Captain Marvel #5

By Kelly Sue DeConnick, David Lopez & Lee Loughridge

This series began with a flash forward, where we were shown the events of the book months in advance, and we are now just catching up to those stories. While the issues leading up to this one have been, for the most part, really good, it has been a slow build. This slower paced story will make you realize that, while new information has been provided, you’re pretty much in the same place you were four issues ago. Captain Marvel has been a consistently good series so far, but minor problems throughout past issues have been repeated in issue #5, making them even more noticeable, hurting the overall quality.

One of the consistently good things about this series has been the art by Lopez and Loughridge. The art and colors are so simple, but it’s the simplicity of the image that is so attractive, from a face, to the colors on the skin and hair, to the overall look of the settings and backgrounds. Whatever drawbacks the series is currently experiencing with pacing and story progression, the art entirely makes up for it (well, maybe not entirely).

There are positive aspects of the issue in terms of story and character development. While the overall story seems to be dragging out, the characters are very appealing, especially Carol Danvers, who acts as a great centerpiece for the many supporting characters. This issue is definitely one that possesses a lot of emotional ties to the characters and their home world, which makes you sympathize with them as you read. However, for all the credit to great character moments, DeConnick has really stretched out this arc’s plot. If she does have a good conclusion up her sleeve, then she sure is taking a long time to build to it. That has really been one of the few downfalls of the series so far, and not that there have been a lot, but when the story is noticeably building too slow, it becomes very hard to ignore.

Each issue seems as though it will be the climactic one, until a smaller plot is introduced and dragged out, pushing the climax to the next installment. The final page, which is artistically beautiful, is by far the best, which speaks to how much of a filler story-wise this issue was. Some minor occurrences that can be blamed for needlessly extending the story are moments like when a character tells another character what has happened when the reader already knows what happened, creating a redundancy of information for us that didn’t need to be repeated.

Overall, the art has been consistently great with each issue, and Carol Danvers and the rest of her crew continue to be great, appealing characters, but a slow building story, coupled with some redundant scenes have prevented this issue from reaching as high a status as its predecessors.