Sam Maggs (Author) Sweeney Boo (Artist, Cover Artist) Brittany Peer (Colorist) Christa Miesner (Letterer, Designer)

Thanks to IDW Publishing for the review copy!

While Captain Marvel has been largely a solo affair through the first two issues, issue 3 brings the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Woman, and Chewie along to help her out. This iteration of the Guardians mirrors the movie line-up, Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot. The reinforcements arrive to help Captain Marvel thwart a Kree (bad aliens who always want to take over the Galaxy) plot to enslave Flerkens (cat looking aliens who shoot tentacles out of their mouth) and have them clear out worlds for the Kree to claim.

Now that the comic has expanded beyond Captain Marvel, it becomes even more clear that the character designs are geared towards a younger audience with cartoon stye. Groot has eyeballs. Rocket’s personality, while still gruff, lacks the edge of some of his other comic iterations. For example, he doesn’t use the “Blam, Murdered You!” catchphrase that he employed in some Guardians of the Galaxy runs.

Aside from getting Spider-Woman into space, the Guardians aren’t given much to do. That feels like a lost opportunity in an otherwise strong issue. There simply isn’t enough space to flesh out the personalities and power sets of the Guardians (and to a lesser extent Spider-Woman), so they may not make an impression on readers without prior knowledge of them.

This issue, which resolves the Flerken invasion arc, drives home a nice message about the value of teamwork. But more importantly, readers of all ages can appreciate bad cat puns … writer Sam Maggs loads this issue to the max with them. For fathers who want to share this comic with their kids, this could be a valuable source of dad jokes.

If you missed my reviews of the first or second issue you can check them out here:

MARVEL ACTION: CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 REVIEW

MARVEL ACTION: CAPTAIN MARVEL #2 REVIEW

MARVEL ACTION: CAPTAIN MARVEL #3 is now available.

Have you read the title? What are your thoughts? Feel free to chat with me on Twitter or leave a comment below!