It’s the end for Captain Marvel, and who better to write it than Kelly Thompson, who put in my favorite #1 issue of 2019? In this conclusion, you’ll find familiar faces from Thompson and Carmen Carnero’s run on Captain Marvel, as well as a story about never giving up hope and the true sacrifice of a hero. It’s a fitting end for Carol Danvers, but is it good?
This issue opens (check out the preview here) on Carol powered up and looking quite cosmic. It’s the year 2051 and humanity as we know it is in a bad place. Well, more specifically, Earth is toast. Carol continues to be a hero for the universe, but her homeworld is gone. That is until she gets beeped. Over the course of the first eleven pages, Thompson lays out what has happened to Earth and why Carol moved on after its demise. We never truly find out what happened, but that’s okay since not knowing imbues a sense of mystery and imagination. The more important thing is the treasure trove of characters Thompson unveils for us.
The big draw of this issue is going to be who hooked up with who, or more romantically said, the heroes who married and had babies. This is the end for Captain Marvel, but it’s the beginning for future heroes and it’s fun to find out who is leading the charge these days. It turns out Earth is so inhabitable these select heroes are the only ones who could have made it. Fans of Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum’s Spider-Woman won’t want to miss this. Oh, and Emma Frost fans.
This story draws on a lot of what Thompson is doing in the main book.
Credit: Marvel Comics
There is, of course, an enemy to slay, and Carnero does a wonderful job capturing the threat level of this beast. David Curiel’s colors do well to make it seem radioactive and super powerful too (the glowing green insides of its mouth are proof of that). The subtle nature of Carol’s new rainbow-ish colors helps make her seem magical and extra powerful too.
The book ends with a finite end for Carol Danvers and it makes a lot of sense. It not only holds up the character and her pure nature to help anyone no matter how much they sacrifice, but it serves as a symbol to future generations, which in many ways Carol Danvers does in our reality too. The symbolism is a bit too on the nose for me, but I think many will love its message. You could argue there could have been a better solution or heck, Carol or some other hero should have known Earth had survivors at all, but given the story here, those are superhero tropes you can humbly ignore.
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