The Carol Corps Enlists Stohl, Rosanas for New "Captain Marvel" Series

[Galerion]

The more I think about Marvel NOW based on what we learn, the more OK I'm with it, but this book's relaunch rubs me the wrong way. Basically, from what I can tell, it's not going to be a Marvel-wide relaunch. Some books are getting shaken up with a new status quo and when they get a new status quo, they get a new issue one. In fact, for the most part, they get a new title as well - Invincible Iron Man --> All-New Iron Man, International Iron Man --> Infamous Iron Man, All-New All-Different Avengers --> Champions, New Avengers --> US Avengers.

This book seems the outlier to all of that. It's not getting retitled. It's changing writers, but it changed writers once already for Civil War II. Yes, CW changed the status quo, but is it going to completely change it? Is she no longer the first line of defense in space? If that's so, that's a real shame because I don't think the book went on nearly long enough to get its footing. It had one opening arc that was promising. If it's going to keep the same status quo, that's better but, once again, why the renumbering? I'm not saying relaunches are bad. I just want the books to find a voice first.

Well I do think a renumbering is appropriate in this instance though. The fallout from an event plus an entirely new creative team makes it not very likely they could just continue flawless from where the current ends.


That being said I can understand and agree with not being happy with this relaunch. I honestly think that Captain Marvel is a problematic character for Marvel themselves and it kinda shows in their actions.

1) Marvel has signaled that they want her as their flagship female hero and promotes her everywhere and includes her in tons of stuff. The problem is that the readership isn't actually rewarding that effort. These are the average amount of issues sold for each female solo book as of May 2016.

1. Spider-Gwen 70,407 (8 issues)
2. The Mighty Thor 64,833 (7 issues)
3. All-New Wolverine 55,077 (8 issues)
4. Black Widow 42,599 (3 issues)
5. Ms. Marvel 40,098 (7 issues)
6. Mockingbird 32,404 (3 issues)
7. Captain Marvel 31,874 (5 issues)
8. Silk 31,766 (8 issues)
9. Spider-Woman 30,499 (7 issues)
10. Scarlet Witch 27,210 (6 issues)
11. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 22,872 (8 issues)
12. Angela: Queen of Hel 21,059 (7 issues)
13. Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat 20,686 (6 issues)

As we can see here the Captain doesn't fares to well here. Certainly not flagship hero level by any means. A damning and funny thing here is that Kamala is towering above her "idol" by quite an amount. Another damning thing is that she is surround by heroes who are not even getting close the same amount of promotion and prominence as she does. This leads out to the second point...

2) Marvel of course sees that too and their solution is to relaunch and have an high rotation of creative teams on the book even within a run. With different status quos on top of that. Marvel obviously does this because they hope to finally find something that catches on with readers. The problem is that this also does damage at the same time. The issue is this stuff makes Carol also into an unstable character. You can never be sure what exactly your are getting because the character doesn't seem to have something established and if you have liked something in a run there is a good chance that exactly that thing is discarded soon after just to try something new. This can make current readers fed up and also may deter non-readers from actually trying out the book. A relaunch in itself is not a problem. Just look at Thor or Spider-Gwen which simply continued their story with the same creative team. No biggie. Carol isn't getting those kind of relaunches though.


I don't know if there is actually a solution to this particular problem.
I personally see another problem with the current Carol and this totally subjective so Im not listing with the above points which I think are pretty objective.

Marvel on their quest to make her their flagship female is making the mistake of portraying her too much as the best and perfect. I personally call that the Superman syndrome who also has to fight that problem.
If you look at most popular heroes you will notice one thing. They are all flawed in their own ways. They have traits and flaws that hook you, make them relatable and not perfect. Be it ego, arrogance, rage issues, insecurities, trust issues, a certain darkness in them, craziness, unpredictability, low or no morals, an unhealthy need for something, etc.
I find current Carol really lacking in that regard. While I have honestly never followed Carol too closely I know she used to had flaws like a drinking problem but all seems to have been swept away and it was replaced with nothing.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Was hoping they'd just gloss over the whole fascism thing from Civil War II. For however popular she becomes she still won't have her biggest fan anymore.

Also can we get a different costume now that Anka isn't around to draw it?

[seevis]

I'm done with pushing Carol to fronts of heroes as the only best-true-super-uber-divine hero though I like her. Especially as Ms. Marvel.
I hope that there will be a better story for her and good artist, who doesn't turn her into man, trying create her as "real feminist who was in army", 'cause that was dumb. Anyway, I like Carol's costume but her muscles or hair make her more man than woman and it's upsetting. I don't need sexbomb with perf body (even if Carol's this type which was admitted, accepted few times) but I'd love to see Carol, not Steve Rogers' version, come on.

Anyway I wish that they will finally write Carol not OOC and with every relaunch I see that they're still doing it. I'm tired of this.

[Fused]

They just keep revamping Captain Marvel and each version of the book seems like its own thing.

When will they use elements of the most sucessful version of the character to date: the Brian Reed run?

Even if it meana going back to the Cockrum costume , The Lightning Squad and Carol having Norman Osborne and Moonstone as arch enemies.

If there's only ever been one commercially sucessful version of Carol you would think the way forward would be somewhat obvious.

Keep dreamin'. Whatever this is that Marvel is today will have to run its course before we see anything that resembles that version of the character. That beloved Carol will be all but a memory once the film version is set in stone.

[dreyga2000]

2) Marvel of course sees that too and their solution is to relaunch and have an high rotation of creative teams on the book even within a run. With different status quos on top of that. Marvel obviously does this because they hope to finally find something that catches on with readers. The problem is that this also does damage at the same time. The issue is this stuff makes Carol also into an unstable character. You can never be sure what exactly your are getting because the character doesn't seem to have something established and if you have liked something in a run there is a good chance that exactly that thing is discarded soon after just to try something new. This can make current readers fed up and also may deter non-readers from actually trying out the book. A relaunch in itself is not a problem. Just look at Thor or Spider-Gwen which simply continued their story with the same creative team. No biggie. Carol isn't getting those kind of relaunches though.

What????

Brain Reed was on Ms. Marvel for 50 issues, then Kelly Sue Deconnick was on for 33 issues... Granted Fazekas and Butters run was brief and the was Gage for the transition but still that is 4 writers over the course of 10 years... I would hardly call that a high rotation

1. Spider-Gwen 70,407 (8 issues)
2. The Mighty Thor 64,833 (7 issues)
3. All-New Wolverine 55,077 (8 issues)
4. Black Widow 42,599 (3 issues)
5. Ms. Marvel 40,098 (7 issues)
6. Mockingbird 32,404 (3 issues)
7. Captain Marvel 31,874 (5 issues)
8. Silk 31,766 (8 issues)
9. Spider-Woman 30,499 (7 issues)
10. Scarlet Witch 27,210 (6 issues)
11. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 22,872 (8 issues)
12. Angela: Queen of Hel 21,059 (7 issues)
13. Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat 20,686 (6 issues)

Of this list Carol is the only one that was broken 100 issues... Aside from She-Hulk (and Spider-Girl but she's not 616) no other female heroes have the same longevity of publication...

[Panfoot]

I... I just can't get into this The last creative team didn't even get a full year and barely got any time to do their own thing (hell, they didn't even last half a year). I cant' invest my time into this new series when there's no reason for me to believe that the same thing won't happen again.

I can't Marvel... so no thank you.

Pretty much the same for me, I didn't even bother to pick up #6.

[Mike_Murdock]

^ I was going to stop at Butters and Fazekas, but I'm reading Ultimates and Inhumans, so I decided to pick up issue six as part of Civil War II. At this rate, I'll probably read it until the relaunch, but this seems like a good book to go back on a six month delay/Marvel Unlimited instead.

[sifighter]

You know since Alpha flight looks to be staying around for now I'm going to guess, that I could be completely wrong about, that at least one member of the Guardians of the Galaxy will be one of the new recruits in this relaunch. My guess is Rocket Raccoon, he seems to be on Carols side in the promos.

[macattack]

I'm done with pushing Carol to fronts of heroes as the only best-true-super-uber-divine hero though I like her. Especially as Ms. Marvel.
I hope that there will be a better story for her and good artist, who doesn't turn her into man, trying create her as "real feminist who was in army", 'cause that was dumb. Anyway, I like Carol's costume but her muscles or hair make her more man than woman and it's upsetting. I don't need sexbomb with perf body (even if Carol's this type which was admitted, accepted few times) but I'd love to see Carol, not Steve Rogers' version, come on.

Anyway I wish that they will finally write Carol not OOC and with every relaunch I see that they're still doing it. I'm tired of this.

The way KSD wrote her is the new character for Carol. The Brian Reed version is now the OOC one. This also means, sadly, that Carol is going to have the borderline-buzz until the film chooses to give her the traditional long hair, forcing the comics to have her grow it out again.

A shame because I can't get behind this take on Carol for the life of me. They're trying way too hard to make her their version of Superman/Wonder Woman instead of just letting her be Carol. It gets to me that the film will define her so much more than the comic.

[MyriVerse]

The way KSD wrote her is the new character for Carol. The Brian Reed version is now the OOC one. This also means, sadly, that Carol is going to have the borderline-buzz until the film chooses to give her the traditional long hair, forcing the comics to have her grow it out again.

A shame because I can't get behind this take on Carol for the life of me. They're trying way too hard to make her their version of Superman/Wonder Woman instead of just letting her be Carol. It gets to me that the film will define her so much more than the comic.

The KSD version was just wrong wrong wrong. It still is OOC and doesn't fit her at all, and that's why she's been having so much trouble. The current run has just been lacking and villains for her to go against.

[macattack]

The KSD version was just wrong wrong wrong. It still is OOC and doesn't fit her at all, and that's why she's been having so much trouble. The current run has just been lacking and villains for her to go against.

KSD gave up all pretense of writing an ambitious, defining tale for Carol six issues into her run and it became all about The Adventures of Carol and Space Cat, meandering around without giving her any meaningful growth, and erasing her memories didn't help either. None of the other writers brought in since KSD have been able to move Carol out of that archetype KSD locked her into.

And now Carol's been reduced to Marvel throwing whatever female writers are available at her and seeing what sticks. But nothing is sticking, necessitating the endless relaunches and status quo adjustments. While 31,000 isn't cancellation-worthy, it is not an ideal place for someone supposed to be a marquee character to be at. Spider-Gwen is doing double the amount of sales Carol has. By this logic, Gwen Stacy should be the marquee female hero of Marvel.

They need to give Carol a hard look. I would try to combine the visual aesthetics of KSD's run (and possibly let Carol grow her hair out to a bob at least) with the tone and progression of Brian Reed's run. Time to give her some villains and defining stories.

[Fused]

KSD gave up all pretense of writing an ambitious, defining tale for Carol six issues into her run and it became all about The Adventures of Carol and Space Cat, meandering around without giving her any meaningful growth, and erasing her memories didn't help either. None of the other writers brought in since KSD have been able to move Carol out of that archetype KSD locked her into.

And now Carol's been reduced to Marvel throwing whatever female writers are available at her and seeing what sticks. But nothing is sticking, necessitating the endless relaunches and status quo adjustments. While 31,000 isn't cancellation-worthy, it is not an ideal place for someone supposed to be a marquee character to be at. Spider-Gwen is doing double the amount of sales Carol has. By this logic, Gwen Stacy should be the marquee female hero of Marvel.

They need to give Carol a hard look. I would try to combine the visual aesthetics of KSD's run (and possibly let Carol grow her hair out to a bob at least) with the tone and progression of Brian Reed's run. Time to give her some villains and defining stories.

Make no mistake, if trends stay consistent with literally every year since they introduced the Captain Marvel concept, she'll drop to 20k readership necessitating yet another cancellation/relaunch biding time until they can ape whatever the MCU does with her character.

[Galerion]

While 31,000 isn't cancellation-worthy, it is not an ideal place for someone supposed to be a marquee character to be at. Spider-Gwen is doing double the amount of sales Carol has. By this logic, Gwen Stacy should be the marquee female hero of Marvel.

Since I feel you are referencing that number from my post I want to clarify that these numbers are the averages from the entire run of each book. They don't reflect current numbers. The latest issue from Captain Marvel was sitting at 23,812 for clarification.

[somacula]

Since I feel you are referencing that number from my post I want to clarify that these numbers are the averages from the entire run of each book. They don't reflect current numbers. The latest issue from Captain Marvel was sitting at 23,812 for clarification.

I think a better estimate of sales power would be measuring the average of the last 3 issues of the run since #1 is always inflated and also specify if the issues is part of a crossover since those always inflate sales

[seevis]

The way KSD wrote her is the new character for Carol. The Brian Reed version is now the OOC one. This also means, sadly, that Carol is going to have the borderline-buzz until the film chooses to give her the traditional long hair, forcing the comics to have her grow it out again.

A shame because I can't get behind this take on Carol for the life of me. They're trying way too hard to make her their version of Superman/Wonder Woman instead of just letting her be Carol. It gets to me that the film will define her so much more than the comic.

The KSD version was just wrong wrong wrong. It still is OOC and doesn't fit her at all, and that's why she's been having so much trouble. The current run has just been lacking and villains for her to go against.

For me the Brian Reed's version of Carol was one of best. KSD write her... just presented her bad. There was a couple of writers, who could keep Carol as she was, she should be - independent, somehow with sarcastic/ ironic sense of humour and being honest also human, have this feeling (I love the issues where she felt guilty because of Arachne and her daughter during CW). Also love Carol who's trying to make someone else better, help them with recognize themselves. Her sacrifice to friends. It's defining Ms. Marvel, who had some problems, had some terrible writers but now I think that they pushing her too hard to create her as the best (even if she wanted to be best of her).
Arguments about her as woman from army, who's feminist (in 21st century, not in 1970s, where there was waaaaaaaaay different kind of feminism) it's making her worse, really.
I'd love to see her as woman, as tough in character lady and that what Marvel's doing with her it's not good.
Really, combine of Brian Reed's Carol version and Dexter Soy's art (or Cho, Cheung) were the best.
I love Carol but much love her as Ms. Marvel than as Captain Marvel, they're clearly making her Mar Vell, just to making feel better some groups.

Sorry for my English, not my first language.