Well, for one, I think it’s a little odd that Carol as Captain Marvel debuts in AVENGING SPIDER-MAN and not in, you know, CAPTAIN MARVEL. This takes place after the upcoming first issue of that series, and maybe it doesn’t matter. Still, it irks me slightly.

Anyway, the plot is basically that Peter is hanging out with Carol for no apparent reason besides so they can get into an adventure together by accident. And when that adventure turns up there’s a lot of finger (and gun) pointing and repetitive gags and it just doesn’t fly. I’m not very familiar with DeConnick’s previous work, but this issue makes me a bit apprehensive about CAPTAIN MARVEL, which I’ve been excited for since its announcement.

My hope is that this is DeConnick trying a bit too hard to maintain the punchy Spider-Man flavor, since this is nominally his book. Spidey can definitely be tricky to write, and not everyone does him well. And the plot feels a little like an excuse for gags, and that is a dubious choice for even the best humorists.

I’m still interested to see what DeConnick can deliver in CAPTAIN MARVEL, because I like Carol and I want to like her series: hopefully the tone of this book is not indicative of that one.