Captain Marvel #9 and 10/100, by Kelly Sue DeConnick (writer), David Lopez (artist, 9 & 10), Marcio Takara (artist, #10), Laura Braga (artist, #10), Lee Loughridge (color art, #9 & 10), Nick Filardi (color art, #10), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nice touch, making the cover look slightly weathered. My comic guy even got in on it by beating up one of the corners somewhat. You say that wasn't part of the presentation? Oh. It's fine, I don't really worry about whether comics are in mint condition. I just need to be able to read them without them falling to pieces.Carol and Tic are discussing hypotheticals, as friends do, while listening to Lila Cheney's latest album, and Lila teleports in, asking Carol to use her diplomatic status to get Lila out of a marriage that was arranged between her and the prince of Aladna, when Lila visited there as a child. Fortunately for Carol, the prince knows Lila doesn't really want to get hitched, and he doesn't want to force her. Problem being, he doesn't have the choice, no man on Aladna has a choice when it comes to marriages. So Carol - posing as Lila's mom - prepares to block the wedding by objecting, but another objection comes from a queen with designs on that throne and Carol gets to settle things in the diplomatic manner most comfortable to her - punching things. Then Tic solves the marriage issue by agreeing to marry the beefcake prince, so he can take the throne and let everyone in the populace have control over who they marry. And in the aftermath, Lila finds a letter she was given to deliver to Carol, from Kit back on Earth.
Seems Grace Alexander, who decided she wanted to destroy Carol at the end of the previous volume of her series, had escaped from prison and sent for a legion of remote controlled rats to destroy her home in the head of the Statue of Liberty, then snuck into her old apartment to lure in Rhodey so she could blow him up. Which didn't work, naturally, and she got arrested, but it makes Carol a little homesick (the part about how her old friend Tracy is barely hanging on didn't help, I'm sure), and Lila gives her a quick lift home, just in time for Christmas.
I feel sure issue 9, with the weird outfits, the talking in rhyme, and the melodramatic "GASP!"s, is homaging something. Judging by the title of the issue, it's a rock opera, which doesn't help me any, but maybe it means something to other readers. It just isn't a language I speak, really. Couch it in Westerns, I might get it, but not rock operas. It works fine as a story anyway, I'm just positive I'm missing some extra references. I do enjoy Carol trying to be diplomatic, especially when it involves something as awkward as rhyming everything, in part because Lopez does such a good job drawing people looking uncomfortable or awkward, smiling too big, or whatever. The first real time Carol tries to rhyme (with, 'I-Indeed! Why the. . .rush? Must they wed at first. . .blush?') Carol's making these goofy hand gestures, which fits. There's no reason for them, other than she's out of her depth, and trying to do something.
The other issue gives each part of the letter to a different artist, since each part was written by a different character (from Kit, to Spider-Woman, to Rhodey). Lopez for Kit, Takara for Jessica, Braga for Rhodes. All three of them are distinct, but similar enough each part of the story feels like it's taking place in the same universe as the others. We don't get a situation where Kit's is really cartoony and exaggerated, or Jess' has huge rats because she hates rats. I suppose, if the issue were meant to be funny, that could be a missed opportunity, but I don't think that was the goal really. Carol's meant to feel wistful, and be reminded that while she dashed off into space to find herself, all the people she cares about are still living their lives.
I find it a little hard to believe Grace was actually willing to be blown up alongside Rhodey just to mess with Carol. She strikes me as the sort of villain who considers herself much to valuable and important. It's everyone else who sucks and is expendable. So I guess she knew she gave Rhodey enough times to whoosh off into the upper atmosphere to protect innocent bystanders. Still not clear on why the bomb fell off. The cold I guess, or the velocity he was moving at. Curious to see how Carol's going to handle her trip back home. The solicitation described it as being like "A Christmas Carol", so she's going to spy on them, unobserved? Seems strange, but she did say no one had to know she was hopping back to Earth for a day, which would seem to preclude talking to any of them. Jess or Rhodes, for sure.
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