Just when things couldn’t get more complicated for Kamala – they take her dog!
Creative Staff:
Story: G. Willow Wilson
Art: Adrian Alphona
What They Say:
Kamala bands together with some unlikely heroes against the maniacal Inventor. But has she taken on more than she can handle? Find out why Ms. Marvel is the best new super hero of the year!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After two months between issues, Ms. Marvel is back and she’s definitely still in a difficult situation. Kamala’s big plan to deal with the Inventor and free the kids that are part of his plot hasn’t exactly gone well from the start, as she’s had her struggles along the way, had a visit from Wolverine and ended up in enough trouble herself. But when she finally gets to deal with the kids and set them free, having them reveal that they actually think they’re doing some good there and like the Inventor, she’s pretty well flummoxed by the whole thing. And rightly so, since she, with her teenage years of experience, obviously knows what’s really going on considering she’s been at this for oh so very long.
She does get a decent bit of an explanation from one of the kids there about why they’re helping the Inventor, as he’s peddled a story – which may or may not be true – about how he wants to use the electrical fields produced by teenage bodies to generate power, which could free the world from dependence on oil. It’s certainly an amusing take on how the old take advantage of the young and we see Kamala doesn’t really buy this since even if it’s true, it just means turning kids into human batteries and making them disposal. Shades of Matrix obviously come to mind, but it’s a much smaller kind of story being pushed here with it. One run by a human sized Cockatiel at that. So Kamala’s lack of belief over the whole thing makes plenty of sense when you get down to it. And the more she questions them and gets them to say things out loud, the more they slowly start to realize the oddness of it as well. But for kids like these, they just wanted to believe in something.
A lot of the book is action based as the Inventor tries to take her out, and along the way realizes he’s losing the kids that are there and just opts to instead kidnap Lockjaw since he knows Kamala’s affection for her partner in all of this. There are some fun sequences here as it plays out and we see Kamala getting a better handle on her powers and how to use them, but it turns on a teenage dime when Lockjaw is absconded with. The Inventor has his own plan, and we do see a touch of it at the very end, but mostly he’s just trying to set a trap to get Kamala and the others to his place so he can capture them for his own deeds. And they do pretty much walk right into it. What’s both fun and bothersome is that the Inventor has some fun toys to work with in terms of vehicles and the like, but it just adds to the overall weirdness of the book as it doesn’t really fit well within the world. Which is strange to say considering this is the Marvel Universe. But for me, I like the look and design of it all, but it just feels incredibly out of place. Even for Jersey City.
In Summary:
After hearing so many good things about Ms. Marvel, I dug into the series at the beginning of the fall of this year and really came away enjoying the first four or five issues. But as the series went on, it’s felt a bit listless, had to deal with a guest appearance, got tied into the Inhumans side of things lightly (which makes sense) and then dove into this Inventor storyline. That just has not clicked for me at all as it’s gone on because it’s taken us away from Kamala’s home, family, friends, school and more. It feels too decompressed in a way for a book that needs to be like the 1960’s Spider-man books in giving us a blend of her life as a superhero learning what to do while also handling her personal life. It’s been all about the superhero side and so far it doesn’t feel like we’ve gotten decent or interesting stories about it. The series feels like it’s treading water and it really needs to bring this to a conclusion soon so it can find better footing.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 17th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
