“The Revenge Of The Brood” storyline has taken time to develop. So far the first four parts have just involved Captain Marvel and her X-Men squad taking on hordes of Brood while trying to save Binary and Rogue. As that has gone on we don’t know what the Brood’s endgame is four chapters into this storyline. The lack of connection to the story going on in the X-Men ongoing series has further hurt the lack of major developments in this story that has been turned into a Captain Marvel and X-Men crossover. How will things go next? Let’s find out with Captain Marvel #47.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Sergio Davila
Inker: Sean Parsons and Roberto Poggi
Colorist: Arif Prianto
SYNOPSIS
Hazmat’s full-power attack successfully takes out the Brood horde. After she recovers Wolverine (Laura Kinney) has Rogue absorb some of her healing factor so she can recover from being experimented on by the Brood.
At the same time, Captain Marvel decides they can’t just wait to figure out a way to break Binary out of the Brood’s device. As she cut Binary free, the Brood’s organic technology tries to capture Captain Marvel. Psylocke discovers that the Brood organic technology needs a host. Captain Marvel decides to take Binary’s place.
Finally recovered enough to stand Rogue uses the link Pyslocke created to share what she learned about the Brood. It’s revealed the Brood are using powerful individuals to create an army of super-powered Broods. But since Rogue and Binary’s powers are too dangerous the Brood could only experiment on them while trying to lure their true target of Captain Marvel to them.
Hearing all this Gambit, Polaris, and Wolverine agree to meet up with Captain Marvel, Psylocke, and Spider-Woman while Hazmat takes a still-recovering Rogue back to the spaceship.
Once back on the spaceship Hazmat opens up about looking up to Rogue.
Elsewhere, Spider-Woman and Psylocke do their best to hold back the Brood horde while waiting for backup. The numbers become too much as the Brood Empress appears. End of issue.
REVIEW
Captain Marvel #47 is exactly what the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline needed. This latest chapter cut out the repetition of the heroes fighting a horde of Broods to give much-needed attention to the bigger plot unfolding. By doing so there is an importance given to the entire story beyond our heroes trying to rescue Rogue and Binary.
Up to this point, there have just been minor theories thrown around for what the Brood is planning. Kelly Thompson finally changed that with Rogue revealing what the Brood have been up to and what their endgame is. In the impressive double-page spread by Sergio Davila, Thompson finally has our characters learn what is really going on. Doing so through Rogue’s experience fighting and being experimented on by the Brood made the stakes of what is going reach the level you want from a crossover event.
Most importantly for this crossover event is that we finally get what the connection is between Captain Marvel and the X-Men. As Rogue explains, the Brood Empress was unhappy with the fact Broo had control of the Brood. While not directly said we learned that Brood Empress used Nightmare using Broo through his dreams so she and her army of Brood can break off on their own. This is exactly what you want to see from a crossover as we are seeing how Captain Marvel is complimenting the events in X-Men, and vice versa. This particular connection with the Brood Empress and Nightmare uses the events we saw in X-Men #20 to make the revelation even more important.
In finally explaining the Brood Empress endgame the connection is made clear why the Brood would kidnap Binary and Rogue in particular. Both these characters served a dual purpose. For one, while the specific power sets Binary and Rogue each have means the Brood can’t use them to breed new super-powered Broods they could experiment on them to figure out how that can be done with other similarly powerful individuals. This complements the second goal of Binary and Rogue’s capture as it brought Captain Marvel and the X-Men directly to where the Brood Empress is doing all these experiments. Being successful in their plans finally gives the Brood the credibility they desperately needed in this story.
The Brood threat elevated it and made Captain Marvel’s own desperation to save Binary some of the best characterization of Carol Danvers in this series. Thompson still runs into problems with how to write Carol’s inner monologue. But while that is still a weakness in the writing when Carol is in action to save Binary or talking to Spider-Woman and Psylocke about why she will stay behind Captain Marvel #47 is at its best. We see how strong Carol’s determination is as the Brood made things personal with the capture of Binary.
While Carol’s character is well-handled it is Hazmat who steals the show in Captain Marvel #47. Taking the impressive show of force when Hazmat unleashed her full power on the Brood horde we got some much-needed character development for Jennifer Takeda. We saw how much Hazmat has grown as she identifies how it is best for her to stay back guarding Rogue since she was still recovering her powers. This showed Hazmat’s maturity as she understood that in the situation they are in this isn’t about pride in proving yourself but what is best for the team.
In turn, this set up a fantastic discussion between Hazmat and Rogue as Thompson draws parallels between the two characters. Seeing how Hazmat opens up to Rogue showcased how Jennifer really does look up to Rogue. It’s a powerful scene that provides Hazmat’s character growth and shows how heroes like Rogue continue to inspire the next generation of heroes.
As mentioned before, Davila delivered big with the artwork throughout Captain Marvel #47. Davila creates an atmosphere where even after our heroes successfully fought off several hordes of Broods they aren’t out of the woods yet. There is still a sense of desperation in what is going on. Which makes the choices characters make throughout the issue have a sense of importance. The double-page spread in particular does a great job at showing everything that happened to Rogue up to this point and complimenting the explanation about what the Brood are planning.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Using the momentum created by the ending of the previous issue Captain Marvel #47 is by far the best chapter in the “Revenge Of The Brood” story arc. We get plot progression that gets you more invested in the plan the Brood have come up with that both Captain Marvel and X-Men are dealing with. In the process, the stakes are raised even higher than before.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10