Captain Marvel #29: Wild Women Do, And They Don’t Regret It…

We are now ten years in on Carol Danvers run as Captain Marvel (July 11th, 2022!!!!), and Kelly Thompson looks like she has no intention of slowing down. It’s part two of the Binary storyline, and it keeps just getting better. If you didn’t read the last arc (and for shame if you didn’t), Vox Supreme kidnapped all of the Marvels, and brought them to the planet where a Phoenix resurrected Mar-Vell sacrificed himself during the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline. It was Carol’s proximity to this planet that allowed her to tap into the Phoenix’s energy to create a sentient form for her Binary form and powers. At the end of last issue, Binary powered down, and revealed to the world that she looks just like Carol! Now, you’re probably asking yourself, “What about the real Carol?” Don’t worry. She showed up last issue too. She was in a chair mystically bound in front of Agatha Harkness, the Scarlet Witch, and… the ENCHANTRESS! 

The issue starts with Carol in front of a magical tribunal, being judged for her actions that stripped Ove, the son of the Enchantress and Namor from the Captain Marvel: The End universe, of all of his mystical abilities. In doing these actions, she was committing a grave assault on magic, and the magical world. The tribunal consisted of the three mentioned, Satana, Dr. Voodoo, Magik, and a little-known Dr. Strange character, Alriac (that’s a deep dive, Kelly). The rest of the issue focused on Binary walking around, trying to discover just exactly who, and what, she is. Where we’re going with this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

This is being hailed as the longest running Capt. Marvel run, and for good reason. In the ten years since Carol took over as the good Captain, we’ve had lots of different creative teams, she’s been an Avenger, a Guardian of the Galaxy, and the leader of a fascist form of government that would arrest people based on things they will do in the future (not exactly her best moment), but Kelly’s been really consistent with defining who Carol is, what defines her as a character, and hero, and developed one of the best written friendships in comics (Carol and Jessica Drew are the team supreme), but unfortunately we haven’t had the most stable artists in this volume. 

Not that we’ve been getting the shaft artistically, either. We started strong with Stormbreaker Carmen Carnero, and has since had runs by comics veteran, Lee Garbett, Sergio Davila, and with this arc we’re treated to Juan Frigeri and Alvaro Lopez. Lopez is handling the magical portions of the issue, with Frigeri handling the Binary part, and wow. This team is, for lack of a better phrase, out of this world. This might be my favorite team on this run since Carnero left, and those are some really big shoes to fill. If you buy only one comic this month, this is the one I’d pick up.