Tara Butters

I’ve got Captain Marvel fever and the only prescription is more Captain Marvel. As a casual comic reader, Captain Marvel’s origin story is a confusing one for me. She’s half-human, half-alien (does being combined with a mentor during an explosion do that? I guess) and was granted vague cosmic powers by Mar Vell (the original Captain Marvel), the same guy who once karate chopped the tesseract into oblivion during a fight with Thanos.

Are you following this? I kinda don’t but that’s OK because I’m totally enamored with Carol Danvers who’s basically a fearless, intergalactic cowgirl. In “Rise of Alpha Flight” she accepts a job aboard a space station designed to protect earth from the alien flavor-of-the-week threat. She discovers she hates diplomatic desk work but before she has a chance to do any kind of diplomacy, Carol is off to investigate a mysterious, abandoned space craft. With a cast of quirky but mostly forgettable characters, Captain Marvel zooms around the comic panels with her hair in an awesome mohawk and it’s all I need.… (more)

Carol Danvers has decided to take a position for two years as Commander of the Alpha Flight Space Station, earth's first line of defense against an attack. She is greeted by Abigail Brand who once worked for S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Departement). Brand gives her some grief but everyone else seems happy to have her aboard. Brand steers her toward a boring meeting with the Eridani who handle the trash pick up and are trying to gouge them and break the agreement in place.

The meeting is broken up by news of an asteroid appearing close to the station and Captain Marvel and Alpha Flight go out to take care of it. Wendy, the science officer informs Danvers that the asteroid didn't just appear there by accident and that an Eridani ship sent it there. Danvers has the Eridani delegation locked up immediately.

Now an alien vessel like nothing they've ever seen before has arrived on their doorstep and when they go to investigate they discover that the ship is dead in the water and its inhabitants have been deceased for at least fifty years. When they start the ship up it causes Captain Marvel to begin to lose her powers and hallucinate. But that will be the least of their worries when another ship arrives. Also, there is a saboteur on board the space station. This book is another great Captain Marvel comic. Fazekas and Butters have written an excellent story and the art is amazing. I can't recommend this book enough.… (more)