Captain Marvel
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Lee Garbett / Jacopo Camagni / Sergio Davila / David Lopez / Takeshi Miyazawa
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Following great success helming titles of smaller Marvel characters, Kelly Thompson took on ‘Captain Marvel’ at the start of 2019, coinciding with the release of the hugely popular movie starring Brie Larson.
Going on three years now - a long time in comic books – Thompson’s thirty four issues have been consistently great, with her strongest issues ranking up there with Captain Marvel’s best ever. Given the excellent calibre of her work, it’s no surprise that Marvel trusts Thompson with their biggest characters, including ‘Black Widow’, ‘Deadpool’, and even ‘Amazing Spider-Man’.
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Thompson knows how to create a solid story arc, and in 2021 ‘Captain Marvel’ readers were lucky enough to receive the tail end of the epic ‘Brave New World’ and the playful ‘Sorceress Supreme’.
Where Thompson shines head-and-shoulders above contemporaries is by knowing when to temper the action and bring the character to the forefront, specifically to focus on the human being behind the mask (or, in Carol’s case, photon blasts).
She knows how and when to convey the burden of heroism and the strain it causes, particularly when in combination with everyday personal problems that can be just as hard to bear. It’s what adds weight to stories that are near non-stop action; it’s what causes readers to care about a character, and to keep reading.
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Issue #6 of Thompson’s recent run on ‘Deadpool’ is about as emotionally hopeless and tragic as you’ll ever see the merc-with-a-mouth. After months as the actual King of the Monsters - a title most view as perfectly apt for Wade - he tries in vain to join the X-Men on the mutant-only island of Krakoa, and breaks down when they won’t accept him, regardless of his similarities, his long-running friendship, and the good he’s done for mutant-kind.
Equally crushing is Thompson’s first ‘Black Widow’ story arc. Natasha is free of her dark past and finally able to experience love and stability with her new husband and child. It’s all the more devastating when this happiness is ripped from her in the worst possible way, breaking the already broken Romanoff even further.
So under Thompson’s guidance, how does Carol Danvers fare in 2021? Basically exactly as you would expect. Having returned from the future where her boyfriend James Rhodes has a daughter that isn’t hers, she decides the most sensible course of action is to break up with him for their own good, feeling it to be an inescapable outcome.
She’s haunted with the weight of not knowing what went wrong with their relationship, distraught by her certainty that something awful inevitably would have, and overwhelmed by the unexplored traumas she’s faced without break as Captain Marvel. It takes hard work, friendship, denial, and an overwhelming need to punch something to get her from out under the covers and back into the world to try again. Once the action finally ramps up again, the reader’s investment in Carol is so much higher because you desperately want her to be okay.
Want more of 2021’s greatest comics? Visit Amazon to purchase the full length ‘Best Comic Books of 2021’ book or eBook. It contains 45 detailed essays reviewing the year's best comic book titles.
After more comic book news and reviews? The Sea Shell mobile app is available worldwide as a free download on the App Store and the Play Store. Download it today.