Carol taps into new power in her attempt to defeat Ove, and hopefully return to the past in Captain Marvel #26 written by Kelly Thompson, art by Lee Garbett, colors by Antonio Fabela, and letters by Clayton Cowles.
Cat Purcell: This arc hasn’t been a favorite of mine. I do enjoy a good team up. Seeing the kids of my heroes makes my heart feel the warm and fuzzies. And I’m usually a sucker for a good dystopia. But this chapter in Carol’s line has shown me that there really can be too much of a good thing. I am curious how this will shake out, but definitely ready to see some different stories headed Carol’s way.
Christina Eddleman: So youāre saying you wouldnāt give this arc a standing Ove-ation? Me neither. But there are some nuggets here Iām interested in picking your brain about, so let’s dive in!
Bye
CE: We open the issue with Carol still super-charged from a Mjolnir-wielding Brigid ready to give us some fresh-fried Ove, but in the ultimate comic book technicality she canāt because of the shield created by Armor protecting everyone from radiation. What good is a super charged Captain Marvel if she has to hold back?! Oh yes, itās getting to see Carol as a glowy fireball. And there sure are a ton of additional players in this fight. I keep forgetting all of our future kidsā names and at this point Iām not sure if I care anymore. (Iām still grateful for the reminders each issue, however.) Did you feel as exhausted with this fight as I did, Cat?
CP: I really did. I felt ready for it about 2 issues ago. So, I’ll be honest, I kind of rushed through it the first time I read it. Which was a shame, because Garbett and Fabela gave their all in the colors and art this issue. I do agree with you. There’s a point where when you have to label each character in an issue, every issue, it turns into the same reason I am a terrible librarian who doesn’t read George R.R. Martin or Stephen King. Keeping up with so many characters with a month between issues is hard on the brain. With that said, I am not one to turn down any excuse to see fireball Captain Marvel. Sparkle Fists punching a jerk in the face with hair made out of flames is the exact reason I love her. What did you think of the different takes on magic and technology in this issue, Christi?
CE: Iāll be honest, all comic book technology seems like magic to me, so when superheroes are ineffective against magic my mind is always blown. While I can intellectually understand the source of different powers coming from different places, this isnāt a place where I felt the differentiation was more than a convenient plot device. I did appreciate how it complicated the end of this boss battle. Enchantress sacrificing her own life to send her son back in time to torment the past was not a move I saw coming. I was hoping for a change of heart on her part. I believe I made the critique of Carol punching her way out of her problems last issue, and this certainly has turned that on itās head.
CP: Yeah, my brain definitely struggled with how exactly Enchantress used Sora’s knives to see in Illyana’s memories, but MAGIK (am I right?). However, after our conversation last time about the lengths a mom would go for their child actually made this make sense to me? I still could never watch my kid murder my husband and be okay with it, but that made sense to me for some reason. I am glad however, that a whole page was dedicated to Ove’s epic shot doing the Imperious Hex though!
CE: What is most poignant to me about Enchantressā sacrifice is that Ove doesnāt even realize itās happened. It is an incredibly twisted self-sacrifice in the name of parental love that Garbettās art brings an expressiveness to that works for me. Amora has failed completely in raising a son that is a good ruler, and I like to think of the farewell without fanfare as her own personal penance for her son’s actions.
Bye
CP: And now we see Carol and the community left behind dealing with these actions. It seems they’ve made the best of it and integrated into Post Apocalypse New York. We talked before about Carol lacking growth or reflection from her experiences over the issues we have covered. This seems to be a glimmer of it. But I found it hard to relate to her comment about “rarely looking closely at what got broken on the way”. I have struggled myself in the past year looking too much at what’s been broken in our current times. So maybe she is right. Maybe it is her coping mechanism to not look normally at the damage around her. And it seems like Emma suggests she should for a moment.
CE: This idea of āno pure winsā feels particularly timely. Carol has had her fair share of wins in this run that have certainly felt like pure wins with no real lasting consequences, and this dose of reality, taking time to see the loss along the way, is something we really are all struggling with right now. In the midst of a global pandemic, no victory is without the shadow of the suffering around us. If Ove had been dealt with and defeated this issue, I wouldāve been happy to have said goodbye to him and this future, but as it stands Carol has to deal with the knowledge that her actions now and her future selfās sacrifice still arenāt enough to fix this future for the people she cares about. Oveās escape means she canāt stay long to see it through either. Is this perhaps the growth we were hoping for, Cat?
CP: I really hope so. I hope it continues as well. I can personally imagine putting my friend’s lives at stake now, and seeing the possible ripples of death flow from the result of my actions now and that will sit with me for a long time going forward. I hope it does for Carol, too. Seeing Carol hold Jess in her arms, even if it was what she wanted, is something I can acutely imagine in the middle of COVID and it gutted me to see her experience it, even if she knows that reality she’s going back to still has a Jess in it. Like you, I’m eager to see the end of Ove and I hope Carol is able to bring that with her to stop him before he does too much more damage in her timeline.
CE: It feels somewhat full circle that in this future Jess has had to watch Carol die and Carol has now had to watch Jess die. Itās not a future you want to imagine your friends and their children being left to, but leave she must. As Emma says āI suppose itās as alright as these things can be.ā Carolās return to the present seems nearly bittersweet as weāre confronted with those strange tentacles all over again. Iām so very glad we now have an explanation for them.
CP: I would have done the same thing upon my return, just wrap everyone up in the biggest hug I could. But how disorienting would it be for Hazmat, Jessica, and Rhodey to see Carol spontaneously combust and then just know all about the vines and ship in the middle of a weird mass forest? At least they have some answers now, even if there are few solutions yet.
Bye
CE: Given that Rhodes, Rhodeyās daughter, has been invisible for the last few issues, Iād nearly forgotten about her, but itās clear that meeting her boyfriendās future daughter did a number on Carol. Looking back to issue 21, when Carol arrives in this future, meeting Rhodes clearly did a number on her. Rhodey was dead and he had a daughter that wasnāt hers. Going back and doing a reread of this arc gives me a different sense of the interactions between Rhodes and Carol. Even how affectionate Carol and Rhodey seemed before she got sent to the future seemed to set us up for this moment. The break-up.
CP: For sure. I can’t imagine going to the future and seeing a kid of my significant others that wasn’t mine? No thanks. So I definitely see both Carol and Rhodey’s reaction to . . . All of this. And at the same time, it just leaves me with a desire to have seen more of them. Together. I feel cheated out of what could have been a very cool, relatable, literal power couple. I know we’re limited with pages and there have been several events, but I wish we’d had more shots of them actually together. What’s your take on Rhodey’s reaction to Carol’s revelation, Christi?
CE: First, I need to call attention to something I believe we pointed out when we covered Captain Marvel: The End. Rhodes’ full name is Carol Rhodes. Upon meeting Carol, Rhodes tells her āDad said he named me after the most amazing woman heād ever knownā¦ but Mom never loved him saying it, but she knew you too — said he wasnāt wrong.ā While our Carol of the present didnāt have this exchange, I feel like this says a lot about the way Rhodes feels about Carol. I have a theory. Perhaps this future that came to be, the future where she and Rhodes are not together, became this way because of Ove coming back to the past. We donāt know a lot about the conflicts that led to the apocalyptic future, but could these be related?
CP: That’s a good theory and one I can see being the case here. As she broke up with him I literally slapped my head about the break up being now a self fulfilling prophecy. And now it’s also the possible cause of Rhodey’s daughter’s name. It’s clear he doesn’t want to end things and yet needs to work through this on his own. It’s also clear, based on the teaser for next issue’s cover, that Everybody LOVES Carol. This is the one time I’m actually eager for the cover teaser to not have much in common with the contents of the issue.
CE: If this wraps up as nicely as I foresee it being able to, I donāt know if Iād be quite as happy as the way I feel about this messy ending. I do not want a pure win for Carol here. Maybe as much as I donāt want to see Tony Stark fawn over her either.
CP: The art by Lee Garbett and Antonio Fabela outdid itself in this issue. The colors and lines on every panel and every page really struck me. Even in flame mode, Carol’s expressions were clear to interpret. From the effects of throwing Ove into the dome shield to styling everyone’s different magic, I was captivated. I’m gonna miss Garbett’s work as much as I am excited to see Lopez’s again. So I’ll just leave it at that. I’m looking forward to the next chapter in Captain Marvel’s story.
CE: As much as I anticipated this issue being an ending, weāve got some more to this story. Carolās encountered problems she canāt punch her way out of, and Iām happy for it. I love mess and I hope for more of it next issue.
Marvelous Musings
- The existence of “Carol’s NY apartment” implies she has other apartments and I would like a tour of each please. -CP
- Carol curled up on the couch at the end of this issue is such a mood.
- I couldn’t help but read Sora’s “Not much of a Line, GERRY” in a Leslie Knope voice
- Illyana still looks really good in the future
Cat Purcell is a Career Services Librarian, cosplayer, artist, and massive coffee consumer.
Christi Eddleman is the worldās first Captain Kate Pryde cosplayer and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
