Captain Marvel: Dark Origins

The Mighty Captain Marvel (Collected Editions)

by Margaret Stohl, Michele Bandini

En tentant de secourir son amie extraterrestre Bonbon, Captain Marvel se retrouve catapultée dans une dimension parallèle. Ce monde semble être un miroir déformé du nôtre et Carol Danvers y est l'une des personnes les plus recherchées de toute la galaxie. L'immense pouvoir de la Pierre de la Réalité sera-t-il suffisant pour retrouver le chemin de la Terre ? La scénariste Margaret Stohl (The Caster Chronicles) et le dessinateur Michele Bandini (X-Men Gold) emmènent la plus puissante des héroïnes Marvel dans un voyage incroyable, aux conséquences inimaginables.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction, Fiction

123 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2018

About the author

Margaret Stohl is the #1 New York Times, PW, USA Today, LA Times and Internationally bestselling co-author or author of twelve books, including the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES NOVELS, the DANGEROUS CREATURES NOVELS, the ICONS NOVELS, MARVEL'S BLACK WIDOW NOVELS, ROYCE ROLLS & CATS VS ROBOTS THIS IS WAR (forthcoming!) She writes the MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL comic for Marvel Comics (ongoing) and has contributed to countless videogames; currently, she is a Narrative Director at Bungie.

From the author:

Goodreads Peeps! Please note I no longer review the books on my shelf, "stars"-wise. I do list books I read, and they're all automatically marked as 5 stars. That's because a) I don't list books that I didn't like enough to finish and b) I didn't want to delete the ratings I had already given. If I particularly love a book and feel inclined to comment, you'll still see the comments here. Sadly, I have to ask: please don't reproduce these comments on book jackets, websites, or in any other medium for the marketing of books. They're only meant for fellow goodreaders. Thanks so much!

ABOUT ME:

Writing has gotten me in and out of trouble since I was 15 (back then, mostly just in trouble.) For 10 years, I designed &/or wrote for lots of video games, one of which was nominated for “Most Innovative Game Design,” but I lost to a rapping onion. If you know games you get why my two bad beagles are named Zelda and Kirby.

School: I spent more years in it than a person ever should, because let’s face it, reading books is so much better than having a job. I fell in love with American literature at Amherst and Yale, earned an MA in English from Stanford, and studied creative writing under the late great poet George MacBeth at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. I taught Intro to Film as a TA at Yale and Romantic Poetry as a TA at Stanford. Don’t tell the people at Yale but sometimes I taught the section before I’d seen the movie it was about...

I live in Santa Monica, CA, with my family, most of whom were enslaved into working with me in one form or another on my first YA book for Little, Brown. I’m not kidding; when my daughters wanted to go to school I said “Why are you so selfish? Get back in there and edit,” and by said I mean yelled and maybe threw things, it’s all a haze. Now the Beautiful series has wrapped, but you can see the movie on February 13, 2013 or read my new book ICONS on May 7th. Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Alpha Flight base is no more so the team seek out a way to save Bean only to face Eve and Mim again; meanwhile Carol (captain Marvel) gets drawn into a dark alternative universe. Stohl, in my opinion, still struggles to give this wants-to-be space opera the scope and weight that it deserves, 5 out of 12, tiny Two Star read.

2019 read

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Captain Marvel gets zapped into a mirror universe where she's a thief while trying to save Bean. It's all very safe and bland with a few funny jokes. The pacing is way off with this easy, breezy heist plot that goes nowhere and everything with Dr. Eve and Bean all crammed into the last issue. Michele Bendini's art is clean, simple, and good.

I think overall this was the worst of the several Captain Marvel relaunches. You'd think Marvel would pay Captain Marvel more attention and give her her due with the movie coming out in March 2019, but they seem content with this middling fluff.

[Wing Kee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry but this run has been...not good.

World: The art is solid, I think this is the best thing of the series, it's not super great but the emotions are portrayed well, I wish there was more sense of motion and splash pages were...well more splash pagey. The world building is okay for this run, it continues the Hala blood storyline and moves it towards and idea of restoring Hala. It is pretty much self contained to the series other than the Alpha Flight Station with the Hydra Cap story. It's aight. The mirror universe idea for world stuff has been around forever so it was just cliches aplenty. I kinda felt that the mirror versions of the characters were aight but something about them feels half baked.

Story: The story is okay, it's not the worst of the series so that's saying a lot actually. The humor tries so hard and does not land a lot of the time but there are times when it's endearing and does hit (the cat sleeping on Carol's face comes to mind, but that was an art win). The mirror universe has been done so much that I didn't really feel anything, the alternate versions of characters was fairly half baked (I just read Spider-verse before this so yeah I have a comparison fresh on my mind) and not really all that deep except surface. It's okay, it's not bad but it's forgettable.

Characters: Carol is Carol but she seems to have lost a lot of her smarts in this series and has been more reactive and I don't really like that. She took fairly long to figure out what was happening which did not really make me happy. The mirror versions were fairly...zzz.

It was okay, I am happy that we are getting another new series, but at the same time why did we end up needing a new series...

Onward to the next book!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]
Carol gets a renumber as part of Marvel Legacy, and then instantly gets shot into another reality for a dark reimagining of the cosmic side of the Marvel universe in this final arc of the Mighty Captain Marvel. Thank god we're ditching that title next time.

This is...okay. Carol's inner monologue is pretty well done, so props to Margaret Stohl for realy getting into the characters head finally. Unfortunately the parodies of the Guardians get very grating very quickly, with Star-Lord especially getting on my nerves. It's all resolved quite quickly as well, so the pacing's a bit lopsided, plus it all transpires into being an Infinity Countdown tie-in right at the last minute because sure why not.

On the art front, Michele Bandini continues a solid run of well done art. It's quite safe as a style, but it gets the job done and sells the jokes that Stohl peppers in here and there.

Nothing overly special, especially considering the extra-sized issue #125 included here, but not bad. Volume 2 remains the strongest of this run.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not 100% on what exactly happened here but that's my fault. Again, Stohl manages a LOT of moving parts in this books with the Alpha Flight, the AF Cadets, a version of the Guardians of the Galaxy and even Thanos in this one. It's ambitious.

I appreciate that Stohl comes up with stories that feel unique to these books. So much of my complaints about the other Marvel books I've read lately has been that they've stretched stories out across issues to fill trades and they often feel too bare. Stohl has the opposite problem. A lot of plot, character moments and concepts are squished to fit into these trades. I'd rather have (perhaps) too much going on than nothing at all.

The art is lovely. I really like Carol's inner monologue. It feels different from DeConnick's Carol but I'll take Stohl's over CW II! Skrull Carol and Jason Aaron's Carol that just seems angry all the time. Stohl's is more reflective and introspective. She has more personal ties and I like her dedication to her squad. Honestly, the characterization is what keeps me reading these. I like the way Stohl writes Carol, the Jessicas, Peter Quill and a few of the other characters that pop up here. It feels lived in.

My only complaint is that, at times, it felt fanfic-y. And I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, but it reads a little too quippy at times and not all of them land. It can feel a little too snarky when serious things are happening. But that may just be the nature of trying to make sure the book has some levity. Which, again, I'd rather have too much of than not enough.

If you love galactic Marvel stories and want a lighter book with a pretty well blended cast, this is a recommend. If you're like me and galactic Marvel really isn't your jam, you might not love this. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I enjoyed galactic Marvel.

[Oneirosophos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unbelievably good story in a mirror universe, after all the previous mess!

[Iris Nevers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL series and I'm sad that Marvel Legacy knocked it off course. I feel that this series could have done great things if events and reboots and seeding of future events hadn't make the series loose its vision..

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disappointing of a run. The art is amazing, and fits Carol Danvers, the jokes are there too, but why these overly convoluted stories that can’t be fleshed out and are rushed? I like how Danvers is, I like the quips, but the story is too big for the small amount of collection. Feels like a bit of a waste, and for such big complicated problems, they’re solved far too quick.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an odd Bizarro-land issue. We didn’t have enough time to sell these opposite versions of our cast, let alone that of the Guardians. At first, I thought she had landed in a parallel universe where her television show was the reality. That, I would’ve found entertaining!

Oh well, is that the end of it? Nice art though. I wish I could get my hair to stand up like the Captain’s.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although technically not as bad as the previous volume, The Mighty Captain Marvel turned out to be pretty weak. This volume spends most of its time in an irrelevent alternate dimension where Sasquatch is balding, Puck has hair, and Carol is evil-ish. It's about five pages worth of humor spread out over three issues, with us not really caring about any of the people or plots.

That's all in service of treading water so that we don't get to the story of Bean and Captain Doctor Whatshername too soon, but it turns out that their story is an abstract philosophical mess that we don't care about.

Here's hoping that Carol's next author is better.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up liking this a lot bette than volume one and two. I thought the story was much more fun and interesting, and didn’t seem to drag like the previous volumes.

[Nea Poulain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I'm glad this shit is over.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof, Mighty Captain Marvel cannot catch a break with Margaret Stohl as the author. In this out-there volume, Captain Marvel is zipped to an alternate dimension where she must fight inverted versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a fine, moderately amusing concept, but it doesn't hold up for more than an issue. The mysterious villain is more exciting, and the return of the Kree child from the first volume makes for an intriguing plotline. But like, why didn't Stohl just focus on that? Why all the showiness of the high concept "these aren't the heroes you're used to!" twist? Unnecessary. Art is still solid, of course, so I can't say they didn't get something right.

[Joseph R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Captain Marvel searches for her lost Kree friend Bean only to get sucked into an alternate universe. This new universe is your standard mirror-universe. Here, Captain Marvel is the most wanted outlaw in the galaxy (with the Guardians of the Galaxy running a close second). She has to pretend to be bad and figure out the interpersonal dynamics of everyone's mirror-self in order to get back, let alone find Bean.

The story was a bit too "paint by numbers" for me. I've read and seen lots of mirror-universe stories and this is totally standard stuff. Changing Groot into Root (he's a giant walking carrot instead of a tree) was funny, but that was the rare shining moment in a lot of dullness.

Not recommended.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
How do you get Captain Marvel from the Legacy event to the beginning of Infinity Countdown? Send her to a mirror universe! Where the Guardians are space pirates (complete with Star-Killer, a weak Drax, a Gamora that is much more like Nebula, a more humanoid female Rockette, and Root, a giant Carrot that only says "I am Root"), "Zeta" Flight, and the benevolent and merciful Thanos.
While the story is about Carol trying to save Bean, it focuses a little too much on the other characters, and leads directly into Carol being able to come home to our universe, through the power of the Reality Stone.
Looking ahead to the upcoming movie, I hope Marvel has something amazing coming for Captain Marvel. Either way, this wasn't horrible, but could have been way better.

[Debra Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain Marvel goes to a alternate universe where she is a thief to save a friend.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars

I read The Mighty Captain Marvel Vol. 3: Dark Origins as single issues.

This is the last of the Captain Marvel volumes to be released before the Marvel reboot starts affecting her series (presumably, I don’t actually know this for certain). We’ve been told her series will be sticking around, though I imagine we’ll be seeing plot changes based on the events happening in the larger universe around her. It’ll be nice to see her going back to her roots a bit more though, so in an odd way I’m actually looking forward to this.



I have a bit of a love/hate issue with this volume. I want to love it, because it’s Captain Marvel, but I keep finding myself mildly entertained more than anything. On an emotional level I’m enjoying it, but that’s mostly because I’m always happy to see my favorite characters continuing their series. Intellectually though? I feel like it’s missing something.
So anybody that knows me already knows that I’m a huge Captain Marvel fan. I’m still recovering from what Civil War II and everything the writers put her through, but I’ll get over it. Eventually. In a way I feel like her series is still recovering too. We keep seeing her fighting, trying to find her ground and confidence again. So maybe the authors are feeling it too?
The issues following the Civil War II are heavily affected by this, I believe. As are the issues in this volume. The plot is a fun one, but I feel like we’ve lost a little bit of what makes Carol so amazing here. Having been reading ahead in the issues, I feel confident that she’s going to find that rhythm again soon, but it’s still a bit hard to see at times, you know?
Now that I’ve gotten that ramble out of the way, I should probably actually talk about the volume, huh? This one is a bit weird. There are a surprising number of funny points, but they stem from some of the more absurd parts of the plot here.
Thanks to a convoluted series of events, Captain Marvel finds herself in another one of the universes, having swapped places with the Carol of that universe. As it turns out, like in many of the universes in Marvel, these two are both very different and very similar. Little things have been changed, that ultimately make the big picture look very different from the world we know and love. So it goes without saying that a character swap would cause a lot of havoc and mayhem.
The ending of this plot was pretty cool. It’s always fun to be reminded of just how powerful Captain Marvel actually is. I won’t say what happened, but it was impressive. That the solution actually required her to be compassionate though…that was the perfect balance to what was done with her character during Civil War II. Or at least that’s how I feel about it. Perhaps now we can move forward with a slightly cleaner slate.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best of the volumes in this series in my opinion. Carol goes off on her own, and away from the consistently unfunny comedy background of the rest of Alphaflight, she faces a dilemma on her own: she's been thrown into an alternate reality where she's a space pirate in charge of "Zeta Flight." Alternate versions of the Alpha Flight characters are there, with only modest outer changes and a few major personality switches, along with an alternate Guardians of the Galaxy, and, for no reason that I could determine, an alternate spacey version of Black Widow.

Because nothing else is to be taken seriously (there's no indication that anyone in this "dark Galaxy" is meant to be anything other than one arc fodder except for Carol, the baddie she's pursuing and Bean), the only real work that matters is with Carol herself. And separated from all the top-down bad decisions foisted upon her by the last two Marvel "event" series, Carol is once again, likable, fully capable, and doing fine. Captain Marvel is back to being Captain Marvel which I truly enjoyed. I don't particularly like her as Earth's Space Cop, a new version of the X-book's Abigail Brand but more powerful.

Oh, and cosmic Marvel looks good on this character. I'd love to see Stohl stick with this for a while.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closing up this run on Captain Marvel.

Very Star Trek mirror universe which I enjoyed.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

So boring.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Captain Marvel sets out to save her Kree friend, Bean, and ends up in an alternate universe where she is a thief and Thanos is a good guy... weird and kind of confusing.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the worst Mirror Universe rip-offs I've ever seen. At least Stohl basically has Carol's voice down, but the plot is a mess.

[Blythe Penland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was rolling-on-the-floor hilarious, and all-around a book I really needed to read right now. I had my doubts about this premise in the beginning, but I seriously started loving it by the time Zeta Flight and the Guardians escaped Thanos. And I finally understood Dr. Eve's motives! I don't know about most readers, but when an evil villain reveals their long life story and plan to change whatever made them this evil, I feel more complete. Like I know what to expect and I can kind of see where they're coming from. I was surprised by a lot of the changes when Bean first led Carol into this wacked dimension, but it kind of grew on me. Rockette being a girl was weird, Draxx being a scrawny guy was off, and Root was literally a carrot. Even still, the dynamic was very similar to the original versions, so the jokes were still funny and the banding together still felt real. I was honestly shocked that Carol was one of the bad guys in the other dimension. But the most crazy thing I've ever heard in my entire life was Thanos being a peace-keeping force that is the good guy in the story. Yet, with the plans that Thanos had for the Reality Stone, I'm sure he wouldn't be seen as the good guy for much longer. It's good to see that Gamora still works against her "family." I almost believed that Bean was brainwashed enough to the point where Dr. Eve would have put the alternate Hala into our universe. Which would be a horrible idea, to be clear. In fact, Dr. Eve's plan sounded a lot like Kingpin's in the Spider-Verse movie. Have we learned nothing, guys? You can't replace your version of something with another version. That's not how this works. The repercussions could probably rip the fabric of space-time. Besides, we've seen what happens when someone gets space-swapped. The alternate Carol had imprisoned our Star-Lord, which makes me think those two have got a little something-something going on, if ya know what I mean. Thankfully, Bean realized what they were doing was wrong, and stopped it before it could go any further. It actually makes a deal of sense that a scientist like Dr. Eve was devastated by the destruction the events of the Black Vortex wreaked on the Kree Empire. (I read that event, so it really just feels like everything's coming together.) I do feel bad about all that happened to the Kree, but there is no destiny. There is only Bean, and she needs to be given a loving home, in other words, a Carol. I loved this volume and I recommend it to those looking for a good read.

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably the best type of ending for an otherwise ridiculous tenure at the helm for Margaret Stohl. This was her third and final volume. Its funny that my previous two reviews increased by a star each time.

Arc 1 saw Captain Marvel come back from being douche bag #1 following the defeat of Iron Man in Civil War II. My problem there was thinking the story would remain with a serious tone and a search for atonement. Nope! All we got was a bad comedy.

Arc 2 was considerably better since the issues had to coincide with the Secret Empire story line. I loved the book! I was personally a fan of Secret Empire and with Captain Marvel's crew, you can see how damaged and desperate the team was with trying to break down the Earth shield.

Arc 3... well it went right back into being an arguably better comedy. While I do not mean to be a spoiler, I feel there are two or three basic things we need to understand before we start this volume. 1. the title "Dark Origins" is deceitful and mean nothing. Please ignore.
2. the book description given is also deceitful and should be completely ignored. Marvel is lying!!
3. consider this book to be purely for comedic purposes and you will enjoy yourself. Take my word for it. The Guardians of the Galaxy (sort of) are involved and provide some of the best moments and jokes of the whole arc.

My final notes are to say the art is just beautiful. I really enjoyed the final team involved. Lastly, this arc may be a tie-in to the up coming Infinity Quest.

[Alex E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Captain Marvel enters a dark alternate universe where she has to deal with and interact with dark versions of her teammates.

...yeah so if you haven't figured it out, this volume is supposed to be "dark", and unfortunately, it instead comes off as contrived and a bit uninspired. I mean, we have seen this type of story in comics many times, and usually if a writer takes this route, there's some kind of change or difference that will set itself apart- but instead Margaret Stohl kind of goes "by the numbers" with the story as it's predictable and comfortable - and I don't mean that in a good way.

The art by Michele Bandini, while good, isn't enough to really save this volume from being much more than "ok". It was interesting to see some of the character designs and how the "dark" aspects of the characters were presented, but again, we have seen this many times. And this time is really nothing special unfortunately.

Overall, I was hoping for a more cosmic and adventurous version of a Captain Marvel book, but it seems we are heading in the wrong direction. I'm gonna have this series one more try and hope that it can gain momentum in the next volume.

[Amélie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now's the time to be hyped about Captain Marvel. I mean, I'm always hyped about Captain Marvel. But with that movie coming up soon? Now is the time to really be hyped about Captain Marvel.

And thankfully, this specific book did not let my hype down! Loved the plot (even though Alien Nation is so far behind me that I kind of forgot all about the Hala stuff, oops), that kind of things is 100% my jam - not saying more to avoid spoilers.

However... what is it with Marvel and never getting past volume 3? It's really getting infuriating at this point. At least Carol gets a new series but... why couldn't it just be volume 4? Why did it have to get rebranded? Especially since, as much as I enjoyed these issues, they're pretty weak for the end of an arc... Come on, Marvel, stop the nonsense already.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Captain Marvel is my favorite comic character, to the point that my 4 year old even knows it. So when they handed the reins to Margaret Stohl, who doesn't exactly have a stellar track record (I feel like the Black Widow novel series was wasted on her), I was definitely nervous.

A book like this is an exactly what I was worried about. A bland, un-original story (how many times has a mirror dimension been done?), the only upside was Stohl managed to carry forth established Carol-centric elements previous writers had grown and established.

I'm looking forward a new writer to say the least. 1.5 of the two stars are because this book had Carol Danvers in it.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little confusing in tone and the overall plot made some sense but it just didn't feel as smart as it presented itself to be, if you get my drift. We had the whole alternate universe bit that certainly had fun moments of reinterpreting characters, as is required. But given the timing of the story they really had to rush things along to get things done. So we get some funny bits crammed in-between a lot of narrative dumps all pushing things along.

It's okay but this is not the great sort of book you want it to be especially with the new movie right around the corner.

[Ma'Belle · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the second volume of Margaret Stohl's ongoing run of Captain Marvel, I was losing interest and annoyed by the impact of that whole time (was it a full year?) that Steve Rogers was evil and keeping Carol and a bunch of other powerful heroes trapped outside of Earth's atmosphere.

This volume was even worse, focusing on a Bizarro-style universe Carol accidentally flies into. It felt more like an episode of Firefly than a Captain Marvel story, but I don't mean that in a good way (even though I love(d) that show).

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had some good potential, but didn't really get where I needed it to. The alternate universe had some fun moments, but it seemed like it was mostly played for laughs and the reasoning behind the bad guys going there didn't really make sense based on my understanding of some of the cosmic rules of the greater Marvel universe. The resolution was way too rushed -there's a betrayal and a last minute coming to senses but it all just kind of happens.