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CAPTAIN MARVEL #28
"Time Flies Part 2: So Tonight We're Gonna Party Like it's 2099"
Recommended (7/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Rich Perotta
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Price: $2.50 US/$3.75 CAN |
Fans of the old Spider-Man 2099 series will be in for a treat
this issue, revisiting characters and, apparently, plotlines from that series.
Those of us who didn't read a lot of that series, like me, will still be
entertained, as David does a nice job of conveying all the key information, but
will probably wind up feeling like the guy in the room who didn't quite get the
private joke. On the upside, the use of a guest artist to keep the book on a
temporary biweekly shipping schedule is a boon, as Chris Batista and Rich
Perotta turn in an amazing rendition of Captain Marvel, Starfox, Spider-Man and
the world of 2099.
Peter David is one of those
writers you either like or you don't like. Stunning observation, I know. Shut up
and stay with me. What I mean is, he has a sense of humor that some find
hilarious and some find completely obtrusive and maybe even corny and not funny.
I tend toward the former camp, and some of the humor in this issue is quite
amusing. Marlo, the "straight man" for all the cosmic weirdness that surrounds
her husband's life (and hers, more and more), gets in a lot of great interaction
with her comics store employee or personal ghost while she's taping the toilet
closed. In addition, the sardonic wit of Tyler Stone immediately establishes the
character and serves as comic relief as well. However, David does push the humor
into the "obtrusive" category a few times this issue, notably with the jokes
about Lyla being an unemotional computer servant, the Abbott and Costello
routines between Starfox and Genis and a painfully bad (and worse, obvious) joke
about organic webshooters.
The plot of the story, meanwhile, gets some clarification this issue. David deserves a lot of credit for making what is a fairly labyrinthine plot comprehensible. Even if you have read not one single issue of Spider-Man 2099, this
issue will give you a good grounding in the basic characters and setting, enough
to know that Miggy is Spider-Man, Tyler Stone is his enemy, Alchemax is a big
evil corporation and Thanatos is a major bad guy who has past dealings with all
of them. In addition, the cliffhanger ending spells out what this story arc is
all about, while leaving room for twists down the road. The downside of all this
is that, despite basic information being conveyed, there's not enough room to
convince us to care about a lot of these characters. In particular, I don't
think Thanatos could be less threatening if it were intentional, but that has as
much to do with his uninspired gladiator costume as with his typical villain
dialogue.
One of the big selling points
of this comic for me has always been the artwork by Chriscross, and I assumed
that I'd be missing his work terribly in this issue. To my pleasant surprise,
however, Chris Batista and Rich Perotta have delivered astonishingly good
artwork in this issue. They give the flying scenes a wide open feel, with a
particularly impressive double-page splash introducing Captain Marvel, Starfox
and Spider-Man early on. There are also a lot of good things to be said about
their work on facial expressions, body language and other important subtle
storytelling cues. Getting the humor and light tone of the book across, without
losing the cosmic feel, is a tough balancing act, but these artists seem to have
no trouble handling it.
Though I wasn't quite as impressed with this issue of Captain Marvel as I have
been with the last few, I'm still greatly enjoying the series, and the "Time
Flies" arc is shaping up to be quite a fun ride.
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