Final Judgement

Written by: Clint McElroy

Art by: Ig Guara

Colors by: Felipe Sobreiro

Letters by: Clayton Cowles

This Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel mini-series comes to an end this week with our two heroes facing off a possibly demented and certainly delusional Walter S Lawson, the hapless scientist whose identity Mar-Vell took all those many moons ago. (Well, everyone did think he was dead, to be fair.) With a Kree Starforce team on its way to Earth to investigate, things look set to get… unpleasant. Let’s find out how things go down…

Carol’s not happy. Having tracked down Walter (who now goes by the less than impressive name of ‘Wastrel’) to a ruined Kree ship and discovered his identity after having fought him and his Supremor and Mandroid companions, she’s now got a Kree Starforce team to contend with. Starforce teams are usually very much of the ‘kill first and ask questions later’ variety of super-powered teams. There is an amusing interlude in which both she and Kamala envisage the various violent (and lethal) ways in which the Starforce team might announce its arrival – only to be interrupted mid-speculation by a knock on the spaceship door. This Starforce team, it seems, is… different.

Led by an Accuser, Indig-O, the team is essentially a stripped-down Kree police and judiciary, with a Protector (defense counsel), Pursuer (investigator), Detainer (policeman) and Ultimus (judge). As Kamala says, it’s like a blue-skinned episode of Law & Order. Rather than proceeding to wreck the place, they decide to ask Walter some questions to which he responds with a disarming amount of reckless honesty. Walter, it seems, has a plan and getting arrested might just be part of it.

The rest of the issue has a couple of interesting twists and turns, but mostly it’s played for fun and laughs. Guara’s art is perfectly suited to this aim and characters are presented pulling a range of quirky, bemused and knowingly funny expressions. Which is, to be fair, actually quite entertaining. There’s some light touch characterization with Carol, in particular, allowing her Kree issues to blind her to the threat posed by Walter. Things are resolved satisfactorily enough, though, with a nice bit of teamwork from the two Marvels and that, as they say, is that.

If all of the above sounds a little lightweight, it is, but not in a way that makes you question why you picked up the issue to begin with. McElroy’s characterization of Carol and Kamala remains very good and there is much enjoyment to be had in watching them relate and react to each other. Similarly, the Starforce characters are pretty cool, too. (Mind you, I do have a soft spot for the Kree.) Walter comes across as both extremely clever and extremely unhinged and the gray-bearded, disheveled and slightly overweight look suits his character perfectly. Potentially, his re-emergence into the Marvel Universe is a significant moment, but it doesn’t really feel like it here. Instead, the focus is very much on Carol and Kamala’s relationship and some silly gags that are mostly successful.

Final Thoughts:

An enjoyable, if not exactly important, issue. Carol and Kamala’s relationship develops nicely, there are some fun action sequences, some engaging dialogue, and some nice, dynamic art. There are worse ways to spend your $4.

7.3/10