Captain Marvel #12 Review

Captain Marvel’s latest ongoing series has had its ups and downs. This last arc, “Falling Star,” summarized those ups and downs that this series have had. The story arc did a good job in pushing Captain Marvel’s character and having her step up big. Unfortunately the new character of Star was poorly built up that all her development fell flat. Now with that arc behind us Kelly Thompson is completely shifting gears with a new storyline that involves Captain Marvel suddenly hunting down all of the Avengers. That is a major and sudden shift for Captain Marvel, who through the course of Thompson’s run has repaired and improved a lot of her superhero relationships. What causes this sudden hunt to kill all of her Avengers teammates within Captain Marvel? Let’s find out with Captain Marvel #12.

Writer: Kelly Thompson

Artist: Lee Garbett

Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: As Thor is working on cleaning up the outside of Avengers Mountain he is attacked by Captain Marvel, who is wearing a black and red version of her normal costume that includes a mask covering her identity.

Captain Marvel follows up her initial attack by blasting Thor through a mountain. Since Captain Marvel is wearing a mask Thor does not know who his attacker is. Captain Marvel attempts to drown Thor but Thor is able to summon Mjölnir and hits Captain Marvel off him.

Back on the icy ground Thor continues his assault by hitting Captain Marvel with a lightning charged smash. This attack sends Captain Marvel flying and causes her to lose her mask.

Thor is shocked to find his attacker to be Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel uses this distraction to hit Thor with a blast that sends him flying across the world until he lands somewhere in Kansas.

Captain Marvel and Thor proceed to clash all over the world with neither one able to get the advantage. 

Eventually they end up somewhere in space. Thor tells Captain Marvel they should stop fighting as she has no shot in defeating him, especially as he wields the most powerful weapon in the universe. Captain Marvel says she fully understands this. 

Since Thor let his guard down to talk Captain Marvel fires a powerful blast directly at Mjölnir. After struggling for a bit Thor is unable to hold on to Mjölnir and the hammer goes flying across the galaxy.

Thor attempts to summon Mjölnir back but it is still flying across the galaxy. Thor asks Captain Marvel what she has done. Captain Marvel responds by saying “Evened the odds.” She then nails Thor with a blast powerful enough to knock him out. She then carries Thor’s unconscious body with a determination on her face about what is going to happen next.

Sometime later on the gray area of the Moon Captain Marvel enters the Ruins of New Arctilan, the former home of the Inhumans. Captain Marvel enters a chamber and takes off her mask. She then presents Vox Supreme with the severed head of Thor. 

Vox Supreme asks Captain Marvel if she has the heads of the other Avengers. Captain Marvel says not yet. Vox Supreme tells Captain Marvel she has sixteen hours remaining to kill the remaining five Avengers. Captain Marvel says she understands. End of issue.

The Good: Kelly Thompson and Lee Garbett did not waste any time in getting “The Last Avenger” storyline started off hot. Captain Marvel #12 puts its foot on the pedal and never lets it go until the very end when we get hints at what is going on in this story. Going with this direction made sure that “The Last Avenger” made a statement right away.

What makes Captain Marvel #12 such a successful start to “The Last Avenger” arc is how it makes the reader constantly question what is going on. Throughout the fight between Captain Marvel and Thor their is a general wonderment as to why the former would turn to the dark side. Having the mystery established right away is something that was missing from the previous arc, “Falling Star.” Using two characters in Captain Marvel and Thor that fans care about helps build that mystery to be something that you want to engage in figuring out what is going on.

Captain Marvel’s battle with Thor stretching the majority of this issue was the right choice to make in order to get over how motivated Carol Danvers is in hunting the Avengers. Afterall, Thor is arguably the most powerful Avenger. He is also a hero that will go toe-to-toe with others and not hold back when necessary. 

Thompson does a good job in showing just that as even after Thor learns Captain Marvel was his attacker he did launch one powerful attack after another. It shows the respect that Thor has that even though he does not know what is going on he fought like he normally would against Captain Marvel. It made the moments when Thor tried to talk to Captain Marvel so they can stop the fighting even more powerful. Those moments showed how Thor still cared for his friend and teammate even as they traded blows. 

Establishing all of that made the way Captain Marvel was able to defeat Thor even more understandable. Thompson showed that Captain Marvel and Thor were such an even match that there needed to be a moment for one of them to drop their guard at a crucial moment to end things. That is what happens as in Thor’s attempt to reason with Captain Marvel opened the door for Carol to launch an attack powerful enough to knock him out.

That action also pushed the fact that Captain Marvel is being motivated by something so severe that she would turn on her friends in such a dark manner. It all makes you question what Vox Supreme has over Captain Marvel that caused her to commit the act of severing Thor’s head. Which speaks to the success Captain Marvel #12 has as the opening chapter of “The Last Avenger” that Thompson leaves you asking such a question.

With all that build up it’ll be interesting to learn who the other five Avengers that Vox Supreme. Based on the cover for Captain Marvel #12 it looks like Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk and Spider-Man are the others on that list. Which is intriguing, especially considering that Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man aren’t considered full-time Avengers members. Why Vox Supreme selects these Avengers for Captain Marvel to kill creates even more questions to be answered in future issues.

Lee Garbett did a great job bringing to life the dream match-up between Captain Marvel and Thor. There was a Dragon Ball Super feel for the entire fight. Both characters continued to hit each other with one powerful strike after another that sent them each flying with those attacks hit. It helped increase the intensity of how far Captain Marvel, in particular, was taking the fight as she pulled out every trick she could to defeat Thor. 

Tamra Bonvillain deserves an equal amount of credit for adding to how dynamic all the action between Captain Marvel and Thor looked. Her coloring made all of Garbett’s artwork pop off the screen to have that raw power both characters had when trading blows.

The Bad: Nothing.

Overall: Kelly Thompson and Lee Garbett delivered a hot start to “The Last Avenger” with Captain Marvel #12. The extended battle between Captain Marvel and Thor put over how powerful both characters are. The way the entire battle escalated made how it was one moment where Thor dropped his guard be the vital point in the conclusion to the fight even better. Everything is now set for “The Last Avenger” to be the most exciting story arc the Captain Marvel series has had thus far.

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