Just as things looked to be going the way she wanted Captain Marvel has taken her talents to the future. This was not a choice that Carol Danvers made herself. Rather she was transported into the post-apocalyptic future we saw in Captain Marvel: The End were a majority of Earth’s population, including its heroes, have died due to the wars and disasters that ravaged the world. Now stuck here Captain Marvel has to make the best out of it as she now confronts one of the world’s leaders named Ove, who has turned out to be Namor’s kid. What plans does Ove have for Captain Marvel and her future friends? Let’s find out with Captain Marvel #24.
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artists: Lee Garbett and Belen Ortega
Colorist: Antonio Fabela
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Ove gives Captain Marvel, Rhodes (Carol Rhodes, James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes daughter with unnamed wife), Katie Barton (Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff’s daughter), Brigid Thorsdottir (Thor Odison’s daughter) Fuse (Johnny Watts), Wolf (Sora, Forge and Pyslocke’s daughter), Emma Frost, and The Spider (Gerry Drew, Jessica Drew’s son) a tour of New Atlantis (which is a rebuilt New York City with a dome around it).
Brigid question Ove about kidnapping Armor. Ove says that Armor volunteered to be in New Atlantis to provide the dome as protection with help from Crystal and Jolt to maintain the area. Ove then mentions that he is also half-Asgardian on his mother’s side.
Ove then takes Captain Marvel’s group to the former New York Public Library building that has turned into his place of residence. While most are hesitant to accept Ove’s hospitality Emma quickly takes the chance at being in a normal hotel room again.
An hour later Captain Marvel attends a private dinner with Ove. During the dinner Ove reveals his father is Namor. Ove explains that Namor married an Asgardian who was his mom and even though they had their differences they stayed together for his sake. He goes on to say that Namor was part of the first war the heroes fought in but when the second war came he decided that protecting Atlantis was most important. Over time Namor struggled to maintain his power in Atlantis as a rogue faction of Atlanteans, formed who after many years of fighting were successful in killing Namor. This forced Ove and his mom to escape or risk being executed like Namor.
During his journey with his mom through the world Ove found what was left of New York City and came across Jolt in the process. There Ove decided to create what is now New Atlantis.
An hour later Captain Marvel goes back to meet up with the others and quickly comes up with a plan to figure out what Ove is really up to.
Everyone splits up with Captain Marvel, Emma Frost, and Katie Barton going together into an underground area of Ove’s place. It does not take them long to find a secret room. Captain Marvel blasts through the dor and are shocked to find Jolt and Crystal chained up to the wall and Magik in the middle of the room with magical chains.
Emma checks on Magik, who freaks out as she does not know how much time has passed since she was locked up. Magik recovers and happily hugs Emma. Magik then reveals that Ove needed Captain Marvel for something and while she resisted she eventually helped bring Carol to their future.
Ove suddenly appears with his mother, Enchantress, by his side. Ove uses his powers to command Luke Cage and the demons to take down Captain Marvel and her group. Captain Marvel, who is joined by the others, are able to take out the first wave that Ove sent after them. Enchantress decides to help and brings in another horde of demons to overwhelm Captain Marvel’s group.
Eventually Enchantress is able to trap Captain Marvel with magical chains. Unable to move Captain Marvel is turned into a punching bag for Luke Cage until she is knock out.
Sometime later Captain Marvel wakes up to find herself chained up against an altar. Ove tells Captain Marvel that she is the key to his future. End of issue.
The Good: Captain Marvel #24 was one big set-up issue as Kelly Thompson expands on this post-apocalyptic future Marvel Universe set in 2052. Given that this is our real introduction into Ove after all the hype this was a necessary chapter to get “The New World” arc into the next phase of the story. Though the journey to that next phase wasn’t without its fair share of problems.
Where Captain Marvel #24 best succeeds is in not making our heroes come across as naïve in their first interaction with Ove. After everything these future heroes have been through it should be expected that they would not fully get behind Ove’s whole nice guy routine. Everyone treating Ove with extreme caution further pushed how Rhodes, Katie Barton, Brigid Thorsdottir, Fuse , Wolf, Emma Frost, and The Spider have been harden by their experience in this future world.
Brigid Thorsdottir in particular stood out as she made things the most clear she does not trust Ove. The fact that both Brigid and Ove are half-Asgardian added to how there is antagonism between them that is made even more understandable once we find out Enchantress part in the story.
There was also other nice character moments in Captain Marvel #24 that helped build out this future Marvel Universe. The one that stood out most was the reunion between Magik and Emma Frost. Magik freaking out when she was approached got over how she has been imprisoned by Ove and Enchantress for an extend period of time. There was a nice sense of relief when Emma hugged Magik as you can tell that is something both needed in that moment.
Thompson also does a good job in setting up Ove as someone who has full confidence in what he is doing no matter if it is evil. Even when he is going over his history as Namor and Enchantress son there is a vibe you get from Ove’s dialogue that what we are getting a bad guy origin story. There is just no hiding him as the antagonist with what we’ve seen him do before he even appeared. Not trying to make Ove a guy who tries to pass himself off as a hero is the right move to make him an antagonist you want to see get punched in the face.
Captain Marvel not buying into any of Ove’s story also helps to further how Carol is a veteran hero. She can easily see through bullshit that others are telling her. It helps add to how we are still trying to figure out why Captain Marvel was brought into the future.
Lee Garbett and Belen Ortega worked together well to blend their art styles so that the artwork helped tell the story in Captain Marvel #24. They both did a good job in maintaining some ambiguity with where Ove stands until his full evil nature was revealed when reappearing with Enchantress. It helped tell the story of Ove being someone who believes himself as the hero to his own story.
The Bad: Captain Marvel #24 was a lot more tell then show when it came to explaining what the backstory of this future was. While Thompson even makes fun of this when Captain Marvel mentions how much Ove loves to talk it did not improve the way the story was told. It was just way to much explanation when Garbett and Ortega were doing what they could to also help tell the story with the artwork. It did get to the point that as the reader I did feel bored with the backstory Ove was being given.
With as much talking as there was the pacing of Captain Marvel #24 never felt like it picked up momentum when needed. Even when things broke down with a big action sequence the story felt slow. Just like a lot of the dialogue it just felt like noise to distract us about how boring this world is.
Only having Luke Cage as part of Ove and Enchantress group that went up against Captain Marvel’s group also hurt the way the action sequence went down. All the nameless demons just made them appear as cannon fodder to be beaten. It would’ve been much more meaningful if Ove and Enchantress had other Marvel heroes under their control to make you feel how this wasn’t an easy fight for Captain Marvel’s group. Because even if Luke Cage was part of the fight you never felt like Captain Marvel or the others cared he was under Ove and Enchantress’ control.
Overall: Cptain Marvel #24 did what it needed to do tell the story of Ove and why he is the antagonist of this story. There are some spots in the way this issue progressed that may come across as boring. But with how things ended the remaining issues of this arc are set-up to conclude the story strong.
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