The Best Book I Read This Week - Ms. Marvel #22

What an odd week for books. After looking at the shipping list and seeing new issues of: Uncanny X-Men, Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Invincible, Ultimates 3 (first issue!), and Buffy Season 8 I really thought it was going to be a huge week story-wise.

Turns out I was wrong. All of those books were just so-so. But the work that Brian Reed is doing over in Ms. Marvel deserves some mention. If you can get past the cheesecake factor in the Greg Horn covers and actually give the book a read, I thing you’ll be pleasantly surprised. In this issue, Carol Danvers is still stuck on Monster Island and still attached to the alien Brood hunter, Cru while her supporting cast — Agent Sum, Machine Man(/Woman — see last issue), some creature named Sleepwalker and Araña (skipping school) — races to her aid. The final page reveal will thrill you if you are a Brood fan and might have implications in the Skrull event this summer (Brood/Skrull War, anybody?).

Reed is doing some good character work here, building this into a book with an identity, and working to establish Ms. Marvel as one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe. Not an easy task for a character whose main claim to fame prior to this book (and House of M) was as the character Rogue left as a husk after taking on too much of Ms. Marvel’s powers (in the now classic Avengers Annual #10) .

Aaron Lopresti’s art is very well done, especially his rendering of facial expressions in the character scenes with Rick Sheridan/Sleepwalker, Ms. Marvel, and Araña.

Ms. Marvel has seen a 49% drop in sales over the last year as of August according to ICv2 numbers cited over at The Beat. Let’s hope this book stays around long enough to see where Brian Reed ultimately wants to go with this character.