Monica Rambeau: Photon (5-issue mini series)
by
Eve L. Ewing (writer), Michael Sta. Maria (Artist) and Luca Maresca (Artist)
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Monica Rambeau has had one of the most volatile careers in the super-hero comics genre in all of the Marvel universe and more than most in similar comics across the medium.
She had her hero-birth by not just a simple accident or twist of fate – she was a security officer who tried to stop a villain but instead of being blown up, she ended up getting powers that were unique and that have evolved extensively over the decades. She has been called Captain Marvel, Spectrum, Photon and more over the years – she’s been obscure and partly forgotten at times and then been a powerhouse of awesome and beloved by fans (me being amongst them) in series such as Nextwave (which ruled!) and Ultimates (the 2015 series, not The Ultimates from the alternate universe) which saw some of the biggest evolutions of her as a character and of her fluid and versatile powers. Personally I think she’s rarely been as amazing and as fun a character as she was on that team – a book I was sad to see end.
NOW, she’s been getting a bit of a push as Marvel has been making a lot of efforts to push diversity both in terms of characters’ backgrounds but also to give mini-series and such to more obscure characters in general the past some years – which brings us to this series. I was excited because Eve L. Ewing has shown herself to be a capable writer + I have been a fan of Monica when she’s been done right and I was hoping they would keep doing her justice.
The series essentially follows Monica as she delivers a powerful MacGuffin device to the right science-y folks and then after a brief encounter with a low-level-baddie, gets back to her life – in which she’s shown to be both happy because she’s got good people and a lot going well, but she’s feeling a bit over-stretched and worn thin because she pre-occupies herself too much with what others want instead of thinking about herself. Next thing you know, there’s visits from dangerous entities like a Beyonder, there’s reality hopping, alien encounters, dimensional damage and a race to figure out how to use her vast and universal powers to save all of reality… that’s assuming she even could at all.
Overall it’s a briskly written and fast-paced book that never quite lets you sit back and is supported by some wonderful art by Michael Sta. Maria and Luca Maresca who share art duties. They have very different styles but somehow it’s not jarring when we switch between them across these issues and the overall look is very much in a Marvel-house-style and more importantly, it’s balanced in its depth and colouring, i.e, in more mellow moments and spaces, the look and colour is more down to Earth and in grander moments or characters, you can feel the vibrancy and difference in tone. I hope to see more from these dudes.
The story however, was more of a “meh” for me.
It’s not a bad story but it follows a trend that I’ve been seeing in Marvel more than anywhere else in comics, wherein the powers of characters are being explored and pushed to be more and more. It’s happening the most in the X-books (which I commented on in my Legion of X review) but over there it’s a whole society of super-people working to explore cutting-edge science, bio-magic, techno-Gaianism and such. But here, we have a character that was already quite over-powered by the time she was done with Ultimates and yet there seems to be a need to show her as even more universally powered/powerful and frankly it’s a bit overkill because in my view, it shifts a lot of focus in stories from who she is to what she can do – FOR EXAMPLE: a core part of this story itself is Monica’s inability to deal with things in her life beyond a point and her willful denial (in a way) of what SHE wants instead of trying to do for others and ignoring herself. But that was lost for me because the big-moments and power and super-bits became such a thing that I honestly had a hard time buying that she had that problem in the first place outside of the writer TELLING me she did – show, don’t tell. You’re in a comic folks!
The character also felt quite uneven to me and not totally like a Monica I’ve known and frankly this felt like they were trying to “redefine” her and make her into something new that they thought she needs to be for some plan down the road maybe where her ultra-super-powerful-ness will be needed. But that’s annoying. We’re ending up with more and more heroes for short bursts unlocking these godly power levels and then having neither basis for them being at all challenged by mundane things without seeming silly (to me) or just writing it off or some such. Or they get downgraded shortly after.
I find that to be a disservice to characters who earned and grew into people readers knew and loved and had watched evolve naturally and chaotically in a way that was at least somewhat organic – this book is sadly a bit of the excessive, forced kind of change with the identity crisis thrown onto Monica. I felt little to no real empathy for my protagonist because I did not have any basis for her angst to be there to the degree it was and the stakes that it spawned.
Evern her family is only mildly engaging and we barely get any time of substance anywhere to build a connect or even anything more than passing interest with any of them, especially her cousin who somewhere it felt like should have had more play or relationship exploration with her or something. This was all very sorely lacking as if there was a desire to tell a story but they chose to focus on the cosmis stuff and the pretty and cool things but that means at one level it all feels shallow and like a dated kind of comic that is fast moving but rarely carrying much depth to it. It was message and idea shovelling.
Oh and I’m sad to say it but there were things like suddenly the Beyonder is referred to pointedly as “they” for no reason with no precedence and it’s treated like a fact arbitrarily with no questions asked. I don’t care whose pronoun is what but I like some context, some build, something that gets me from (a) to (b) and this kind of thing, like Icemans arbitrary and abrupt gay-ness just because and with no real build to show his journey of awakening to the idea… these are choices that I’m sorry to say feel like someone made a mandate and also run the risk of giving fuel to the people who feel like “wokeness” is being shoved into their face. Not everything needs to be socially corrected and adjusted to fit the new normal and be the most rainbow-inclusionary thing – old characters can remain a thing and you can make a new thing, they do it all the time. It’s such a small thing in this series but it’s typical of a thing I’ve seen in TV shows and comics at random where the people in charge feel the need to push an agenda perhaps that one bit too hard. The more organic such changes, the easier they are for audiences to absorb – in its own way, it’s like a character arc which can also be a short one and not spread out over a year or more.
Overall, the comic was a passable one but at the end of issue #2 I was struggling a bit and though there were great pieces of artwork that I enjoyed from start to finish, the narrative structure, character development and frankly, the overall plot, were underwhelming – the truth is that the vast majority of whatever score I give here comes from the art and a little from some decent ideas in the midst of all the other stuff happening. The result is that I don’t really recommend this most anyone except the most hardcore fans of the character.
One Happy Monk 
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