The long running “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline has finally reached its end. This semi-crossover with the X-Men has pushed Captain Marvel and her friends to the brink. Things took a turn for the worst as Binary sacrificed herself in order to save Captain Marvel from suffering from the Brood’s experimentation. Now powered with the grief over the death of Binary, how will Captain Marvel end the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline? Let’s find out with Captain Marvel #49.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Sergio Davila
Inkers: Sean Parsons and Roberto Poggi
Colorist: Ceci De La Cruz
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
SYNOPSIS
Captain Marvel uses her ability to manipulate energy to turn the bomb the Brood Empress implanted in her to kill the Kree into energy to only impact the Brood. Captain Marvel uses this added energy to cure Spider-Woman and the X-Men from becoming Broodling hosts.
With Cyclops’ team showing up Spider-Woman and the X-Men are able to fight off the remaining Brood while Captain Marvel kills the Brood Empress.
Rogue then convinces Carol Danvers to let her save her by using her powers to absorb the excess energy to stabilize Captain Marvel’s power.
Captain Marvel then reflects on the impact of Binary’s death at her grave on the planet where Binary was originally born. End of issue.
REVIEW
Captain Marvel #49 is a focused end to the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline. This won’t necessarily satisfy everyone following the greater Brood narrative across the Captain Marvel and X-Men titles. That is certainly something this crossover never fully did a good job at. That said, when it comes to Carol Danvers’s narrative during the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline this was the ending that needed to happen.
The biggest thing for Captain Marvel #49 was for it to wrap up the whole Brood storyline so both Captain Marvel and X-Men titles can move on. In this respect, Kelly Thompson crafted the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline around the Brood Empress being a completely irredeemable villain. There was no reason for the Brood Empress to attempt a peaceful end to this latest Brood crisis. Because of that Captain Marvel killing the Brood Empress did come across as the only option to put an end to things.
That said, this ending with the Brood Empress would’ve been stronger if Thompson and Gerry Duggan had their stories work more in conjunction with each other. Because over in Duggan’s X-Men, we saw how because of the Brood Empress’s actions the entire Marvel Universe was in danger if Captain Marvel didn’t go through with her ultimate decision. Thompson should’ve at least referenced what we saw in the X-Men series to strengthen Captain Marvel’s ultimate decision at the end of “Revenge Of The Brood.”
On a more positive note, Captain Marvel did show that even when she was fueled with revenge Carol Danvers was still aware of saving everyone. Carol is able to channel the energy she had to create a mini-bomb that would create a wave that cured Spider-Woman and the X-Men from becoming Broodlings was well done. This showed the control that Carol had even though she was in a state she could’ve been completely consumed by revenge.
Because of all this, it was great too that the ultimate payoff to this story was Thompson bringing things back to Carol and Rogue’s relationship. Carol and Rogue have never really been able to resolve their original meeting with each other, they’ve mostly had a professional superhero relationship. Thompson tapped into this unresolved history to not only give weight to how Rogue helped stabilize Captain Marvel’s Super Saiyan-like state but also further emphasize the importance of Binary’s impact on the story.
Making this part of the story even better was that Thompson did give time to share Rogue’s perspective on her decision. Rogue sharing her feelings on what Carol letting her help showed this was an important moment for Rogue to have. It is something that will allow Rogue to move forward as even with all the positive things she has done as a superhero what happened with Carol clearly haunted her. This also helped to further strengthen Rogue and Gambit’s relationship as he was the one Rogue shared these feelings with.
The ending left things open for Binary to return in the future while a hopeful ending was odd timing given Captain Marvel #49 is the penultimate ending. As we know with comics, no one stays dead forever and it was some self-awareness by Carol to have this hope. Binary’s resting place being where she was born did help with the emotional punch of Carol’s thoughts at the end of Captain Marvel #49.
Sergio Davila provided solid artwork throughout Captain Marvel #49. Davila’s artwork was at its best when only drawing two or three characters. When we get the massive group shots the artwork was a bit more inconsistent with how each character was drawn. That said, when putting over Captain Marvel’s Super Saiyan-like state Davila got over how powerful Carol was at this moment.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Carol Danvers was shown stepping up and doing what she needed to do to put an end to the conflict with the Brood Empress. The ending could’ve been better if the Brood story running concurrently over in the X-Men series was integrated in a more seamless manner. The way Rogue played an important role in the story did help in making up for this. Overall, Captain Marvel #49 provided a satisfying conclusion to the “Revenge Of The Brood” storyline
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10