Comic Vine Review

18 Comments

Ms. Marvel #11 - Generation Why: Part Four of Four

5

The Inventor’s plan culminates! Can Kamala Khan and her Millennial Brigade (not a real team name) stop his battery-powered madness?

The Good

Previous generations rarely give up their stranglehold on the reins of power easily. There’s also a bad tendency to project onto that young generation and assign them negative traits that the elders see in themselves. MS. MARVEL has taken this to another level by having the villainous, avian Inventor literally have them do nothing but lay around all day and give their energy to power his machines. When last we left Kamala, G. Willow Wilson had her backed into a corner, new companion Lockjaw disabled, and the Inventor’s robot closing in. However, Kamala Khan’s not done yet, and neither are her new friends as we get a great example of power management and thinking outside the box leading to some absolutely hilarious visual language and moments. Wilson’s greatest strength has been humanizing her characters with naturalistic dialog and this issue has a lot of tremendous examples of that, particularly from Khan and her peers. The plot is all fairly standard superhero fare, but the dialog, characters and art elevate the material and make it stand out from the crowd.

Series regular Adrian Alphona’s style is absolutely perfect for this issue’s over-the-top tone and action, illustrating Ms. Marvel’s powers with incredible bombast and an almost uncontainable level of kinetic energy. The visuals are sketchy and chaotic, but they never seem random and are still easy to follow from one panel, and page, to the next. Lockjaw’s always a particular highlight of Alphona’s style, but the Inventor’s bizarrely proportioned form actually strikes a dark, frightening tone that balances the sweet, whimsical look of the rest of the issue. Ian Herring’s colors are generally good, communicating the brightness of tone that the book strives for.

The Bad

The colors are also a bit muted for how wild and bombastic the rest of the book is. At first it looked like a printing error, but if it was it’s across all copies of the issue. It’s not that they’re bad, they just don’t quite go far enough or sharp enough.

As great as Wilson’s dialog is, this issue makes the same mistake of the last one and veers into soapboxing territory just a little too often.

The Verdict

This is one of the few titles on the shelf, either Big 2 or otherwise, that can get away with not really having a longterm storyline. She’s still a new enough character that readers are still getting to know her, so a status quo needs to be established before it can be shaken up, so the somewhat wandering, ponderous plotline is actually a strength as we get to know this cast. With how hard it can be for new series to succeed, it’s great to see one not only surviving, but thriving and contributing to the greater universe just by introducing it to SO many new, different characters. With the Inventor, Kamala may have found her first real archenemy, and that’s an important step for any hero to take.

18 Comments

Avatar image for crystalmaster
CrystalMaster

272

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Yup, still absolutely loving this book

Avatar image for nakulstark
NakulStark

1

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Ms. Marvel was a powerful Superhero

Avatar image for madeinbangladesh
MadeinBangladesh

12494

Forum Posts

53

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 59

User Lists: 172

Ms. Marvel was a powerful Superhero

She still is.

~MiB

Avatar image for superhoodie
superhoodie

614

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

I love the powers of Kamala, I love the way she uses and is always a funny situation.

Avatar image for cobramorph
COBRAMORPH

1884

Forum Posts

650

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By COBRAMORPH

@nakulstark said:

Ms. Marvel was a powerful Superhero

she used to be a Hot piece of ass, now she's a 14 year kid with most of her skin covered. You'd think with her powers, she give herself some big boobs.

Avatar image for maddpanda531
Maddpanda531

1635

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I really wish I could afford to keep reading this series.

Avatar image for the_titan_lord
The_Titan_Lord

9508

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Nice

Avatar image for sparty_dbq
sparty-dbq

967

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@maddpanda531: How can you not? It's the only book Marvel still sells for $2.99.

Avatar image for ia0delond
ia0delond

199

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Avatar image for skaldadottir
skaldadottir

94

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@cobramorph: Way to fetishize a minor, dude. Not creepy at all.

I really love this book. Kamala is a great character, and watching her go through her growing pains as a superhero is making for a fun story, and the art fits it so well. I can see where it gets a bit preachy, but it's got good points, too.

Avatar image for maddpanda531
Maddpanda531

1635

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Avatar image for starbrand1
StarBrand1

661

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

what a beautiful end to this arc! Ms Marvel continues to be the superhero book that captures the essense of what i believe a true hero should embody.

Avatar image for supersmoothers
Supersmoothers

74

Forum Posts

19

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Supersmoothers

Most Important Super Hero Book out there :-)

Avatar image for owie
owie

9544

Forum Posts

286670

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 16

User Lists: 0

owie  Moderator

Ms. Marvel is great. I hope they just keep doing what they're doing. But I do agree about the coloring, and honestly while I truly love much of Alphona's art, I am starting to find it to be a little confusing sometimes. Usually when she's drawing robots. There's just so much random stuff in each panel, and she uses those odd black colorations, that it can sometimes be hard to tell what's in front of what.

Avatar image for teerack
Teerack

10703

Forum Posts

1614

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 64

Edited By Teerack

This issue really sucked. All the jokes weren't funny and then the whole thing just became incredibly preachy. I seriously cant think of one thing in this issue I cared even a little bit about. I'm just glad they wrapped up and are moving onto the next arch.

Avatar image for zoddguts
ZoddGuts

93

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By ZoddGuts

^ People have the right to have opinions even if their wrong. :)

Avatar image for daymareprime
DaymarePrime

230

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

"The plot is all fairly standard superhero fare, but the dialog, characters and art elevate the material and make it stand out from the crowd."

This is my one complaint about the book and the "oh lord jesus" praise it seems to get. There is nothing really special about the book save for the character not being standard. All in all it has been a slow, non-progressing book that a writer like Bendis gets nailed for. The writing is not even that great once the dialogue stops being tweenish (Wilson does great dialogue, like Bendis, but that is about it).

I am not saying it is a terrible book and it has a place on the shelf like all do, but the 5 star after 5 star with *caveats*, and because "it deserves higher marks because of the main character" is a little tired and not many others would get away with it.

Avatar image for deactivated-097092725
deactivated-097092725

10555

Forum Posts

1043

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

@cobramorph said:

@nakulstark said:

Ms. Marvel was a powerful Superhero

she used to be a Hot piece of ass, now she's a 14 year kid with most of her skin covered. You'd think with her powers, she give herself some big boobs.

Double ew, dude.

ANYWAYS, a good ending to this story arc and I found it extremely endearing how Kamala reacted to one of her best friends in danger. Wilson is continuing to write this character wonderfully and hasn't lost the fresh and real quality that hooked me in the first place. I am really enjoying this book.