Captain Marvel #6 // Review
There's no downtime for heroes when there's a crisis. Captain Marvel and Black Widow are fighting the Enchantress' forces in Rio de Janeiro, trying to keep the country from being overwhelmed with the dead. It's a job too big for even these two powerhouses, and they call in Doctor Strange for backup. But sometimes even the best plans backfire spectacularly. Writer Kelly Thompson throws some unexpected twists at the heroes as the tie-in with the War of the Realms event begins. Tamra Bonvillain handles the colors with VC's Clayton Cowles as the letterer, and on this issue, Annapaola Martello replaces Carmen Carnero as a guest artist.
Enchantress is incredibly powerful, but so are Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange, so why not give herself an advantage? To the horror of all the heroes involved, Enchantress body swaps Carol and Stephen, but not their powers. If the stakes weren't so high, failure means the dark elf Malekith gets one step closer to total world domination, the situation would almost be funny.
A body-swap storyline has the potential to come off as ridiculous, but it really works for this story. Both Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange have powers that require a lot of control, patience, and practice to wield without devastating consequences. But with very little time to stop Enchantress they're going to have to learn on the fly. It adds a whole other level of stress to an already stressful situation, and it gives the plot an exciting twist that will keep it distinct from the rest of the War of the Realms stories going on.
Martello's art is different than what Carnero has been doing on the series. There's more close up images of characters allowing their faces to be very expressive and detailed. Multiple panels will just show close ups of characters talking or reacting to the situation around them. Their art style also involves more of a sketch feeling using varied line thickness to add detail. Because Bonvillain is still the colorist in this installment, it keeps the new style from being too out of place in the story. There's consistency but also something fun and fresh.
Fortunately for fans that aren't interested in reading the main War of the Realms title, this tie-in is as self-contained as a tie-in can be. There's a blurb at the front of the book explaining what the War of the Realms is, and since Malekith isn't the main antagonist in this story, that summary is enough. Regardless of being a tie-in issue, this is still a great Captain Marvel story.
