Captain Marvel, Earth’s mightiest hero, may have finally come up against a foe she can’t beat. A group of teenagers. Your Major Spoilers review of Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!

CAPTAIN MARVEL: DARK TEMPEST #1

Writer: Ann Nocenti
Artist: Paolo Villanelli
Colorist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 5th, 2023

Previously in Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest: Carol has been on a bit of a roller coaster. From facing a devastating loss during her run-in with The Brood, to being selected as the new leader of The Avengers.

TROUBLE EVERYWHERE

Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #1, opens with Carol Danvers trying to relax at home in Maine at her favorite watering hole. That’s when the patrons of the pub notice that a sailboat has broken away from the dock and is being tossed around by a storm. Carol heads out on her own boat and manages to gain control and gets the runaway schooner back to dock. She’s then alerted to an emergency in space. Elsewhere, Nitro is trying to get medical help with his headaches but only manages to reach A.I.-powered assistance. He then remembers a brochure he had from an anti-technology group and gives them a call. In space, Carol encounters a space anomaly that she’s able to close up. Back on Earth, Nitro is introduced to Nada, who shares his hatred of technology and who quickly recruits him into her crusade to wipe out all technology in the universe. Captain Marvel then has to appear before a group of troubled youths and give an inspirational speech, to which the teens are less than receptive, to say the least.

BLAME THE TEENAGERS

Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #1, is spilling over in things going on here. First up is just the sheer amount of moving pieces, there’s Carol in Maine, Carol in Space, Carol with Spider-Woman, Carol with a group of teens, then Carol in space again. Couple that with this ongoing plot of Nitro and Nada which takes up a lot of space as well. As it might be expected, with all this going on, one or two of these things are going to feel rushed, what might not be expected is that all of them feel rushed. But, it doesn’t end there, there’s also a weird amount of tones going on here. There’s the unadulterated admiration going on in Maine, the space nerd who’s just a bit too into space, there’s Nitro who’s gone full conspiracy nut, and Carol herself who comes off as oddly “boomer-like” in this. If this can be all boiled down to one criticism, it’s that there is a palatable lack of subtlety and nuance here. The biggest culprit here is the trio of teenagers that appear in this issue. These three are written as it was a request made to an A.I. who had been fed 10000 anti-capitalist and Nietzche quotes. I’m not sure if the intent was to be a parody or to be legitimately edgy, either way, it didn’t land and they come off as simply awkward. On the flipside to these three is Nada, who has very little detail revealed about them, but who does come off as younger. While the teenagers are ludicrously antagonistic towards basically everyone older than them in an over-the-top manner, Nada manages to be antagonistic towards tradition and expectations by their tone. Nada has some pretty grand intentions, which catch Nitro off guard, but yet Nada treats them as lacking importance, as if they want to bring about oblivion, nonchalantly. Nada was by far the most interesting part of this issue.

VISUALLY, THIS ISSUE NEEDED SOMETHING MORE

The art in Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #1, is perfectly fine. It doesn’t do too much, none of the characters look awkward, and there’s a decent amount of emotional range present in the faces. But, it also lacks any sort of flair and in a comic book that is somewhat lacking in the story and character department, a unique and distinctive art style could’ve really helped. As it stands though, it does the job, but doesn’t add much to the storytelling.

BOTTOM LINE: A CRAMPED MESS

Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #1 is a comic that somehow manages to not establish its main character tonally or emotionally, despite having her do so many things and interact with so many people in the course of 30 pages. On top of this, the attempts to establish ideological conflicts amongst its characters are done without tact and come off as unintentionally satirical. On the plus side, it does introduce an interesting new(?) antagonist who could be fun to read. 2 out of 5 stars.

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