| Ms. Marvel #11 |
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| Monday, 09 February 2015 12:38 |
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The past year has seen the precipitous rise of Kamala Khan. This month Ms. Marvel turns one and, to celebrate, we’re treated to the final chapter of the title’s first over-arc. G. Willow Wilson has done an impressive job of building up the Inventor as a credible and interesting threat and the stakes are appropriately high.The writing is as you would expect. The character voices are consistent and believable and the story takes natural turns without becoming too predictable. In fact, Ms. Marvel is such a quality comic that, at this point, each issue I open essentially has an A to lose rather than to gain.That said, this issue does have some problems. So while I’m going to focus on many of the negatives of the issue, don’t forget that these are the blemishes on an otherwise well crafted issue.Most pressingly, there are a couple of places where the momentum of the story is broken. These are places where the seriousness of a moment are undercut by a goofy reaction or vice versa. It’s odd because it’s not the result of failed jokes or attempts at drama, there are just times where Wilson just decides she’s done with one emotion and moves onto the next. Perhaps there were cuts that were necessary or perhaps the excitement of the scene felt sufficient to Wilson, but, for my part, I found it rather jarring.Indeed, a lot of the issues flaws feel like the result of too much love and excitement on Wilson’s part, a fitting malady for this series. It feels like there were a lot of ideas that came to a head in this issue but only some of them receive the time they require.The Inventor remains a bunch of fun to read, with Adrian Alphona turning in a particular effort to realize him fully, but the method of his defeat seems a little convenient. Oddly enough it comes about as a result of a very clever but, as of yet, unmentioned motivation for the mad budgie scientist. In these final pages, Wilson begins to tie the Inventor’s character together, unfortunately the converging elements never quite meet up and the character exits the stage feeling underplayed. Most pressing of the issues with the character is that it’s never clear why he needed to be a clone of Thomas Edison or what that added to his character. While he works with electricity, there’s nothing particularly relevant to Edison’s work in his master plan and I’m sure you could find many people on the internet who’d argue that the original Edison was a bigger monster than his avian counterpart. As I mention the villain’s closing lines begin to point to a Wilson’s reasons, but without further investigation it feels like it could have belonged to any inventor, several more so than Edison.The Inventor is also one of a couple of characters who fall into the series biggest trap and harp on the lessons of the day, turning subtext into redundant text. I think Wilson’s onto something really cool with the themes she’s playing with here, however, especially after last month’s dramatic speech on the subject, it really doesn’t feel like we need to pull it into such sharp focus multiple times in this issue. It’s especially irritating, though I wouldn’t use a much stronger word than that, because Wilson manages to weave her themes through the issue quite well without needing such explicit mentions.Another thing that works in some places and fails in others is the reintroduction of Kamala’s home life. With the introduction of the Inventor's volunteers, Kamala has people to fight for, but Wilson wisely ties the action back to the immediacy of her personal life. Admittedly a major element feels like it’s pulled a little out of nowhere and doesn’t fully blossom, but the story benefits from the idea being brought back into play. Likewise, part of Kamala’s master plan involves a couple of characters we’ve seen before and is both cute and clever.This issue may be Adrian Alphona’s strongest yet. Dramatic compositions and in-your-face expressions are the words of the day, with Kamala and the Inventor rightfully getting the strongest showings. The Inventor is a particular stand out, partly because he hasn’t appeared in an issue this much before and mostly because he’s a flipping bird! It’s not easy to express with a beak, but you wouldn’t know it from reading this.Dressed up in a brilliant costume, the Inventor matches Kamala’s herky-jerky movements, utilizing similar artistic techniques to very different ends. The panels don’t necessarily flow together but each one conveys its own sense of movement, often to great comedic effect.While there are a lot of funny moments and sight gags, a couple of magazines in Bruno’s room come to mind, Alphona really pulls out the stops on a couple of crucial dramatic panels, delivering something as beautiful and significant as any Event comic. The near-splash before the title page is positively gorgeous.Ian Herring does a fabulous job as well. The colors are bold, even for Ms. Marvel! Vibrant pinks and blues light up the page. His use of white as an accent is beautiful and there’s one setting that immediately stands out for its choice to eschew most of these techniques.The post Ms. Marvel #11 appeared first on Weekly Comic Book Review. Read more: http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2015/02/09/ms-marvel-11/ |
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