Based on the all-guns-blazing, anything goes setting of the Marvel: Crisis Protocol game, Stuart Moore’s Target: Kree takes some of the biggest names from Marvel’s hero roster and throws them together into an action-packed tale of intergalactic danger, exploring themes of immigration and everyday prejudice along the way. When the planet Praeterus is destroyed, the Guardians of the Galaxy help evacuate as many Kree from the surface as they can, the survivors making their way to Earth and employment with Stark Industries. Worried that the person responsible for Praeterus’ destruction is now among the surviving Kree, the Guardians head to Earth to track them down, and quickly clash with Tony Stark and the Avengers. Amid accusations of exploitation and conflicting motivations, the Guardians and Avengers have to find a way of working together in order to stave off further disaster.
As befits the core concept of Crisis Protocol – getting as many Marvel heroes together in one place for a massive fight – there really are a lot of famous names in this book, but for the most part it revolves around the Guardians, Tony Stark and Kamala Khan (Ms Marvel), alongside Kree siblings Halla-ar and Kir-ra. The Guardians are a good choice, as not only do they bring plenty of humour to the story but they have such strong personalities and are full of such interesting insecurities that it’s a constant joy to spend time with them. Meanwhile we get to see two sides of Stark – the antagonistic, uber-rich and over-privileged tyrant, and the troubled hero, overworked and pulled in too many directions but trying to do good – with the older Avenger contrasted by the young Kamala Khan, still uncertain in her role as an Avenger and keen to impress. Despite her powers Kamala/Ms Marvel provides a more grounded perspective on events, and likewise the Kree siblings, balancing the explosive action with themes exploring identity, loss of purpose, and standing up against oppression.
There’s a lot going on – the search for the planet-killer, the fight for Kree rights, Kamala and Halla-ar’s burgeoning friendship, Shir-ra drowning her sorrows, Tony trying to figure out what he’s missed, and lots more – but it’s consistently fun and easy to follow throughout. Despite there being a lot of action, crucially the core characters all come across as people first and super-powered heroes second, each with their own distinct voice, and all told it reads very much like a blockbuster superhero movie, in the best possible way. As with all IP fiction a little prior knowledge helps fill in the gaps, but it’s hard to think of many readers who won’t be familiar with at least some of these characters, and while Crisis Protocol is separate from the MCU if [like me] your main reference point is the movies rather than the comics, they’ll still mostly feel pretty familiar. As for the mysterious antagonist(s), Moore keeps you guessing about who’s really behind everything, and largely the ambiguity works well although (no spoilers) this is one area where the book rewards deeper knowledge of the lore a bit more.
Overall, while there’s fast-paced action pretty much everywhere you turn, the mixture of characters, the time Moore takes to flesh them out, and the deeper, thought-provoking questions posed along the way all provide a nice balance to the general sense of relatively light-hearted fun. Plenty of things blow up and people die (an entire planet is destroyed early on, after all), and the entire Kree character arc is pretty serious in truth, but in the end this really does feel like a bold, brightly-coloured superhero movie…which is a lot of fun! Being picky, it’s a shame it wasn’t a little longer so that there was time to let the plot breathe just a touch more between set-pieces, and some readers might find the abundance of heroes a bit distracting [this probably comes down to your preference for solo stories vs. ensemble pieces – personally I largely enjoyed seeing each new character turn up], but if you’re on the lookout for a flashy action story that’s tremendous fun while still maintaining some characterful depths, this is definitely worth checking out.
Many thanks to Aconyte Books and Stuart Moore for providing me with an advance copy of Target: Kree in exchange for my honest review.
See also: my interview with Stuart Moore talking about Target: Kree.
See also: all of the Marvel-related reviews and author interviews on Track of Words.
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