Ms Marvel #31

This comic was ok, but really a filler issue...

Sorry, couldn't resist. The truth is that after the ending of last issue, which had nothing and no connection to anything else in the issue, and now this issue, which again seems to take place in a vacuum of time, disconnected from anything going on inside or outside of this title, I am completely lost.

My feeling is that this is probably an early casualty of the Secret Invasion story. Brian Reed can't deal with the fallout of that event yet because the mini-series hasn't ended, even though for Carol Danvers it's clearly in the past. So we get this issue that is a tale without a specific anchor in time. It's Carol returning home to see her dying father, and in the process dealing with her family.

Or not dealing with them. See that's the thing. As Conor has pointed out, "filler" issues can be some of the best stories ever told in a comics series (I think that was his point). Me and a friend still laugh and talk about X-Men #337, an issue where very little happens, almost no action or fighting, but it shows how the characters are dealing with the fallout of a major event.

What Carol has to deal with is that she feels no love or connection to her family members as a result of Rogue stealing her memories. Even though she has regained her memories, and she has rebuilt relationships with friends and teammates, she still doesn't feel close to her family. Well, maybe that's because they're a bunch of jerks! I don't know, this issue had potential, but i feel like it didn't get to the heart of the problems with her relationship with her mom, and it was a bit of a cliched broadstroke of her father. Altogether forgettable.

The art was ok. I really, really wonder where this series is going, and whether or not I should jump off now.