The Life of Captain Marvel #1 (Comic Review)

The Life of Captain Marvel #1
Written by Margaret Stohl
Art by Carlos Pacheco and Marguerite Sauvage
Published by Marvel, $4.99

Carol Danvers has a lot of anger inside her because of her childhood. Her father was an abusive drinker and her brother seems to have inherited the drinking side of that lineage. She doesn't really have a good rapport with her mom either because she subliminally has no respect for her because she put up with her husband's behavior for so long. Issues from her childhood are starting to effect her work as a superhero. She just lays into supervillains and with her super strength, that's a dangerous situation. In this first issue, Carol decides to go home and face the past and try to make some sense of it, and maybe put the demons to rest.

I've never really been a fan of the modern version of Captain Marvel. I liked the character back in the day when she was known as Ms. Marvel in her own comic and when she was an Avenger back in the late 70s and 80s. But the new version of her character with its lesbianish overtones and Marvel's attempts to turn her into a feminist icon leave me cold. Marvel has been trying to shove her down our throats as hard as DC has been doing with Cyborg. Both companies have been trying for YEARS to elevate these unimportant side characters into full fledged holy trinity status with Iron Man, Spider-Man, Thor, Superman, and Wonder Woman. And I've just never drank that Kool-Aid.

The first half of the book was exactly what I had expected, Carol walking around with her boy's haircut and men's clothes. But something miraculous happens towards the latter half...Carol's hair grows out, she starts wearing women's clothes and appears, dare I say it, FEMININE! I guess I could give kudos to Marvel for not being afraid to design Carol as a woman again, but the cynical part of me thinks they're only doing it to match her up with the look of the new Captain Marvel movie coming out early next year. The same thing happened with Aquaman a few months back. Whatever, the reason, the turn away from her old look is refreshing and gives me hope enough to buy the second issue.

I thought it was really cool that Life of Captain Marvel did exactly that, it focused on her LIFE. Emotional issues and scars that happened to her outside of superheroing. It made me care about her character. Made me have more interest than if she was barreling around the galaxy with Alpha Flight. So I loved that aspect of the book.

Tony Stark as Iron Man in this book was again an attempt to connect the book to the Iron Man as seen in the movies. He LOOKS like the Marvel comic book version but acts and talks exactly like Robert Downey Jr. To me, the movie version of him is quite jarring in the comics. There's even one panel where he lifts his arm and exposes his midriff like he's a millennial. His body is 22, but his head is like 38. It's quite comical how writers now need to try to make all the characters seem like hipsters.

I will definitely be buying the next issue of this book.

My Grade: A-