I really miss the non-angsty Captain Marvel. Nineteen issues in, the overly long "Marv's gone crazy" story has finally come to something of an ending and we're on to a new arc, and it seems that it's going to be about the pain of immortality and doomed love. Wheeeeee! To give credit where it's due, David has succeeded in changing this title pretty drastically from what it was, and in so doing may have earned a larger audience (I don't keep careful track of sales figures, so I'm not sure). The problem for me is that this version is considerably less interesting and a lot less fun, and it's clear that this darker tone and overly angsty characterization is here to stay.
This issue reintroduces one of my least favorite plot elements from the previous series, when Marlo, despite a staunch record of heterosexuality, decided that she was in love with bald telepath Moondragon. It was a weird plot twist that, rather than being explained as mind control or pressures of her situation or anything that would have made the odd behavior believable in any way, was used largely to write Marlo out. David writes Marlo back in with pretty much the same disregard for any logical behavior, making her affair with Moondragon even more meaningless in hindsight than it seemed when it was introduced, and he throws in another doomed future with Marlo for good measure.
As relieved as I am to see Genis once again acting like a hero as opposed to simply a crazy person, the remnants of the previous story continue to clutter the book. Phylla, the thoroughly uninteresting sister of Genis, hangs around as part of the supporting cast, and you can't go more than a few pages without referencing Marv's temporary insanity. Which is all very good in terms of consistency, but for me, it just serves notice that the direction that David has taken the title is here to stay, and not an ill-considered shock value revamp that will fall by the wayside.
Speaking of new elements from volume two that I don't like, Aaron Lopresti signs on for art chores this issue and becomes another artist on the list not being served very well by the digital colors, shot right from the pencils. Leaving aside petty concerns like Captain Marvel's new costume being fairly weak compared to the stronger design that he started with (before Alex Ross's redesign), the whole book just looks wrong. It's not as unclear as the storytelling sometimes became with Azaceta, but it looks flat and lifeless, despite the colors popping off the page. There's some real beauty to some of these pages and panels, but for some reason, the faux-painted look just really looks odd to me, and I don't think it's serving anyone - writer, penciller or colorist - that well.
The most interesting aspect of the book, the interaction between Genis and Rick, remains its strongest feature. After the previous story, their banter can't be quite as light-hearted as it once was, but David does reintroduce a little bit more fun into their back-and-forth here and it's welcome. Genis is still acting unilaterally, but his actions seem at least more good-hearted, and Rick is still reacting with hysteria to just about everything, but because the stakes aren't as high, it can get back to being humorous instead of just disturbing. Unfortunately, lightening up the Genis-Rick Jones relationship a tad really doesn't do much for the rest of the book, and I miss the lighter, more fun elements that David brought to much of the first volume of the book. Given David's penchant for putting humor in where it disrupts the tone of a book rather than helps it, it seems odd to me that Captain Marvel has swung so far in the other direction.
