I didn’t know much about Captain Marvel besides she is soon to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. OK, maybe not that soon since she has yet to be cast and her movie keeps getting pushed back.  (Thanks a lot Spider-Man!) So, I thought I would give her a shot. If I’m going to start reading comics, I figured I might as well start with a character that I don’t already have a history with and start fresh.  Not to mention I wanted to read a story with a female lead.

At first I felt I was a little bit behind.  In the early chapters (or is it issues?) there were references of things that happened before the action of the story began.  A previous Avengers mission, for one, Captain Marvel’s ex and why she wasn’t ready to move forward with her relationship with Rhodey, aka Iron Patriot from the Iron Man movies.  So, I feel like someone needs to recommend me comics to read that might explain what happened before.  We open on Captain Marvel and Iron Patriot retrieving an unknown vessel that is hurtling towards New York.  Inside is an alien from a planet that has been destroyed.  Later that night, Iron Man finds Captain Marvel, or Carol Danvers, at home. Which is the Statue Liberty. That’s right, she lives in the Statue of Liberty.  As someone who lives in New York and knows how much rent is, I can’t even imagine what rent would be to live in the crown of the Statue of Liberty!  There has to be a story about how she got such a prime spot.  Just another perk of being an Avenger?  Anyway, Tony Stark has decided that they need an Avenger in space and Carol immediately volunteers. So, she and her cat go into space in take back the Alien, Tic, to her people.  The problem is that Tic’s people are refugees from a destroyed planet.  They were resettled on to an uninhabited planet but now they are getting sick so are being forced to leave and without their sick.  This doesn’t sit well with them. They have lost most of the their loved ones, they were not going to leave behind more.  While in Space, Carol meets up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.  You know, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot.  This leads to one of the funniest moments between Rocket and Carol’s cat.  It also leads to the real problem of the story which surrounds Peter Quill’s father, who is not a good man.

Carol Danvers is a great character.  She’s smart, brave and little head strong (but who isn’t).  She believes in the missions of the Avengers and will go to great lengths to accomplish those goals, even putting her self on the line.  She’s also pretty funny. I like that.  This was a very fun book.  I’m looking forward to read more about her.  I’m also happy because this helps my Diverse Stacks, Diverse Lives reading challenge.  I’ll admit, I’m a little behind.