A-Force Presents Vol. 1

A-Force Presents Vol. 1 (2015) by G. Willow Wilson, Nathan Edmondson, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Jason Aaron, Phil Noto, David Lopez, Adrian Alphona, Russell Dauterman

This is brilliant.

These are six introductory stories to six female characters in the Marvel world: Black Widow, Captain marvel, Thor, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

It’s a marvelous way to dip one’s toe into the various story lines, and see what’s interesting.

Ms. Marvel I’ve already been reading, and am already fond of Kamala Khan.

Black Widow doesn’t give us any background on the character, but dumps us right into the action. That said, I didn’t feel as if I was missing anything. I definitely want to read more.

Captain Marvel also put us right into the story, but I still felt somewhat lost, missing a great deal of what’s been happening in the greater Marvel universe, and with this character.

She-Hulk gave us a brief introduction to the character, and that was more than enough to interest me. I enjoyed the story, and think I would like to read more about this character (and although there was obviously some back-story between Jennifer and Tony Stark, they were tantalizing hints that left me curious, rather than feeling like I was missing important stuff.

Thor I’m not quite sure about. There was a lot of stuff happening in that I didn’t have a clue about (Why were there people under the water? What were they doing?). However, I very much enjoyed the back and forth between Odin and Freyja, and am very curious as to what will happen now, since we are introduced only to Thor in the final panel.

Squirrel Girl–not for me.

One of the things I especially liked about these openers were that the female characters were all drawn like real-women: No overly-sexualized poses. And all the women were (for the most part) intelligent (I withhold judgment on Squirrel Girl, as she is, well, part squirrel, and easily distracted.)

They were all independent characters with their own agendas and interests, which, for the most part, didn’t depend upon men.

These were fun stories, and I look forward to reading more of some of these stories.
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by Marvel

• Browse the archives:
  
• Black Widow Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread » »
• « « Mercy Thompson: Hopcross Jilly