Fun read, if you just focus on the immediate story. But ultimately unsatisfying, if you aren't reading the rest of the Secret Wars to understand what's going on and what the ending of the main story in this volume might mean. ( )

Okay, I don't have any idea what this whole Secret Wars/Warzones universe is, and I don't care. Blah, blah, blah, don't care. If I'd realize what this TPB was before I bought it, I wouldn't have bout it, because it doesn't completely work as a stand alone, and I've no interest in reading any of the other tie-ins.

But, you know, Carol. And I like Carol. I like Carol Corps attitude. I like the all female fighter pilots. I like some of the classic war movie feel of the plot. But there's just too much "what?" at both the beginning and the end.

Meh. ( )

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Kelly Thompson and illustrated by David Lopez and Laura Braga is the Captain Marvel-centred volume that came out of the Secret Wars (Warzones) event. It features Carol Danvers and the Banshee Squadron that we saw in the very first run of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, back in 2012. (The volume also contains issue #17 of that Captain Marvel run, which makes for rather odd chronology.)

I have to start off by saying I have no idea what on Earth is going on with this event. Somehow Doctor Doom is like god and everyone is living in an alternate reality lacking memories of what we'd think of as the real world. And Doctor Doom's police/enforcement squad is made up of Thors, which he created. It was all very confusing and I don't really blame the main characters for being suspicious of the circumstances they find themselves with.

I liked the characters and the plot, in the most narrow sense, was enjoyable enough. That said, we didn't get any real resolution at the end, which was a bit of a cliff hanger. (If any one knows where that story is directly picked up again, please let me know — unless it's in A-Force which I'm about to read next.) I did like the appearance of the, well, one male character that wasn't a Thor. And the interactions between the Banshees and Carol were great; although I'm not a fan of Helen Cobb, I don't object to her existence. But gah I wanted to know what happened next.

I only flipped through issue #17 of the 2012 run at the end, which I had read before. You can see my thoughts here.

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps was a weirder volume than I expected. That is mostly the fault of the Secret Wars event making things confusing. So that was disappointing. But I always enjoy reading about Carol and the characters made up for the weird setting, for me anyway. I'm not sure how much to recommend this volume in isolation, however. Hopefully you can decide from what I've said above if this is something you'd enjoy.

4 / 5 stars

You can read more reviews on my blog. ( )