Comic Info
Comic Name: Ms. Marvel (Volume 3)/S.H.I.E.L.D.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: G. Willow Wilson/Mark Waid
Artist: Elmo Bondoc/Takeshi Miyazawa/Humberto Ramos
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2015
Ms. Marvel (3) #12
Reprints Ms. Marvel (3) #12-15 and S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 2015-July 2015). Ms. Marvel deals with a surprising new problem at school in the form of Loki and helps S.H.I.E.L.D. stop an arms flow at her school. Kamala also meets the boy of her dreams in Kamran. Not only is Kamran her ideal boyfriend and approved by her parents, but Kamran also has a secret…he’s an Inhuman like Kamala. With an Inhuman potential new boyfriend and more adventures as a superhero, Kamala feels like life is going right…but life is full of surprises.
Written by G. Willow Wilson (with Mark Waid on S.H.I.E.L.D. #2), Ms. Marvel Volume 3: Crushed follows Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why. The collection features art by Elmo Bondoc, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Humberto Ramos. The issues in the collection were also collected as part of Ms. Marvel Omnibus—Volume 1 and Ms. Marvel—Volume 2.
Ms. Marvel is one of Marvel’s better series right now. The character has a lot of what made Marvel’s popular groundbreaking heroes popular along with a modern twist (and a very modern character). Ms. Marvel 3: Crushed continues the trend.
The biggest criticism I have of Ms. Marvel is that it sometimes has flow problems. Old comics did a lot of “one-off” issues and it feels like G. Willow Wilson is trying to get back into that idea. The problem is that those older issues seem to have a lot more writing…be it overwriting or a lot of addition exposition that is no longer needed, but it filled out the issue more. Here, one-off adventures feel a bit flimsy.
Ms. Marvel (3) #14
The primary story in the collection about Ms. Marvel’s “first love” is a nice reminder that Kamala is a teenager. She can have a crush and she can learn that love can be blinding…a perfect match may not be a perfect match. I wish that a bit more work had been put into Kamran and that the reveal that he was a bad guy had taken longer, but it feels like Wilson is racing the clock for the “Big Event” coming to Marvel after this. It is too bad because the story feels like it has even more potential.
As someone who doesn’t read S.H.I.E.L.D. or watch the show, the final issue seems like a real throwaway. The collection is short and needs more meat but Waid’s S.H.I.E.L.D. story doesn’t do it. It is dull (it probably spices up the S.H.I.E.L.D. series) and I find Ramos’s art a bit confusing in its attempts to explain what is going on (with the less text as I mentioned above).
Ms. Marvel 3: Crushed shows what’s right about the series and what’s wrong about the series. It is pretty unbalanced, but it is still fun…but I can see a lot of cracks in it. Wilson is kind of trapped by Marvel and the fine line between creator rights and corporate comic book companies is a tough line to walk. Ms. Marvel feels stuck in the middle of the battle. Ms. Marvel 3: Crushed is followed by Ms. Marvel 4: Last Days.
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