marvel comics reviews
After the chaos of the Secret Wars, not much has changed for Kamala Khan, the current Ms. Marvel. She’s still in school, still fighting the good fight, and trying to balance being a superhero with the other parts of her life. Her mother is aware of her secret and is something of an ally now, which was a really nicely done reveal a little while ago.
At the end of the last volume of Thor, they finally revealed who the new Thor is. The new status quo is being established, but it’s ugly. Thor has a heavy burden to bear- every time she picks up Mjolnir, the magic of the hammer wipes out Jane Foster’s chemotherapy, but not the cancer she’s suffering from because it’s so much a part of her now. It’s a nasty twist on an old idea.
Marvel has done a lot of different versions of the Squadron Supreme. The Squadron themselves started off as fairly obvious knock-offs of DC’s Justice League. Of the ones that are in this book, the analogues are fairly apparent- Hyperion is Superman, Nighthawk is Batman, Power Princess is Wonder Woman, Whizzer is the Flash, and Doctor Spectrum is Green Lantern. The Squadron had has several incarnations, and now, after Secret Wars, five survivors, each of a different Earth, bad together to make a new version of the team.
The Agents of SHIELD will get their mid-season break after “Maveth.” This is a very busy episode with a lot going on, some surprises, and a few twists I certainly didn’t see coming. At least one of the characters will quite literally never be the same. That gets said a lot, but it’s true this time out.
“Crush Syndrome,” the second part of Jessica Jones, starts off very soon after the first episode, in a very dark and grim place. She’s in a police interview room with Detective Clemmons. Clemmons is suspicious of her, and also starts asking a lot of questions about Luke Cage. Jessica is not happy that the NYPD was in her office without a warrant, but he points out that her office is part of the crime scene, so no warrant was needed.
“Many Heads, One Tale” is an eventful episode for the Agents of SHIELD, current and former. Ward, continuing his revamp Hydra/destroy SHIELD crusade, has a meeting with Gideon Malick.
After dealing with their own various stories, the heroes reunite for some serious chaos on Nal Hutta. After dealing with the bounty hunter Dengar, Han, Chewie, Leia, Threepio, and the ever-annoying Sana all link up to try and find Luke. The young would-be Jedi is a prisoner of Grakkus the Hutt, and is supposed to fight to the death in the arena. Grakkus’ collection of all things Jedi has brought him more attention than he wanted, and another group is crashing the party.
“The Ones We Leave Behind,” is a very tension-filled penultimate episode for Daredevil’s first season. There are a lot of developments and surprises that I did not see coming. As the rest of the series has been, it’s a wonderfully-well written, brutal instalment of the story.
Things are getting ugly for the Agents of SHIELD in “Chaos Theory.” The show opens with a scene from about six months ago, with May and Andrew in Tahiti, a magical place… err, Hawaii. They seem happy, and talk about new beginnings. You just know that’s not going to last, especially given what we learned last week. They do show Andrew’s secret origin, for lack of a better term.
This was a rare kind of issue, especially these days. With the Battleworld event coming, it really is the end of the world, and Kamala knows it. Most comics would have some kind of non-stop action-fest with maybe some self-pity thrown in. Instead, as her world ends, Kamala spends time with her friends and family, never even putting on her costume. It was a character-driven story that was very well written. Kamala’s heart is so clearly both in the right place and absolutely huge.
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