Monica Rambeau: Photon #4 - Marvel Comics

MONICA RAMBEAU: PHOTON No. 4, May 2023

For those readers admirably able to persevere through the entirety of Eve L. Ewing’s twenty-page plot for Issue Four of “Monica Rambeau: Photon”, the American sociologist’s attempt to retcon the Avenger’s origin story towards its end probably came as something of disconcerting and most unwelcome shock. Indeed, the whole notion that as a little girl Roger Stern’s co-creation purposely suppressed her ability to create “extra dimensional energy” to the point where its subsequently caused the titular character serious, universe-endangering mental health issues is so ‘left field’ that many a bibliophile will surely find themselves perusing that particular night-time scene several times over simply to confirm they’ve read the revelation right; “I hid what I was for so long that I finally felt like… It went away. Until that day. I… Look. It doesn’t matter how I got to be the way I am. Does it?”

To make matters worse though, the “tenured professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago” then depicts a shame-faced adult super-hero sobbing uncontrollably in the presence of an utterly unrecognisable Beyonder and begging the cosmic entity to help her discover what she actually desires out of life before the human mutate’s excessive unhappiness inadvertently ‘crumbles’ everything around her. None of this narrative arguably makes any sense whatsoever, and feels incredibly forced – especially when having obtained the mysterious Stone of Hala Ram from an unrecognisable Sanctum Sanctorum on Earth, Rambeau returns to the Charans in deep space only to find the race of extra-terrestrials have inconveniently decided “to relocate our people” and left a note warning her not to search for them..!?!

Quite possibly therefore this comic’s sole source of action-packed entertainment stems from an unsurprising confrontation between the titular character and Moonstone, after Doctor Karla Sofen predictably betrays Photon when her long-time adversary understandably declines to place herself in the villainous psychiatrist’s care. Disappointingly however, this sadly short-lived skirmish only lasts for half a dozen panels, courtesy of artist Luca Maresca pencilling the blonde-haired criminal illogically disclosing to Monica that she was ‘immune’ to her photons, and thus encouraging the former Captain Marvel to successfully blast her unconscious with Infrared beams instead.

The regular cover art of "MONICA RAMBEAU" #4 by Lucas Werneck