Classic Review: Marvel Masterworks- Captain Marvel Vol. 5

Quick Summary

Pros: Some of the action is fun to see and one story ends with a great twist. Captain Marvel’s quest for personal development is compelling. The artwork is mostly positive.

Cons: The majority of the stories here are mediocre and fail to truly raise excitement. The book has problems with female representation, contradictory narrative devices, and undeveloped plot threads.

Overall: Though this collection contains a few positive features, these are mostly lost in a sea of negatives. The positives come from a few well-developed stories that, unfortunately, comprise the minority of this collection. The majority of the book either features stories that are just plain uninteresting or that are significantly marred by narrative problems. In the end, this volume underwhelms at almost every turn and is not likely to appeal to most readers.

Story

The stories in Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Vol. 5 mostly continue the lackluster quality seen in the previous volume (Review). The majority of this book depicts lackluster chapters where brief flashes of entertainment are snuffed out by an overwhelming sense of mediocrity. Adding on to these negatives are a host of other problems ranging from contradictory story elements to ridiculous sexism. The only redeeming factors are a decently compelling narrative about Captain Marvel attempting to find his place in the universe and two chapters about Adam Warlock’s war against Thanos. Overall though, this is a troubled volume that does not offer a lot to its readers.

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The majority of the stories in Captain Marvel Vol. 5 range from mediocre to average in terms of quality. Some of them have exciting moments, like those found in Captain Marvel’s battle against Deathgrip and Mercurio. Some of them also have successful narrative twists, like when it is revealed that one of the Kree leaders is actually a Skrull.

However, most of the activity that takes place across these chapters is just not that exciting. The battles against the Sentry, Ronan, the Super-Adaptoid, and Nitro all fly by so quickly they cannot be fully appreciated. Most of them also are driven forward by random happenstance rather than meaningful motivations.

There are also other more subtle issues found within this book. Female characters almost exclusively exist as romantic conquests for the male characters, all of which are handled in a way that feels extremely intrusive to the actual storytelling. Plot devices are used in contradictory ways in order to move the story forward; such as the Kree being depicted as rapacious warriors in almost appearance yet being described as “logical” and “emotionless” when dealing with plot threads about the Kree-virus on Earth. Some plot threads are simply abandoned altogether, as the Kree-virus never ends up having any real impact and almost nothing is actually done with the adult member of the Teen Brigade. This host of problems damages an already damaged comic book.

That being said, Captain Marvel Vol. 5 is not entirely without positives, the biggest of which is the narrative that focuses on Captain Marvel’s quest to discover his place in the world. Mar-Vel is a hero who’s history of shifting writers have caused him to have a history of shifting roles. He was once a soldier, a scientist, an outlaw, and wander. Now, his connection to Rick Jones is broken and he has decided to settle down on Earth and define himself as its protector. Having him question his place in the world makes him more relatable and works as somewhat of a metacommentary (intentional or not) on his own mixed history. While the rest of the volume didn’t exactly make me want to read more of Mar-Vel’s adventures, his personal story is what I am looking forward to seeing continue in Captain Marvel Vol. 6 (Review).

The other major positives come from the two chapters written by Jim Starlin. These chapters depict an epic battle that has Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, and the Avengers team up to stop the universe from being destroyed by Thanos. In many ways, this is a hugely successful spiritual sequel to the events that took place across Starlin’s time writing Captain Marvel Vol. 3 (Review). However, these two chapters feel more like Adam Warlock stories than they feel like Captain Marvel stories, causing them to fit poorly with the rest of this volume. This does not take away the appeal of these chapters but they simply don’t read as well here as they do in Marvel Masterworks: Adam Warlock Vol. 2 (Review).

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Art

Unlike the story, the artwork in Captain Marvel Vol. 5 ends up being pretty positive. The first half of the volume features some great artwork from Al Milgrom and a chapter from George Tuska as well. This portion of the collection is nicely structured and is able to tell the story as well as it can be told. The visuals here also allows the characters to pop and fills the battles with action. Later on, multiple chapters from Pat Broderick change up the art style but don’t see a decrease in quality. These chapters handle Mar-Vel’s civilian look particularly well, which plays into the success of his personal story. Captain Marvel Vol. 5 also contains two stellar chapters from Jim Starlin, whose cosmic visuals work as well here as they always do. In general, the artwork in this volume is pleasant and rarely features any significant negatives. 

Continuity

Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Vol. 5 continues the story from Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Vol. 4 (Review).

The story here continues in Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Vol. 6 (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Captain Marvel used the portal to the Negative Zone in Avengers #89, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 10 (Review).
• Ronan the Accuser’s arrival on Earth is referenced. He arrived in Fantastic Four #65, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four Vol. 7 (Review). 
• The Sentry was previously seen in Avengers #91 and #95, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 10 (Review).
• The Super-Adaptoid was thought destroyed back in Iron Man #51, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 8. He was freed in Iron Man #91, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 11. 
• Mercurio’s story, from Captain Marvel #51, essentially continues his story from Thor #209 and #214-216, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Thor Vol. 12. 
• A note indicates that Phae-Dor was introduced in Inhumans #3, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Inhumans Vol. 2. 
• Nitro was lost in the cosmos back in Omega the Unknown #8, collected in Omega: The Unknown Classic.
• Rick Jones mentions visiting France with the Hulk back in Hulk #2, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Hulk Vol. 1.
• A note in Captain Marvel #54 indicates a Salvation Army was previously visited back in Inhumans #11, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Inhumans Vol. 2.  
• Many references are made to Captain Marvel’s initial adventures on Earth, taking place throughout Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Vol. 1 (Review).
• Starcore first began appearing in Avengers #102, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 11 (Review).
• Iron Man’s solo fight against Thanos took place in Iron Man #55, a part of the “Thanos War”, see our Reading Order for more information.
• In Avengers Annual #7, Iron Man makes a passing reference to fighting a Skrull fleet. This fight took place during the “Kree-Skrull War”. See our “Kree-Skrull War Reading Order” for more information about this war.