CAPTAIN MARVEL #15
Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Jen Van Meter
Art by Patrick Olliffe, Drew Geraci, Andy Troy
Published by Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 28th, 2013
As an adrenaline junkie with a penchant for flying high, fast, and risky, being grounded due to health complications wasn’t something Captain Marvel could just accept — especially not when her home, her neighbors, and her loved ones were threatened. But now the consequences did more than knock her out of the sky; they robbed her of her memories and everything that makes her Carol Danvers… and everything that inspires her to be an Avenger.
DeConnick, with Van Meter at her side, sets up the issue with past-tense narration from Carol, helping set #15’s tone and catching readers up not only to present dangers but Captain Marvel’s recent losses. She uses a pep talk from a colleague to establish how alienated Carol has become, an unsettling revelation that sets an intentionally uncomfortable tone that remains at odds with the issue’s constant movement. Where one would expect spark, Carol’s narration only supplies unaffected coldness, detachment that leaves it up to the audience to worry for her teammates and the battle, which makes for an excellent read.
Olliffe’s work is solid, building great pages with easy-to-follow visual storytelling and well-chosen panel variation. He doesn’t seem to have a weakness: characters, spaceships, explosions… everything he sets out to put on the page translates with such precision it’s impossible to nitpick. And with his consistently good pencils enhanced by Geraci’s thick, uncompromising inks, the resulting pages are clean and easy to read, despite the plethora of action and tight camera shots. It’s a good-looking book, from start to finish.
Though Geraci’s inking style is thick, it’s far from clumsy. He etches out detail lines and spikes out shadows with boldness and care, unafraid of using black to shape the page because his work is crisp and clean. There is a lot of ink in this book, and yet despite its abundance, it never chokes the art.
Recognizing Geraci’s inks command the page, Troy’s colors keep their bold statements to lighting gleams and hard-lined shadowing. He gives hair weight and flow and gives Captain Marvel’s costume some shine, and as showcased by the glint on Hawkeye’s shades at various angles, he knows when to sharpen details and when to let them sit in blocky obscurity.
Readers cueing in for Infinity will have no difficulty stepping into Captain Marvel’s story, because she herself is largely unaware of it and DeConnick cleverly uses that to build the setting and give a uniquely uncomfortable tone to the issue that gives its end a particularly strong jolt. Thrown right into the ongoing action, #15 is more than just a tipped hat to the event, and still has another issue in its two part tie-in to go, something even new readers are going to want to grab.
Verdict: 10/10
