Have you ever had one of those days where everything is going wrong? Like you’ve somehow been sucked across the infinite cosmos into the wrong corner of fragmented space-time? And you run into someone from your past you really can’t stand? Like, say, someone from…beyond? If so, maybe you’ll have some good advice for Monica (She’ll take what she can get). Monica Rambeau: Photon #2 is written by Eve L. Ewing, with art by Ivan Fiorelli & Luca Maresca, colors by Carlos Lopez and letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.
The issue begins with Monica Rambeau waking up on the deck of a motorboat called the Willie Mae. Since Monica was traveling through space at the end of the previous issue but still thinks she is home in New Orleans, we can assume that she is an alternate universe version of New Orleans.
Before she can ponder things further, Monica sees a shooting star falling from the sky. In order to stop it, she tries to phase into it but soon finds herself stuck. At least she got a witty pun in beforehand, thinking this would be “light work.” Carlos Lopez’s colors along with the artwork of Luca Maresca and Ivan Fiorelli stand out here, combining Monica’s light powers with the fire of the meteor in a striking manner.
Anyway, it turns out that the meteor Monica is stuck in is made of Darkforce, a negative force of dark energy to which Monica is weak. It nearly causes Monica to drown, but she finds herself rescued by a mysterious woman who calls herself The Beyonder.
For those not familiar, The Beyonder is a cosmic entity that caused a lot of trouble during the comic book events Secret Wars. However, the person Monica Rambeau is speaking to is a different version of The Beyonder than Monica knows.
In fact, The Beyonder isn’t the only familiar face that Monica knows. Soon, The Avengers show up to confront The Beyonder, in their old-school outfits from the 1980s. At this point, I have to give props to Eve L. Ewing’s witty dialogue writing,as Monica states, “I’ve hit my head, and I’ve totally lost my marbles. Or went back in time to when I had a head full of Afro Sheen?”
As Monica tries to wrap her head around seeing her old team, The Beyonder teleports the Willie Mae into the middle of a New Orleans street and also creates a jungle out of nowhere. The Beyonder then explains that Monica’s power was calling her and caused The Beyonder to pull Monica to this location.
This suggests that Monica has some untapped hidden potential in terms of her power, which was implied in the previous issue when scientist Yesenia Rosario stated that she would “destroy the universe.” The question is, how can Monica discover her true potential when she doesn’t even know where she is?
Going back to the story, Doctor Druid has the audacity to claim that Monica and The Beyonder are working together. Everyone pays him attention as an alligator nearly eats some nearby civilians before Monica does away with it. Monica starts to scold her former team before The Beyonder teleports Monica to a blank, in-between place where the two of them can talk.
At this point, Monica says that The Beyonder is here because she wants to change things for everyone so she will have a place to belong. Monica also tells her to stop looking at other people in order to find her own value and it is at this point that The Beyonder suggests Monica speaks for herself. At some point, Monica will have to learn to take her own advice but she is lost in more ways than one so it could take a little while.
Anyway, The Beyond tries to explain to Monica how Monica’s power drew The Beyonder to her. Since Monica Rambeau’s power involves being any source of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum, it is possible that Monica unconsciously tapped into an energy that can travel through time and space so she can visit alternate realities.
However, Monica thinks that The Stone of Hala that she delivered to Doctor Strange in the last issue is the cause and tells The Beyonder to take her back to the other Avengers so she can fix things. I don’t know why, since these Avengers aren’t the ones with the stone but maybe Monica thinks she can find one in this world.
When Monica tries to explain the situation to these Avengers, they don’t believe her. Doctor Druid even suggests that Monica losing her parents caused her to have a desire for wish fulfillment that drew The Beyonder to her. This angers Monica, who decides to prove Doctor Druid wrong by teleporting all of them to her parents house.
The issue ends as a house door opens to reveal not Monica’s parents, but Jericho Drumm aka Doctor Voodoo. Did I mention he and Monica Rambeau are apparently married in this parallel world? Given that Monica is still coming to grips with where and who she is, this has to be a major shock for her. We’ll have to wait until the next issue to see her reaction though.
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
