I did tell you that more reviews were coming your way soon! Since I’ve been in a fairly contemplative mood recently, I’ve had a real desire to read novels from series that I think are either excellent or have the potential to be so. One such series was Marvel’s A-Force; a superhero team consisting completely of female superheroes. The last novel, ‘Hypertime’ had impressed me quite a bit and so I had high hopes for this one!
‘Rage Against The Dying Of The Light’ is a ridiculously long and unneeded title. The novel starts with the team fighting a giant dragon/witch named Countess. They are aided by a Thor from a dimension where all the heroes are “Thors”. This Thor happens to be the counterpart of the team’s own Dazzler. Despite the initial farce of victory, the team discover that Countess has kidnapped and taken over the mind of Nico Minoru, the young witch who is a key member of A-Force. Despite the fact that they have She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, a Thor, Dazzler and Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans on their team, A-Force struggles to counter Nico’s spells. But She-Hulk truly believes that Nico has the ability to overcome the brainwashing and help them to take down this new threat. The second half of the novel deals with the Civil War 2 storyline which sees Captain Marvel attempting to use an Inhuman named Ulysses to predict future events. When one of the Ulysses’ precognitions sees Nico murdering a young woman named Alice, the A-Force team are suddenly split on what they should do. Captain Marvel and Medusa believe Nico should be taken into custody, whilst Dazzler and Nico are naturally against the plan. When Nico disappears to a safe house in the middle of nowhere, she believes that she may have escaped Carol. But the town she’s in has been taken over by mysterious insects and humans are being turned into these creatures every day. With the help of Elsa Bloodstone, a monster hunter, they identify the hive’s queen who happened to be a girl named Alice. Can the team stop Nico from doing something that she will regret? And can they stop this infection from growing out of control?
I remember the first novel being quite good and I thought to myself that A-Force is not the kind of team book that I would have enjoyed, but it surprised me. This novel continues much in the same vein and I think these women are so badass, especially Jennifer who is fast becoming one of my favourite comic book characters! That being said, some of the other characters like Nico and Dazzler shone in this novel and the character development for them was superb. The plot was not overly complicated as it was in ‘Hypertime’ which made the novel more enjoyable. It’s tough to criticise the novel, but perhaps a little more interaction with other characters would have been appreciated.
The artwork was excellent and especially during that latter half, I thought the style was exquisite. The covers were also decent, but this one above just highlighted what this team is about. Having fun whilst saving the world! Overall, this was a really good novel to read and I’m excited for what the future of this series has in store for us!
Favourite Panel:
Um… why is She-Hulk fast becoming one of my favourite Marvel characters? Probably because of things like this.
Favourite Character:
It’s so ridiculously hard to choose in this series. I’d say it has to be between Nico and Dazzler; both had phenomenal amounts of character development in this novel!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★½
Character Development: ★★★★
Artwork: ★★★★
Enjoyability: ★★★½
Re-readability: ★★★½
Level: Intermediate