Captain Marvel #28 // Review
Captain Marvel #28 is written by Kelly Thompson, drawn by Jacopo Camagni, colored by Espen Grundetjern, and lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles. Captain Marvel #28 is the first installment of the three-part "Strange Magic" arc.
Carol's fight with Ove made her realize how she was utterly unprepared to defend against his magic. In her desperation to change the future, she turns to Dr. Stephen Strange to learn magic. But Dr. Strange is reluctant to help because not only does Carol have no affinity for magic, he worries about what her intense desire to destroy Ove could lead to.
Thompson puts Carol through the wringer in Captain Marvel #28. Her experiences in the post-apocalyptic year 2052 (see Captain Marvel #22-26) traumatized her. She feels personally responsible for the deaths of so many of her friends, especially because she couldn't overpower Ove in the end. Carol feels like her friends will blame her for not saving them. But when Thompson writes Carol interacting with Jess and Stephen, she clarifies that Carol's friends don't feel the same way. Trapped in her own head, lost in her own guilt, Carol is dealing with trauma she can't fully explain to them. The story of Captain Marvel #28 is very well done, and Thompson keeps pushing the character to her limits and beyond.
Captain Marvel #28 introduces Camagni as the new artist. And Camagni brings a whole new distinct style to Captain Marvel. Camagni excels at drawing very expressive characters, from their facial expressions to their body language. The majority of this issue involves interactions between Carol and Dr. Strange, who have some complicated emotions surrounding each other right now (see Captain Marvel #27). But this leads to some very entertaining moments between them because Camagni draws them so expressively. And finally, when Camagni draws Carol in her special wizard outfit? Gorgeous. Stunning.
There are some seriously intense moments in Captain Marvel #28, and Grundetjern's colors complement these moments well. Captain Marvel #28 opens with Carol's nightmare about her failure to save her friends, leading to the post-apocalyptic world she visited. And her nightmare is dark. She sees her friends being blasted apart by Ove's magic, and Grundetjern's colors add to the scene's intensity. They're bright and saturated, fully selling the idea that this is a burst of potent magic.
While the dialogue heaviness of Captain Marvel #28 is great for the story, it, unfortunately, creates a lot of clunky, awkward speech bubbles. While Cowles makes the best use of the space inside each bubble, there's just so much dialogue. And oftentimes, this means characters' dialogue is split between a few speech bubbles, which makes things difficult to follow at times.
Neglecting the advice of her magical friends, will Carol's obsessing over the futures she visited lead to her own destruction? Or will she realize she needs to rely on her friends for help before it's too late? Despite the balance between art and dialogue being off, Captain Marvel #28 sets up a very interesting scenario for the fallout from Carol's trip to the future.
