REVIEW: Ms Marvel Annual #1

Reviews

Writer: Brian Reed
Artist: Mark A. Robinson

Ms. Marvel Annual #1 is like a Marvel Adventures book. I don’t mean it in a bad way. I mean it in the easy to read, plots aren’t too complicated, simply but simply drawn, one-issue story, way. No worrying about the issues before or after.

The set-up is simple. Ms. Marvel is meeting Spider-Man after Civil War and all the Registration crap and is trying to apprehend him for being unregistered (again!). Meanwhile, an eccentric billionaire genius named Stuart Cavenger has somehow divided aspects of his personality and downloaded them into a few androids. The “ambition” part of his personality has decided they ought to travel the galaxy, and has sent out some sort of techno-virus that dismantles cars in midtown Manhattan, transforming them into robots, which will then assemble themselves into a giant spaceship which the Stuarts will ride to the stars. So, the two heroes join forces to set things right.

The plot or the threat in the annual are neglectable. What really makes this book worth reading is solely the banter between Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel. It is fast, witty, and hilarious. Actually it feels like Ms. Marvel takes the back seat in her own book and is just the straight man to Spider-Man’s jokes. Maybe Reed’s intension was that exactly. To show that Ms. Marvel has humour.

The artwork in this issue is not my kinda taste but it is appropriately wacky, if strange sometimes. Mark Robinson does a pretty decent Spider-Man. I am not sure about his Ms. Marvel. He surely does a great job with the action scenes and the faces, but I don’t think I like the quieter moments and the sometimes bizarre human anatomy.

A note before I end this review. I don’t know how useful a trivia this is, but the villain of this issue is based at 1700 Broadway on the seventh floor. In real life, the seventh floor of 1700 Broadway in New York City is the main home of DC Comics. I suppose it’s a joke from Reed’s part. [Editor’s note: BwaHaHa hilariou– zzzz ;) ]

Rating: 7/10