Carol’s in a post-breakup slump, and it’s up to her friends to save the day. If fighting gross monsters won’t do the trick, how about some good old-fashioned speed dating? After all, connections can be found in the strangest places in Captain Marvel #27 written by Kelly Thompson, art by David Lopez, colors by Tríona Farrell, and letters by Clayton Cowles.
Christina Eddleman: “Mistakes were made.” Truer words have never been spoken. But you know what’s not a mistake? The pfabulous Nola Pfau. Nola, how excited are you to discuss this post-breakup issue of Captain Marvel with me?!
Nola Pfau: Well…I feel like I made a mistake.
Snats
CE: When Jess smashed through Carol’s window with news of scary things that looks like giant cats mixed with snakes that shot acid from their butts and were ridden by sexy wizards I thought that this was an elaborate ruse designed to get Carol out of the house, but nope, Thompson went there. I have to commend the way Lopez just goes for this off the wall description. His art really lands for me in this issue with some fabulous depictions of realistic body types and great comedic expressions. How do you feel about purple pals, Nola?
NP: Y’know, I love cats. And I love snakes! I even own a pet snake! And yet, you combine them and…whatever else is going on here and not one bit of it works for me. It feels a little too much like a bad announcer leaning too much into a promo? Like, “look how ZANY it all is! Look how WEIRD!” I think it’s just that the “pulling two things from a hat to combine them” does not work for me as a plot device. But you’re about a thousand percent right regarding Lopez’s art—it’s beautiful the whole way through. I liked the cover too!
CE: But Nola, there were shirtless wizards. You cannot deny that appeal. I do love how Thompson has consistently depicted Carol and Jess’s friendship as a real grounding point for Carol. While I wouldn’t be thrilled about a friend busting through my window, twice, there’s something to be said for Jess’s commitment to her friends well being. They really are the best of gal pals. The forced punching outing does seem to do some good for Carol though. Maybe too much good. Is there such a thing as too much punching?
NP: I can deny anything I like, thank you very much. I’ll definitely agree that as much as the specific creatures don’t work for me here, I do enjoy the interactions between Carol and Jess, as well as the idea that Carol would throw herself into Being A Superhero as an unhealthy coping mechanism. Carol will always punch the problem before anything else. There’s one thing that reads weird here to me though—isn’t Jess British?
CE: Nola, Carol punching her way out of every problem is a running complain Cat and I have had covering Captain Marvel. You are absolutely right that Jess is British. This is a fact I definitely knew and that has been textually clear in every reading of a comic Jess has been in. But please, Nola, tell me why this reads weird.
NP: Well, it’s not like I expect her to be all “Pip pip, cheerio,” but…there’s a mode of speech here that’s distinctly American in nature, she lacks anything that distinctly reads as a British turn of phrase. It’s not that the things she says can’t be read in an English accent, it’s that there’s no clear delineation one way or the other, and it gives me trouble when I’m trying to understand her character.
CE: Nola, you are always right, much like Jess in this issue. I must now admit that I’ve never read Jess as British in anything at all and I have cosplayed as Jessica Drew. I am thoroughly embarrassed, but I do feel like it’s consistently not-distinct across writers. I must now go line my Spider-Woman moto-jacket with the Union Jack.
NP: I’m very thoroughly enjoying the psychic damage this is causing. Speaking of psychic damage, Betsy Braddock is also British!
It’s funny that you mention a problem with Carol punching things, because I definitely see how this run would overuse that trope. I think a lot about Carol’s temper though—or I have, I guess? My first introduction to her was back in the Claremont X-Men stuff, when she literally punched Rogue into the sky upon finding her in the X-Mansion for the first time. That one, at least, was justified.
Speed Dating
CE: What better to even out Carol’s temper than rapidly meeting questionable men in quick succession? When Jess ropes Carol into a girls night out I was hoping for literally anything other than this. Monica Rambeau, Jennifer Takeda, and Lauri-Ell joining Carol and Jess? This phenomenal group of women could have had a fabulous evening doing absolutely anything together. Which is your favorite of our trio of absolute winners Carol has the pleasure of meeting, Nola?
NP: Randy doesn’t seem that bad! Buff, kinda dumb, generally helpful. At least he’s not being a weird creep or overly critical of women in her presence! Easily the least offensive of the three. I loved seeing Monica, who is great. I have no idea who Jennifer is! Lauri-Ell is large.
CE: Lauri-Ell is very large. The destruction of Carol’s clothes that’s referenced happened during Empyre and it was positively a delight. I was so thrilled to see her back in this issue and her appearance is positively wasted. If this was meant to be a pity party, the pity was only that these women sat in the background and watched this unfold. Maybe Jess planned for the night to continue after this ill-advised event, but I cannot imagine why anyone who knew Carol thought this would be something she’d enjoy.
I wouldn’t want to date Randy, but I would spend two weeks defining muscles, easily. Sign me up.
NP: Yeah! He seems like a friendly enough guy. You’re absolutely right about the wasted potential—why interrupt this with yet another scene of punching monsters? Why don’t we get to see any of the other girls rotating in on dates? This is like a…thing that I feel Kelly Thompson does too much in her work—nothing ever gets a chance to breathe. Meaningful character beats are intercepted way too often by the equivalent of a caption box that screams BUT SUDDENLY! I feel like Randy would’ve loved Lauri-Ell. Speaking of, what is the point of Carol trying to adopt a pseudonym when her large blue half-sister is in the room?
CE: Maybe large blue women are very common in the 616. If this is the case, perhaps we can arrange a weekend getaway?
NP: Look. I’m in.
CE: If we couldn’t see the other women on dates, we could’ve at least seen them join in the fight? I think the decision to let Carol punch out a bit more of her feelings is ultimately a positive one. She eventually was able to have a discussion with Jess that she probably should’ve had before leaving her apartment at all. At the end of it all, Carol is still left alone, but this time, at a bar: a place known for good decisions and healthy healing.
Strange
NP: A place where everybody knows your name. And you’re always glad you came. Look, I am not a person who pays a lot of attention to Stephen Strange, because he is a) not a mutant and b) just not that interesting to me. But the one interaction of his that sticks out in my mind is from Matt Fraction’s early 2010s Defenders run, where he once whispered something to Red She-Hulk that was so filthy she threatened his life in retaliation. This has caused me to file him away as a Creep, and I gotta say it unnerves me to see…whatever this was.
CE: I have read Stephen Strange in a lot of things, and have seen him depicted many ways. Sexy is not one of them. I can totally understand the “creep” vibes as I am mostly currently reading him in Secret Wars where he helps Doom become God. So definitely not a check in the “safe to date” column. If it had been a total stranger, do you think you’d have felt differently about the interaction, Nola?
NP: Maybe—a random stranger at least feels like Carol’s brand of mistake. I dunno, doesn’t he have like the avatar of a hell dimension to fight or something? Like literally anything else? We got Wiccan, we got Magik, do we really need Stephen Strange? For like…anything? Ever?
CE: Regardless of his contribution to the magical community, the evening seems to have been exceptionally enjoyable for the two. Mistakes were made… three times? So why not a fourth? A fifth? At least she’s not thinking of Rhodey? I’ve got nothing here.
NP: This book is like…aggressively straight, I think is the problem. Carol needs a girlfriend.
CE: You know, we’ve never said it in such plain terms, but I think you’re absolutely right.
NP: Again.
CE: As always.
Marvelous Musings
- Carol’s use of Stephen’s cape to stay PG-13 was hilarious. I very much enjoyed it.
- Similarly, I don’t know when it became standard for her power bursts to match her emblem, but I did like that detail. It’s neat!
- Thompson went with “snat” when “cake” was right there.
- It was RIGHT THERE!
- I want Carol’s Jeff the Landshark sweatshirt.
Christi Eddleman is the world’s first Captain Kate Pryde cosplayer and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
Nola Pfau is Editor-in-Chief of WWAC and generally a bad influence.
