Captain Marvel #5 Review

CAPTAIN MARVEL #5
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Lee Weeks

Well, this didn't explain anything. We still don't know why Captain Marvel attacked the Thunderbolts base in Secret Invasion #1 and his allegiances are even more muddled.

Basically, Captain Marvel is, indeed, a Skrull sleeper agent. However, during his reprogramming, where they applied the real Cap's memories and brain patterns to him, along with a trigger word, the process goes haywire and the trigger effect, which was that painting he's obsessed with, doesn't stick.

This leads to Captain Marvel believing he is the real Captain Marvel and killing all his Skrull allies and fleeing the complex. I didn't understand exactly how he came to be in the Negative Zone, back during Civil War, though.

Even though Cap knows he's a Skrull now, he still feels like Captain Marvel and is dedicating himself to hunting down the Skrull's in the Marvel Church and killing them, all while staying hidden from SHIELD. I can only speculate that he's under the impression a Skrull is in the Thunderbolts and that's why he attacked them. Nothing here really syncs up with what happened.

While this was a better issue than the last one, the series, on the whole, feels completely unnecessary and only the first issue really made me wish Captain Marvel was back.

Verdict - Check It

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Captain Marvel #4 Review

CAPTAIN MARVEL #4
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Lee Weeks

Ugh. I was genuinely pumped for this issue after the great pay off with the Skrulls and the cliffhanger from last issue. This issue throws it all away with what felt like a forced reading of War & Peace with the amount of text boxes and pointless exposition.

On top of that, they had the Skrull activate Marvel's "sleeper programming" and he beats the Skrull down and leaves to join the Captain Marvel Church. There was some other random garbage about how he vowed to protect this world and now he's going to do it whether we want it or not. It was all very pedestrian and I really just want my time and money back on this one.

Verdict - Avoid It

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Captain Marvel #3 Review

CAPTAIN MARVEL #3
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Lee Weeks

Why isn't this title hyped up more by Marvel? Based on this issue, we've gotten more Skrull action than the entire Secret Invasion build up over in Bendis' books. We've got Skrulls impersonating Kree invaders that set up Iron Man and Captain Marvel. We've got Skrulls setting up the religion / cult dedicated to Captain Marvel. CM captured and interrogated a Skrull and that Skrull tells him that he is a Skrull as well. My head hurts. Too many Skrulls.

I'm not sure how this story is going to tie into Secret Invasion, but I'm more interested in it now than I was after the first two issues. While there is a lot of Skrull action here, I'm not sure how important this actually is or if it's worth running out and picking up. Probably won't know until the last issue after this has all played out.

So, if you haven't been picking this title up or had no interest in it before now, I think I'd hold off another issue before running out and picking up all the back issues. Hard to say if this will be important or if it's just some cheap stunt to lure readers in.

Verdict - Check It

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Captain Marvel #1 Review

CAPTAIN MARVEL # 1
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Lee Weeks

Brian Reed does an excellent job trying to convince people that Marvel weren't completely retarded in their decision to bring Captain Marvel "back from the dead". Yes, he's actually back to the future or from the past or however you wish to look at it, but the fact remains, there was pretty much no rhyme or reason behind this decision. In fact, if I had to guess, I'd wager the only reason he was brought back in that Civil War special was to try and drum up interest in lieu of the huge delays facing that event.

Getting back to this issue, the bulk of the story deals with Mar-Vell in Paris looking at paintings at the Louvre intersperced with flashes of a SHIELD agent put to the task of tracking him down. Reed does his best to answer some of the lingering questions from Mar-Vell's return in Civil War, such as why no one cared when he showed up at the final battle between all the heroes or what he's been up to since then, but it still comes off as too little, too late.

Despite Reed's best efforts, I still don't see any point to this series nor Mar-Vell's return. Try as they might, even with this out-of-time reasoning, it still feels like Marvel is trampling all over Mar-Vell's legacy and his tragic death all those years ago. If Civil War was your first introduction to Mar-Vell, this issue will do nothing to make you care about him or his past. He's just some random guy that has undisclosed powers, but may or may not be like a Superman in the Marvel Universe. Those who know him know he's nothing like Superman, but with the reaction of the public and the random cult worshipping him after his return, it's hard not to get a Superman vibe regarding Mar-Vell from this issue.

Verdict - Check It. There's some nice imagry here and, I have to admit, I do enjoy seeing the real Mar-Vell again, but I'm still confused as to the point of this aside from Marvel preying on nostalgic fans' desire to see Mar-Vell again. The issue, itself, wasn't bad, per se. In fact, I'd say it was pretty good, but I'm hoping future issues will convince me Mar-Vell's return was worth the effort and that this story won't end up being some cheap cash grab.

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Captain Marvel Archives

Archives - Back Issue Bins - Marvel - Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel #1 - Verdict - Check It
Captain Marvel #2 - Verdict - Check It
Captain Marvel #3 - Verdict - Check It
Captain Marvel #4 - Verdict - Avoid It
Captain Marvel #5 - Verdict - Check It

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