Originally published on Set The Tape
'Marvel’s most powerful Super Hero, Captain Marvel, must battle an old enemy in this brand-new original novel with help from her friends Tony Stark, Spectrum, Hazmat and Spider-woman!
'Captain Marvel is asked for a simple favour, but she soon meets and adversary with unparalleled power. Tony Stark wants Carol to keep an eye on brilliant grad student Mara Melamed, who is struggling to find her feet at Empire State University. Although reluctant at first, Carol meets Mara and is soon impressed by the young woman.
'But trouble quickly finds Captain Marvel in the form of a controversial operating system from DigiTech—whose mysterious CEO only appears as a hologram. To make matters worse, one of Carol’s closest friends has been framed for murder. And Mara Melamed is at the tangled centre of it all. Carol is driven to her darkest edge as she questions her identity and sense of belonging in the world. With her allies at her side, Carol must face her self-doubt and protect the world from impending doom.'
Captain Marvel is a character that’s had a lot of cosmic adventures of the years, no matter which character is wearing the title. Most recently Carol Danvers has appeared in a major movie that saw her fighting aliens in space, but Captain Marvel: Shadow Code subverts things quite delightfully, by bringing Carol to Earth for a more grounded adventure. The book even begins with her heading off into space before being called back to the planet by Iron-Man to help a young grad student who believes her family have been caught up in a conspiracy by a tech giant.
One of the best things about the book is that Carol isn’t alone, and Segal brings a host of other familiar faces along to help out along the way. Early on in the book we spend time seeing Carol’s relationship with fellow Avenger Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, and it’s rather delightful. The book slows down to show a more familial situation, complete with Jessica’s kid, and it’s something comics don’t often have time to do. And this is one of the best things about this book being brand new, and not based off an existing story, it’s able to take its time.
There are a lot of conventions and expectations when it comes to comic writing. For example, it’s expected that you need to have some kind of action each issue. But as this story is created for the prose form that’s not a consideration, and as such we’re able to take a slower start to things, we’re able to lay the groundwork for the mission, and can have a chapter where Carol is just investigating with her friend and her kid, eating pastries and chilling on the sofa. It’s a nice change of pace to how you expect these stories to play out.
Segal does include plenty of action for those who like it though, and there are some very cool moments across the course of the book that you can’t help but think ‘I’d love to see that drawn on a comic page’. It makes the most of this medium, whilst still appealing to fans of the other. But most of all, Segal captures Carol’s character well, and for a story where you’re almost constantly with the hero that’s perhaps the most important thing. If you’ve just watched The Marvels and are looking for more from Carol Danvers this is a book you’re going to want to pick up.
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