Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Coven: Part 4 “Exhibit Aâ€
Written by: Peter David
Penciled art: Ivan Reis
Colored art: Chris Sotomayor
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: Andy Schmidt
Publisher: Marvel Comics
You can’t understand just how hard I find it to write this review. CAPTAIN MARVEL had been one of my favorite books for a long time. I didn’t start reading Peter David’s CAPTAIN MARVEL until about twenty issues into the previous series, or this series if you go with the sub-numbering. Fellow 411mania reviewer Mike Maillaro lent me the entire run up to that point, and immediately I was hooked! The irreverent humor, frequent guest stars, and wonderful characterization were impossible to resist. I added the book to my pull list and continued following it until it was cancelled, and then restarted a year ago with the current incarnation.
Never in a million years did I think I’d reach this point, but here we are. This is the last issue of CAPTAIN MARVEL I will read. The book isn’t the worst thing out there, but it’s the worst book that I read. The sheer level of mediocrity the book has held since being relaunched, can no longer go unpunished! The new Cap, because I can’t even think of him as the same character, fancies himself a real judge, jury, and executioner these days. Well so do I! You’re out!!!!
While a handful of the issues in this series have been good, most have left me with a very bad taste. In my review of issue 9 just two months ago I declared the return of great things for this book. The dynamic between Rick and Cap seemed to be returning, and I hoped an end to the insipid villainous Captain Marvel storyline was on the horizon. Well I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes the stories have been adequate for the most part, but that’s just not acceptable! Peter David, PAD, is the man who wrote the best Hulk stories ever, some truly funny YOUNG JUSTICE stories, and some of the funniest and most satisfying stories with the previous CAPTAIN MARVEL series. This book may solicit a chuckle, but that’s a stretch. The tone, and characters feel like another man is writing them.
Captain Marvel continues his wild uncontrollable tantrum against the galaxy. Using characters for his own ends, and just blatantly not giving a crap about anything or anyone at all! At the conclusion of the first 6-issue arc, PAD had left himself with an out for the smorgasbord of God-Gone-Wild that the book has become. Unfortunately he did not take it, thus turning Captain Marvel into a character I no longer feel any empathy for. This guy is one of the biggest villainous threats the Marvel Universe now faces. He cannot be redeemed, and unfortunately the character now deserves oblivion. Much the same way Hal Jordan was corrupted into a character that could never really be returned to his roots, Cap has now reached that line.
This isn’t the book I loved anymore! The entire U-Decide “event†that Marvel concocted can be directly found at fault for the fall of a once great, albeit seldom read title. The old book was funny, quirky, and didn’t take much seriously, and was often a big in-joke for PAD fans. The current title is so full of angst; it’s not even fitting to be the book that continues the lives of some beloved characters. The gimmick used many years ago on TV’s Dallas, that saw Bobby Ewing come out of the shower after being dead a number of years (for those that don’t know, the last few seasons were a dream), would be the only thing that could return our character to us! Of course if they pulled something like that after all this time, I’d be really mad about the money I spent. Hell I’m already mad about the money I spent! So I guess it’s over, it had been fun, but far to infrequently for the last year.
