#CBR11 Books 35-36: "Ms. Marvel, vol 3: Crushed" and "Ms. Marvel, vol 4: Last Days" by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona and others

Total page count: 240 pages

#CBR11 Bingo: Illustrated

Ms. Marvel, vol 3: Crushed - 4 stars

Kamala faces a new, terrifying threat: Excessive feelings!

Love is in the air in Jersey City as Valentine’s Day arrives! Kamala Khan may not be allowed to go to the school dance, but Ms. Marvel is! Well sort of--by crashing it in an attempt to capture Asgard’s most annoying trickster! Yup, it’s a special Valentine’s Day story featuring Marvel’s favorite charlatan, Loki! And when a mysterious stranger arrives in Jersey City, Ms. Marvel must deal with...a crush! Because this new kid is really, really cute. What are these feelings, Kamala Khan? Prepare for drama! Intrigue! Romance! Suspense! Punching things! All this and more! The fan-favorite, critically acclaimed, amazing new series continues as Kamala Khan proves why she’s the best (and most adorable) new super hero there is! Plus, see what happens when S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jemma Simmons goes undercover at Kamala’s school!

While the first two trades explained how Kamala got her superpowers and figured out her costume, and how to hide her secret identity (from nearly everyone), this trade deals more with the fact that Kamala is a teenage girl, who frequently crush on cute boys. The boy in question is the son of family friends, who Kamala is initially none too excited to meet (who wants someone your parents heartily approve of), but he turns out to have grown up hot, and Kamala is smitten. Then she discovers that there is more that meets the eye about him as well, but alas, a happy romance isn't in the cards for our heroine. Her crush is more of a supervillain in training than a fellow superhero, which isn't exactly a good thing.

There is also a minor subplot with Bruno, Kamala's best friend, with his unrequited crush on Kamala, being told that whether Kamala returns his feelings or no, her family are never going to accept him as a proper suitor for her. They are from different cultures and religions, and while Kamala is a teenage girl growing up in New Jersey, she's also a devout Muslim girl. Her parents would not want her to date a non-Muslim boy. Of course, they don't know that their suitable candidate is a villainous douchebag, but that's a different issue altogether.

We also get to see the current comics incarnation of Loki in the first issue of this trade. He's rather different from the movie version, played by the lovely Tom Hiddleston, but ever the naughty trickster god nonetheless. I also liked the little hints we got about the current power structures in Asgard, no Allfather in charge there. There was a also a pretty throwaway issue crossing over with the Agents o S.H.I.E.L.D, which might have made more of an impact on me if I a) had watched so much as an episode of the TV show (I have not) or b) read more Marvel universe comics (I have not).

Ms. Marvel, vol 4: Last Days - 4.5 stars

From the moment Kamala put on her costume, she's been challenged. But nothing has prepared her for this: the last days of the Marvel Universe. Lucky she's got the help of Carol "Captain Marvel" Danvers! Between teaming up with her personal hero to rescue her brother and trying to keep her city from falling into an all-out frenzy, Kamala has barely had time to come to terms with the fact that the world is literally collapsing around her. But the truth will catch up to her, and soon. When the world is about to end, do you still keep fighting? Kamala knows the answer. Let's do this, Jersey City.

I'm deducting half a star because while the actual Ms. Marvel issues of this were top-notch and really excellent, there is also a not-very-interesting Spider-man crossover included, which just feels entirely out of place after the fairly serious emotional stuff we've read just before.

A big alien planet has appeared in the sky and things are getting very chaotic. Kamala gets to team up with her biggest hero, Captain Marvel (it's just as adorable and heart-warming as you can imagine). As of yet, Ms. Marvel is not really one of the heavy hitters of the Marvel Universe, and therefore sticks to trying to keep her own little part of New Jersey safe (this feels much more realistic than if she'd been off with a full Avengers team or something).

The impending doom of the situation also makes it necessary for her to take stock of what really matters to her and she has some very emotional scenes with both friends and family. There's an especially moving scene involving her mother (I may have cried a bit) and it just emphasised exactly why I love this comic so much and keep reading it. G. Willow Wilson balances the big, action-packed sequences with less spectacular quiet moments, which nevertheless pack serious emotional punches so well. I'm very excited to see where the comic goes next.

Judging the books by their covers: There's one rather fun and silly cover here, and one rather dark, gloomy and serious. While the cover for Last Days is fine and very atmospheric, I still prefer the more light-hearted and comical one for Crushed. Sadly, I'm too lazy to look up the artists for each to credit them here - sorry guys.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR11 Book 17-20: "Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight", "Captain Marvel:Down", "Avengers Assemble: The Enemy Within" and "Avengers Assemble: Infinity" by Kelly Sue DeConnick and assorted artists

Total page count: 544 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Back in the summer of 2016, I read what I believed to be the first trade in a run about Captain Marvel, but that turned out to be incorrect and Marvel had just been stupid in how they were rebranding and renumbering their comics. As I came to discover, the reason there was so little back story given about Carol Danvers, her powers and her role in the Avengers, is because despite being entitled Vol 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More, it was by no means the start of Kelly Sue DeConnick's run.

Rather let down by the experience, I put Captain Marvel on the back burner and decided to read other things instead. Then she became the first female superhero to get her own standalone film in the MCU, and it felt like I should probably give her another chance. I always prefer to read the source material before seeing a movie (although honesty forces me to admit that when it comes to the MCU, Captain Marvel is more the exception than the rule. My husband has nagged me for years to read Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America (which forms the basis for much of The Winter Soldier and some of Civil War and that's still firmly on the TBR list). Anyway, I had some of the comics and sat down to read them the weekend before I was going to the cinema to see Captain Marvel. As is sadly the norm for these reviews now, that was more than two months ago now, so my recollection of the various stories is a bit fuzzy.

Hence this review is going to to be light on the various plots of the books and focus more on my reactions to the stories (as far as I can remember them now). All this vagueness makes for thrilling reading, I know. Sorry. I should also mention that if you haven't read these comics before seeing the film, there are some spoilers regarding the motivations of some characters. Nothing major, because the film does its own thing, with mostly the costume and Carol's name taken from the comics, but still - I was able to predict some things that could be considered spoilery.

In In Pursuit of Flight, Carol Danvers actually ends up travelling back in time when trying to set a new flight record, and helps a group of female fighters battle a sinister enemy during World War II. In Down, she reunites with the previous Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and they work together to fight an alien threat coming from the ocean depths. There was also a Captain Marvel/Avengers Assemble cross over focusing on Carol's past, which gave insight into how she got her powers in the first place (in flashbacks), in the actual story, she's having seizures every time she tries to fly and horrible headaches. There is an old enemy of hers staging attacks all over New York and she needs the help of the Avengers to stop the various enemies and figure out what is going on. There was also more of a big space cross over thing, which was less interesting, probably because I suspect it would have helped to read more of the surrounding issues, and they weren't included in the trade.

I read the comics, not knowing all that much about Carol Danvers, and then shortly afterwards watched the film. I've now seen the movie twice, and I really like Carol as a character, both in these comics and in the film. I think it's absolutely abysmal that it took the MCU twenty one films to make one focusing on a woman, but this review is not really the place to go into that. Because it's been two months since I read the comics, it's difficult for me to separate my view of comics Carol with movie Carol. Suffice to say, having now read a lot more of Kelly Sue DeConnick's early run on the title, I should probably go re-read Higher, Further, Faster, More, since I suspect it'll make a lot more sense.

Judging a book by its cover: As this review covers a number of Captain Marvel trade collections, let's just skip over this part. The covers are cool, some using art reminiscent of the golden and silver age of comics. Carol's new Captain Marvel costume looks awesome, so much better than her old "bathing suit" one.