I apologize for the delay in getting out some new reviews for you! It’s been a long and tough week. I know there’s a review coming from the Meticulous Marauder soon, which I hope you guys will all enjoy, but for the time being you’re stuck with me and my comic book reviews! So I’ve recently been on a run of reading novels about characters that I know less about and it’s been a good journey! I decided that the next character to get that treatment would be Captain Marvel!
‘Rise Of Alpha Flight’ see Captain Marvel get a new job in space as the head of an organization called Alpha Flight. I know what you’re thinking, how do these heroes have so much time to have multiple jobs. It’s like the MP’s in the UK, although less sleazy! She’s seen off by James Rhodes, aka, War Machine, who believes that she’s gonna get bored up there. When Captain Marvel turns up at her new job, she’s immediately thrown into the politics and diplomacy of a contract issue. Realizing that this may not be her forte, she’s relieved when she hears that there’s an approaching ship which may be hostile. She, and her team set off and attack the ship, when it does not respond to their communication. Believing themselves to have won, Alpha Flight board the ship, only to be attacked by the ship itself which is organic in nature. Whilst the team are on their mission, the initial diplomatic issue, with a race known as the Eridani, is still ongoing with Marvel’s deputy, Commander Brand in charge. When Alpha Flight return, they find out that the initial scanner, which stated that the ship was Eridani in nature, was false and suddenly the team have to figure out if there is a traitor amongst them. They don’t have time to find out because it appears that whatever attacked Captain Marvel in that ship has weakened her to the point where she has lost her powers. But you know the bad guys never wait and before they know it, there’s a whole fleet of enemy ships like that first one. Can Alpha Flight figure out what is going on with Captain Marvel before it’s too late? And just who is pulling the strings here?
So I’ve never seen Captain Marvel’s solo film outing, but I obviously saw her in the last two Avengers films. I’m not sure what it was, but I just didn’t connect to the character and so there was a little trepidation about how I’d feel reading this novel. The truth is that I enjoyed this novel a lot more that I thought I would. The storyline was compact and fairly exciting and it was a good show of who Captain Marvel is. There were definitely parts where I felt that the story was unnecessarily complex and confusing, but I don’t think it took too much away from the novel in total.
The artwork was interesting, but not in a particularly negative way. I thought the style was crisp and quite vivid which I liked. The covers on the other hand, were quite retro but worked! Overall, this was a decent novel that got me fairly invested in the character. I’m probably a little more open to reading more novels that have her in it, and maybe I’ll watch the film too!
Favourite Panel:
It’s the last panel of the entire novel, but it summarises so well what Captain Marvel is all about!
Favourite Character:
I was surprised to say that it’s Captain Marvel. I don’t know why I’ve just not been able to connect to the MCU version!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★
Character Development: ★★★½
Artwork: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★½
Re-readability: ★★½
Level: Advanced