Captain Marvel #26 // Review
Captain Marvel #26 is written by Kelly Thompon, drawn by Lee Garbett, colored by Antonio Fabela, and lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles. Captain Marvel #26 is the conclusion to the ‘Brave New World’ story arc.
At the end of Captain Marvel #25, Carol had just escaped captivity with the help of her friends. Captain Marvel #26 picks up right where the last issue left off, and the final battle between Captain Marvel and Ove is underway. Captain Marvel has all of her allies with her, but Ove is a cunning and powerful foe, so victory won’t be easy.
Captain Marvel #26 isn’t Thompson’s best writing. The pacing in this issue feels off. Most of the emotional moments in the story occur in the second half of the comic. And because there are so many of them happening back-to-back, there’s no time to process one thing before something else is happening. Thompson doesn’t let one moment sink in before jumping to the next one. The rest of Thompson’s writing is fine in Captain Marvel #26 is fine, the character’s voices are consistent with past issues, and the story is pretty cohesive. But the pacing is what threw everything off.
Garbett’s art in Captain Marvel #26 is absolutely stunning. The issue is almost entirely nonstop action, and it’s exciting to see so many different characters just giving their all, especially Carol and Brigid. With Brigid finally able to use Mjolnir and the powers of the God of Thunder, she temporarily makes Carol even more powerful. Not only does this make Carol all but unstoppable, it gives her a fantastic new look in the form of looking like a being of fiery light. And Brigid gets her own moments to shine wielding Mjolnir and lightning. And It might not be a plot essential detail, but Emma Frost holding Jeff the Landshark? Absolutely adorable. Thank you, Garbett, for those few panels.
Fabela’s colors in Captain Marvel #26 are stunning. Captain Marvel’s bright fiery form is showstopping. She’s the star of the show, and she looks the part. But Fabela doesn’t neglect the other characters or the background. Another standout is Brigid letting lose her God of Thunder powers in the form of brightly colored lighting that looks like it’s shining.
Cowles lettering is hit-or-miss in Captain Marvel #26. There are moments where the layout of the speech bubbles is fine. It’s easy to follow the order and easy to tell who’s speaking. But then there are also times where there’s so much dialogue that the speech bubble ends up almost overpowering the panel. However, that’s not entirely Cowles’ fault; rather, it’s a matter of having too much dialogue for each scene. Had the script been tightened a bit, maybe this would’ve been less of an issue.
There were a lot of threads to tie up at the end of this arc, and maybe there were too many. Because the emotional moments in Captain Marvel #26 felt rushed, and there wasn’t time for them to truly sink in. The story felt unbalanced. It wasn’t a bad story; it was just underwhelming. Garbett’s art and Fabela’s colors made Captain Marvel #26 a visually satisfying ending, at least. But without a solid story to back it up, the issue just feels okay overall.
