Who — or what — is Binary?! In a moment of crisis, she appeared. She has the powers of Carol Danvers, but is her own distinct and very different person — and has her own unique path to follow! Will this journey lead the newly-born Binary towards becoming a hero…or a villain? What does the appearance of this extraordinary “duplicate” mean for Captain Marvel herself? And how will Binary react when Carol…disappears? Kelly Thompson continues to keep the Carol Corps guessing with her ever-surprising run!
COLLECTING: Captain Marvel (2019) 37-41 and the Captain Marvel 2022 Annual.
KELLY THOMPSON has a degree in Sequential Art from The Savannah College of Art & Design. Her love of comics and superheroes have compelled her since she first discovered them as a teenager. Currently living in Portland, Oregon with her boyfriend and the two brilliant cats that run their lives, you can find Kelly all over the Internet where she is generally well liked, except where she's detested.
Kelly has published two novels - THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING (2012) and STORYKILLER (2014) and the graphic novel HEART IN A BOX from Dark Horse Comics (2015). She's currently writing ROGUE & GAMBIT, HAWKEYE, and PHASMA for Marvel Comics and GHOSTBUSTERS for IDW. Other major credits include: A-Force, Captain Marvel & The Carol Corps, Jem and The Holograms, Misfits, Power Rangers Pink, and the creator-owned mini-series Mega Princess.
Kelly's ambitions are eclipsed only by her desire to exist entirely in pajamas. Fortunately pajamas and writers go hand in hand (most of the time). Please buy all her stuff so that she can buy (and wear) more pajamas.
The struggle for a captivating Captain Marvel series continues despite Thompson's efforts. This volume sees the initiation of the new Binary in the MU alongside the main story of Cap being on trial by the magic community with Scarlet Witch as her advocate, and the Enchantress as her prosecutor. Way to much otherworldliness and space stories in this series, which is only saved for me buy the immense supporting cast including Hazmat, Spider-Woman, Spectrum, Binary etc. and Julius Ohta artwork (very nice!). Also very much enjoying that there are no romantic subplots. An average 6 out of 12, Three Star read for me. 2024 read
Quando a escritora Kelly Thompson pega suas séries pra valer, geralmente com protagonistas femininas, a coisa pega fogo! E com a Binária, uma versão de Carol Danvers do passado que ganhou vida própria, estrelando o arco, a coisa fica ainda mais quente! No sentido de histórias que aquecem nosso coração e que apimentam nossa sede por aventura. Kelly Thompson sabe usar bem do recurso dos personagens coadjuvantes, das tramas paralelas e das subtramas que eu gosto tanto nos quadrinhos mais novelescos da paróquia. Enquanto Binária está conhecendo o mundo humano ao lado de outras super-heroínas, Carol Danvers está sendo julgada por um tribunal de feiticeiros por ter usado a magia de forma brutal. Além disso, o encadernado traz uma história em que Chewie, o gato de Carol é julgado pelo celestial Progenitor, como parte da megassaga Juízo Final. Uma das melhores histórias da leva de Juízo Final, principalmente por não se levar à sério. Um ótimo encadernado para agradar em cheio às Tropas de Fãs da Carol!
Somewhere between 3.25 and 3.5 stars. So Carol gets kidnapped for a trial by “supposed” good guys, Harkness, Brother Voodoo, Magik, the guy who has been riding the stinky snake cats, Enchantress and a reluctant Scarlet Witch. They have done this because Carol attacked a magic user in a previous volume. What? But the magic user needed to be dealt with or we may have not have had an earth to have this trial. The whole time I was just wanting Carol to break out of their confinement, gather her crew and some Avengers friends and take them down and have them all thrown in jail for kidnapping and holding her hostage. That whole part was just weird. Luckily the other stuff with Binary trying to figure herself out and the banter back and forth with Spider-Woman was a lot of fun. Even the annual at then end had a pretty cool prison break. Art was solid throughout the book.
Yes! It's officially time to delve into this new Binary and her story! Captain Marvel, Volume 8: The Trials, is already promising to be a fascinating addition to the Captain Marvel core. Does anybody else have a million theories about what is going on?
In the last volume, Captain Marvel came up against a familiar foe, and in doing so...she unintentionally created something new. Or perhaps it only appears as she created it. Only time will tell! That something? Binary.
Just when Carol and Binary are getting into a rhythm with their new life, something happens to make Captain Marvel go missing. At least there's a new hero willing to step up and help keep the Earth safe. Even if she doesn't understand how this world works yet...
Writing Okay, so I must admit that Captain Marvel, Volume 8 was a surprisingly emotional roller coaster, at least for me. It also blows me away what Kelly Thompson manages to come up with. I'm so happy she got put in charge of Captain Marvel, as I've been enjoying her content. Anyway, moving on.
This volume promised to answer many questions regarding Binary (I wanted to say the one and only Binary, but that's not really true anymore, is it?). Her origin, while witnessed on the pages, is still a bit of a mystery. At least she seems to be adjusting well. On that note, seeing how she reacted to the world was pretty interesting. It gave me more than a few big laughs. It also broke my heart at one moment (this moment comes with a trigger warning for animal death, so do consider yourself warned).
While Binary was off having her fun adventures, Captain Marvel was doing something a bit different. Well, for half the volume, at least. Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed that subplot. It probably didn't bring everything that happened during The End to a close, but it feels more wrapped up now.
Personally, I really enjoyed the interactions between all the characters involved, especially regarding their arguments. It gave a voice to many concerns about Captain Marvel and her power levels. I appreciated the candid nature of it all.
Artwork As always, the artwork in Captain Marvel, Volume 8, is pretty brilliant. I love the bold styles her series tends to cultivate, as it works well with her personality. Artists involved in this volume include Julius Ohta (artist), Juan Frigeri (artist), Alvaro Lopez (artist), Carlos Gomez (artist), Ruth Redmond (colorist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Dijjo Lima (colorist), and VC's Clayton Cowles (letterer).
Overall, I would have to say that I loved everything here. The artists did a good job of playing with all the different tones involved. For example, the comical moments run away with that vibe, while the more somber moment is carefully handled. I appreciate that.
There is one odd scene I want to comment on, and I will try to be delicate here to avoid spoilers. There's a scene that is meant to be dramatic, as Carol damages herself as a way of gaining control over the situation. However, the art style shift for this scene seems to have reduced the impact. I'm not saying that I would have wanted it to be more graphic (I'm good, thanks), but to me, it felt a bit...hollow.
On the bright side, the lettering is superb. One scene, in particular, comes to mind here, where you can feel the letters (and therefore voice) change with what is happening. It made me laugh, especially since it was such a small thing. Pure perfection.
Conclusion
Fans of Captain Marvel should not skip out on the latest volume, Captain Marvel, Volume 8. This is especially true if you're fond of Binary, Lauri-ell, or any other characters that appear in this volume (consider her group of friends, and you can probably guess).
Another solid entry in Kelly Thompson’s stellar run on Captain Marvel. I enjoyed the growth of Binary here and how fleshed out Carol’s world is even when she’s not the focus is a testament to how good Thompson’s world building has been on this run. The stuff with Carol was also solid and I enjoy that Thompson is able to highlight Carol’s good and bad attributes. The art is great throughout too.
Captain Marvel is...on trial? But what did she do? Oh, she screwed around with the laws of magic. Yeah, that'll do it. But all is not lost - Earth still has a protector, in the form of...Binary?!
Actions have consequences, and because this book has been running as long as it has, it's nice to see that we can have repercussions for things, rather than like, two arcs and then having to wrap everything up like those shorter books. That said, the main Trials story that's going on here really isn't the draw - it's a little repetitive (by design, because there's a time loop involved), and it does devolve into people in a room arguing (because it's a trial, so duh), but that's fine because the other plotline, the mystery of the new Binary, is great.
We've already had Carol inherit a new sister in the form of the wonderful Lauri-El, but Binary is more of a daughter than a sister. It's a strange relationship, and it's fun to watch it play out in Carol's absence, so that when she returns she's on the back foot for a change. Speaking of character relationships, there's also a one-and-done collected here about Carol and Monica Rambeau heading off together which is good fun as well.
On art we have Juan Frigeri, who draws the main story with Binary, while Alvaro Lopez grabs the Trial to feast on (so he gets to draw dragons!). They're a good duo, different enough to be differentiable but not too different as to cause problems between the two stories.
Another stellar (ha, space pun!) entry in the longest running Captain Marvel series in a hell of a while, and for good reason - it's good, y'all.
This run is just never gonna hit a another gear for me is it? Vol 8 is just fine, as the energy form Binary does more fish out of water heroing, while Carol is put on magic trial. Good use of art to differentiate the setting, a few funny panels, but ultimately more of the same.
Kelly Thompson's Captain Marvel run is the very definition of average. Each volume is suitably action-packed with satisfying pacing and amusing characters. The art is generally bright and fine. And then, when you've finished reading, you set the volume down and forget the entire experience.
The Trials is on the upper side of average, at least. Captain Marvel's defeat of Ove in Strange Magic comes back to bite her in the butt when she's abruptly brought in for judgement by Marvel's various magic users. Ostensibly, Captain Marvel must learn to not just punch her way out of every battle - very much like what 6-year-olds are taught on the playground. It's a little silly, but enjoyable.
Meanwhile, Binary is struggling to determine who she is. It's very similar to Lauri-Ell's journey in earlier volumes in the series. Cute, often funny, but extremely lightweight. The one-shot at the end is a fun little jaunt to space to save one of those Hala clones from the previous Captain Marvel run.
3.5 Stars. After the odd separation of Binary at the end of the last Volume, I'm not sure where this one was going to go, but I'm glad they took the first half of this Volume to establish her as her own character. Highlights: - Carol, Binary, Spectrum, Hazmat, Spider-Woman, Lauri-Ell, and She-Hulk enjoy a ladies night out - Jessica Drew helps Binary to discover more about what makes her her own person, and to figure out how to survive in society. (Definitely giving off TTG Starfire vibes) - Carol has gone missing, and while the others look for her, we find out that she is in a magical world, secretly being put on trial by magic users. (While I was a little confused about why, it made sense eventually) - Finding a way out of the magical trap, Carol proves that she doesn't always resort to violence to solve a problem. Showing Enchantress her memories from the previous Volume, the vengeance is temporarily set aside. - A final story has Carol going to prison with the Starjammers to help save a Kree girl who was experimented on.
Wonder what's next for the character.... don't see a new Volume release coming up...
This was a fun one as we get to see what Carol has been upto with her new clone-ish Binary showing up and what that means for her, and then her disappearing into some fantasy land ala trial by some magicians because of the fallout from previous volume and how she deals with that, Binary learning her role and what it means to be a hero and I like her exploring who she is without Carol and the convos between her and Jess are goldmine lol, its so fun and then seeing it come full circle as Carol and her team have to fight dragons and Enchantress and it makes for such a great volume and it makes for a good read. Its just pure fun and showing who Carol really is a hero and setting the stage for the Brood story to come next! Though there are some panels where the dialogue starts to feel repetitive and plot extending than is required but its okay and the annual in the end was not that good.. so they are the major flaws of this trade.
This volume feels like it was made purely to tie up loose ends. Carol has messed with magic and magic rules so much that there's a Magic Tribunal after her. Amora still hasn't forgiven her for what she did to her future-son. The energy being, Binary, is getting used to living a life and what that means. Lots of hugs. All of the ham.
This combo of Kelly Thompson and Julius Ohta is killing it. Ohta captures character expressions PERFECTLY. It's pretty impressive.
Bonus: Snatmen make their return! Ignore the captee smell... Bonus Bonus: Poor Hazmat has a LONG costume gear up
The creation of a new Binary (and the mystery of what she actually is) is quite the interesting story hook and I only hope we'll get good answers within this run. But this volume focuses on something else - a magical tribunal meant to judge Captain Marvel and her recent crimes against magic. I don't know why they figured that magic was the way to go for this book, but I'll concede that I've become very comfortable with all this as it really helps things along.
We did get some character development for Binary - if you can call it that. It does end with a question after all. And then the issue with the Starjammers was just indulgent.
I've really enjoyed Kelly Thompson's Captain Marvel run thus far, and this most recent volume has been just as fun. The Binary stuff is fun, if not reminiscent of DC's Starfire in terms of naivety, and the magical trial section is a little iffy, this magical court being held with Enchantress, a known magical powered villain, being the plaintiff here against Captain Marvel's actions taken against her son from an alternate future earth in a previous volume.
The first story was good, but had a sad part I didn't like. The trials were interesting. Then the last story came seemingly out of nowhere and I had never seen any of the other characters before.
I had to read this fast because my library is getting rid of a bunch of their digital comics, including this one, which is maddening because I won't be able to finish the series now! Sad!
Pretty neat to see Binary being her own person separate from Carol Danvers. I was just like those in-story spectators who didn't realize that was even a thing.
As for the Magic Trials, I will simply say this (spoilers?): Carol did nothing wrong, and Agatha's "tribunal" was (bleeping) rigged!
Content warning for death of a kitten in the first issue.
I'm sure this is just as good as the rest of Thompson's Captain Marvel stuff, but thanks to a lack of warning about the kitten, I was triggered and can't read the rest of the volume.
I really liked this one! A great celebration of who Carol Danvers is by seeing her through the eyes of new heroes like Binary and other surprise guests! Interesting twists that really interested me and I'm really liking where this series is going.
I liked the storyline of Binary trying to learn who she is and what that means. The retread of Amora and Ove, through a magical tribunal was not my favorite but showed growth in Carol. Overall, an enjoyable read but nothing out of this world.