By: Brian Reed (writer), Sana Takeda (artist)
The Story: Ms. Marvel is on the trail of Mystique and she’s pounding the crap out of a flunky to catch her prey. In the meantime, Captain Marvel is going through some really messed up moments and does more than a little violence to his own church and followers. Mystique’s hand is in his madness.
What’s Good: This is my first real exposure to Takeda’s art and I found it works well here. He has a style you don’t see elsewhere. He’s doing comic book superhero, but with a slight anime flavor (check out the poses and motions in the scuffle between Ms. Marvel and ‘Beardo’ if you’d like an example of the anime flavoring), but textures, lighting and the dynamism of the movements are all solid. The textures, in fact, are really good, especially when Takeda does the panel close-up on the face of a garbage-foraging-lady, or the concierge at the hotel desk where Carol picks up Mystique’s trail again.
On writing, I’ve been a Brian Reed fan for a while, and enjoyed this book, even though I jumped in mid-arc. The story and the conflicts are clear enough for me to follow with only a few contextual nods on Reed’s part. The voices of the characters were also great. Reed manages to put tones of maliciousness (Mystique), uncertainly (Carol), anger (Ms. Marvel) and hillbilly (‘beardo’) into the words of each character so that in the end, they sound like different people. This is the mark of a skilled writer.
What’s Not So Good: This issue went by a bit quickly. It was a lot of action, with very little reveal, so it felt like a light snack instead of something more substantial. I’m going to pick up the next issue where I’m sure more explanation and revelation will be happening.
Conclusion: A solid Marvel offering for fans of Ms. Marvel or Brian Reed, but nothing memorable.
Grade: C
-DS Arsenault
Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: | Brian Reed, Captain Marvel, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, comic reviews, Comics, DS Arsenault, Marvel, Marvel Comics, Marvel Reviews, Ms. Marvel, Ms. Marvel #49, Ms. Marvel #49 review, Mystique, Reviews, Sana Takeda, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review
