Last we left Captain Marvel and her X-Men team they finally freed Rogue and Binary from the Brood control. Though they had to pay a big price to do so as Captain Marvel took Binary’s place. Now with Captain Marvel captured and being used by the Brood what is next for this crossover for the X-Men? Will we get more of a crossover with the Brood crisis going on over in the X-Men series? Let’s find out with Captain Marvel #48.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Sergio Davila
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colorist: Ceci De La Cruz
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
SYNOPSIS
While Captain Marvel battles against the Brood’s attempt to mentally break her Spider-Woman and the X-Men take on another horde of Broods.
In all the chaos the Brood Empress sneaks up on Psylocke and stabs her. The pain from being stabbed through the stomach cuts the psychic connection Psylocke had with Spider-Woman and the X-Men. Brood Empress then fatally injures Binary.
Rogue and Hazmat arrive using special armor to help the team.
Meanwhile Binary is able to mentally connect with Captain Marvel. After revealing she was killed Binary helps Captain Marvel escape from the Brood’s control.
Captain Marvel wakes up with her power reaching a maximum. Carrying Binary in her arms the powered-up Captain Marvel swears revenge on the Brood. End of issue.
REVIEW
Where X-Men #21 was heavy on dialogue and character decisions Captain Marvel #48 made up for it with a ton of action. Now this was more of the same with Spider-Woman and the X-Men battling through yet another horde of Broods. The big difference between this issue and the other parts of “The Revenge Of The Brood” is the mental journey Captain Marvel went on.
Captain Marvel’s mental journey as she battled against the Brood Empress trying to turn her into a weapon certainly helped change the pace. This is some of the best inner monologue Kelly Thompson has written for Carol Danvers in this series. Thompson provided us with great insight into Carol’s current state and showed the effects of Brood’s mental attacks on her thought process.
The success of the Captain Marvel side of the story was made as strong as it was because of Sergio Davila’s artwork. Davila knocked it out of the park showing the impact on Carol’s mind. The cosmic eyes as Carol drifted through the outer space that was made in her mental space was a great touch to show the sense of loss Carol was feeling. Then we see how trippy things got as the Brood increased their mental attack on Carol in order to turn her into the weapon they wanted.
Carol’s mental battle gave much-needed tension to the latest Brood horde attack Spider-Woman and the X-Men were dealing with. As mentioned before, there was nothing new to this latest Brood attack we didn’t see before. The repetitive nature does fall on how long the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline has been going at this point. Maybe if this was the fourth chapter rather than the sixth chapter in a story the action would have had more of an impact but it didn’t.
The only thing that was different from other fights was the major development of the Brood Empress killing Binary. To Thompson and Davila’s credit when that moment happened it did hit with the proper build. Even if we saw the X-Men vs Brood horde countless times now the heroes fighting with their backs against the wall having this big moment made Captain Marvel #48 have the biggest development of all these fights.
The impact of Binary’s death is made a bigger deal as it wasn’t how Captain Marvel #48. You certainly couldn’t blame Thompson and Davila if they decided to end at that moment as Binary’s death certainly felt like the shocking final page of a comic book. But to their credit, they used this moment to give us one final, emotionally charged interaction between Binary and Carol. Binary using the last of her strength to help Carol fight out of the Brood’s control had all the emotion behind it you hope it would have.
This in turn gave us a much better ending for Captain Marvel #48 with Carol overcharging her powers as if she reached a new Super Saiyan level. Davila nailed how much the Brood Empress’s biggest mistake was killing Binary. Because now the Brood Empress gave Carol the excuse to go from just wanting to save her friends to wanting to annihilate the Brood. What that exactly means paired with the developments in X-Men #21 sets up the finale for the “Revenge of the Brood” to be something to look forward to.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Powered by excellent artwork from Sergio Davila, Captain Marvel #48 is the best chapter in the “Revenge of the Brood” storyline. The major character moments are some of the biggest in Kelly Thompson’s run. All of this comes together for a strong penultimate chapter that leaves you looking forward to how the storyline will end.
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10