Writers: G. Willow Wilson
Art team: Nico Leon, Ian Herring, and VC’s Joe Caramagna
Covers: Valerio Schiti and Rachelle Rosenberg
Marvel Comics
Release Date: 7/11/18
Cover Price: $3.99
Reviewed by: Jon Wayne
When we left off in the 50th issue anniversary special (that I know Jim is super fond of!) two weeks ago, Kamala had revealed to her friends that she was Ms. Marvel only to find out they’d known for basically the entire series, and her friend Mike gave her blessing to let Kamala pursue a romance with Bruno, all while handling “a day in the life of a young superhero” stuff. It was a fun yet filler-ish issue that successfully celebrated the character. With this issue we move into a new chapter for the young Ms. Marvel, but what exactly will that entail? Let's take a peek!
We open the issue with Kamala and Bruno working together again, this time on figuring out how Kamala’s powers really work. Bruno runs some tests, we get some awkward semi-flirting banter between the two, and we find out that Kamala is struggling a little bit with controlling her powers. But it is not really explained, so I took a “law of attraction” vibe from this because Kamala wasn’t struggling with her powers in any noticeable ways before this issue. I can only assume that Bruno going all Wakanda-level sciencey and asking some philosophic questions about how Kamala’s power set works, she has now developed some insecurity about her powers. It goes unexplained in this issue, but Wilson is a great writer so I trust her to address this at some point.
We move on and see Kamala and Bruno hit the local pizza place. Some great artwork here in the panel progression, as the duo talk about her powers on the fritz, in the window behind them we see chaos unraveling until finally, the Shocker shatters that very window. We get some classic banter between Ms. Marvel and our villain of the week, as she throws some shade at him being one of Spidey’s lamer rogues. But again her powers aren’t working properly, and we end our issue with that clearly being the plot of this new arc. That’s about all there is to this issue, and while it was fun, I definitely wanted a little more.
Art is par for the course for this series (meaning it is pretty good!) as it’s the same team for a while. I enjoy Nico Leon’s work, but frankly, I feel like an art team shakes up might be nice. Leon’s style has come to be almost synonymous with this book, but I feel like the 51st issue may have been the perfect time to give us something different.
P.S. And if any Y'all want to talk about my reviews or comics in general, just shoot me a tweet @the_jon_wayne!
Bits and Pieces:
Solid jumping on point for new readers, but a little boring for fans who’ve been reading for a while. Not a whole lot happens, though it does set some things up to be dealt with in subsequent issues. I’m a big fan of G. Willow Wilson (super excited about her taking over Wonder Woman later this year!) and I expect her to kick it up a notch once this story gets going, but as a single issue, this just wasn’t my favorite. As a quasi, “fresh start,” it works, but if that’s what the goal was they should’ve just given the book a “fresh start” with a new #1.
7.5/10
What I love about Nico Leon's art is the little things that happen in the background. There wasn't much in this issue, except for a couple of pigeons lol, but that's what I always look for in Leon's art. I'll always remember awhile back seeing a pedestrian walking looking at his phone with an open manhole in front of him, then on the "next day" panel you'd see him walking on his phone, but this time with a crutch and a cast haha. Leon's little random details kind of add to my enjoyment of this book, so if there is an inevitable art change - I hope they have some kind of quirk that makes this book enjoyable to me, as a reader.
ReplyDeleteGreat review too, Jon! This was a bit of a down issue and feels like we're back into the days before the Civil War II tie-in, which is a good thing because I missed Bruno in this book.