Captain Marvel is up against one of her toughest challenges to date as Vox Supreme has forced her to fight her fellow Avengers teammates. We still don’t know what Vox Supreme’s end goal is by having Captain Marvel kill all of the Avengers. That question has led Captain Marvel to fake the deaths of the Avengers and use clone bodies to trick Vox Supreme. Given that we don’t know what Vox Supreme is after this may all be playing into his greater plans. Let’s see if we find out what is going to be happening next with Captain Marvel #15.
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Captain Marvel struggles against She-Hulk’s overwhelming power. She-Hulk is shown to be unaffected by all of Captain Marvel’s blasts. As She-Hulk throws her around Captain Marvel tries to use electrical wire but it does not work.
Eventually She-Hulk is able to break the mask Captain Marvel is wearing to cover her identity. She-Hulk is stunned that she has been fighting Carol Danvers. This gives Captain Marvel the opening to grab She-Hulk and send energy through her head. This close blast of energy is enough to knock out She-Hulk.
Captain Marvel then brings Black Panther and She-Hulk into Singularity’s pocket dimension. As Thor checks up on She-Hulk, Captain Marvel gives Tony Stark some Iron Man parts to possibly help them against Vox Supreme. Captain Marvel then reveals she now knows that Vox Supreme has nine bombs across the various Kree refugee camps in the United States so she is going to follow that lead.
Over in the gray area of the Moon Captain Marvel drops off clone bodies of Black Panther and She-Hulk to continue tricking Vox Supreme with. Vox Supreme wonders why Black Panther and She-Hulk are naked. Captain Marvel says the Avengers tech was not part of the deal. She then takes off to finish the job she was given.
After Captain Marvel leaves Vox Supreme reflects that she is planning something and they will kill her the next time she returns.
With only six hours left in her deadline Captain Marvel heads directly to where the Avengers headquarters is. It does not take long for Captain America to confront Captain Marvel. Captain America tries to ask what is going on but Captain Marvel says she can’t reveal anything.
Seeing that he is talking to the real Carol Danvers, Captain America throws his shield down and says “I Yield” much to Captain Marvel’s surprise. Captain America tells Captain Marvel he trusts her and will go along with whatever she may be planning.
After some brief hesitation Captain Marvel states she has to punch Captain America. Captain America figured as much. Captain Marvel then knocks Captain America out with a punch.
In Singularity’s pocket dimension Tony tells everyone that he figured out a way to turn Vox Supreme’s greatest strength against him.
A little later Captain Marvel brings the clone bodies of Captain America and Hawkeye to Vox Supreme. Vox Supreme says Hawkeye wasn’t part of their deal because he has no powers. Captain Marvel reminds Vox Supreme that Thor and She-Hulk are the only ones with actual powers since Captain America and Black Panther are just “enhanced” and Iron Man’s powers come from his armor.
Vox Supreme punches Captain Marvel. He then reminds her that she is an Avenger with power in her DNA. Captain Marvel attempts to fight back but is immediately stopped by Vox Supreme through the control of her black suit that he has. Vox Supreme then controls the suit to create a new black helmet that completely covers Captain Marvel’s face.
Vox Supreme then places Captain Marvel and the Avengers in his special device. As he begins his process Vox Supreme talks to himself about how he views himself as an Architect and the Kree as mere early drafts. He goes on to reveal his plan is to merge with the Avengers using fragments from the Supreme Intelligence to create his own version of a master race to become the new Gods of the universe. Vox Supreme then thanks Captain Marvel for her donations. End of issue.
The Good: With each passing issue of “The Last Avenger” Kelly Thompson is making the story stronger. Captain Marvel #15 continues that progress by delivering the strongest issue of this story thus far. That is all thanks to how Captain Marvel and Vox Supreme have developed to the point we get to at the end of this issue.
Opening up with the She-Hulk fight was a good way to mix things up compared to previous chapters of “The Last Avenger.” It directly got us into the whole story. More importantly Captain Marvel #15 gave us a fight that went differently from Carol Danvers’ other clashes with the Avengers. This time around Captain Marvel was shown to be no match for She-Hulk’s overwhelming power. Having this type of wall that she had to overcome made for a fight that was Captain Marvel could not simply win because of how strong she is.
This fight helped establish why She-Hulk is such a major threat. Like her cousin, She-Hulk is a pure power character. There are no devices or weapons that help enhance her abilities. Pointing that out enhanced how She-Hulk was able to easily withstand all of Captain Marvel’s attacks and throw her around.
Having the fight be so one-sided made the moment that She-Hulk realized she was fighting Captain Marvel after tearing off her mask a better moment. The shock in She-Hulk’s eyes when she found out the enemy she was fighting spoke to how impactful that moment was to her. Captain Marvel seeing this as her only opening showed how she is able to take advantage of any opportunity she is given to win. The reaction she had after making use of the opening She-Hulk gave her also worked within the narrative how fighting the Avengers was getting for Captain Marvel on an emotional level.
This weight that Captain Marvel was feeling all made the payoff to Captain America not fighting back great character moments for both of them. For Captain America we see how he is the ultimate leader as he has full faith that Captain Marvel has her reasons for taking out the Avengers. Trust is what you want leaders to have. And with Captain America he knows every one of his teammates well enough to have a firm grasp of the situation they are in, even if he does not have all the details.
How Captain America’s decision to yield impacted Captain Marvel also showed how the weight I spoke about earlier fully hit her. Captain Marvel felt both inspired and hurt by those words as she knew what she was doing was wrong. This is not what she wanted to be doing at all but is something she must do to protect everyone.
Which all goes to make Vox Supreme a villain that you hate. That is exactly what is needed when building up a new villain. Even if Vox Supreme hasn’t done anything physical up to this point Thompson has been able to develop the villain through the actions he is forcing Captain Marvel to take. So not only are do you have sympathy for Captain Marvel’s situation but also hate Vox Supreme for placing her in this spot.
And finally getting into Vox Supreme’s actual motives at the end of Captain Marvel #15 was definitely needed to progress “The Last Avenger” story. Tying Vox Supreme into the Supreme Intelligence made the reason why he is using Captain Marvel and the Kree refugees clear. Viewing the Kree as early drafts for a greater race shows a hatred that we did not previously know about.
It also makes you wonder if Captain Marvel played into Vox Supreme’s plans anyway. Even if she gave Vox Supreme clone bodies of the Avengers the fact is they still have their DNA. That is all that Vox Supreme needed to start the process of creating his master race. And since he captures Captain Marvel he can use her as a base to fuse all these clones DNA together depending on his process.
At the same time Thompson does not hide the fact that there may be a way to defeat Vox Supreme. Showing us that Tony Stark may have figured out a way out of the situation Captain Marvel and the Avengers are in was a smart play. This opens things up so that it is not just about Captain Marvel using her powers and the fact she can punch harder that is the factor to overcome Vox Supreme. It also works to further develop the chemistry between the Avengers that Thompson has been tapping into during each fight and interaction Captain Marvel has had up to this point.
Lee Garbett once again delivers solid artwork throughout Captain Marvel #15. Garbett does a very good job making She-Hulk out to a wall that Captain Marvel struggles to climb. How all of Captain Marvel’s attacks bounce of She-Hulk showed how powerful she is. Garbett also gives the proper amount of emotion in the scene between Captain America and Captain Marvel as the former yields to the latter.
The Bad: Nothing
Overall: With each passing issue of Kelly Thompson and Lee Garbett have made “The Last Avenger” a stronger story. The weight of Captain Marvel being forced to fight her Avengers teammates reaches a strong conclusion when she has to go up against She-Hulk and Captain America. How those fights lead into the final phase of Vox Supreme’s plans makes for an intriguing build going into the conclusion of “The Last Avenger.”
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