Marvel Action: Captain Marvel #3 is a middle-grade comic from IDW Publishing written by Sam Maggs with art by Sweeney Boo and colors by Brittany Peer. Carol Danvers and her best friend Jessica Drew are hanging out, stopping crimes, the usual, when things start to get weird. People and places start glitching, Carols’ not-cat Chewie is spelling words with the kitty food, and squirrels are carrying around menus.
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I generally enjoy the Marvel Action comics from IDW, but their biggest issue is always that they are too short. This issue is one of the worst victims of time and space. The whole issue is one big setup basically for the second half of the story. Nothing happens. The same few moments repeat over and over, first in a Groundhogs Day kind of way, and then in just a repetitive way. I’m sure what will come next will be better, but there’s just no real substance here to even judge. Had the two halves of the story been put together into a longer graphic novel, this first half may have felt less disappointing, but alas.
In the world, as it is, the issue is fine enough. I like the way Carol is pretty chill about the whole world being messed up like it happens every day that ends in a “Y.” Because it probably does. I love the colors in this issue. Rather than the digital greens, blues, and blacks of the Tron days, the world’s anomalies are pink, purple, and red. It’s visually pleasing while also feeling different from what I often expect from virtual landscapes.
I’m not super keen on the character design or the way Captain Marvel’s costume is shaded, though. I feel like this art style must be the same as the previous two issues, given it has the same creative team, yet, it strikes me as totally alien to my expectations. Carol is drawn very boxy in the first big shot of her, which on its own would be fine; the self-proclaimed strongest Avenger deserves to be drawn with bulk, but her costume just makes her look even more rectangular, and it’s off-putting. She looks better in other drawings where her costume is less defined, but it’s the opening panel, so it’s not great. The costume is also oddly colored with so much black shading that it just looks weird.
It’s not that Marvel Action: Captain Marvel #3 is bad, per se. I feel that the next issue will make this one feel more whole. But it’s disappointing that the whole story couldn’t have just been produced in a single issue or graphic novel so that this issue doesn’t have to feel repetitive and like it goes nowhere. It’s not because this is middle-grade either; the previous arc started strong and fizzled similarly because of the two-act structure it was bent into. Alas, don’t skip the comic, but wait until issue four is out to read them together.
Marvel Action: Captain Marvel #3 is available wherever comics are sold.
Marvel Action: Captain Marvel #3
TL;DR
It’s not that Marvel Action: Captain Marvel #3 is bad, per se. I feel that the next issue will make this one feel more whole. But it’s disappointing that the whole story couldn’t have just been produced in a single issue or graphic novel so that this issue doesn’t have to feel repetitive and like it goes nowhere. It’s not because this is middle-grade either; the previous arc started strong and fizzled similarly because of the two-act structure it was bent into. Alas, don’t skip the comic, but wait until issue four is out to read them together.
