Captain Marvel has been one of my favorite comic books that Marvel has been publishing for the last few years. Kelly Sue DeConnick has been on point with this series. Now with Secret Wars taking over the Marvel Universe Captain Marvel will be taking a “break” for the next few months. Thankfully we got one more issue of Captain Marvel before said “break” is taken. Will Captain Marvel #15 give us a good break? Find out in our review.
Creative Team
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: David Lopez
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10
Review
If Captain Marvel #15 is your first issue of this series, than I feel bad for you. This isn’t because this issue is hard to follow. In fact, Kelly Sue DeConnick does a good job giving you all the details you need to know about Carol Danvers relationship with her mentor Tracy. What I feel bad about is that you don’t have all the history between Carol and Tracy in your memories while reading this issue.
The magic of Captain Marvel #15 is in how DeConnick writes it like a final issue of this series. Whether it is or not is up to Marvel when they announce their post-Secret Wars line-up. Just the fact that this issue felt like a closing chapter for this part of Carol’s life made this comic that much more satisfying as someone who has read DeConnick’s entire Captain Marvel run. It helps ease the anticipation of wanting more stories from this version of Carol Danvers.
Even as this issue felt like a closing chapter DeConnick made sure even new readers could understand the importance Tracy had in Carol’s life through the flashbacks. Seeing how much care DeConnick took in detailing the flashback sequences made the fact that this issue was devoid of action not consequential. There’s so much to be invested about in just seeing how Carol deals with the death of her mentor that we don’t need to see some action shoehorned into a story that doesn’t need it. And the fact that it was Steve Rogers that was given the duties of narrating the letter Tracy left for Carol added a little more weight to the story.
DeConnick also does a nice job bringing in the key supporting characters that she has used during her run. Seeing how Jessica and Rhodey allowed us to see how important having a support system is when something like this happens. And I liked that DeConnick did not have Carol’s friends make long-speeches to get her through Tracy’s loss. Instead they were there as support to respond to however Carol may have reacted during this time period. Their presence, specifically Jessica, made the final scene’s payoff come across much better as we got to see what Tracy meant in her final words and not just be told them.
For his part, David Lopez knocked it out of the park with his artwork in this issue. With an action-less story to be told Lopez was able to convey all the emotion Carol was feeling throughout the issue with the facial expressions he drew. The choice to make the flashback sequences to be in black and gray helped separate what was going on in the present and past. It also gave all the flashbacks a unique factor since it’s not a style we often see from a Marvel comic.
Overall
Captain Marvel #15 was a wonderful closing chapter for this volume of the series. Kelly Sue DeConnick was able to end things by showing new and old readers what the most important thing about her run is and that is the relationships Carol Danvers has grown to have. Seeing how Carol dealt with the loss of her mentor and how deep that relationship went was really touching. The ending was also a nice reminder of how even in tragedy, at the end of the day, this series is about having fun with Carol and her supporting cast.