July 20, 2012

Comic Shop Book Club #1: Captain Marvel #1

It's Friday, and that means it's time for the inaugural Comic Shop Book Club. This week we're discussing Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy's Captain Marvel #1. The print version's already sold out and is going for a second printing, but what did we think of the writing, the art, the character, and so on?

I have to admit I've come to this comic cold, without any real prior knowledge of the character, so I'm very keen to know what people think. Opinions (including my own) in the comments below, please!

6 comments:

  1. I loved reading this comic. The writing and characters are great and as someone who knew almost nothing about Carol Danvers coming into this (though I did read the Avenging Spider-Man #9 featuring her last week), I was absolutely sold on Captain Marvel, her relationships, and the story being told here.

    I'm less sure of the internal art - I really loved the way Carol was drawn in the Spider-Man issue and this more 'arty' style took some getting used to. I found it particularly dark in the early sparring scenes with Captain America, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man. The less actiony scenes worked better for me because I felt there was more character in the faces but even so... it feels kind of dark.

    Having read some of the PR about this release though, it's clear that they made a deliberate choice to go for something different. I doubt I'll ever enjoy this dark, scratchy style as much as I enjoy the covers of these issues, but I was already starting to get accustomed to it by the end of the issue.

    I'm here for the long haul!

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    1. I loved the writing of this issue - great dialogue and a real strong sense of character. The transition from Carol being Ms Marvel to being Captain Marvel was wonderfully handled. I also liked how the issue was more or less self-contained.

      The art, however, is killing it for me. This is Dexter Soy's first big comic book, and I'm not sure he's quite ready for the Big League and also whether his style is really suitable to this book. It might warm on me, but I'm not a fan - and I'm enough of "not-a-fan" for it to kind of kill the chances of me buying this regularly.

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    2. Not just me then! It is notable I think that the covers are completely different to the internal art.

      Did you read the Spider-Man issue with Captain Marvel in? The art in that one is SO much better.

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    3. although i liked the writing,I just dont think the artwork is up to par.

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  2. Thanks to Grant and Tansy's recs, I bought in on Captain Marvel too (love the Marvel iPad app!), and I'm hooked. What a fabulous character! I read the Spider-Man issue first, and definitely preferred the cleaner art. The Captain Marvel art seemed very Batman-ish to me! (I know, wrong company, but you know what I mean?). Really really looking forward to seeing where Captain Marvel goes.

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    1. I think my biggest issue with the art is that the murky colouring is actually hiding some fairly substandard perspective and character work. It's not awful work, and it's certainly expressive, but I usually expect better from the "Big Two".

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