184 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2017

About the author

Kelly Sue DeConnick’s work spans stage, comics, film and television. Ms. DeConnick first came to prominence as a comics writer, where she is best known for reinventing the Carol Danvers as “Captain Marvel” at Marvel and for the Black Label standard-setting Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons at DC. Her independent comics Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly (both from Image Comics) have ranked as New York Times best-sellers and been honored with Eisner Awards, British Fantasy Awards and Hugo nominations.

Ms. DeConnick’s screen work includes stints on Captain Marvel, a film that earned $1B for Disney worldwide, and 2023’s forthcoming The Marvels with Marvel Studios; in addition to having consulted on features for Skydance and ARRAY, and developed television for NBCUniversal, Legendary Entertainment and HBOMax. Her most recent stage work is the mythic spectacle AWAKENING, which opened at the Wynn Resort Las Vegas in November 2022.

Mission-driven, Ms. DeConnick is also a founding partner at Good Trouble Productions, where she has helped to produce non-fiction and educational comics including the “Hidden Voices” and “Recognized” series for NY Public Schools and Congressman John Lewis’ Run, in partnership with Abrams Comics.

In 2015, Ms. DeConnick founded the #VisibleWomen Project, whose mission is to help women and other marginalized genders find paid work in comics and its related industries. The project continues to this day and recently expanded in partnership with Dani Hedlund of Brink Literacy.

Ms. DeConnick lives in Portland, OR with her husband, writer Matt Fraction, and their two children.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A solid entry. In the first 3 issues we see that Carol finally makes it back to her ship. She discovers that someone has busted in and kidnapped Tic and her cat/flerken. So know Carol gets busy on tracking down the ones responsible so she can get them back. Fun stuff. The next issues really didn’t need to be in here. It was tie in to GOTG/X-Men Black Vortex. I haven’t read that so I was lost. There was no lead up to it and afterwards, no story showing Carol dealing with any aftermath from it. So I felt it unnecessary to be in here. Felt really random. The last 4 issues is Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps. This was a Hickman’s Secret Wars tie in. I actually really dug what Kelly Sue did with the story here. However after a nice build up, we don’t get to see what the characters see at the end. Never really been a fan of those ambiguous endings. Well, on to the final volume.

[Bygonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to rate something like this since it has different storylines within it, some better than others. Overall, I really liked this set, but 2 of the main stories seemed to just end in the middle. I'm pretty new to comics, so I'm not sure if this is normal for volumes like this to just leave out the end of the story if it happens somewhere else (or however this works in this case?), but I find it frustrating either way. If this is a normal thing, which I do kind of assume it is, at least for big worlds with many characters and overlapping stories, I have to say it is a very valid reason to just avoid getting into comics. I really don't understand the point of putting a bunch of comics together (5 volumes no less), and not putting all of the stories in it. To me it kind of defeats the purpose and makes it extremely hard for those of us who are not in the know about how this all works.

Okay, that was a bit of a rant, but to be fair it is the reason this didn't get 4 stars from me. And I think other people who are new to comics should have a heads up.

*Minor spoilers ahead*
All that said, I would still recommend it as I think this volume actually has some of the most compelling (partial) stories. I hope I can find the rest of them because I really want to know how they end. I am especially intrigued by the last four issues in this, which seem to have Carol in some kind of alternate timeline/universe/something. In this one we get to see more of the other women in her group (the Carol Corps I believe) and see them shine a bit. I also found first storyline, which says it continues in The Legendary Star-Lord, to be getting to a really interesting place. It is part of the arc that is continuing on from the previous volume where she is out in space testing her limits so to speak. The issue after that is a more emotional/character focused on that was really great too. I so want to give this more stars, but I just can't overlook two out of 3 stories cutting off in the middle.

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this a lot. Story was interesting and kept me reading. The writing was good as well.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific issues, 4 of them set in a Doctor Doom-ruled sort-of-alternate-universe (after everything else was temporarily blown into bits...), from 6 years ago now. Mostly set in space (and, of course, in the heart.)

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Captain Marvel series does the best sight gags for Star Wars fans, and they are smart ones.

So here we have something that appears a lot like the asteroid space slug from Empire Strikes Back, but then on second glance it looks a lot like a tardigrade, and then Harrison tells her that it is like a tardigrade but has some warping abilities, and then "warp bear juice" becomes a thing.

Also a great sight gag: Chewie in a Hannibal Lecter mask. Learning that Chewie is not a cat, but a flerken, does it then make sense that Chewie gets along so horribly with everyone, but Carol who has some alien attributes, and Tic?

At the same time, there are really strong emotional points, like Tracy's death, and a flashback showing her love for Teddy where there is enough of a physical resemblance to Carol that you can't help but feel like Carol would be the natural child for Tracy and Teddy, and where all of the hospital workers mistaking Carol and Tracy for daughter and mother makes the most sense in the world. And then Tracy's last laugh is getting Carol to the beach.

Great continuing combination of heart and brain with the art and the writing here.

[Andy Zell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The end of DeConnick's run, and I'm glad that I read it all through. The first four chapters were again all over the place. I feel like there were a lot of other considerations that kept pulling the character and plot in service of other stories or teams or sometimes even Carol's long history in the Marvel universe that hurt the flow at different times during this run. But I really liked the concluding 4 part story of the Carol Corps set on the Battleworld during the Secret Wars event.

[Johanna Karlsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

First story was good and the Tracy-story was fantastic and beautiful.

Rest of this volume was... mostly confusing. I've been reading comics in a way that's resulted in me only being slightly aware of big crossover events. The Battleworld story in this volume didn't really feel like a Captain Marvel story to me and it was to alternative to make it feel like anything was really at stake (but that may be a result of me not knowing anything about the crossover event)

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've got missed feelings on this one. The Black Vortex chapter didn't feel like it belonged, and it was an odd decision tagging on the Carol Corps Secret Wars issues, but I'm glad they did because it makes this more complete. I hope there's a volume five, and I don't have to resort to buying the volume with 5 or 6 issues in them.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for the Carol Corps.

It's surprising how few of the Secret Wars story were willing to commit to really having a high stakes or a big payoff. The universe was going to be destroyed, so why not give the reader some ridiculousness. Most of them seemed like they wanted to leave room for a sequel.

[Rianna *Hermione* B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but I'm not used to how a full comic book is set up. lol. I really liked the art, but I didn't understand what her powers were other than being smart & flying, I guess. ALso, DOOM- What/who is that? I need to research that. lol.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Katheryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was all about chapter 15 for me. Ow.

[Nicole Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous ending to an excellent series.

http://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2018...

[eHawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

fyi, you can bypass volume 3 and just read this one, as it adds that material to the first 4 Carol Corps issues. beefier read and more worth it.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating is really split here. Like 3 stars for the solo title issues, then 5 stars for the Carol Corps. I LOVED the Carol Corps issues and wish there were more.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

At this point I’m convinced that anything Kelly Sue DeConnick writes is going to be my jam. Book 4 of this series doesn’t disappoint.

[Jasna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite volume in the series so far. Some parts of it remind me of The Expanse, which is a great thing. I especially enjoyed the J'son/refugees (more or less) conflict and the new bonds Carol forms with some characters. Good character development and backstory as well with her mentor and what she was going through.

[aCupcakeBlonde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love some more stuff that involves Chewie and the story line about Tracy was sweet, but the last story, with the alternate universe Carol and the Carol Corps did not hold my interest. Although it was interesting to see how things still work out as in previous timelines. Like *SPOILER* Rhodey still finding his way to Carol in any way possible.