Following her appearance on WandaVision as played by Teyonah Paris, and ahead of her upcoming jump to the movies in 2023’s The Marvels, Monica Rambeau is now being given a bigger push in the comics. In addition to serving as one of the members of the new, reformed Thunderbolts, she’s now due to receive her own comic book miniseries. The recently announced Monica Rambeau: Photon from Eve Ewing (Ironheart) and Michael Sta. Maria (X-Men Red), will mark the character’s first time headlining a comic all on her lonesome.
Monica was created in 1982 by John Romita Jr. and Roger Stern in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16. Though Carol Danvers has had the Captain Marvel codename for a decade now, Monica had the title in her very first appearance, and she’s the second Captain Marvel overall. The five-issue series will see Monica face a “reality-shattering crisis” that she’ll have to go alone in facing, and that journey is said to take place across space and time. In a press release to Marvel, Ewing talked about the feeling of taking Monica on this new journey. “It’s such an honor to be taking on the story of a legacy character like Monica Rambeau. Monica’s character has a long history in the Marvel Universe, but she’s way overdue for getting her own story told.”
Throughout the decades, Monica’s been a recurring player in Marvel comics and gone through numerous codenames, include Spectrum, Photon, and Pulsar. She’s frequently been an Avenger, most notably as the leader of the Mighty Avengers in Al Ewing and Greg Land’s 2013 run of the same name, and as a member of Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort’s Ultimates series from 2016. But those have all been team titles, with the closest thing to solo stories being a pair of one-shot titles from the late Dwayne McDuffie and Mark D. Bright back in the 90s. On following McDuffie’s footsteps, Ewing called it a privilege. “I’m excited to tell the story in a way that both highlights her incredible cosmic abilities as well as her everyday, relatable struggles.”
Monica Rambeau: Photon #1 will release on December 7.
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